Japanese cuisine is still unknown in France, and even if more and more people are interested in it, some clichés are still alive. In this article, we are going to clear up the received ideas that we hear regularly and that are not necessarily true. The Japanese restaurants, although very numerous in France, do not necessarily respect the real Japanese cuisine and show you only a tiny part of it.
- 1- In Japan, we only eat sushi and raw fish
- 2- Miso soup is a starter
- 3- The Japanese dessert, matcha green tea cake
- 4- Sake is THE drink in Japan
- 5- Japanese cuisine is a healthy cuisine
- 6- You have to know how to handle chopsticks to eat in Japan
- 7- In Japan, we only eat rice
- 8- Sushi is rice with salmon, tuna and sea bream
- 9- Sushi is an expensive dish in Japan
- 10 – There is only fish in Japanese cuisine
1- In Japan, we only eat sushi and raw fish
False. This is probably the sentence we hear most often. In Japan, the sushi are really less popular than in France. Indeed, here when we think of Japanese cuisine we immediately think of sushi. But in reality and fortunately, there are many other dishes such as okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes), noodle soups, gyoza (Japanese ravioli), Japanese fondues… Japanese cuisine is very varied and diversified, a Japanese will not eat sushi every day. And fish is not necessarily eaten raw, there are many dishes where fish is cooked.
Besides, we deplore the quality of sushi in France which has nothing to do with sushi in Japan.
2- Miso soup is a starter
False. In Japanese restaurants in France, miso soup is presented as a starter but not in Japan because there is no such thing as a starter. In fact, in Japan, all the dishes are served at the same time, miso soup is used to rinse the palate between each dish or bite. It is even considered as a drink because it is present at every meal, from breakfast to dinner.
3- Japanese dessert, matcha green tea cake
True and False: Japanese desserts are not really known in France, but there are more than the matcha green tea cakes we know. For example, there is the mochi a rice-based dessert, dango, the dorayaki, the taiyaki, the crushed ice cream kakigori wagashi and many other cakes. The flavors that are often used in desserts are sweet red bean paste, green tea, glutinous rice paste, but we also find cakes like those we can find in France.
4- Sake is THE drink in Japan
True and False: sake is an alcoholic drink which is often taken as an aperitif, it is also very used for cooking. If there was one main drink in Japan it would be tea. Tea is even often free and at will in restaurants in Japan. There are other alcoholic drinks like umeshu, a plum alcohol, Japanese beers… or other non-alcoholic drinks, the Calpis very common in Japan.
5- Japanese cuisine is a healthy cuisine
True. Japanese cuisine is really a very healthy cuisine, most of the food is very good for your health, especially seaweed nori seaweed wakame, the miso paste… Non fatty foods and rich in vitamins for the most part. There is no systematic addition of fat as in our French dishes.
6- You have to know how to handle chopsticks to eat in Japan
True and False: Yes, most of the dishes are eaten with chopsticks, and spoons are also available for broths. You can still eat with your fingers the nigiri sushi !
You will find in Japan in supermarkets forks and knives but very rare in a restaurant in Japan.
You should also know that in Japan, there are good manners to respect when you eat with Japanese chopsticks because otherwise you will be considered as rude.
If you want to go to Japan, you must be comfortable with chopsticks before going there!
7- In Japan we only eat rice
True and False: Rice is omnipresent in Japanese cuisine, in both sweet and savory dishes. But noodles like soba, the udon or ramen are also very present and represent an important part of the daily recipes. We could say that rice is to Japanese what bread is to French. We eat it at almost every meal, but we can’t really say that we only eat bread.
8- Sushi is rice with salmon, tuna and sea bream
True and False: In Japan you will rarely find sushi with sushi with salmon or sea bream like in France. You will find tuna, excellent by the way, bonito, mackerel, sea urchin, eel, cuttlefish… There is a very large variety of fish in Japanese cuisine which is not limited to these 3 fish. Their variety and freshness are incomparable.
9- Sushi is an expensive dish in Japan
True and False, depending on the exchange rate of the yen, you will find sushi platters in supermarkets for about 1000 yen or about 8€. The quality of the sushi you will find in supermarkets is really very good. Without any comparison with our French sushi.
True, in some restaurants specialized in sushi, you will find very expensive sushi but of an unbeatable quality. The price is close to a gastronomic restaurant in France, it can even seem exorbitant sometimes but such quality is worth it. It is simply delicious.
10 – There is only fish in Japanese cuisine
False: Japanese cuisine also uses meat such as kobe meat, chicken, duck, pork, eggs… Carnivores will be well served! Vegetarians will also find their accounts because Japanese cuisine is full of recipes using fish, seaweed, tofu, legumes, plants…
We hope that with this article you will have a better idea of Japanese cuisine. It really deserves to be better known. We can compare it to the French gastronomy which is not limited to breads, cheeses and wines.
