The land of the rising sun, Japan is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean with dense cities, imperial palaces and captivating mountains. But one thing more popular than the palaces and mountains is Japanese Food.

So Ricebowl Food Experts feel like it is time to pay homage to arguably the most popular food coming out from Asia and introduce some delicious Japanese dishes for your next trip to Japan.

1. Sushi

Sushi is a dish combining vinegar rice and seafood (although sometimes other ingredients are also used). There is a type of fermented sushi, known as nare-zushi, but the most typical types of sushi are nigirizushi and temakizushi. There are plenty of other ingredients available for those who do not like raw fish, including boiled prawns and grilled conger eel. You can find sushi all around Japan, but the sushi from restaurants in high class areas like Ginza or close to fishing ports is especially delicious. If you are looking to eat cheaply, you can visit a kaitenzushi, or conveyor belt sushi restaurant, where you can enjoy sushi for 100 yen a plate.

2. Tempura

AsianTempura is a dish in which seafood, fresh vegetables and other ingredients are dipped in a flour and egg batter and fried in oil. While you can enjoy tempura at all sorts of restaurants, if you want to try it at its best, we recommend going to a specialist tempura restaurant, where each dish will be brought to your table as soon as it is ready, even if you order a lot!

3. Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki is a dish in which meat and vegetables are stewed in an iron pot. The sauce, known as Warishita, is made from soy sauce and sugar. There is a lot of variation in the ingredients and way of eating the dish depending on the region, with some areas mixing beaten egg into the sauce to create a milder flavor. If you are looking to enjoy a lot of great beef, this is the dish for you!

4. Ramen

Ramen is a noodle soup dish which has grown to become incredibly popular and is thought of as a byword for Japanese food. Originally, the soup was made from a chicken bones, but in recent years, pork, beef and seafood also being used in the soup, creating a diverse range of tastes. In addition to the typical salt, soy sauce and miso flavors, you can even find curry flavored ramen now. There is also a type of ramen where the noodles and soup are served separately, known as tsukemen.

5. Curry Rice

While curry has its origins in India, the curry we eat in Japan is a unique, localized dish based on the curry brought over to Japan from the UK. Made with meat and vegetables (carrots, potatoes, onions, etc.) flavored with curry powder, stewed, and served with rice. Sometimes fried foods, such as pork cutlets, are placed on top of the dish. While there are some specialist curry restaurants, you typically won’t have any problems with the curry at a regular restaurant or chain restaurant.

6. Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu is a dish based on western pork cutlets, where a thick slice of pork is dipped in a flour and beaten egg batter, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in oil. There are both sirloin and fillet tonkatsu, with the fillet tonlatsu being more expensive. While quite tasty even at a cheap restaurant, we really recommend trying tonkatsu at a specialist restaurant.

7. Soba

A dish of noodles made from soba (buckwheat) flour eaten with a soy sauce and sugar sauce, and toppings such as egg, tempura or other ingredients. The noodles you get from a soba noodle shop will be particularly good, but very expensive, so it might be good to try the soba at a standing restaurant. The different dishes and toppings are usually on display in a showcase outside the restaurant, making it easy to decided what to order.

8. Udon

A dish of noodles made from kneaded wheat flour, and eaten with a sauce made from soy sauce and sugar, similar to soba. You can enjoy udon on at the standing soba restaurants, but as the firmness of the noodles, known as koshi, is a key part of the dish, we really recommend eating it at a specialist udon restaurant. Uring winter, you may try the delicious noodle stew, known as nabe yaki udon.

9. Karaage

Karaage is chicken seasoned with soy sauce, salt and a number of different spices, sprinkled with starch and fried in oil. It is like the Japanese version of fried chicken, but the flavor is very different. There are a lot of local variations, with for example chicken nanban in Miyazaki, where the karaage are covered with tartare sauce, and tebasaki in Nagoya, where the karaage are covered in a sweet and spicy sauce. Asia’s Food Experts definitely recommend trying these out!

10. Yakitori

Yakitori is a dish in which skewered chicken seasoned with a sweet salt or soy sauce based sauce and barbecued. You can usually find yakitori at Japanese bar/restaurants, known as izakaya, but Ricebowl Asia recommends eating it at a specialist yakitori restaurant, where you can enjoy all sorts of different parts of the chicken at quite a reasonable price (unless you go to a high class place, where it will cost quite a lot.). You can also find skewered pork, or yakiton in Japanese, which is delicious as well!

Source: Tetuya Asakura, Tsunagu Japan