Japanese Foods - A Combination of Art, Taste, and Health

Here is my thoughts about Japanese Food.

Yeah, Japanese foods even have a soul. Do you believe that eating a bowl of ramen can influence your mood? In making ramen, a chef's emotion will transform into the food taste. When a chef is sad, people who eat ramen the chef made, will be sad, too. That is why people said Japanese foods have a soul.

Japanese foods are beautiful, that is why you are suggested to enjoy them with your eyes first, before starting to distribute them to your stomach. The colors arrangement in the dishes you enjoy is based on the colors of four seasons. This is the only way to feel Japan's seasons without going there!

Japanese people call it a harmony, which is born from Japanese enjoyment of artistic sense and beauty. Through Japanese foods, you can feel the cherry blossoms bloom in spring, the colorful leaves in fall season, and the warmth of the sun in summer. Find tuna, herring, and bamboo shoots in summer, or chestnuts and matsuake mushroom in autumn. They are not only good in your eyes, but also good for your health!

According to some results of a research, Japanese people have lower rates of heart disease than most other countries. They are also have longer age! Many Japanese people can reach more than 100 years of age, and they can even work normally as the young. The secret may be their diet. There is no doubt to say Japanese cuisines are one of the healthiest in the world!

Japanese foods and Japanese restaurants have been spread all over the world, and they are so famous. You may be eating a bowl of soba and miso, having sushi, or enjoying a cup of green tea right now. Here is some important information about the content of Japanese food ingredients you should read!


SEAWEED - It is divided into three kinds: nori, wakame, and konbu. You can find seaweed in sushi and onigiri. It is in a form of dark green sheets, so it is usually used to wrap those dishes. Seaweed contains high minerals, vitamins A, C, B12, and protein.

GINGER - This highly aromatic root is usually added to heat the soups, stir fries and sushi. Ginger has many benefits. It can lower cholesterol, prevent arthritis, and help those who have risk of blood clots since it contains a compound which is able to stop platelets sticking together.

FISH - We are suggested to eat two portions of oily fish per week. The Omega 3 contained in oily fish is so beneficial for heart health. Sushi has many various, and some various made of fish. That is why Japanese people live longer. Consuming fish makes their heart healthy. A study done by Akira Skikawa shows that the Japanese live in Japan have 45% Omega 3 in the bloodstream than the Japanese who live in other countries. Their bloodstream even has 80% more omega oils than Americans'! Eating fish daily can also improve brain function. See how old aged-Japanese can do anything well as the young ones.

TOFU - It is known as an ideal food for those who are in meatless diet. It contains low fat and high protein. The soft taste of tofu is delicious, versatile, and inexpensive! It is even cholesterol free, so it will be good for your heart. Tofu is also rich of calcium, which is helpful in preventing accelerated bone loss, such as in menopause.

SHITAKE MUSHROOM - For more than 6000 years, shiitake mushrooms are used as medicine. No need to doubt the function of adding shitake to your dishes! Get delicious taste of shitake mushrooms, and let them invigorate your immune system and fight illnesses. They are rich of antioxidant!

GREEN TEA - Have a cup of green tea in your leisure time, or put it on your work desk. Green tea can help you prevent cancer cells forming. It can also decrease the cholesterol levels in your blood. Consuming green tea will lower the risk of heart disease and stroke.

 Now, what are you waiting for? Go to Japanese restaurant, order some foods, enjoy the beautiful serving, and get the benefits!

How To Make Unique Japanese Food

This is a guide of how to make Japanese Food.

 

Food is a necessity, hence every human being includes eating in his routine. Therefore, it is very important that people apply some creativity in food-making. An option could be having unique Japanese food on the table.
 
There are many cookbooks and online recipes which should guide anybody from a seasoned homemaker to a clueless cook on how to prepare unique Japanese food. A little internet research, compilation of some recipe clippings from magazines, exposure to cooking shows should help in one's search for new food options.
In cooking Japanese food however, it must be noted that ingredients required, may not probably something readily stocked in one's kitchen cupboards. Most probably, a recipe may require a visit to the Asian grocery store or Japanese deli in your area. It may require a little more effort than usual, but the end-product should be surely satisfying to all senses.

