or sometimes crab, marinated in rice vinegar Side dishes () Bento or Obento () is a combination meal served in a wooden box, usually as a cold lunchbox. Chawan mushi () is meat (seafood and/or chicken) and vegetables steamed in egg custard. Edamame () is boiled and salted pods of soybeans, eaten as a snack, often to accompany beer. (): dried fish, often aji (Japanese jack mackerel, ). Traditionally served for breakfast with rice, miso soup and pickles. Hiyayakko (): chilled tofu with garnish Nattō (): fermented soybeans, stringy like melted cheese, infamous for its strong smell and slippery texture. Often eaten for breakfast. Typically popular in Kantō and Tōhoku but slowly gaining popularity in other regions in which nattō was not as popular (): boiled greens such as spinach, chilled and flavored with soy sauce, often with garnish Osechi (): traditional foods eaten at New Year Japanese salad dressings Wafu dressing (): literally "Japanese-style dressing" is a vinaigrette-type salad dressing based on soy sauce, popular in Japan. (): The so-called vinegar that is blended with the ingredient here is often sanbaizu ("three cupful/spoonful vinegar"), which is a blend of vinegar, mirin, and soy sauce. Shimotsukare (): made of vegetables, soybeans, abura-age ( or deep fried tofu skins) and sake kasu (, rice pulp from fermented sake). Chinmi () are regional delicacies, and include: Ankimo () Karasumi () Konowata () Mozuku () Uni (): specifically, salt-pickled sea urchin Although most Japanese eschew eating insects, in some regions, locust (, ) and bee larvae (, ) are not uncommon dishes. The larvae of species of caddisflies and stoneflies (, ), harvested from the Tenryū river as it flows through Ina, Nagano, is also boiled and canned, or boiled and then sautéed in soy sauce and sugar. ) is eaten as well in Hinoemata, Fukushima in early summer. Sweets and snacks (okashi (), oyatsu ()) Okashi (), (): Sweets and snacks Japanese-style sweets (wagashi, ) Wagashi include: Amanattō: traditional confectionery made of adzuki or other beans, covered with refined sugar after simmering with sugar syrup and drying. Dango: a Japanese dumpling and sweet made from mochiko (rice flour),[1] related to mochi. Hanabiramochi: a Japanese sweet (wagashi), usually eaten at the beginning of the year. Higashi: a type of wagashi, which is dry and contains very little moisture, and thus keeps relatively longer than other kinds of wagashi. Hoshigaki: dried persimmon fruit. Imagawayaki: