Eating in Japan! :)

~~TIME FOR YUM-YUM! ~~

• Meals in the Japanese menus are one of the main reasons for my fascination for this country :). Japanese people love not only the delicate and balanced taste of food but above all the immaculate appearance of dishes. Each dish is served in the way to remind small masterpiece but also it is the custom to use only the best quality and freshest ones and take care of the ingredients. Like everything else in Japan food is treated with great respect and during the meal, it is important to remember about many rules of good behavior. However, in order to discuss Japanese food habits certainly one book wouldn't be enough.

• Today I would like to mention only a few of the hundreds of Japanese dishes. In that will help me my culinary experience from travels, previously acquired knowledge and book of inconspicuous appearance named Eating in Japan :
• It is characteristic for Japanese cuisine to  use of various types of fish and seafood. It is true that while being in Japan, you can also eat meat, but beef and poultry are relatively expensive and served in small portions, that can not satisfy the European stomach ;). For those who can not survive without meat I recommend the pork - tonkatsu, a kind of pork chops breaded, which is a cheap and popular dish. Spite of everything I am in favor of trying the local delicacies from the sea.

• It is also worth to know that in Japan there are many restaurants that specialize in only one type of food and although it is difficult to imagine today, they enjoy nondecreasing popularity. Those Japanese restaurants are marked by "ya" and so, for example, we have: Sushi-ya, a restaurant specializing in sushi, or Soba-ya, specializing in soba noodles.

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• Two soups without whose it is difficult to imagine Japan is certainly a traditional miso-shiru and ramen, which recipe came from China. Miso-shiru is a soup, eaten in Japan almost every day in addition to meals (including breakfast). It is made on the basis of the "dashi" with many other components, depending on the region and personal taste.

The second one, ramen consists of chicken soup, pasta and other ingredients depending on the recipe. Ramen differs from traditional Japanese soup that comprises meat, while traditionally in Japan you add primarily fish and vegetables.


I think that everyone ever heard of the Japanese pride, which enjoys great popularity - sushi. Sushi is composed of cooked rice, seasoned rice vinegar and various additions in the form of mostly raw: seafood, seaweed nori, pieces of fish, vegetables, mushrooms and eggs. There are many varieties of sushi among them the most popular: hosomaki, futomaki, uramaki, temaki, nigiri, chirashi, or inari. Sushi is served with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger. Here we go with some examples :

• I also decided to mention in today's post about takoyaki, teriyaki and tempura but in the near future I will continue this thread about Japanese food and I will add a few another type of meals.
  

• Takoyaki- It is prepared from dough and octopus and served in the form of balls. They are really tasty believe me! :)
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• Teriyaki- it's method of roasting or grilling meat or fish marinated in a special called tare.

• Tempura was brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in the sixteenth century. To prepare it is used among others : fish, shrimp, squid, mussels, mushrooms, vegetables. They are breaded and deep fried.

• At the end I add couple pictures of bentou - traditional Japanese lunch sets that are taken to school or work :) there will be the traditional one and the more unusual ones too, so enjoy it! :)

See you! ;)