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Common dishes
Despite the western influence that is slowly
invading Asia, countries like Japan still considers rice as
the most important food stuff and its staple food. There are
authentic Japanese dishes that have rice as the main ingredient
like sushi for example.
There are syllables that indicate what
kind of meat or food you are eating for example, if it ends
with don, it usually has rice,
gyu pertains to beef, katsu is pork and tori is chicken, maki
is rolled and sushi is balled rice with a lot of variations
as to its presentation and recipe.
Rice Bowl
Rice is a common side dish during lunch and dinner and is
the main dish during breakfasts. It is usually eaten
plain or mixed
with raw egg and soy sauce, this simple mixture is called
tamago-kake-gohan. Rice bowls usually have various toppings.
Sushi
Sushi can be defined as a dish which contains sushi rice,
cooked rice that is prepared with sushi vinegar. There
are various
kinds of sushi dishes.
Domburi
It is more popularly known as rice toppings. Some of the
common toppings are tempura (tendon), egg and chicken
(oyakodon), tonkatsu (katsudon) and beef (gyudon). The
clue here is
the “don” ending.
Onigiri
Onigiri are rice balls made of cooked rice and usually
wrapped with nori seaweed. They are slightly salted
and often contain
some additional food in the center, for example an
umeboshi (pickled Japanese apricot), katsuobushi (dried
bonito
shavings), tuna
or salmon. Rice balls are a popular and inexpensive
snack available at convenience stores.
Kare Raisu
Kare Raisu (Curry Rice) can be served with additional
toppings such as tonkatsu. Curry is not a native
Japanese spice,
but has been used in Japan for over a century.
Fried
Rice
Fried rice or chahan has been originally introduced
from China. A variety of additional ingredients
such as peas,
egg, negi
(Japanese leek) and small pieces of carrot and
pork are mixed to the rice
when stir fried.
Chazuke
Chazuke is a bowl of cooked rice with green tea
and other ingredients, for example, salmon or
tarako (cod roe)
added to it.
Kayu
Kayu is rice gruel, watery, soft cooked rice
that resembles oatmeal. It is often served
to sick people
because
it is easily digested.
Sashimi
Sashimi is raw seafood. A large number of fish
can be enjoyed raw if they are fresh and
prepared correctly.
Most types
of sashimi are enjoyed with soya sauce and
wasabi.
Yakizakana
Yakizakana means grilled fish. Many varieties
of fish are enjoyed in this way.
Noodle
Dishes
There are various traditional Japanese
and introduced Japanized noodle dishes
in Japan.
Many of them
enjoy a very high
popularity.
Soba
Soba noodles are native Japanese noodles
made of buckwheat and wheat flour,
it is about as
thick
as spaghetti.
They can be served
cold or hot and with various toppings.
Udon
Udon noodles are native Japanese noodles
made of wheat flour. Udon are thicker
than soba
and can
also be served
either
hot or cold and with various toppings.
Ramen
Ramen are Chinese style noodles prepared
in a soup with various toppings.
Ramen is one
of the
many
popular dishes
that were
originally introduced from China
but have become completely Japanized
over
time.
Somen
Like Udon noodles, somen are Japanese
noodles made of wheat flour,
but they are much
thinner than
Udon and
Soba. Somen
are usually
eaten cold.
Yakisoba
Yakisoba are fried or deep fried
Chinese style noodles served
with vegetables,
meat and ginger.
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