Japanese food

Published on: Apr 9, 2008

The verdict is in: I LOVE Japanese food, and it seems to suit my body, as I lost five pounds on this trip. There are all kinds of fattening things I could have eaten, but since most things served to us were fish, vegetables and rice, I stuck with these basics and enjoyed all of it. Though Jesse is a vegan, he went off his diet a bit to accommodate the food that came with our rooms at the ryokan.

Here's a photo of Jesse at the table with our first evening meal in Hakone. Notice the number and variety of dishes. Obviously there is an art to serving Japanese food, as each small portion had its own distinctive serving dish.

A view of the complete meal and all the dishes. Rice, green tea and miso soup are served at every meal.

For this meal, we were served pheasant....yep, I said pheasant. There were two forms of it. This first dish was arranged with slices of halfway-cooked pheasant arranged like a flower.

Later we were provided with a small grill and more pheasant, along with onions and peppers to cook on the grill. Here's a closer look at some other dishes. This next one is a small salad.

Then we have another vegetable in a kind of soup:

A selection of fish, which are often raw, but quite tasty:

And finally the dessert, which is usually fruit or something made from fruit, like sorbet or ice cream.

Next is a photo of the breakfast meal, with fish as the main entry, along with miso soup, rice, and various vegetables. 

This is just to give you and idea of the style of food that is often served in Japan. Sushi, one of the most well-known Japanese dishes, was something I ate nearly every day. I could easily find it in grocery stores, even in 7-11 stores, for much cheaper than in the U.S. I could get 8 pieces of sushi for 400 yen, about $4. It might cost three times as much in the U.S.

Another thing that we often ate while traveling were rice "sandwiches." I'm not sure what they're really called, but they were about a cup of rice, formed into a triangle and then wrapped in nori, or sea weed. At the center of the rice there was usually some kind of fish or chicken. Really tasty, nourishing and inexpensive.

There were many local food specialties that we didn't eat, though some of them looked pretty yummy. One place was known for a certain kind of eel, and I wish I had tried it.

In Kyoto, the ryokans we stayed in also had great food. The first one had its own restaurant attached to the inn, and the second one served us breakfast in a separate room with other guests. In both places the food was excellent. It didn't take me any time to get used to the idea of eating fish (salmon or mackeral) and vegetables (often raw or pickled, and served in an artistic, often beautiful fashion.)

Next I'll talk about Japanese baths.