Perhaps you are a family member and you are worried that I am not eating properly. I understand your concern. I did not have the most amazing cooking or food management skills to begin with and it has been challenging to face a new kitchen (no oven and gas range=scary) and grocery landscape (I understand no cheese, but why no canned beans?) combined with packaging illiteracy.
This post has two purposes. 1) To let you know that I am not starving. And 2) to share this amazing thing that is school lunch!!! It is both super delicious and has an impressive variety that I could never approach. Certainly worth the $3.10 per day. (!!!)
The first week I was on the kyushoku team. This involved getting a mask, bandana and smock, going to the part of the school where the food is prepared and bringing back the large containers filled with delicious food, the bottles of milk, and the dishes. The kids have teams for their classrooms but I’m on the staff room team. Back at the staff room we serve up the food onto the dishes and the rest of the staff put them on trays and onto the desks.
The cart in the background is how we transport the containers. This is actually an “after” photo, people have stacked their dirty dishes.I thought the buns were so comically large I had to take a picture. Happily it also illustrates the serving process with some anonymity for the staff members.Milk comes in bottles. Yes, mom, like the antique ones you collect, except tiny and still in use!
I’ve been pretty good about photographing the meals since lunch started — so far I’m only missing the first day, which was curry rice. You will just have to use your imagination for that one. Here are the rest:
Day 2: Meat ad veggies in rice. Veggies and meatball soup. I think the thing in the middle had meat in it too. And grape jelly for dessert (with pieces of grape in it). The chopsticks should be at the front. So delicious!Day 3: Fried chicken with some kind of pickled salad and vegetable noodle soup. And rice with purple flaky seasoning. The fried chicken was the least delicious thing of all the lunches I’ve had so far, but the rest of the meal was super delicious! The arrangement is incorrect. According to my desk neighbour, the soup should be on the front right, the rice on the front left, and the main dish in the middle, like a triangle. My apologies!Day 4: Bibimbap with tofu & seaweed soup. A sweet muffin thing for dessert. I can’t believe they served this to the whole school, it was so amazing.Day 5: Tempura-ish little fish with salad and miso soup. Surprisingly the salad tasted more fishy than the fish.A close up on the fish so you can appreciate how tasty it was!!! crunch crunch!Day 6: Some kind of stew with salad and rice. A slice of pineapple for dessert. I can’t remember but there was probably tons of meat in that stew. One of the teachers mentioned this is a Chinese dish but I don’t know the name. Yum yum yum!!!The pineapple was super cold and refreshing. And was individually wrapped in unnecessarily cute packaging (do we really need incentive to eat pineapple?).Day 7: Stew with salad and a bun! And grapes for dessert. The stew had meatballs and slices of some kind of meat. The salad was very simple but very good. The cucumbers here are very small but have a nice crunch. The grapes were super amazing!! They are one of the signature products of our area. I am proud!Day 8: Sushi rice with a wilted greens salad and soup. This might have been a quasi-vegetarian meal (in that there were no large pieces of meat). The salad had almonds, the soup had tofu and egg, and the rice and salad had slices of some mochi-like substance that apparently contained fish paste but mostly just tasted amazing.Close up on the salad. It was pretty delightful. I can’t believe kids eat this, it’s so grown up!
Every day we adults are stuffed. I’ve started eating smaller breakfasts so that I can eat every grain of rice in the bowl. I feel super lucky to have access to this great food! But I wonder if I will ever learn to feed myself properly!
Final observation: in contrast with most everything else in Japan, there is relatively little packaging waste. Of course I don’t know what is happening in the kitchens, but I assume they are getting bulk deliveries that would not be individually wrapped in the way they often are in grocery stores.
Anyway, good work, school lunch planners! Please keep up the good work!
A terrific overview of the school meals. Everything looks delicious. This is what we need in our schools…healthy, fresh with variety.
Happy to know you are eating very well! :-)
I recently found a small business that serves healthy lunches to schools and is based in St. Hubert (not on, but in …it’s a township on the South Shore) and I wonder if they can match the variety …I think I will contact them and find out.
A terrific overview of the school meals. Everything looks delicious. This is what we need in our schools…healthy, fresh with variety.
Happy to know you are eating very well! :-)
I recently found a small business that serves healthy lunches to schools and is based in St. Hubert (not on, but in …it’s a township on the South Shore) and I wonder if they can match the variety …I think I will contact them and find out.