Japanese Food

There are many different views as to what constitutes a traditional Japanese meal, or to Japanese cuisine in general. Though many people think of sushi of kaiseki, both meals that originated in Japan, most Japanese think of the everyday food of the Japanese people. This has remained quite unchanged since before World War II.
There are some food that are unique to Japan and its cuisine. Traditional Japanese food is especially dominated by white rice, and very few meals are served without it. Anything else that is served during a meal, such as meat, vegetables, pickles (tsukemono), or fish, are considered a side dish, or okazu.
Japanese meals are named for the number of side dishes that come along with the rice and soup that are almost always served. The simplest type of Japanese meal is made up of one soup and one side, or ‘iciiju-issai’. This means that rice, soup and one accompanying side dish are served. In these one dish type of Japanese meals, usually the side dish will be some type of pickled vegetables.
Interestingly, miso soup is often eaten as part of breakfast in Japan. Along with pickled vegetables and rice, this makes an entire Japanese breakfast.
It is said that the most common meal is the ichiiju-sansai, which means ‘one soup, three sides’, where each of the three sides is cooked using a different cooking technique. The three side foods are generally raw fish (sashimi), some type of simmered (sometimes translated as ‘boiled’) dish, and a grilled dish. This type of meal is traditionally finished with pickles and green tea.
This way of differentiating between foods according to how they were cooked is also seen in the way that Japanese cookbooks are organized. The chapters in Japanese cookbooks are usually broken down into groups of steamed foods, fried foods, or grilled foods, for example, and not by which ingredients are the primary ingredients in the recipe. American cookbooks generally have chapters broken up this way, into categories such as ‘beef’ or ‘chicken’. Japanese cookbooks will, similar to American and European cookbooks, have chapters for desserts, soups and salads. Japanese cookbooks will usually have a chapter for noodles as well.
There are two types of noodles that are part of traditional Japanese cuisine: udon and soba. Udon is a thick, white noodle that is made from wheat flour. Soba is made from buckwheat flour, and is a brown noodle. Both types of noodles are served in a soy flavored broth of fish with different types of vegetables. More recently, dating back to the 19th century from China, is Ramen. Ramen is served in a variety of soup stocks including fish stock or soy sauce to pork stock and/or butter.
Some dishes for special occasions include meals for the New Year celebration of Osechi, and Soba, which is New Year’s Eve. Sekihan is cooked rice with adzuki, a dish that is served at any type of celebration. On Spring equinox, Japanese people eat botamochi, which is a sticky rice dumpling with sweet azuki paste.
Being that Japan is an island, the people eat much seafood, including shellfish, fish, octopus, crab, squid, lobster, seaweed and shrimp. Though not thought of as a meat eating country, very few Japanese consider themselves to be vegetarian. Chicken and beef are regularly consumed and have become a part of everyday food in Japan.