One of the most popular washoku dishes — among Japanese and foreigners alike — is tempura. Diners seem to enjoy delicately batter-fried shrimp or fish and the dozens of vegetable combinations. This is not surprising. In many cuisines fried foods stand out as some of ...
There are really two kinds of restaurants. There are those that people go to only in order to eat, and then there are those that people go to for the purpose of drinking and socializing. Regardless of the type of restaurant, however, there's always sakana ...
Not too long ago I had a chance to shrink a gap in cultural understanding. A regular customer had brought his young grandchild in to eat one afternoon, and he was eager to have the talkative boy engage me in conversation. The exchange was mostly ...
In empty lots close to the piers of small fishing towns, up and down the coast of Japan, stand huge drying racks, hung heavy with the gutted, cleaned and butterflied morning catch. Empty, these racks look like a fantastical gymnastic apparatus. Fully laden, they ...
An expertly grilled fish stands out as one of the simplest to prepare — and most satisfying — dishes to complement crisp tsukemono pickles, a comforting bowl of miso soup and the staple of steaming hot rice. There are many incarnations of grilled fish ...
When we first eat outside of the family kitchen, we realize that there is a whole different world of flavors out there. Most of the time, however, the flavors we end up longing for are the comforting tastes of the hearth that nurtured us. ...
In a traditional Japanese restaurant's kitchen, the head chef — the oya-kata, literally the boss — wields the knife and rules the cutting board. He watches and directs each phase of food preparation, beginning with the early-morning procurement of fish. Standing close to the ...
Even after several years apprenticing in professional Japanese kitchens, I feel inadequate when it comes to slicing raw fish for presentation. This possibly comes from an intimate knowledge of the expertise of my mentors — though even my most astute customers may not notice ...
The o-tsukuri course in a traditional Japanese meal generally consists of the freshest seasonal fish available, served raw and unfettered. Standard sashimi fish include tai (sea bream), hirame (flounder) and maguro (tuna). There are, however, some fish that are rarely served raw, for one ...
After the hors d'oeuvre course is served, the first dish presented in a traditional Japanese meal is most often a course of raw fish or other meat. The general term for this course is o-tsukuri. The root of the word, tsukuru, means to make, ...
