Popular Japanese Cuisine
Japanese cuisine is becoming increasingly popular in the Western world. With so many dishes to choose from it can be hard to know where to start. This article explains some of the most common dishes served up at a Japanese restaurant, so that you can make sure order the right food the first time round.
Edamame Beans
Edamame beans are a popular snack or starter. They are little green pods that contain several immature soybeans. You can eat them with your hands, and pop the beans out directly into your mouth. The bean pods are inedible and should be discarded.
Miso Soup
Miso soup is another popular starter which is enjoyed before most Japanese meals. It is a salty soup, which often has strips of seaweed, thinly sliced scallions and small chunks of tofu in it. Traditionally the soup is enjoyed directly from the bowl, without the use of a spoon, but chopsticks can be used to pick out the remaining ingredients.
Tempura
Tempura is a type of light and delicious batter. One of the most common tempura dishes is tempura prawns, which are typically served with a sweet chili sauce. Vegetable tempura is where a selection of vegetables, usually onions, carrots, peppers and asparagus are covered in the batter.
Sushi
There is such a large selection of sushi available that it deserves its own article. Sushi typically refers to a type of food that contains both cook vinegared rice combined with other ingredients, usually raw fish or vegetables. Makizushi are sushi rolls which are wrapped in a thin layer of seaweed, and they are a good starting point for people who are new to sushi. The rolls are picked up with chopsticks, and they can be dipped into a bowl of soy sauce. Nigiri sushi are oblong mounds of rice which are typically topped with seafood and held together with a small strip of nori seaweed. Temaki is a type of sushi that is rolled into a cone-shape, and it is designed to be eaten by hand without the use of chopsticks. Sushi can also be enjoyed with thin slices of pickled ginger, and a type of Japanese horseradish known as wasabi.
Noodle Soups
Noodle soups known as ramen are popular in Japanese cuisine. These flavoursome noodle soups have a meat or fish based broth which can contain a number of ingredients, including thinly sliced mushrooms, scallions, pepper, pork or chicken, and egg. Almost every region in Japan will have its own style and way of preparing ramen.
Sashimi
Sashimi is a Japanese delicacy which is made from very thin slices of meat or fish. It is traditionally enjoyed as a first course of a Japanese meal. Some of the most common ingredients used in sashimi include squid, salmon, tuna, mackerel, scallops and sea urchins.
You can find restaurants that serve Japanese food in your area by searching for them online. Always choose a reputable restaurant that has great reviews from customers to ensure that the food is both authentic and delicious.