Japan is an island with the great diversity of
culinary pleasure. In order to shed a light on under-valued delicacies overshadowed by sushi and sashimi, we carefully picked out ten lesser-known Japanese
cuisines that you should never leave the island without trying. Japan have far
more just sushi and sashimi.
1. Ramen
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| wikipedia |
If you think of cheap instant noodles stacked
up at super markets nearby your house, you are wrong big time. This Japan’s
favorite late night soup comes in three major soup styles: tonkotsu (pork
bone), miso and soy sauce. Ramen is so popular in Japan Japanese even made this
delicacy into numerous movies.
2. Unadon
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| wikipedia |
Unadon is grilled river eel over a bowl of
rice. It might not sound so special, but the combination of rice and river eel
lacquered with a sweet barbecue sauce is just amazing. In Japan, some Unadon
restaurants have their own special dipping sauce recipe and tirelessly developed
and passed down for generations. If you want to taste the ultimate taste of
Unadon, go to Ginza and Asakusa in Tokyo.
3. Yakidori
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| flickr |
Pints of beer and a few skewers of Yakidori
have become a Japanese ritual to celebrate their weekend after exhausting
battles during the week. Japanese grill almost every part of Chicken including
hearts and kidneys, and they go really well with beer.
4. Onigiri
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| wikipedia |
This simple rice ball filled with all sorts
of foods used to be samurai’s meal on the battle field. Despite its simple appearance
that seemingly lacks creativity, depending on what’s inside, Onigiri offers
whole lots of different flavors.
5. Oden
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| flickr |
Oden is similar to the taste of fish ball,
and it comes with dash broth stew cooked with many different vegetables and
meat. Thanks to its hot and tasty soup, it gets supper popular every winter.
This representative Japanese’ winter dish is so popular you could even get it
from any convenience store. Hot oden soup and Sake are remedy for the cold
winter night of Japan.
6. Soba
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| flickr |
Soba - buckwheat noodles in a soy sauce-flavored
broth – is definitely one of the must eat Japanese cuisines. Try cold soba
during the intolerably humid and hot summer of Japan, it will surly sweep away
your heat.
7. Shabu-Shabu
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| wikipedia |
Shabu-shabu is the Japanese style hotpot
served with broth and thinly sliced meat. Although you might get puzzled by a
big pot of plain broth and plate of raw meat on it, all you have to do is to
pick a slice of meat and swish around in a bubbling broth.
8. Okonomiyaki
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| flickr |
Okonomiyaki means “grill as you want” in
Japanese. As the pancake’s name implies, this comfort pancake
can be cooked with pretty much anything, typically with cabbage and pork. No matter
what you use for cooking, Worcester-style sauce, mayonnaise and fish flakes
will guarantee somehow authentic taste.
9. Kaiseki
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| wikipedia |
Kaiseki refers to a certain style of meal,
not a name or type of cuisine, and dishes included in Kaiseki vary depending on every season. This ultimate symbol of Japanese multi course cuisine actually
started as a tea ceremony meal. Most ryokans offer Kaiseki, and it is a
critical factor that decides the quality of ryokans (traditional Japanese style
inns).
10. Takoyaki
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| wikipedia |
There is no such dish quite like this
octopus balls. In Japan there are countless places solely specialized in this
bread balls with bits of octopus and green onion. It goes down well with beer.
Written by Shibasaki Tabong
Over-sized Japanese cook is an epicure who loves to eat all sorts of Asian foods. He used to own a restaurant in Osaka, but his great passion for Asian food made him leave his homeland and travel around Asia.
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