I was excited to cook nikujaga for our dinner last night. We have carrots to go with the meat and for green beans I can put in string beans (finally, there’s one available in our area!). We have merin as well and of course Japanese soy sauce, and there’s sesame oil for added taste.

When I served the dish, I announced “we have nikujaga for dinner!” with relish and pride because I thought the dish turned out really good. And Hubs replied with an excited “whoa”. Then prayer. Then we dug into our bowls. When even after Hubs already had mouthfuls, and he was spooning the dish with a thoughtful expression on his face, I got concerned that he didn’t like it. So I asked.

Then he said, “it’s good. But where is the jaga?”.

And so I learned jaga doesn’t mean “mix”. It’s short for jagaimo which means potatoes. @_@ Niku, I know is for meat.

One thing that made me happy though. Hubs said that finally, my cooking tasted Japanese and not Filipino. I’ve always been baffled before because even when I’ve used Japanese ingredients, it still tasted Filipino. So now, I think I finally learned the trade. ^_^