After all, Japanese foods are usually filling - with the use of rice, wheat or egg noodles as food base. Incidentally, Japanese foods require careful and meticulous preparation as it is a Japanese cultural practice to give attention to details. Since food is treated as some form of "art," it is most likely that apart from it satisfying the taste buds, it should also definitely please the sight.
Some of the unique Japanese foods one may enjoy include ingredients such as eel or unagi, Japanese green beans or edamame, amongst many others. There are also distinctive cooking methods applied, such as in shabu-shabu (boiling in pot) for thin sliced beef; okonomiyaki (frying) for any ingredient with unsweetened batter; kushi-age (deep-frying) for most seafood and vegetables; and, kushi-yaki (grilled) for fish, shellfish or vegetables.

Nabe or steaming pot cooking is very favored during cold or winter season.

Are you looking to cook delicious Japanese foods? We can show you every step you need to follow to cook over 108 top Japanese recipes! Save money and cook amazing Japanese food, go to http://www.JapaneseCookingDIY.com now!

 

 

About the most popular Japanese Food - Sushi

Some useful facts about Sushi.


The original type of sushi, known today as nare-zushi (馴れ寿司, 熟寿司), was first developed in Southeast Asia, and spread to south China before introduction to Japan.The term sushi comes from an archaic grammatical form no longer used in other contexts; literally, sushi means "sour-tasting", a reflection of its historic fermented roots. The oldest form of sushi in Japan, narezushi, still very closely resembles this process, wherein fish is fermented via being wrapped in soured fermenting rice. The fish proteins break down via fermentation into its constituent amino acids. This results in a sour taste and also one of the five basic tastes, called umami in Japanese.In Japan, narezushi evolved into oshizushi and ultimately Edomae nigirizushi, which is what the world today knows as "sushi".

^{Ingredient of Sushi :}


All sushi has a base of specially prepared rice, complemented with other ingredients.

Shari

Shari is a preparation of white, short-grained, Japanese rice mixed with a dressing consisting of rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and occasionally kombu and sake. It has to be cooled to room temperature before being used for a filling in a sushi or else it will get too sticky while being seasoned. Traditionally, the mixing is done with a hangiri, which is a round, flat-bottom wooden tub or barrel, and a wooden paddle (shamoji).

Sushi rice is prepared with short-grain Japanese rice, which has a consistency that differs from long-grain strains such as those from India, Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The essential quality is its stickiness or glutinousness. Freshly harvested rice (shinmai) typically contains too much water, and requires extra time to drain the rice cooker after washing. In some fusion cuisine restaurants, short grain brown rice and wild rice are also used.
There are regional variations in sushi rice and, of course, individual chefs have their individual methods. Most of the variations are in the rice vinegar dressing: the Kanto region (or East Japan) version of the dressing commonly uses more salt; in Kansai region (or West Japan), the dressing has more sugar.

Nori

The black seaweed wrappers used in makimono are called nori. Nori is a type of algae, traditionally cultivated in the harbors of Japan. Originally, algae was scraped from dock pilings, rolled out into thin, edible sheets, and dried in the sun, in a process similar to making rice paper. Whereas in Japan, nori may never be toasted before being used in food, many brands found in the U.S. reach drying temperatures above 108 °F (42 °C).

Today, the commercial product is farmed, processed, toasted, packaged, and sold in standard-size sheets about 18 by 21 centimetres (7.1 by 8.3 in). Higher quality nori is thick, smooth, shiny, green, and has no holes. When stored for several months, nori sheets can change color to dark green-brownish.

The standard size of a whole nori sheet mentioned above influences the size of maki-mono. A full size sheet produces futomaki, and a half produces hosomaki and temaki. To produce gunkan and some other makimono, an appropriately sized piece of nori is cut from a whole sheet.
Nori by itself is an edible snack and is available with salt or flavored with teriyaki sauce. The flavored variety, however, tends to be of lesser quality and is not suitable for sushi.
When making fukusazushi, a paper-thin omelette may replace a sheet of nori as the wrapping. The omelette is traditionally made on a rectangular omelette pan (makiyakinabe), and used to form the pouch for the rice and fillings.

Neta

For culinary, sanitary, and aesthetic reasons, fish eaten raw must be fresher and of higher quality than fish which is cooked. The FDA recommends that raw fish be frozen before being consumed, as this will kill all parasites (but not all harmful microorganisms). 

