Many years ago, my family had a wonderful Japanese food experience right in our own home. We had a guest in from Japan and we invited her over for dinner, with a strange request – we wanted her to help us prepare dinner. What she prepared was a huge departure from anything that we had eaten in our local sushi restaurants! Until that moment, my knowledge of Japanese food consisted of sushi, tempura, noodles, and teriyaki. What she presented to us were many small dishes consisting of vegetables, rice, and many types of tofu, including natto – a fermented soybean that is commonplace in Japan but an acquired taste for the American palate. Not only were the tastes different, but so was the method of serving and eating. This was a precursor to what we would experience in Japan.
As I have mentioned in other posts, my family consists of 2 vegetarians (who eat eggs & dairy) and 1 vegaquarium (aka I eat seafood). I was concerned that my daughter and husband would have a difficult time finding foods they could eat because of the prevalence of fish. After reading that, in Japan, vegetarians are an oddity and that ham is considered a vegetable, we resigned ourselves to the fact that the two of them would be eating rice and edamame. I had even specifically researched vegetarian restaurants. My concerns were completely unfounded and we never needed to search out a vegetarian restaurant. Between the street food, tofu dishes, rice balls, mochi and abundance of seasonal vegetables (which did NOT include edamame), Japan served up a veritable feast.
I would like to add here that my husband and daughter carried around a small, laminated card that is called a Vegetarian Passport. My husband ordered it online and it says, in Japanese, “I am a vegetarian and I do not eat seafood, meat, chicken or pork.” I highly recommend this for people who have eating requirements. My husband ordered ours from Selectwisely.com.
Here is my problem – I did not write down and I cannot remember the name of any restaurant. It was all random choices based on the photos, the little plastic food models, and whether the place was crowded. I can honestly say that two of my favorite meals came from street stands. The first was a bowl of soft, custardy tofu that we bought from a tofu stand in Sagano. The tofu came in a proper bowl with soy sauce, green onions and ginger. Along with several other Japanese, we sat on benches and ate our delicious little meal. When we were done, we returned the bowl to the stand. The second were the little stands that sell onigari, rice balls that are stuffed with various fillings. They are particularly good when they are grilled!
Food display at White Lover Cafe & Restaurant
Rather than recommend any restaurants, I am going to provide you with a list of the foods that you can find in Japan and our favorites. This works because, unlike your local Japanese restaurant, restaurants in Japan tend to specialize in one type of food. If you want sushi, go to a sushi restaurant. If you want tempura, go to a tempura restaurant. Even if you don’t read Japanese, you can always recognize the food because most restaurants have pictures of the food or a window case in which they display plastic menu items. Very often, you can just point to the picture or model. To read about restaurant/eating etiquette, go to my post Japan: Customs and etiquette.
First, I am going to list the most common Japanese food. The, I am going to list the foods that we ate in Japan.
COMMON FOODS:
TONKATSU – Fried Pork Cutlet.
TEMPURA – Vegetables and fish in a light batter, deep fried.
Slurping udon at Buddhist temple
SOBA and UDON – Japanese noodles that are often served in a soup or fried. Soba are noodles made from buckwheat flour, while Udon are noodles made from wheat flour.
RAMEN – It’s not the dry noodles that you ate throughout college. Ramen contain delicate, often homemade, noodles with a choice of broth bases and toppings. Often, a ramen restaurant will specialize in one kind of ramen. Noisily slurping your ramen is perfectly acceptable and expected. A sharp intake of air can cool down the noodles that are best eaten as fresh as possible.
YAKITORI – Pieces of chicken or pork skewered on bamboo sticks and cooked over charcoal. After cooking they are dipped into a special sauce.
OKONOMIYAKI – A thick pancake-like dish made of a delicious mixture of batter, vegetables and small pieces of meat or fish. There are restaurants where the customers cook at their own table, adding spices as they desire.
DONBURI – Rice (unseasoned) topped with meat, seafood or vegetables.
SUKIYAKI – A one pot meal in which the main ingredient is thinly sliced beef, simmered in a skillet or pan with sukiyaki broth, vegetables and other ingredients. Once the food is cooked, the Japanese then dip the food into a small cup containing raw egg and soy sauce. Almost always, the cooking is done entirely by the customers to suit their own tastes.
SHABU SHABU – similar to Sukiyaki, thin strips of beef and vegetables are cooked in a pot of boiling broth. Very often, the customers usually cook their own food right at the table.
SUSHI – Small bite-sized blocks of rice topped with raw fish. Sushi actually refers to the style of the food, not the contents, and does not necessarily mean raw fish. Here are a few tips on eating sushi in Japan:
- You can order a set of sushi with a fixed price or order sushi pieces as you eat.
