Japanese Food

Japanese cuisine is the food—ingredients, preparation and way of eating—of Japan. The traditional food of Japan is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes, each in its own utensil, with an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. The side dishes often consist of fish, pickled vegetables, and vegetables cooked in broth. Fish is common in the traditional cuisine. It is often grilled, but it may also be served raw as sashimi or in sushi. Seafood and vegetables are also deep-fried in a light batter as tempura.

Apart from rice, staples include noodles, such as soba and udon. Japan has many simmered dishes such as fish products in broth called oden, or beef in sukiyaki and nikujaga. Foreign food, in particular Chinese food in the form of noodles in soup called ramen and fried dumplings, gyoza, and western food such as curry and hamburger steaks are commonly found in Japan. Historically, the Japanese shunned meat, but with the modernization of Japan in the 1860s, meat-based dishes such as tonkatsu became common.

Japan has an indigenous form of sweets called wagashi, which include ingredients such as red bean paste, as well as its indigenous rice wine sake.

Japanese cuisine, particularly sushi, has now become popular throughout the world.

 

 

Overview of traditional Japanese cuisine[edit]

Breakfast at a ryokan (Japanese inn), featuring grilled mackerel, Kansai styledashimaki egg, tofu in kaminabe (paper pot)

Japanese cuisine is based on combining the staple food which is steamed white rice or gohan (御飯?) with one or several okazu or main dishes and side dishes. This may be accompanied by a clear or miso soup and tsukemono (pickles).

The phrase ichijū-sansai (一汁三菜 “one soup, three sides”?) refers to the makeup of a typical meal served, but has roots in classic kaiseki and honzen cuisine. The term is also used to describe the first course served in standard kaiseki cuisine nowadays.[1]

Rice is served in its own small bowl (chawan), and each course item is placed on its own small plate (sara) or bowl (hachi) for each individual portion. This is done even at home. It contrasts with the Western-style dinners at home, where each individual takes helpings from the large tureens and plates of food presented at the middle of the dining table. Japanese style traditionally abhors different flavored dishes touching each other on a single plate, so different dishes are given their own individual plates as mentioned, or are partitioned using leaves, etc. This is why in take-out sushi the tamagoyaki egg and fish, or Blue-backed fish and white-fleshed fish are carefully separated. Placing okazu on top of rice and “soiling” it is also frowned upon by old-fashioned etiquette.[2]

The small rice bowl or chawan (lit. “tea bowl”) doubles as a word for the large tea bowls in tea ceremonies. Thus in common speech, the drinking cup is referred to as yunomi-jawan or yunomi for the purpose of distinction.

Kaiseki appetizers on a legged tray

In the olden days, among the nobility, each course of a full-course Japanese meal would be brought on serving trays called zen (膳?), which were originally platformed trays or small dining tables. In the modern age, faldstool trays or stackup type legged trays may still be seen used in zashiki, i.e. tatami-mat rooms, for large banquets or at a ryokan type inn. Some restaurants might use the suffix -zen (膳) as a classier though dated synonym to the more familiar teishoku (定食?), since the latter basically is a term for a combo meal served at a taishū-shokudō, akin to a diner.[3] Teishoku means a meal of fixed menu, a dinner à prix fixe[4]served at shokudō (食堂 “dining hall”?) or ryōriten (料理店 “restaurant”?), which is somewhat vague (shokudō can mean a diner type restaurant or a corporate lunch hall); but e.g. Ishikawa, Hiroyoshi (石川弘義) (1991). Taishū bunka jiten (snippet). Kōbundō. p. 516. defines it as fare served at teishoku-shokudō (定食食堂“teishoku dining hall”?), etc., a diner-like establishment.

Emphasis is placed on seasonality of food or shun (旬?),[5][6] and dishes are designed to herald the arrival of the four seasons or calendar months.

Seasonality[edit]

Much like the haiku poem, traditional Japanese cuisine strives to present seasonality (shun).[original research?]

Seasonality means taking advantage of the “bounty of the mountains” (e.g. bamboo shoots in spring, chestnuts in the fall) as well as the “bounty of the sea” as they come into season. The hatsu-gatsuo or the first catch of skipjack tunas that arrives with the Kuroshio Current has traditionally been greatly prized.[citation needed]

If something becomes available rather earlier than usual, the first crop or early catch is called hashiri.[7]

Use of (inedible) tree leaves and branches as decor is also characteristic of Japanese cuisine. Maple leaves are often floated on water to exude coolness or ryō (涼?), sprigs of nandina are popularly used. Theharan (Aspidistra) and sasa bamboo leaves were often cut into shapes, and placed underneath or used as separators.

 

Traditional ingredients[edit]

A characteristic of traditional Japanese food is the sparing use of meat (mammal meat), oils and fats, and dairy products.[8] Use of soy sauce, miso, and umeboshi makes them high in salt content, though there are low-sodium versions of these available nowadays.

 

 

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