Professional sushi chefs are trained to recognize important attributes, including smell, color, firmness, and freedom from parasites that may go undetected in commercial inspection.

Commonly-used fish are tuna (maguro, shiro-maguro), Japanese amberjack, yellowtail (hamachi), snapper (kurodai), mackerel (saba), and salmon (sake). The most valued sushi ingredient is toro, the fatty cut of the fish. This comes in a variety of ōtoro (often from the bluefin species of tuna) and chūtoro, meaning middle toro, implying that it is halfway into the fattiness between toro and the regular cut. Aburi style refers to nigiri sushi where the fish is partially grilled (topside) and partially raw. Most nigiri sushi will be completely raw.

Other seafoods such as squid (ika), eel (anago and unagi), pike conger (hamo), octopus (tako), shrimp (ebi and amaebi), clam (mirugai, aoyagi and akagai), fish roe (ikura, masago, kazunoko and tobiko), sea urchin (uni), crab (kani), and various kinds of shellfish (abalone, prawn, scallop) are the most popular seafoods in sushi. Oysters, however, are less common, as the taste is not thought to go well with the rice. Kani kama, or imitation crab stick, is commonly substituted for real crab, most notably in California rolls.

Pickled daikon radish (takuan) in shinko maki, pickled vegetables (tsukemono), fermented soybeans (nattō) in nattō maki, avocado, cucumber in kappa maki, asparagus, yam, pickled ume (umeboshi), gourd (kanpyō), burdock (gobo), and sweet corn (possibly mixed with mayonnaise) are also used in sushi.
Tofu and eggs (in the form of slightly sweet, layered omelette called tamagoyaki and raw quail eggs ride as a gunkan-maki topping) are common.

Condiments

Sushi is commonly eaten with condiments. Sushi may be dipped in shōyu, soy sauce, and may be flavored with wasabi, a piquant paste made from the grated root of the Wasabia japonica plant. However, some consider the use of condiments with sushi to be an implication that the chef's original preparation was inadequate.



True wasabi has anti-microbial properties and may reduce the risk of food poisoning.The traditional grating tool for wasabi is a sharkskin grater or samegawa oroshi. An imitation wasabi (seiyo-wasabi), made from horseradish, mustard powder and green dye is common. It is found at lower-end kaiten zushi restaurants, in bento box sushi and at most restaurants outside Japan. If manufactured in Japan, it may be labelled "Japanese Horseradish".



Gari (sweet, pickled ginger) is eaten with sushi to both cleanse the palate and aid in digestion. In Japan, green tea (ocha) is invariably served together with sushi. Better sushi restaurants often use a distinctive premium tea known as mecha. In sushi vocabulary, green tea is known as agari.

Nutrition

The main ingredients of traditional Japanese sushi, raw fish and rice, are naturally low in fat, high in protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The same may not be said categorically of Western-style sushi, which increasingly features non-traditional ingredients such as mayonnaise, avocado, and cream cheese.
 
Most seafood is naturally low in fat, with fats found in seafood predominately being unsaturated and thus containing relatively high levels of Omega-3. Since sushi is often served raw, no cooking fat is introduced during its preparation. Some non-traditional ingredients such as cream cheese and mayonnaise that are sometimes found in Western-style sushi dishes can add significant amounts of fat to a traditionally lean dish.

Fish, tofu, seafood, egg, and many other sushi fillings, contain high levels of protein. Imitation meat such as crab stick may be lower in protein and other nutrition than their natural, unprocessed counterparts.

Vitamins and minerals are found in much of the seafood and vegetables used for sushi. The nutritional content is dependent on the ingredients used. For example, shrimp is high in calcium and iodine, whereas salmon is rich in Vitamin D. The gari and nori used to make sushi are rich in both nutrients. Other vegetables wrapped within the sushi also offer various vitamins and minerals.
Carbohydrates are found in the rice and the vegetables. Certain non-traditional ingredients can raise the carbohydrate level quite high, as with the fat level.

Health risks

Some large fish, such as tuna (especially bluefin), can harbor high levels of mercury. This is due to the tuna's position at the top of the food chain (among sea creatures). Thus, tuna can lead to mercury poisoning when consumed in large quantity.


