Learn Japanese Cooking at JapanesePod101.com! Japanese food is famous for being healthy and delicious! So today we’re going to learn how to make one of Japan’s most beloved homestyle dishes, Niku Jaga. It’s a kind of beef stew and is traditionally associated with a loving mother or devoted wife. Like last week’s lesson, the grammar is quite easy, but there is a lot of vocabulary. So please check out the PDF while you listen to this one. Also, Naomi sensei has a quick and funny tip on how to make instant mash potatoes with just a little bit of hot water and crunchy snack called Jagariko. There’s a lot going on here, but if you want to eat in Japan, this lesson is for you. After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com and be sure to leave us a post!
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Lower Intermediate Lessons (S2). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
19 Responses to “Lower Intermediate Lesson #58 - LI2: Recipe - Niku Jaga”
JapanesePod101.com says:
January 17th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, this a classic homestyle favorite in Japan. We definitely recommend trying this one at home with your family or that special someone!!
Here’s the official website for 東郷神社 (Togo Jinja) in Harajuku. As you can see from the pictures, it’s an extremely popular wedding spot!
http://www.togo.co.jp/
羅子傑* says:
January 17th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
ちょっとまって。。。蛇しかいない？That means “they are all a bunch of snakes?” 説明をください！
*英読み：マクシワーワー
watermen says:
January 17th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Is there a reason Jpod101 does not want to rectify the lesson number?
kitty-chan says:
January 18th, 2008 at 2:40 am
羅子傑, did you hear yesterday’s lesson? I think her co-workers are “literally” snakes. 
One of them bit her boss! 
i looked up ガラガラヘビ in the dictionary and it said Rattle Snakes!!! 
sTeVe aUsTiN says:
January 18th, 2008 at 2:43 am
I looked up がらがら蛇 too, but Miss Kitty-chan beat me to the punch! 
I didn’t try the fried chicken one yet, but this one seems like soul food! 
marvin says:
January 18th, 2008 at 6:49 am
肉じゃが大好きだよ。
you say its a typical mom’s dish. i heard “a good japanese wife must know how to cook nikujaga” 
マーキースター says:
January 18th, 2008 at 9:32 am
the construction しか + negative verb means “only.”
it’s like だけ but always construed with a negative verb
marvinさん、that’s true.
i was eating dinner with my girlfriend at an izakaya and we ordered some 肉じゃが and i said “ohhhh, i had this once.”
and immediately she was like “who made it for you?!” she got really angry out of jealousy. things got better when i explained that it was at another izakaya. i still haven’t tried real homemade 肉じゃが but she’s promised to make it for me. ラッキー！
Phil says:
January 19th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Wow that was crazy hard. Listening to it was like going back to being a total newbie again, only able to pick out one word out of every dozen or more. These cookery lessons have been the hardest JPod have ever done I think, and really, really severe difficulty spikes compared to the other lessons. Perhaps these should have been flagged upper intermediate? Or maybe some sort of new upper super hardcore advanced level? 
I shall retreat to the safety of intermediate now, where I can actually understand nearly all of what is said!
sTeVe aUsTiN says:
January 19th, 2008 at 3:50 am
>>Perhaps these should have been flagged upper intermediate?
What was difficult about it? The verbs were all simple. The grammar was like newbie level….
And now I know what to expect when I open my next package of instant ramen! 
Auntie says:
January 20th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Dear Steve Austin, for what it’s worth, I did find this lesson (and lesson before it, on fried chicken) too challenging, mainly because of the sheer amount of new vocabulary. The grammar and language points were not particularly difficult, but the amount of new vocabulary was overwhelming. That could be down to my personal weakness in Japanese, of course.
I’ve been following JPOD101 lessons up to AND INCLUDING Intermediate level for nearly a year, and these two lessons were the first where I had to go through the “long” lesson more than once just to begin to get a handle on processing and listening to what must have been 16 - 20 totally new words. I believe in being in a “challenging” level, but this was pretty daft unless JPOD101 only intend to have two cooking-themed lessons, and have to cram all the vocab into these two lessons.
t didn’t help that the PDFs in this new season of Lower Intermediate are also very sloppily-down, with vocabulary/hiragana pronunciation suddenly disappearing from tables, and transcripts which DON’T match what is being said by the voice actors/ teachers. Hmmph…
Still, I’m a happy JPOD101 fan. I’ve abandoned these two lessons, and won’t look back, although it’s sad for me because my hobby is cooking and it’s exactly the kind of topic that I love.
Auntie says:
January 20th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Sorry, that should have been:-
It didn’t help that the PDFs in this new season of Lower Intermediate are also very sloppily done, with vocabulary/hiragana pronunciation suddenly disappearing from tables, and transcripts which DON’T match what is being said by the voice actors/ teachers. Hmmph…
My turn to be sloppy now!
Mayumi says:
January 21st, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Auntie-san,
Sorry for some mistakes in the PDFs for recipe lessons. 
I fixed them.
Thank you pointing it out. 
Mayumi
Auntie says:
January 21st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Dear Mayumi-san, thank you sincerely for fixing it so fast. I am so sorry now to have sounded so impatient, it was not right.
All the best (and thanks once again!)
Auntie
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Category: Lower Intermediate Lessons (S2) |
Grammar: following directions, giving directions | Function: making nikujaga | Topic: cooking, food, japanese food, recipes | Politeness Level: irrelevant
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