Cooking World

As a side dish for lunch and dinner Japanese often serve a bowl of rice. This dish is also a part of the traditional breakfast in Japan. It is eaten plain, just mixed with a raw egg and soya sauce or with natto or other fillings.
Sushi can be described as a dish from sushi rice, cooked rice that is prepared with sushi vinegar. Sushi dishes can be cooked in many different ways and there are various kinds of them.
Some of the most popular toppings for most rice dishes are tempura, egg and chicken, tonkatsu and beef.
Curry Rice is cooked rice with a curry sauce. Curry Rice or Kare Raisu is a very popular and inexpensive dish.
Fried rice or chahan has come to Japan from China. A many various additional ingredients such as peas, egg, Japanese leek and small pieces of carrot and pork are mixed with the rice when fried.
Chazuke is a bowl of cooked rice with green tea and other ingredients, such as salmon or cod roe added to it.

For the long Japanese history rice has been the most important food stuff in the national cuisine. Though in recent years rice eating patterns has changed and rice consumption decreased, all the same it remains one of the most important ingredients and can be met in many dishes.
Sticky, short-grained rice is actually the main food in Japan. Raw rice is called kome. There are several thousand varieties of rice grown in Japan, and Koshihikari and Akita Komachi are the most popular. This cereal also is used to make Japanese rice cakes mochi, rice crackers senbei and rice wine, known in the world as sake. Rice can also be cooked with sekihan, which is red beans, seafood and vegetables or as a kind of watery porridge with kayu salt which is also well-known, as a cold remedy.
Onigiri are rice balls made of cooked rice and usually wrapped with nori seaweed. They are a little salted and often contain some additional fillings in the center: it may be pickled Japanese apricot, dried bonito shavings, or seafood as tuna or salmon. This dish is popular and inexpensive snack, which can be bought almost in any convenience store.

Noodle dishes are very popular in Japan. But besides many traditional Japanese dishes, there are a lot of dishes which came from different world cuisines.
Among traditionally native dishes from noodles Soba noodles are one of the most popular. This dish is made of buckwheat and wheat flour. Soba are almost as thick as spaghetti. This tasty noodles can be served both cold and hot and with various toppings.
Udon noodles are also popular native Japanese noodles cooked from wheat flour. These ones are thicker than the first ones and can also be served either hot or cold and with various toppings.
Ramen noodles came from China and are cooked in a soup with various toppings. These noodles are one of that many popular dishes that came once from China but have become completely Japanized in the course of time.
Somen are very similar to Udon noodles, they are also cooked from wheat flour, but are much thinner than Udon and Soba. This dish is, as a rule, served cold.
Some noodles, as for example, Chinese style Yakisoba, are fried or deep fried and served with vegetables, meat and ginger.

Japanese hot pot dishes, also known as Nabe dishes. The common ingredients are vegetables: Japanese leek and Chinese cabbage, various mushrooms, and seafood or meat according to preferences. There is a great deal of varieties, depending on the region. Besides, this dish is mostly popular during the cold months in winter.
The most popular among hot pot dishes are the fallowing:

- A dish created from various fish cakes, daikon, boiled eggs, seaweed. These ingredients are boiled for many hours in a soya sauce based soup.
- A hot pot dish prepared with thinly chopped meat, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu and konyaku noodles. Before serving the pieces of food are dropped into a raw egg.
- Shabu-shabu is Japanese made variety of meat fondue. Thinly sliced pieces of meat, vegetables, mushrooms and tofu are dropped into a hot soup and after that into ponzu vinegar or a sesame sauce.
- Chanko nabe is the main food of sumo wrestlers. This dish has many varieties. A few restaurants which offer chanko nabe can be found in Ryogoku, the sumo district in Tokyo.

Meat was not typical for Japanese cuisine and became common only since the second half of the 19th century. Today there are great many varieties of Japanese meat dishes.

Yakitori are grilled chicken pieces on spits. Most parts of the chicken can be used for this dish.
Tonkatsu are well fried pork cutlets. This dish is usually served with shredded cabbage or together with cooked rice.
One more popular home made dish made of meat and potatoes is called Nikujaga.

Well-known Japanese dishes tofu, natto, miso and some more important ingredients of national cooking are made of soya beans.
Here are some of the most popular soya bean dishes:

Yudofu are tofu pieces boiled in a clear, mild soup and dipped into a soya based sauce before serving.
Agedashi Tofu is a dish made of deep fried tofu pieces that are dipped into a soya sauce also before serving.
Miso soup is a dish, which is often served as an additional dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is cooked by dissolving miso paste in hot water and adding additional ingredients, for example, wakame seaweed and small pieces of tofu.

