This dish has also made itself quite popular within Japan and all around the world. Tempura is kind of a finger food, containing differing types of vegetables and / or seafood fried in a unique batter. The ending result is a tasty treat which is crisp without being heavy, as is sometimes the case with deep fried foods in America. The ingredients harnessed in tempura are too plentiful to possibly list and can vary wildly from one restaurant to the next.

• Tempura dipping sauce
• Tempura batter mix
• Prawn - large and raw
• Seafood
• Vegetables: carrot, pumpkin, eggplant, sweet potato and more
• Mushrooms

Perhaps the most eaten of all Japanese dishes, sushi has risen to be particularly popular in the more chic locations of the United States. It is served in too many ways to list completely in the confines of this article. To be thought of as sushi, however, the dish is required to contain rice that has been prepared with sushi vinegar.

The most ordered form of sushi is surely norimaki, or sushi rolls. These rolls are filled with sushi rice and many kinds of seafood rolled in sheets of dried seaweed. Norimaki very often includes vegetables, as well.

Some other popular sushis are:

Gunkan (tuna, eel, shrimp, octopus, squid, and fried egg)
Nigiri (cups of sushi rice and nori)
Temaki (cone hand rolls in nori seaweed)
Oshizushi (pressed sushi in a wooden box)
Inari (sushi in deep fried tofu)
Chirashi (seafood, mushroom and vegetables spread over rice)

In the Japanese cuisine, many various kinds of seafood and fresh fish are served raw.

This dish is occasionally mistaken for sushi by diners still unexplored to the realm of Japanese cuisine. Although it is commonly presented artistically, it’s still true that sashimi is raw fish, a truth which upsets the stomach of many a squeamish American. Various types of sashimi are made available, the most popular being tuna. Diners should pay designated attention to the scent when tasting this dish. The fish that are used to prepare sashimi must be extremely fresh and because of this, it should not reek of any fishy scent.

The most popular types of sashimi are:

• Tuna (Maguro)
• Fatty Tuna (Toro
• Prawn (Ebi)
• Mackerel (Saba)
• Squid (Ika)
• Octopus (Tako)
• Daikon
• Shiso

This soup dish has been a part of the American college student’s diet for some time, now. Insanely popular all over the world, ramen is to the Japanese what a burger and fries are to your prototypical United States native. Ramen is packaged in a variety of bases and is best known for its long, string-like noodles. Flattering these noodles are such ingredients as miso and fermented soybeans. It’s kind of interesting to note that ramen was created in China, not Japan, but the dish is generally associated with the latter source in modern days.

Ramen is named according to its ingredients and toppings.

The most popular Ramens are:

• Miso Ramen non-transparent and brown, miso based
• Shoyu Ramen transparent and brown, soya sauce based
• Tonkotsu Ramen milky white pork based
• Shio Ramen Transparent and salt based

The Donburi dish is just simply a bowl of rice flavored with a specific sort of topping. For each topping there is a donburi dish. and a wide variety of toppings are highly regarded in Japan, many of which have successfully made their way across the Pacific.

Tekkadon

The Tekkadon (Tekka Donburi) is served with raw tuna and nori seaweeds

Oyakodon

One specimen of this dish is oyakodon (Oyako Donburi), which uses both chicken and egg for its topping.

Gyudon

Another style of donburi, gyudon (Gyuniku Donburi), is beefy in taste and more well know in Japan as fast food.

Unadon

Those of you who are particularly outgoing tasters might like to have a sample of unadon (Unagi Donburi) , a type of donburi wherein eel strips are grilled and coated in a thick soya sauce and used to top the rice bowl.

Katsudon

Katsudon (Tonkatsu Donburi) is served with egg, fried pork cutlet and onions.

Tendon

The Tendon (Tempura Donburi) is served with eel and sauce on top of rice.

Besides the 6 donburi dishes above, there are many more donburi varieties and toppings.

Nori is a Japanese term for edible seaweeds and is sometimes referred to as sea vegetables. The species belong to Porphyra or red alga which include P. tenera and P. yezoensis. It gained popularity because it is being used in creating sushi.

Nori undergoes shredding and drying process in order to be used in cuisine and exported to different countries. The major producers of Nori are Japan, China and Korea. It may be eaten fresh or dried. The dried nori usually comes in very thin sheets. It has its roots from Japan.

See also

• The history of the Nori
• Nori in Business

Therefore, it can be harvested in the Pacific Ocean instead. Production districts for Nori are Sendai, Tokyo Bay and Setonaikai. The district of Asakusa-nori in Tokyo used to be a leading producer of nori.

The production of nori usually takes place during the winter, particularly from December to April. The period of preparing it, however, takes place from May to September. In Japan alone, it is estimated that each person consumes about 100 sheets of nori in a year.

Fishermen were the ones who are usually involved in nori production. They found an earning potential in this craft aside from fishing.

It is commonly used in Japanese cuisine and in seaweed recipes. Nori producers process it by drying and turning it into very thin sheets. It is usually toasted first before being packed.

Nori is used in popular dishes such as onigiri rice balls (the traditional Japanese lunch) and norimaki (the famous sushi roll). Tidbits of nori are also found on ochasukenori soup and other noodle recipes.