Although many western dishes are introduced after Meiji Restoration, none of them has survived without some "Japanilization". We always eat dishes with steamed rice, so any dishes need to match rice. Also we love the taste of soy sauce, it is somehow introduced to many "imported" dishes.
In traditional Japanese dishes, we don't use many kinds of spices or seasonings. We prefer to enjoy the original taste of foods, as well as their color and shape. Feeling on a tongue is put much weight on, so cutting is very important. Heating time is short enough not to loose its hardness and color. They are served with beautiful small plates.
But our daily-life dishes are more easy-going. Color is sure important, but you don't need to care about cutting or heating so much. You can put more pepper on if you want. (still you can't omit soy-sauce, otherwise it can't be Japanese)
Here, we tried not to use special stuff. Most of the ingredients are avairable in a supermarket in Finland.
* Click each photo to see the detail.
Tempura is a word for fried fish, vegetables, and mushrooms. The coating is made from flour, water and egg. Although most popular ingredients are white fish and shrimp, you can fry anything but for meat. They are served with rice and special dip sauce.
Okonomi-yaki is similar to pizza or pancake. Since its literal meaning is "cook what you want", you can select ingredients from beef, pork, fish, squid, shrimp etc. Although two special seasonings -- "okonomi-yaki sauce" and fish flake (katsuo-bushi) -- are recommended, you can also make do without it.
We serve gyoza with rice or ramen noodle. Meat and vegetables are folded in a skin, and they are half-fried-half-steamed. A ready-made skin is sold in Japanese food shop, but you can make it by yourself. It's a little tough work to make a good skin, but it's worth spending time.
Steamed rice(gohan) is the most basic component of Japanes dishes. Japanese rice is the same type as Chinese/Korean one and different from Indian one. The shape is round and small.
