Food & Drink

Food in Japan is generally of a very high quality and most Japanese people tend to be quite well informed diners. Local, regional and seasonal dishes are invariably a key tourist attraction for the domestic traveller. The food is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food, quality of ingredients and presentation.

Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods (shushoku), typically rice or noodles, with a soup and okazu (dishes made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu and so on), designed to add flavour to the staple food. These are typically flavoured with dashi, miso and soy sauce, and traditionally tend to be low in fat and high in salt.

A standard Japanese meal generally consists of several different okazu accompanying a bowl of cooked white Japanese rice (gohan), a bowl of soup and some tsukemono (pickles). The most standard of meals consist of three okazu and is termed ichiju-sansai (one soup, three sides). Different cooking techniques are applied to each of the three okazu; they may be raw (sashimi), grilled, simmered (sometimes called boiled), steamed, deep fried, vinegared or dressed.

Since Japan is an island nation, its people consume much seafood. Meat-eating has been rare until fairly recently due to restrictions placed upon it by Buddhism. However, purely vegetarian food is rare since even vegetable dishes are flavoured with the ubiquitous dashi stock, usually made with katsuobushi (skipjack tuna flakes). An exception is shojin ryori, vegetarian dishes developed by Buddhist monks. However, the advertised shojin ryori usually available at public eating places normally includes some non vegetarian elements.

Breakfast

A traditional breakfast usually consist of a bowl of rice, miso soup, pickles and a grilled fish. Additional dishes may include nori, raw egg, or natto in some areas. Today, many people opt for a western-style breakfast consisting of fried egg, ham, bread and coffee, partly for convenience; salad is often served alongside.

Lunch and Dinner

Lunch is often an informal affair, typically consisting of a bowl of noodles or a donburi (a big bowl of rice with toppings). Other common lunch items are teishoku (a cheap set meal of rice, soup, pickles and an okazu), Japanese curry-rice (popular in restaurants and canteens), and Bento (a boxed lunch that varies from the elaborate restaurant purchased to the simple homemade 'lunchbox').

The evening meal is usually the most important and substantial meal of the day.

Beverages

A lot of drinking goes on in Japan after dark, and food is almost always served as an accompaniment to drinks, especially in pub-restaurants known as izakaya. Food served with alcohol is known as sakana. With the exception of sushi, rice is not usually consumed at the same time as alcohol; this is because traditionally, sake, brewed from rice, was considered a substitute for rice. Many people would eat rice, often in the form of ochazuke (rice-soup), only at the end to round up the drinking session.

Common Japanese Foods

Sashimi

Sashimi is raw, thinly sliced foods served with a dipping sauce and simple garnishes; usually fish or shellfish served with soy sauce and wasabi.

Sushi

Sushi comes from Japan and is a vinegared rice topped or mixed with various fresh ingredients, usually fish or seafood.

• Nigri-sushi: hand-formed sushi consisting of a rectangular or oval shaped piece of rice with a topping pressed on.
• Maki-sushi: translated as 'roll sushi', this is where rice and seafood or other ingredients are placed on a sheet of seaweed (nori) and rolled into a cylindrical shape on a bamboo mat and then cut into smaller pieces.
• Temaki: Basically the same as maki-sushi, except that the nori is rolled into a cone-shape with the ingredients placed inside. Sometimes referred to as a 'hand-roll'.
• Chirashi: Translated as 'scattered', chirashi involves fresh sea food, vegetables or other ingredients being placed on top of sushi rice in a bowl or dish.

Noodles (Men-Rui)

Noodles, originating from China, have become an essential part of Japanese cuisine, usually (but not always) as an alternative to a rice-based meal. Soba (thin, grayish-brown noodles containing buckwheat flour) and udon (thick wheat noodles) are the main traditional noodles and are served hot or cold with soy-dashi flavourings. Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat stock broth known as ramen have become extremely popular over the last century.

• Traditional Japanese noodles are usually served chilled with a dipping sauce, or in a hot soy-dashi broth.
  • Soba: thin brown buckwheat noodles. Also known as Nihon-soba ('Japanese soba'). In Okinawa, soba likely refers to Okinawa soba (see below).
  • Udon: thick wheat noodles served with various toppings, usually in a hot soy-dashi broth, or sometimes in a Japanese curry soup.
  • Somen: thin wheat noodles served chilled with a dipping sauce. Hot Somen is called Nyumen.
• Chinese-influenced noodles are served in a meat or chicken broth and have only appeared in the last 100 years or so.
  • Ramen: thin light yellow noodles served in hot chicken or pork broth with various toppings; of Chinese origin, it is a popular and common item in Japan. Also known as Shina-soba or Chuka-soba (both mean 'Chinese soba').
  • Champon: yellow noodles of medium thickness served with a great variety of seafood and vegetable toppings in a hot chicken broth which originated in Nagasaki as a cheap food for students.
• Okinawa soba: thick wheat-flour noodles served in Okinawa, often served in a hot broth with soki, steamed pork. Akin to a cross between udon and ramen.
• Yaki soba: Fried Chinese noodles.
• Yaki udon: Fried udon noodles.

