The Japanese are a rice-cultivating people who have lived for more than 2,000 years with rice as their staple food. Accordingly, rice is Japan's most important agricultural product, and many aspects basic to Japanese culture are related to rice. Sake, rice cakes, rice crackers, and dumplings are all made from rice. On auspicious occasions, Japanese eat rice boiled together with red beans, which they also serve as an offering to divinities. Japanese bring rice balls along on picnics, and mix the rice with vinegar so that it won't spoil and make various kinds of sushi. The Japanese also used the stems from the harvested rice plants as straw to make straw sandals and straw raincoats and even as material to make thatched roofs.
The Japanese archipelago, encircled by the sea, abounds in marine products. Fish in particular is essential to the Japanese diet. Because fresh fish is easily obtainable, dishes that are eaten raw, like sashimi and sushi, are popular. In addition, grilled or boiled cooking is widespread, but steamed or fried dishes as in Western cooking, are not numerous. Fish is deeply related to Japanese culture. When a sea bream is grilled whole, it is considered good luck and is invariably served on such occasions as weddings. And lobster or prawn too is considered good luck, because, in a figurative sense, the more its tail is curved and its back bent, the longer one's life.
There are two kinds of traditional noodles; udon and soba. Udon is made of wheat flour and is widespread principally in Western Japan, including Kyoto and Osaka. Soba(buckwheat) comes from a plant relatively easy to cultivate even when the weather is cold or the soil has worn thin; the grain of this plant is made into soba flour, then kneaded, finely cut, and cooked for eating. It is relished principally in Eastern Japan, including Tokyo. Both dishes are prepared in a hot soup together with various ingredients. In summer, the noodles can be dipped in a cool broth and eaten. In recent year, a Chinese brand of noodle known as ramen, when prepared Japanese style, has rapidly permeated the Japanese sense of taste. Instant ramen in particular in only a few decades has captured the national fancy. It is now sold all over the world as a kind of "Japanese noodle soup."
Japanese cuisine usually comes with rice in rice bowls(chawan) and side dishes served on other plates. With donburi-mono, however rice is served in a porcelain bowl, larger than chawan, with various kinds of ingredients on top, and this constitutes a complete meal. Typical ingredients include Japanese fried food, pork cutlets, boiled eel, chicken, egg, and tuna sashimi. Recently in cities, shops specializing in donburi-mono have increased and their menus are rich in a variety of dishes. Shops featuring "gyu-don," which is a donburi prepared with beef have even extended their business to the United States and Europe.
Japanese culture, which can be called "a culture of harmony," places importance on harmony among friends. One cultural form for confirming harmony involves friends getting together to drink sake and eat, and nabe-ryori is appropriate for such gatherings. Soup stock and ingredients are put in a pot and heated; four or five persons sit around it, put soup and ingredients from the pot into their own bowls and eat. This enhances the bond of friendship and stimulates the discussion. There are all sorts of ingredients and soup stocks, as many flavors and ways of preparing, in fact, as there are households. Typical ingredients include fish, shellfish, a variety of vegetables and meats, and soup stocks are seasoned by soy bean paste or soy sauce.
This is a typical contemporary Japanese dish featuring beef. There was the Japanese cultural belief, following Buddhist teaching, that eating meat was traditionally considered repugnant. However, in the Meiji Period(1868-1912), when Western cooking came into Japan and eating meat ceased to be a taboo, sukiyaki became popular. Beef, vegetables and tofu are put into an iron pot, seasoned with soy sauce and sugar, heated, then dipped in a raw, beaten egg and eaten.
The name well expresses the distinctive aspect of this dish. The Japanese hear the sound of lightly swishing the very thinly sliced beef in boiling water, then taking it out, as "shabushabu." Very high-grade beef is sliced no thicker than one to two millimeters and laid out on a plate. To eat, one slice is put into the boiling water for three to four seconds until the color of the meat changes. This is then dipped into a sauce based on soy sauce or pounded sesame dressing and eaten.
This is a typical modern Japanese dish. Fish, shellfish, vegetables and the like, are dipped into the batter of wheat flour dissolved in water, fried in hot cooking oil, dipped in a special broth, and eaten. Its special characteristic is a light taste, distinct from food that is directly coated in wheat flour and fried. The ingredients are rich in their variety, and the tastiest way to eat them is on the spot while preparing them, whether at a restaurant or at home. Tenpura donburi (or ten-don) is a widely popular menu item.
A distinctive characteristic of Japanese cuisine is to enliven dishes with ingredients that are as fresh as possible. Sashimi is typical of such dishes. This is in contrast to French cuisine, for example, in which the ingredients are invariably processed. Sashimi is raw fish, cut in appropriate sizes, which are dipped in soy sauce and eaten. For this dish, how to select and cook high-quality ingredients determines the proficiency of the cook's skill.
Kaiseki refers to a heated stone that a Zen priest holds to warm the chest. Just as a small stone cannot sufficiently warm the body, neither can this cuisine, with its small amount of food, sufficiently satisfy an empty stomach. It is mainly the simple meal served before having tea, at a tea ceremony,. The art of the tea ceremony, based on the spirit of Zen Buddhism,, aims at simplicity. Accordingly, this cuisine also excludes meat and centers on a vegetable diet. However, the kaiseki ryori served at restaurants is removed from the spirit of Buddhism and, instead of simplicity, only appears to have a rivalry of flavors all the time.