Japanese food is without doubt some of the best in the world. Tokyo is the gastronomic capital, and with more than 200,000 restaurants in the city, the competition is high: as a result the city has been rewarded with more Michelin Stars than Paris, London and New York together!
Food you can enjoy on these tours:
Dining at an izakaya is a cross between a sit-down dinner and a night at the pub. An extensive menu will offer anything from sashimi to tempura, yakitori to tofu, sometimes even pizza. Nothing really constitutes a full meal - the idea is to snack away while drinking.
Once the drinking is over, one might order a rice dish to fill up on or go elsewhere for a bowl of ramen and a final beer for the night. If you go to a larger, chain izakaya, all your options will be laid out for you on a large, full colour, laminated menu several pages long.
Drinks too will run the full range from beer and sake to shochu cocktails and soft drinks. Small, family run izakaya, marked out by their red lanterns bearing the Chinese character for “alcohol” are like a home away from home for their regulars.
Izakaya feature many types of food including barbeque, nabe (hot pot), Korean or regional foods, rare beers and sake, and some provide a karaoke room, so the choices are endless.
In Japan, if you are looking for a place to drink cheaply or a space to have a good time with a large group, izakaya (Japanese style bars) with nomihodai (all you can drink services) are usually the best places to go.
Students, co-workers, and friends get together and divide the expenses. The group is usually given a time period ranging from ninety minutes to two hours in which to drink all the beers, cocktails, sours, shochu (distilled spirit), sake, wine and soft drinks they like. The quality and selection of the drinks differ depending on which type of nomihodai you choose and either full course meals or individual side dishes can accompany your drinks.
Of all the foods associated with Japan, sushi must be the most famous -- and indeed the most notorious. For many, the idea of eating uncooked fish is an impassable barrier but anyone with even the slightest sense of culinary adventure should certainly not miss out.
When one goes out for sushi that usually means nigiri-sushi, slices of raw fish pressed in the hand onto bite-sized pads of rice. But there are kinds of
nigiri-sushi that are made with cooked ingredients such as shrimp, eel and egg as well as other kinds of sushi than nigiri sushi.
Sashimi is simply raw fish served on its own as one part of a meal of other dishes. The word sushi actually refers to the seasoned rice that forms the base of these dishes and not the toppings, raw fish or otherwise.
Sashimi pieces are dipped into soya sauce before they are eaten. Depending on the kind of sashimi, wasabi or ground ginger is usually mixed into the soya sauce.
Any true gourmet visiting Japan should not miss out on a kaiseki meal. Kaiseki is the height of Japanese cuisine combining an appreciation for the changing seasons with true artistry.
One meal can consist of as many as 15 different courses, featuring sashimi, tempura, fish and meat dishes and tofu prepared in diverse traditional styles and designed to please all the senses.
The variety of seasonal ingredients subtly enhanced by delicate seasonings and exquisite presentation and beauty elevates the kaiseki dining experience to a sublime journey through Japanese culinary tradition.
Everything, down to the timing of each course and the choice of ceramics, is planned to perfection for the complete dining experience.
Nagoya is well known for its distinct food culture with hatcho miso (a soybean paste unique to the area) based dishes being the most representative of Nagoya cuisine.
Miso-katsu, which is tonkatsu (breaded deep-fried pork cutlet) eaten with a thick miso-based sauce is perhaps the most well known, and miso-nikomi udon, a hot pot dish with thick noodles is another favorite miso dish.
Others include hitsumabushi, a dish with charcoal-broiled eel over white rice and soaked with dashi (soup stock); and kishimen, thick flat noodles similar to udon served hot or cold in a mild soy sauce based soup.
If you had to compare it to something, you might say okonomiyaki is a cross between a pizza, a pancake and an omelette. Essentially its batter, egg, vegetables and trimmings formed into a thick patty and spread with a thick brown sauce.
Aim for crisp and browned on the outside while still soft on the inside. Okonomiyaki literally means, "cook what you like" and just about anything goes with these, dashi seasoned patties.
Get a mikkusu (mixed okonomiyaki) for a bit of everything. There are two places in Japan where okonomiyaki should certainly not be missed. Osaka is the home of okonomiyaki. Here, all the ingredients are mixed into the seasoned batter and spread onto the hotplate to cook together.
According to most historians, tempura has its origins in the arrival of Portuguese traders and missionaries in the 17th century. Tempura is now a Japanese culinary institution to rival sushi in fame and popularity.
The basic principle is fresh ingredients coated in batter and fried and eaten quickly. Popular vegetables for tempura include eggplant, bell pepper, pumpkin, onion and perilla leaf.
Also served are giant shrimp and sea eel. The best tempura is made with a light, airy batter and is cut artfully for both attractiveness and quick cooking.
At a specialist tempura restaurant it’s best to sit at the counter so that the chef can serve his heavenly creations straight into your plate.
In fact, the word tempura is often written with the Chinese character for “heaven”.Tempura is often served alongside soba and udon dishes as well as on top of rice as tempura donburi (ten-don).
Derived from the words teppan, meaning iron plate, and yaku, which means to grill, teppanyaki is a type of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook various meats, seafood, vegetables, and noodles eaten with various dipping sauces. Teppanyaki restaurants can range from ones that serve Kobe beef steaks to okonomiyaki (pan-fried batter cakes).