The FDA recommends, for certain groups (women who might get pregnant, pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children), eating a maximum of 12 ounces a week of a variety of fish and shellfish.

Infection risk of anisakis is particularly higher in fish which may live in a river such as salmon (shake) in Salmonidae, and mackerel (saba). Such parasite infections can generally be avoided by boiling, burning, preserving in salt or vinegar, or freezing overnight.
For the above reasons, the EU regulations forbids the use of fresh raw fish, and must frozen at temperatures below −20 °C in all parts of the product for no less than 24 hours.




Some forms of sushi, notably those containing pufferfish fugu and some kinds of shellfish, can cause severe poisoning if not prepared properly. Particularly, fugu has a lethal dose of tetrodotoxin in its internal organs and must be prepared by a licensed fugu chef who has passed the prefectural examination in Japan.The licensing examination process consists of a written test, a fish-identification test, and a practical test, preparing and eating the fish. Only about 35 percent of the applicants pass, and in rare cases, death result.


The Emperor of Japan also is forbidden to eat fugu, as it is considered too risky.

Picture just for illustration purpose only.

Facts you need to know about Japanese Food

Here is facts about Japanese Food that you must know.

Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes throughout Japan. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of shogun rule. In the early modern era significant changes occurred resulting in the introduction of non-Japanese cultures, most notably Western culture, to Japan.



The modern term "Japanese cuisine" (nihon ryōri or washoku) means traditional-style Japanese food, similar to that already existing before the end of national seclusion in 1868. In a broader sense of the word, it could also include foods whose ingredients or cooking methods were subsequently introduced from abroad, but which have been developed by Japanese people who have made these methods their own. Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food (旬, shun),quality of ingredients and presentation. The Michelin Guide has awarded Japanese cities by far the most Michelin stars of any country in the world.

There are many staple foods that are considered part of Japan's national cuisine today. Below are listed some of the most common :

Rice (gohan, 御飯)

Since its cultivation in Japan about 2000 years ago, rice has been Japan's most important crop. Its fundamental importance to the country and its culture is reflected by the facts that rice was once used as a currency, and that the Japanese word for cooked rice gohan (御飯) or meshi (飯) also has the general meaning of "meal". The literal meaning of breakfast (asagohan), for example, is "morning rice".

Japanese rice is short grain and becomes sticky when cooked. Most rice is sold as hakumai ("white rice"), with the outer portion of the grains (nuka) polished away. Unpolished rice (genmai) is considered less delicious by most people, but its popularity has been increasing recently because gemmai is more nutritious and healthier than hakumai.

A second major rice variety used in Japan is mochi rice. Cooked mochi rice is more sticky than conventional Japanese rice, and it is commonly used for sekihan (cooked mochi rice with red beans), or for pounding into rice cakes.

Rice is processed and prepared in many different ways. Some popular processed rice products are listed below, while a list of popular ways to use rice can be found here. okayu, sake, wagashi, senbei, mochi, donburi (どんぶり, "bowl") and sushi.

Noodles (men-rui, 麺類)

Noodles often take the place of rice in a meal. They are featured in many soup dishes, or served chilled with a sauce for dipping.

Bread (pan, パン)

Bread/Pan is not native to Japan and is not considered traditional Japanese food, but since its introduction in the 19th century it has become common. The word pan is a loanword originally taken from Portuguese.

Traditional Table Settings 

The traditional Japanese table setting has varied considerably over the centuries, depending primarily on the type of table common during a given era. Before the 19th century, small individual box tables (hadoken, 箱膳) or flat floor trays were set before each diner. Larger low tables (chabudai, ちゃぶ台) that accommodated entire families were gaining popularity by the beginning of the 20th century, but these gave way to western style dining tables and chairs by the end of the 20th century.
Traditional Japanese table setting is to place a bowl of rice on your left and to place a bowl of miso soup on your right side at the table. Behind these, each okazu is served on its own individual plate. Based on the standard three okazu formula, behind the rice and soup are three flat plates to hold the three okazu; one to far back left, one at far back right, and one in the center. Pickled vegetables are often served on the side but are not counted as part of the three okazu. Chopsticks are generally placed at the very front of the tray near the diner with pointed ends facing left and supported by a chopstick rest, or hashioki.