Does Japanese food = sushi to you? Here are 5 other delicious and distinctly Japanese dishes to tempt your tastebuds:
Yakitori
Yakitori, meaning “grilled chicken,” is bite-sized pieces of chicken meat skewered on bamboo or metal “kushi” skewers and grilled over a charcoal flame before being seasoned with salt or Japanese “tare” sauce (and sometimes miso and other dressings) and served to diners. Other meats and vegetables are also used, in which case the dish becomes known as “kushiyaki”. Popular yakitori ingredients are chicken thigh meat (momo), chicken and green onions (negima), chicken meatballs (tsukune), chicken skin (tori kawa), chicken wings (tebasaki), all white chicken meat (toriniku) and chicken breast meat (yotsumi). Popular non-poultry items include pork back ribs (butabara), thinly sliced beef tongue (gyutan), Japanese scallions (ikada), mushrooms wrapped in sliced pork meat (enoki maki), bacon wrapped asparagus (asparabekon) and much more. Yakitori is sold out of specialty shops (that are usually small with limited or no seating), carts or vans, and at festival food stalls (“yatai" in Japanese). Yakitori is also on the menu of many izakaya restaurants across the country. This tasty meal is also fairly inexpensive and therefore a favorite of locals and travelers alike.
Oden
Oden is a Japanese wintertime dish consisting of a variety of ingredients that have been simmered in broth for many hours, such as vegetables, boiled eggs, jellied konjac (devil’s tongue root), and processed fishcakes, all served in the soy based “dashi” broth that it was cooked in. It’s a common sight at Japanese convenience stores across the country during the colder months. It is also sold at dedicated oden stores. Oden ingredients are sold individually allowing customers to make the oden bowl of their choice. Convenience store oden ingredients range in price from ¥75 (~$0.75) to ¥280 (~$2.80) each. Different regions of Japan offer their own unique variation of oden ingredients but whatever the version it’s guaranteed to be tasty, filling and wallet friendly.
Donburi
Donburi is stir-fried, steamed or simmered (or in the instance of some fish, raw) meat, poultry, cooked fish, and vegetables served over rice in an oversized bowl. Donburi sauces and dressings can be both sweet and savory and vary by season and region. Popular donburi dishes include gyudon (stir fried beef over rice), butadon (stir-fried pork over rice), unadon (fresh water eel in a special sauce over rice), katsudon (deep fried pork cutlet over rice), tendon (assorted tempura over rice), the slightly morbid oyakodon (meaning parent and child [chicken and egg over rice]), and a whole lot more. Whatever variety you choose donburi is a satisfying and filling meal.
Shabu-shabu
The word “shabu-shabu” is an onomatopoeia describing the sound of ingredients being stirred in a pot of boiling water or broth. Diners at shabu-shabu restaurants are served thinly sliced meats and vegetables that they cook briefly in a shared pot or pots of broth, seasoned in a variety of ways. Diners are also offered various sauces and condiments, such as ponzu citrus-vinegar or goma (sesame seed) sauce before eating their shabu-shabu. Once the majority of the main ingredients are gone the restaurant will generally provide a closer or “shime” in the form of rice or noodles to sop up the remaining soup broth the meat and vegetables were cooked in. Shabu-shabu is a more upmarket meal which, ingredient dependent, can become pricey but the taste and the experience make it well worth investing the extra coin.
Teppanyaki
Teppanyaki is a style of cuisine in which food is cooked on an iron griddle. While this can include dishes like yakisoba noodles and okonomiyaki pancakes, the finest teppanyaki restaurants (Japanese steak houses) serve high quality ingredients like Kobe beef, fresh seafood and vegetables. At specialty restaurants, known as “live kitchens,” the chefs will make an impressive show of cooking diners’ meals. This dinner and a show comes at a premium but the quality of the food and the fun of the show will leave everyone in your group satisfied.
Works consulted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakitori http://www.gnavi.co.jp/en/articles/japanese_cuisine/yakitori/ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2015/02/20/people/chicken-one-day-doesnt-mean-feathers-on-the-next/#.WAnTZdx6-CQ http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2036.html http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/yakitori https://migrationology.com/yakitori-tonton-yurakucho-tokyo/ https://migrationology.com/japanese-yakitori-memory-lane-piss-alley/ http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/09/05/a-diners-guide-to-oden-japans-weird-looking-super-popular-winter-dish/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oden http://www.sej.co.jp/i/products/allergy/oden/?pagenum=0&page=1&sort=f&limit=15 (Japanese) http://www.circleksunkus.jp/product/oden/ (Japanese) http://www.family.co.jp/goods/ff/oden/ (Japanese) http://www.lawson.co.jp/recommend/original/oden/ (Japanese) http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2342.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donburi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu Ishige (2014-06-17). History Of Japanese Food. Routledge. ISBN 9781136602559. https://www.zagat.com/b/youre-eating-it-wrong-shabu-shabu https://matcha-jp.com/en/1303 https://savorjapan.com/column/cuisine/shabu-shabu/how-to-eat-shabu-shabu-a-guide-to-japanese-hot-pot-heaven/ http://ron-of-japan.com/teppan-yaki-background-cuisine-style.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teppanyaki https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%89%84%E6%9D%BF%E7%84%BC%E3%81%8D (Japanese)
Photo credits:
Shabu-shabu Table.” This Wikipedia creative commons image is from user jimg944 and is freely available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shabu-shabu-01.jpg under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License.
“Kani-shabu in Hokkaido.” This Flickr creative commons image is from user w00kie and is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/w00kie/430031108 under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License.
“Shabu-shabu Setting.” This Flickr creative commons image is from user Amanderson2 and is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/amanderson/14780894910 under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License.
“Teppanyaki Steak Plate.” This Flickr creative commons image is from user Katherine Lim and is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/ultrakml/20784884585 under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License.
“Teppanyaki Chef Preparing Steak.” This Flickr creative commons image is from user Mari and is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/birdies-perch/5142956743 under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License.
“Fiery Teppanyaki Show.” This Flickr creative commons image is from user Giorgio Minguzzi and is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/iz4aks/4890269006 under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 License.