Japanese Food

JAPANESE FOOD

Given that Japan is a group of islands, where do you think they get the majority of their food? From the ocean. What would that include? Fish, shrimp, oysters, all kinds of seafood. Yes, sushi, too. Sushi does not mean raw fish in Japanese, however. Sushi refers to the rice that is on the bottom of the sushi. The rice which has rice vinegar and sugar mixed into it is what is actually called sushi in Japanese. So, there is sushi that does not have raw fish or raw seafood on it. There is another name for raw fish (just slices of raw fish). This is called sashimi. Both sushi and sashimi are not what Japanese people everyday. They eat it more on special occasions or at sushi restaurants.

What kind of vegetables might the Japanese get from the ocean? Seaweed. There are many different names for seaweed in Japanese, a different name for each different kind. One kind is the kind of thin seaweed found on the outside of many sushi rolls. This is called nori. There is another kind of seaweed that is very common and almost eaten daily by most people. This is called wakame. It is often found in miso soup. Miso soup is made of fish stock and fermented soybean paste (called miso in Japanese). It often has wakame in it, tofu (bean curd), and green onions.

The staple that is normally eaten in Japan is rice. However, more and more bread is being eaten in Japan as well. One thing interesting is that rice and bread are normally not eaten at the same meal.

A normal, home-cooked meal in Japan might consist of rice, miso soup, salmon, spinach with some ground sesame seeds on it, acorn squash (a little sweet), salad, and green tea. This is my favorite kind of Japanese food; ordinary, everyday food. And it is all cooked, by the way.

Historically, there has not been much difference between morning meals and meals at other times of day. In other words, Westerners often think that what Japanese people eat at breakfast is not breakfast food because of our preconceived notions of what breakfast food is. They do eat more and more eggs, ham, toast, and cereal. I have never heard of donuts for breakfast, though. Donuts are considered more of a sweet. One one might sit down at Dunkin Donuts with a cup of coffee and a donut (not three or four) in the afternoon. One breakfast food that I see at coffee shops often is a "mixed fruit sandwich." The filling in this sandwich is whipped cream mixed with canned fruit cocktail. This would most often be served with either hot tea or coffee.

Hope you get to try as many Japanese foods as possible!