Deep-Fried Dishes (Agemono)

• Kara-age: bite-sized pieces of chicken, fish, octopus or other meat, floured and deep fried.
• Korokke (croquette): breaded and deep-fried patties, containing either mashed potato or white sauce mixed with minced meat, vegetables or seafood.
• Kushikatsu: skewered meat, vegetables or seafood, breaded and deep fried.
• Tempura: deep-fried vegetables or seafood in a light, distinctive batter.
• Tonkatsu: deep-fried breaded cutlet of pork (chicken versions are called chicken katsu).

Grilled and Pan-Fried Dishes (Yakimono)

• Gyoza: Chinese ravioli-dumplings (potstickers), usually filled with pork and vegetables and pan-fried.
• Kushiyaki: skewers of meat and vegetables.
• Okonomiyaki: savoury pancakes with various meat and vegetable ingredients, flavoured with the likes of Worcestershire sauce or mayonnaise.
• Takoyaki: a spherical, fried dumpling of batter with a piece of octopus inside. Popular street snack.
• Teriyaki: grilled, broiled or pan-fried meat, fish, chicken or vegetables glazed with a sweetened soy sauce.
• Unagi, including Kabayaki: grilled and flavored eel.
• Yakiniku ('grilled meat'): may refer to several things:
  • Korean BBQ: bite-sized pieces of meat (usually beef) grilled, usually at the table, originating from Korean galbi and bulgogi.
  • Horumonyaki ('offal-grill'): similar to Korean BBQ, but using offal.
  • Genghis Khan barbecue: barbecued lamb or mutton, with various seafoods and vegetables. A speciality of Hokkaido.
• Yakitori: barbecued chicken skewers, usually served with beer.
• Yakizakana: flame-grilled fish, often served with grated daikon. One of the most common dishes served at home.

Nabemono (One Pot 'Steamboat' Cooking)

Nabemono includes:

• Oden: surimi, boiled pork and beans, mutton, etc. simmered in vinegar. Common wintertime food and often available in convenience stores.
• Motsunabe: beef offal, Chinese cabbage and various vegetables cooked in a light soup base.
• Shabu-shabu: hot pot with thinly sliced beef, vegetables and tofu, cooked in a thin stock at the table and dipped in a soy or sesame-based dip before eating.
• Sukiyaki: thinly sliced beef and vegetables cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, dashi, sugar and sake. Participants cook at the table then dip food into their individual bowls of raw egg before eating it.
• Tecchiri: hot pot with blowfish and vegetables, a specialty of Osaka.

Nimono (Stewed Dishes)

• Kakuni: chunks of pork belly stewed in soy, mirin and sake with large pieces of daikon and whole boiled eggs. The Okinawan variation, using awamori, soy sauce and miso, is known as rafuti.
• Nikujaga: beef and potato stew, flavoured with sweet soy.
• Nizakana: fish poached in sweet soy.
• Soki: Okinawan dish of pork stewed with bone.

Soups (Suimono and Shirumono)

Soups include:

• Miso soup: soup made with miso dissolved in dashi, usually containing two or three types of solid ingredients, such as seaweed, vegetables or tofu.
• Tonjiru: similar to Miso soup, except that pork is added to the ingredients.
• Dangojiru: soup made with dumplings along with seaweed, tofu, lotus root, or any number of other vegetables and roots.
• Imoni: a thick taro potato stew popular in Northern Japan during the autumn season.
• Sumashijiru: a clear soup made with dashi and seafood.
• Zoni: soup containing mochi rice cakes along with various vegetables and often chicken.

Pickled or Salted Foods

These foods are usually served in tiny portions, as a side dish to be eaten with white rice, to accompany sake or as a topping for rice porridges.

• Ikura: salt cured salmon caviar.
• Mentaiko: salt-cured pollock roe.
• Shiokara: salty fermented viscera.
• Tsukemono: pickled vegetables, hundreds of varieties and served with most rice-based meals.
• Umeboshi: small, pickled ume fruit. Usually red and very sour, often served with bento lunch boxes or as a filling for onigiri.
• Tsukudani: Very small fish, shellfish or seaweed stewed in sweetened soy for preservation.

Other Foods

• Agedashi dofu: cubes of deep-fried silken tofu served in hot broth.
• Bento or Obento: combination meal served in a wooden box, usually as a cold lunchbox.
• Chawan mushi: meat (seafood and/or chicken) and vegetables steamed in egg custard.
• Edamame: boiled and salted pods of soybeans, eaten as a snack, often to accompany beer.
• Himono: dried fish, often aji (Japanese jack mackerel). Traditionally served for breakfast with rice, miso soup and pickles.
• Hiyayakko: chilled tofu with garnish.
• Natto: fermented soybeans, stringy like melted cheese, infamous for its strong smell and slippery texture. Often eaten for breakfast. Typically popular in Kanto and Tohoku but hardly elsewhere.
• Ohitashi: boiled greens such as spinach, chilled and flavoured with soy sauce, often with garnish.
• Osechi: traditional foods eaten at New Year.
• Sunomono: vegetables such as cucumber or wakame, or sometimes crab, marinated in rice vinegar.