Japanese Dishes and Snacks

Aktualisiert: 19. Apr. 2020

皆さん, こんにちは! Minasan, konnichiwa! Hello everyone! 🌸

Today I am going to talk about one of my favorite topics: food. I want to introduce you to a few dishes that you shouldn't miss here. I also recommend a couple of snacks that I just can't keep my hands off. 😉 Let's start with something that you may have seen countless times in my "Photo of the Day" section: Ramen. I just can't get enough of it. Ramen is actually a Chinese noodle, however, there is a ramen shop on pretty much every corner. So you can try out different offers and I even tried to do it by myself. Here you can read about how it works.

Other types of noodles would be Udon and Soba. Like ramen, Udon noodles are made from wheat and there are several ways to eat them: hot, cold, with or without broth. What makes them unique: Udon are the thickest noodles in Japanese cuisine, so it is not difficult to distinguish them from other types of noodles. Soba, on the other hand, are thin, brownish noodles made from buckwheat. Soba noodles can also be served hot or cold and separately from the broth.

And while we're at Soba, the Yakisoba dish shouldn't go unmentioned. But here, although the name suggests, not buckwheat noodles, but simple wheat flour noodles are used. The pre-cooked noodles are fried with vegetables, meat, tofu, fish or other seafood and a sauce.

And where yakisoba is offered, okonomiyaki can also be found. Traditionally, okonomiyaki is fried at the table on a hot iron plate. The basic ingredients are egg, flour, cabbage, and dashi. Additional ingredients are added at will, which can vary depending on the region.

Sukiyaki is a stew, which I enjoyed very often, especially during the winter. This includes beef, tofu, pasta, leeks, and cabbage. This dish is usually prepared directly at the table or served over a hot flame so that the stew is still simmering while you are eating. Since the food is very hot, a raw egg is always served. The ingredients are dipped into this before they are eaten. However, since I'm not used to raw egg, I always whipped it and cooked it in the hot soup.

One thing you shouldn't let cool down because it tastes best warm is gyoza. This is a Chinese dough dish that resembles our pierogi. The filling usually consists of vegetables and meat and before eating you dip them in soy sauce and/or rice vinegar. Gyoza can either be fried or cooked. The cooked one is called suigyoza.

Let´s now talk about tempura. Here, fish, meat, various vegetables and similar are fried in a batter made of flour, egg, and water.

The last dish I want to mention is sushi. Certainly, the first thing that comes into your mind when you think of Japanese food. The thought of raw fish may be daunting for some, but there are many places here, such as KurasushiNijo, that also offer alternatives. Here there are the well-known sushi tracks and via a screen at the table, you can order anything you want, which will then be delivered to the place via an "express train". This can be sushi with raw fish or fried meat, for example, but fries, chicken, noodle soups and desserts are also available. The empty plates are put through a gap at the table through which they come directly back to the kitchen. After every fifth plate returned, you automatically take part in a small competition in which you have the chance to win a small trailer. This place is definitely a place for the whole family, but you will have to wait a while since many people come there.

I could write about food for hours, but I should slowly come to an end, after all, the snacks are still waiting for us. There is not so much to say about this, as most are not unusual, but standards that we also eat in Germany. Nevertheless, I want to show you what things and brands I can recommend. So here is a list of my top 6 and where I buy them: