Chi-Chi's Home-Cooked Feast
A generous home-style Japanese family meal, grilled fish, rice, miso soup and simmered vegetables, the kind Chi-Chi prepares to keep up with her exceptionally hungry Saiyan family in Dragon Ball Z.
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total
- 1 h 5 min
- serves
- 6
- level
- medium
Chi-Chi is repeatedly shown cooking large, generous home meals for her family in Dragon Ball Z, and the sheer scale of it is as much a character detail as any fight scene, a steady, everyday kind of care running underneath a show built around huge battles.
Scale this one up without hesitation if you're actually feeding a group; the long-running joke in the series is just how much the Saiyan characters eat at every single meal, Goku's family very much included.
Part of our 60 famous foods from movies and TV list.
method
Grill the whole fish until cooked through and the skin is crisp, about 6 to 8 minutes per side depending on size.
For the miso soup, heat the dashi stock, add the daikon and carrot, and simmer for 10 minutes until tender.
Dissolve the miso paste into the hot stock, add the tofu and wakame, and warm through gently without boiling hard.
Simmer the remaining vegetables separately in a little dashi, soy sauce and mirin, until tender and glazed.
Serve the grilled fish, rice, miso soup and simmered vegetables together, family-style, with pickled vegetables and green tea.
chef's tips
- Scale the quantities up generously if you're genuinely feeding a hungry group; the running joke in Dragon Ball Z is that the Saiyan characters, Goku's family included, eat enormous amounts at every meal.
- Grill the fish whole, rather than as fillets, for the full home-style presentation this kind of family meal is usually shown with.
- Chi-Chi is repeatedly shown preparing large, generous home-cooked spreads for her family in Dragon Ball Z, and the scale of her cooking is as much a character detail as any fight scene, representing steady, everyday care in a show built around huge battles.
- Keep the miso soup from boiling hard once the paste is added; a hard boil can make the flavor turn bitter and muddy.