The strange world Yoshoku means just western food. A lot of different western dishes have penetrated in Japanese cuisine over the centuries. Some of them have already become completely Japanized, and turned into dishes, which are now known in Japan, as Yoshoku dishes.
The most popular of them are the fallowing:
Korokke - originates from the croquettes which got to Japan in the 19th century. Korokke has many varieties depending on the filling that is coated with bread crumbs and deep fried. The most common Japanese filling is a mixture of minced meat and mashed potatoes.
Omuraisu (which is abbreviation for omelet rice) is cooked rice, which is wrapped in a thin omelet. It is usually served with tomato ketchup.
Hayashi rice is hashed beef cooked in Japanese style. Thinly sliced beef and onions in a sauce prepared from ketchup and soya sauce, and served on cooked rice.
Japanese style hamburger, cooked without the bread, is called Hamubagu.

The Norway Lobster, also known as langoustine, has for a long time become one of the most valuable seafood products, which can be found in most northern coast countries and Scotland as well.
This seafood is very popular since the 19th century in most coast countries, but only beginning from 1950s it became important commercially.
Despite of high prices for this gourmet dish, lobsters are exported worldwide, but recently they have been more appreciated by Scottish chefs and customers. Some luxury Highland hotels and restaurants now came to an agreement with local fishermen to buy the entire catch directly from the boats.
This seafood is frequently sold live, frozen or already processed, but the best way to buy is to get them fresh from April through November. Cooked from raw they only need to be boiled for a few minutes as overcooking destroys their texture and flavor. As many other seafood, they can be grilled with oil and garlic or served cold in a salad with delicious mayonnaise.

The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L), which is also called as the ‘king of fish’, has long been known as a culinary delicacy.
Trout is a variety of the freshwater salmon and has two main breeds – rainbow and brown.
The growth of world fish farming has caused a lot of disputes. There is concern that this industry can became harmful to wild stocks because it can encourage parasites and may be a source of pollutants.
Although many would say that farmed fish have different flavor as their wild relatives, it is an important industry and last year Scotland, for example, exported more than 12 million salmon to 60 countries all over the world.
Salmon and trout are highly nutritious products, which containing the essential omega-3 fatty acids, protein, vitamins and minerals necessary for our health. Scientists have found out that consumption of oil-rich fish helps to maintain a healthy heart, reduce blood pressure and improve skin vitality.
Although this fish can be frozen, it taste best and don’t need a lot of cooking. They are nice when pan-fried, poached, grilled, oven cooked or barbecued with herbs and lemon juice (as any other fish). Smoked salmon and trout are also popular as an entree, it is served with brown bread and butter and a slice of lemon.

Lobsters are relatively divided into three species – American, European and Norway and each of them are esteemed for their gourmet flavor. The American lobster can be found only near the east coast of North America, while two others are fished round British waters, as well as other European countries.
Crustaceans, lobsters have a hard shell of dark green color in the living animal, which became bright red when boiled. They grow by forming a new shell - larger one in place of the previous small one. When young they moult frequently, but when they become adult, they settle on the seabed and shed their shells only every one or two years.
European lobster needs five years to reach an average weight of 3lb but they can live up to 15 years. They can also grow to bout 10lb, but are tastiest between 1lb and 3lb.
Lobster is a low-fat, low-calorie and low-cholesterol food which is delicious enjoyed fresh from harbors and restaurants around all littoral towns.

Tempura is a dish consisting of seafood, vegetables, mushrooms and other pieces of food covered with tempura batter and thoroughly fried. This feeding dish was brought to Japan by the Portuguese in far 16th century, but now is known as one of Japan’s most famous dishes.
Okonomiyaki is something between pizza and pancake. Various ingredients, including seafood, vegetables and meat are mixed with the dough and put on the okonomiyaki as topping.
Monjayaki is peculiar to Kanto region but is very similar to Okonomiyaki. In this dish, as distinct from okonomiyaki, dough is much more liquid.
Gyoza are dumplings with minced vegetables and ground meat. This dish came to Japan from China, but in Japan gyoza are as a rule cooked by frying them.
Another favorite dish, which includes egg custard with additional pieces of chicken, shrimp or fish cake is known as Chawanmushi.
Tsukemono are Japanese pickles. There are a lot of different pickles, which are served with most Japanese meals in a small dish.