Japanese Cuisine
The ‘land of rising sun’ with its beauty and elegance, has wooed the world since long. Japan is certainly one of the emerging faces of Asia with an intriguing combination of tradition and modernity.
Talking about Japanese cuisine is more like telling a story. Culinary marvels in Japan are created with few basic ingredients that are set out with great detailing, elegance and delicacy. The Japanese believe more on the intrinsic flavours of the ingredients instead of adding external flavours and ingredients to frill it up. The presentation of the food and table settings hold a lot of importance in this country.
Basic ingredients in Japanese cooking remain the same. Their usage in great variety makes all the difference. Soyabean and rice top the list. Mirin (a liquid sweetener), Sake(rice wine), rice vinegar, sesame oil, Wasabi(horse radish), Shirataki(noodles made from the dried tubers of devil’s tongue plant), bamboo shoot and lotus roots feature amongst other widely used ingredients. Japanese love their marinades and pickles. Seafood including powdered seaweeds (added to sauces soups and garnishes), ginger, pepper, pimientos, mustard, glutamate and fresh herbs play an extremely important role.
Classic Japanese Meal
In Japan, every season boasts of a mouth watering array of dishes. It’s a unique feature of Japanese cuisine that every dish has to be served in the right season. For example, the nightingale cake (made from sticky rice and stuffed with navy beans). Come April and it’s time for squids, May is the tea time for the Japanese Shincha, the traditional green and perfumed tea is the season’s favourite. Accompanying Shincha is Ayu, a freshwater fish with very delicate flesh. Summer is the time for grilled eel served with soy sauce and autumn is the season for mushrooms. Winters are reserved for octopus.
Cooking in Japan follows a particular pattern and methods which are very precise. For example, fish is often grilled or boiled but can also be had raw. Similarly, chicken can also be grilled or fried.
Breakfast
A Japanese breakfast is healthy, nutritious and tasty. A homely Japanese breakfast is a bowl of rice and dry seaweed. A miso soup and eggs, grilled fish, tamagoyaki (rolled omelete). This Japanese omelet, unlike ours is sweet in taste. Other breakfast dishes include Onsen Ttamago, Tsukemono pickles, Natto, etc.
Lunch & Dinner
Rice in thousands of different forms is a part of everyday Japanese meals. Cooked rice is often topped with eggs, soya sauce and other toppings. Domburi is another type of cooked rice mixed with a lot of things. Riceballs made of cooked rice and wrapped in seaweed is (Onigiri), Kaire Raisu (Rice with curry sauce) are another popular option. Leftover rice is often prepared to Chazuke, cooked rice with green tea and salmon. Kayu is an easily digestable rice gruel. Noodle dishes include Soba (native Japanese thick noodles made of buckwheat flour), Udon (Japanese noodles made of wheat flour), Ramen (Chinese noodles in soup with various toppings), Somen (Thin noddles made of wheat), Yakisoba (deep fried Chinese noodles served with vegetables meat and ginger).
The Japanese palette of side dishes is as varied as the main course. Hot favourites include Sashimi (raw seafood enjoyed with soya sauce and wasabi), Yakizakana (grilled fish), Yakitori (grilled chicken pieces on skewers), Tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets), nikujaga (meat and potatoes cooked home style), Yodufu (tofu boiled in clear soup), Agedashi Tofu(deep fried tofu pieces dipped in soya sauce). And then there are Nabe dishes that are prepared on the table in a hot pot. Take your pick from Oden (hot pot dish prepared with fish cakes and boiled eggs, etc.), Sukuyaki (a hot pot dish prepared with thinly sliced meat, vegetables mushrooms and tofu ), Shabu Shabu (Japanese style meat fondue) and Chanko Nabe (staple diet of sumo wrestlers).
Dessert
Fresh fruits are always loved as desserts in Japan. But again, here too, the Japanese like anything, don’t compromise in variety. The mochi ice-cream is a double layered ice cream. Taiyaki is a baked dessert best enjoyed during summers. It is probably one of the most ancient Japanese dessert and is often baked in different moulds of amusing shapes. Yummy Dorayaki is a pancake stuffed sweet read bean paste. And last but not the least they Yoku moku cookies, simple and sweet native Japanese butter cookies
Other Popular Dishes
Tempura
Born in Portugal, Tempura is today one of the most important dishes in Japan today. It is actually a deep fried shrimp or vegetable fritter in a batter made of wheat flour, water and eggs. A lightly sweetened sauce and a white radish puree sprinkled with ginger often accompanies Tempura.
Sushi(rice cakes wrapped in a wrapped in a sheet of seaweed)
Is the world’s favourite today! To an extent that Japan has become synonymous with sushi today. It’s a typical Japanese speciality of slightly sticky rice mixed with a dressing. Additional ingredients include fresh raw fish, seafood or vegetable.
Trivia
- The ideal way to have soups in Japan is to slurp it with sounds.
- A small tip while having Japanese cuisine, always keep your rice bowl on your left and the soup bowl on your right.
- Japanese pizza toppings are a little different from the Italian and the Americans ones. They like corn, sesame seed and mayonnaise toppings on their pizzas!