According to CNN Travel, Japanese cuisine is among the world’s 10 best cuisines. It has diverse foods, including contemporary and traditional recipes. You’ll find everything from seafood to vegetarian cuisine. Japanese foods are healthy, which is one of the primary reasons you should try it. It’s created on a balancing concept, and the chefs enjoy using top-quality, fresh, and seasonal ingredients to prepare every meal meticulously. Japanese food is unique and mirrors the nation’s culture, geography, and history, creating healthy, tasty, and balanced meals.

Washoku, traditional Japanese food, is accepted as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is another reason to try it. This cuisine blends side dishes or okazu (rice accompaniments) prepared with seasonal veggies and fish with soup, pickles, and white rice (tsukemono). Washoku has four features and consists of traditional Japanese cuisine, including sushi, unagi, udon, soba, kaiseki ryori, and more. Here are seven popular Japanese foods you should try.

Ramen

Sampling ramen should be on your bucket list when visiting Japan. This dish is originally from China and combines food and culture, resulting in various rich ramen recipes. Ramen consists of wheat noodle soup prepared using pungent broth and different ingredients used as toppings. This soup can be cold or hot, fish/ meat or spicy, vegetarian, and more. Ramen soup comprises dashi (broth/ stock), tare (seasoning/ sauce), and koumi-abura (flavor oil). The noodles have salt, wheat flour, and kansui (alkaline mineral water).

A ramen bowl is incomplete without toppings. Nori, tamago, chaashuu, negi, menma, moyashi, horenso, and Naruto are common toppings you can try. There are ramen types you can explore, like Tokyo ramen, Sapporo ramen, Hakata ramen, Kyoto ramen, Kumamoto ramen, Hakodate ramen, Asahikawa ramen, and Kitakata ramen. You can order ramen from a Japanese food store online, or restaurants.

Yakitori

Yakitori is grilled chicken consisting of bite-sized meat pieces from different chicken parts, including thighs, breasts, liver, skin, and more, and is normally served on bamboo skewers. It’s a popular, affordable dish commonly enjoyed with Japanese beer/ sake. You can find the best yakitori in specialty restaurants called yakitori-ya. It can also be found in different restaurant types in Japan, like izakaya. Negima, momo, torikawa, tsukune, tebasaki, nankotsu, and reba are popular yakitori types you can try. This dish can be a simple or street food meal in Japan.

In many yakitori restaurants, you may also find non-chicken skewers, including shiitake mushrooms, shishito peppers, enoki mushrooms, or cherry tomatoes wrapped in bacon. Yakitori is cooked to order and served from the grill. Ordering them in small batches instead of one large order would be best. When ordering yakitori, you can decide if your skewers should be seasoned with tare (a sweet, savory yakitori sauce) or shio (salt).

Tempura

Tempura, a famous Japanese meal, is a dish where food, often vegetables, sushi, or seafood, is lightly battered and then deep fried to make a light and crispy coating. The batter consists of ice water, flour, and egg. The end tempura product significantly depends on the batter you pick, seasoning added, oil quality, and the uniqueness, succulence, and freshness of the seafood (shrimps, scallops, crabs, prawns, eels, and squid) or vegetables (mushrooms, green beans, lotus roots, sweet potatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, and onions) used.

The ingredients you can tempura-fry are limitless. Nonetheless, you can find specific foods in Japanese cuisine which you can try, including tempura sushi, vegetable tempura, shrimp tempura, and chicken tempura. This food teaches you much about Japanese culture and is nutritionally complete alone, so you should try it.

Sashimi

Sashimi, a traditional Japanese delicacy showcasing delicate slices of raw seafood or fish, is meticulously crafted precisely. Typically, sushi-grade fish is the foundation of this dish, ensuring it’s free from parasites. To attain this, the fish is frozen. Once prepared, sashimi is elegantly presented, accompanied by the flavors of wasabi, pickled ginger, and soy sauce. A diverse array of fish varieties lends itself to sashimi’s versatility, with options ranging from salmon, tuna, snapper, and halibut to yellowtail and snipper. Furthermore, this delectable dish can incorporate the richness of lobster, shrimp, and other shellfish. When indulging in sashimi, freshness, firmness, and vibrant color are paramount attributes of the fish. While often a revered appetizer in traditional Japanese cuisine, sashimi effortlessly transitions into a delightful snack or light meal. Much like the process of how to thaw frozen fish, savoring sashimi underscores the importance of meticulous care.

Sashimi is quite healthy because it’s low in fat and calories. In addition, it’s an excellent omega-3 fatty acids and protein source. Sashimi also contains minerals and vitamins, like selenium, vitamin B12, and iodine. If not properly prepared, sashimi can be dangerous to consume because the fish in it should be quite fresh, and the presence of any toxins or bacteria can potentially make you sick.

Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu, a Japanese dish, is a fish cutlet coated in flaky breadcrumbs (panko) and then deep fried. Rosu-katsu (pork roast) and hire-katsu (pork filet) are the two significant pork cuts used for this dish. Rosu-katsu is juicier than hire-katsu as it has marbled fat layers. In contrast to rosu-katsu, which uses a more decadent pork cut with a fat stripe on the side, hire-katsu uses lean pork tenderloin. Since the two cuts are tasty, your choice depends on personal preference.

Tonkatsu is served with a thick, hot yellow mustard tonkatsu sauce with a sweet, tangy flavor. This meal is enjoyed in a set meal (teishoku) featuring soup, rice, Japanese-style pickles, raw shredded cabbage, and a slice of pork cutlet. It’s a standard offering for takeaway bento meals sold at bento shops and supermarkets. Tonkatsu is a popular option for hamburger beef patties in Japan.

Sushi

Sushi is a popular Japanese dish that’s delicious, healthy, and can suit any budget. It consists of vinegar, fish, and cooked rice. While the standard sushi rolls use raw fish, you can also find vegetarian options. You can enjoy sushi as a main course or appetizer. You can try various types of sushi, including nigiri sushi, makizushi, gun-kan-maki, temaki-sushi, inarizushi, chirashizushi, inarizushi, and oshi-zushi. Sushi can be eaten with shoga, wasabi, or soy sauce.

Soba

Soba is a popular Japanese noodle dish with a grainy texture and nutty flavor, making it perfect for simple dressings and mild broths. Soba noodles are a signature noodle of Tokyo’s northeast region. They can be served cold or hot. Zaru/moru soba, kake soba, tanuki soba, kitsune soba, tempura soba, tororo soba, tsukimi soba, nanban soba, and sansai soba are soba types you can try.

Endnote

Japan has many diverse cuisines every tourist or visitor should have on their bucket list. Familiarize yourself with these popular Japanese foods you should try.