- It’s nice to ask the sushi chef for his/her recommendation of the day.
- If you are not ordering a set of sushi, order a few kinds of sushi at a time.
- Put a small amount of soy sauce for dipping in a small dish provided and add the wasabi. Refill as needed.
- To eat sushi, it’s common to use your fingers.
- When dipping sushi in the soy sauce, do not dip whole sushi. Just dip the end of the sushi as you eat, fish side down.
- When eating the rolled sushi, put the entire piece in your mouth as it falls apart. With the pressed sushi, you can take bites.
- Eat pieces of pickled ginger between different kinds of sushi. It helps to clean your mouth and enhance the flavors
- Try not to ask the sushi chef to bring you things like a drink or your bill.
- It’s nice to offer to buy your sushi chef a drink if he/she is doing a good job.
Conveyor belt sushi restaurants, or kaiten-zushi, are great places to eat sushi. At a kaiten-zushi restaurant, you wait until your favorite sushi comes near you, then you pick up the plates from the moving table. If your favorite is not moving on the table, you can order it. The types or colors of plate which sushi pieces are on indicate prices of sushi. If you want to save money, you can avoid picking up expensive sushi. The prices are usually between 100 yen to 300 yen per plate.
SASHIMI - Thin slices of different types of fish served on a platter or in a bowl along with a few raw vegetables. Sashimi is usually eaten as an appetizer or as one course of the meal, but sometimes it will be the main dish.
BENTO or O-BENTO – Japanese box lunch. Many are sold in train stations for travelers. They are yummy and fresh – don’t be put off by the location. Bento lunches usually include a large portion of rice and an assortment of meat, fish vegetables, and pickles. Bento are always made fresh the morning they are sold. There is no attempt to keep them warm, so the contents are always cold when you get them. You can find Bento boxes in grocery stores, street stands and department store food courts.
JAPANESE CURRY – Japanese curries are more like a stew with curry than Indian curry. It is commonly served in three main forms: curry rice (karē raisu), karē udon (thick noodles) and karē pan (bread). Japanese curry consists of vegetables and meats, including onions, carrots, potatoes, beef, pork and chicken. Usual garnishes are fukijin zuke, a sweet mixture of mystery pickled vegetables, and rakkyou, small pickled shallots.
WHAT WE ATE:
MITARASHI DANGO – These are wonderful, sticky, chewy balls made of rice dough, which are grilled on a skewer and covered with a sweet-salty barbeque sauce. They are sold at little street stands and packaged. According to my daughter “These are the best thing in the world.”
ONIGIRI – I LOVE these rice balls stuffed with all kinds of filling, ranging from salmon to ume paste. They are sold in little street kiosks, often close to the subway station. Sometimes, they are made into the shape of a pyramid!
JAPANESE SANDWICHES – If I read one more blog that bashes the Japanese sandwich, I don’t know what I am going to do. They are tiny bundles of goodness, consisting of thin slices of fluffy, white bread and all kinds of filling: ham & cheese, egg salad, bacon & egg salad, tuna salad and my two favorites – potato salad and fruit filling. You can eat several in a sitting. I think people are just anti-white bread. Personally, I think that Japanese white bread ROCKS! Also, these are great for picky eaters who are having a little difficulty maneuvering the Japanese food situation.
INARI SUSHI – Inarizushi is a pocket of yumminess, which consists of aburaage (deep fried tofu) bags stuffed with sushi rice. See my posto on Kyoto to learn about Fushimi Inari Taisha (Fushimi Inari Shrine), which is a Shinto shrine dedicated to Inari, the god of rice, sake, and prosperity.
DORAYAKI – Lovely little yellow sponge cakes that are pressed together and filled usually with red bean pasted. However, when we were in Japan, Yuzu (Japanese citrus) was in season and often used as a filling. You will see street vendors all over with these cool little pans in which they make the dorayaki. The name is based on its shape, which resembles a dora, or gong.
Here are several websites that will help you explore your culinary options in Japan:
Restaurant resources:
Vegetarian resources
Great Japanese food blogs – I love these two!
Tofu:
Tofu in Japan is NOTHING like the tofu we eat in America. It is a culinary delight that comes in many forms. In fact, there are entire Tofu restaurants (not necessarily vegetarian). Learning about Kyoto: Tofu is a great article about the many delights of tofu.
Homemade tofu is delicious and not too hard to make (the hardest part is making the soymilk). Just Hungry has a great recipe.
Here are some absolute “must-haves” for creating authentic Japanese meals!
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