Japanese Cuisine: the food you cannot miss if you are in Japan
Japanese food is making quite a name in the global market given their freshness and variety. Once in Japan you have to try the following appetizing varieties.
CONTRARY TO the popular belief Japanese people do eat other stuff than Shushi. In the recent past, the Japanese cuisine has taken the world by storm due to its fresh ingredients and variety of food. A person visiting Japan should and must try out the different variety.
· RICE
One thing that one must not miss in Japan is donburi , which literally means rice bowl and they come with different kinds of toppings, almost like pizza toppings. To name a few topping would be:
(1) Oyakodon, which normally has chicken and egg but can also be replaced by salmon and roe.
(2) Katsudon is the scrumptious topping made up of deep fried pork cutlet with egg.
(3) For people who love to have variety, should definitely try the gy?don, which is the topping made up of beef and onion
(4) People who have to have gravy with their rice, must try the ch?kadon, which is a topping of stir-fried vegetables and meat in a thick sauce.
Japanese people also love their Curry rice, which even the Asians would enjoy as most of their staple food is rice.
· NOODLES
Even though rice is the staple food of Japanese but the next favourite food among them is Noodle and they make a variety of them with fresh herbs and different ingredients. The Japanese make two kinds of noodles
1) Thin buckwheat soba
2) Thick wheat udon
Both the soba and udon can be ordered with the following toppings.
1) Kake soba is the simplest form of noodles that anyone can have as it is made up of a simple broth and some spring onions.
2) Tsukimi soba is a noodle with a raw egg dropped in between the soup. This dish is also called as moon viewing as the impression is such that the egg looks like moon behind clouds.
3) Kitsune sobais a soup with thin fried Tofu. This is the best dish for the people who prefer vegetarian item to non vegetarian.
4) Zaru sobais a popular dish in the summers as it is made up of chilled noodles. However, improbable that sounds but they make it excellently with dipping sauce, shallot and wasab.
· RAMEN
Although essentially a Chinese dish but one can find that in Japan too it is quite famous. It is a bit expensive than noodles but Japanese have made Ramen one of their own food with the different kind of combinations:
1) Shio r?men normally comes with salty pork and chicken broth. It is a deliciously light food that works wonders in an intimate family gathering.
2) Soya milk, soya broth are very popular in Japan and hence the shoyu r?men, which is made up of Soya broth.
3) Miso r?men is essentially made up of Soya bean paste. Although we may not have the taste for it but one should try it out to know that soya bean can be consumed in a variety of way.
4) Pork loving people would love tonkotsu ramen, which consists of thick, wholesome pork broth.
· SUSHI and SASHMI
Sushi and Sashimi are the two favourites of the Japanese people. As we all know Sushi is raw fish over vinegared rice and Sashimi is just raw fish. Although this may not be the appropriate food for many people in India as we like our food well done but the taste is quite different from the way it sounds.
These simple dishes take years of experience and fine craftsmanship to cook. The raw fish used in these dishes should be very fresh and every bone in the fish should be removed or else it would totally ruin the experience. To name a few Sushis would be:
1) Nigiri normally consists of rice with fish pressed on top.
2) Maki is a much more common and stylish Sushi, which is made up of fish and rice rolled in a kind of seaweed called nori and cut in a cylindrical bite size chunks.
3) Temakiis almost similar to Maki but the fish and the rice are rolled up in big cones of nori.
4) Gunkan is the kind where the entire sushi is covered with Nori, the seaweed so that nothing goes out.
5) Chirashi contains rice in a bowl with seafood on top.
Everything said and done, if one ends up in a Sushi restaurant and doesn’t want to have anything raw then they can have other delicious and tasty dishes such as Inari, which is rice wrapped in deep fried tofu but the taste would be sweet. Or one can go for kappa maki, which is sliced cucumber rolled up in rice and nori.
Another lesser known speciality of the Japanese Cuisine is Fugu. This is the name given for the Puffer fish which contains poison inside. But one can go for it as chefs are monitored very stringently about making the dish due to its potential danger. Not found everywhere this fish can be a bit pricey as it requires a lot of skills to clean the internals of the fish.
Every year new chefs are also apprenticed under experienced chefs and they undergo many years of practice, then only they can get a licence to make the dish. Thus one can taste the dish because a lot of attention is paid while making the dish.
The Japanese people took to meat eating very recently from the Meiji Era. Now people can have a variety of meat dish such as:
1) Okonomiyaki is a pancake pizza which has toppings of wheat-cabbage batter with meat or seafood, sauce, mayo, bonito flakes, dried seaweed and pickled ginger. This pizza gives more of a Japanese flavour than an Italian feel.
2) Teppanyaki is non vegetarians delight as it consists of meat grilled on hot plate.
3) Tempurahas a fine mix of shrimp, fish and vegetables deep-fried very quickly, served with a dipping broth.
4) Tonkatsu is more like a burger as it has pork cutlets.
5) Yakiniku is served in restaurants and people can barbeque the meat at the table itself.
6) Yakitori is the various grilled part of the chicken and it taste lovely with alcohol. So boys night out cannot be without Yakitori
Visiting Japan and not having eel would be a big miss as it is another of the speciality.
It is much known because it gives strength at the hot summers. A properly grilled eel is delectable and just melts in the mouth. However, each eel serving is as costly as 1000 yen, which is almost 562 Indian rupees.
The Japanese people love stewed food and one can find assortment of such foods in the restaurants. They come in different varieties:
1) Chankonabeis something that the sumo wrestlers prefer as they it is very filling.
2) Oden is a winter dish and is made of skewered fishcakes, daikon radish, tofu, and other ingredients simmered in fish soup for days. It takes time to prepare but the flavours the dish have is mouth-watering.
3) Sukiyaki has everything from Tofu, beef, noodles and something sweet is also added.
4) Shabu-Shabu is a light meal with clear water, thin slices of meat, which are instantly cooked in hot water and dipped in sauce.
Apart from the food two Japanese drinks are also world famous and must be tried. They are:
· Sake which is made by fermenting the rice. Often called the rice wine this drink can be served in room temperature, chilled or hot. It has 15 percent alcohol in it. In restaurants one serving normally starts from 500 yen, which is and can go up.
· Shochu is a distilled alcohol which is harder than Sake. It is normally made up ofrice, yam, or grain and potatoes. This is a cheaper drink than Sake and was once known as the working class drink. The alcohol content in this is 25 per cent.
Thus have a blast with Japanese food as they are really delicious and is quite comfortable to have.
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