The Basics - Read Me First!

First of all, let us make one thing clear - it is NOT the same as Chinese food. Forget sweet and sour, hot and spicy, fried and greasy.
(Apologies to Chinese readers if they think I do their cuisine a disservice - I actually like Chinese food, too. But it is different).

Yes, of course they eat rice and noodles, but even these are prepared in a different way, so that is where the similarity ends. Even the chopsticks are different, as is the way they use them. And it is certainly not the done thing to pile all your food onto one plate! (See the Presentation section below).

At first, Japanese food can give the impression of being rather bland if you are used to the strong spices of Chinese, Thai, Indian etc. The tastes of Japanese food are generally more delicate and subtle.

At this point I should advise you to be very careful if you are on a restricted salt diet; many dishes use soy sauce and miso (which are very salty). This is not so bad in Japan with its hot, ‘sticky’ climate - similar to southern states of USA - where perspiration and dehydration could be a problem. But don’t overdo the salt and soy sauce. Also watch out for the sugar: this is relatively new in Japan but they have taken a liking to it, of course, and often use it now in preference to the traditional, less harmful forms of sweetness.

Put at its simplest, Japanese cuisine consists basically of seafood, rice, vegetables, soya bean products and fruit. BUT that is a GREAT over-simplification! Like saying that English food consists of meat, potatoes, peas and cake. (What do you mean, it does??) Or that Americans eat nothing but steaks, burgers and fries.

As you will see from the descriptions of the various dishes, ingredients and meals, these basic categories contain a huge variety - everything from adzuki beans to zarusoba.

Presentation

A real traditional Japanese meal can produce a mountain of washing-up! You can be forgiven for avoiding this at home by yourself or with your family, but to do it properly you should serve each item separately and eat different foods from different plates or dishes (often quite small) - in particular, the plain boiled rice (gohan) is served separately in individual rice-bowls and should not be mixed with other food, only in rare circumstances.
That also means you do not pour soy sauce over your rice!! Japanese people regard this as a dog’s dinner.

The visual aspect is also important, which is why the food is often presented in an artistic way - long before the ‘nouveau cuisine’ fashion in our restaurants - with a variety of shapes and colours, served on complementary dishes - i.e. the colours should not clash. Food should appeal to as many senses as possible: you should appreciate the sight, smell, texture and taste. (I’m not sure about the sound!)

One other common mistake involves the chopsticks (o-hashi): these should be placed horizontally, i.e. across the bottom of the place-setting, and not vertically at the side and certainly not stuck in the bowl of rice, which - strictly speaking - is used only for the dead person’s meal at a funeral. Customs in other countries may vary!

See below for how to use the chopsticks.

Etiquette

Etiquette is very important to Japanese people - even young ‘rebels’ will usually do things the right way when it comes to eating!

No elbows on the table, for a start - just like at home :-)

However, some things are surprisingly different - for example, it is OK to ‘slurp’ your soup - which is drunk from the bowl, so no spoons. (Pick the bowl up in your left hand, and use chopsticks for the vegetables etc. inside). Or at least, no-one seems to complain. Maybe not in very polite company, though.

Before you start eating, the polite phrase is itadakimasu. (The equivalent of ‘Bon appetit’ or whatever). It expresses gratitude for the food.

There is no set order in which to eat the various dishes; no starter, main course, salad, cheese board etc. routine. (Except you shouldn’t eat the pickled vegetables first - not that you would). All the dishes are on the table together and you eat what you want when you want. And that includes the soup.

NB In traditional ‘posh’ restaurants or hotels, however, you may find that the soup and rice are brought after you have eaten everything else, especially if you drink saké with your meal. So don’t sit there waiting to start, wondering ‘Where’s the rice?’

Of course the dessert, if there is one (it is often just fresh fruit), is served at the end of the meal.

You should pick up the soup bowl or the rice bowl by holding it in your left hand with the tip of your thumb on the rim of the bowl and the other fingers on the edge of the base to support it. This also stops your fingers getting burnt!

Use separate chopsticks for serving. If absolutely necessary, you can turn yours around and use the other end, but this is not really that polite.

How to use chopsticks - the Japanese way

Japanese chopsticks are thinner and more pointed than the Chinese version. This is handy for ‘skewering’ food which it is difficult to pick up in the normal way - but only if you are really desperate! :-)

You should not hold the rice bowl up to your mouth and ‘shovel’ the food in, by the way, which seems to be OK with Chinese meals. The only exception is for ochazuke (a bowl of rice with green tea added). It is, however, perfectly OK to drink your soup from the bowl - the only way it can be done, really, as they don’t use soup spoons - and it does seem to be acceptable in common circles to suck the noodles from the bowl into your mouth, having put the ends in first with your chopsticks! This may require some practice first, preferably in private :-)

Back to the chopsticks ...

first, hold one very firmly with the base of your thumb (not the tip) and the bent third (ring) finger - between the nail and the first joint. Not quite as painful as it sounds, honest! Support this finger with the little finger / pinkie. This chopstick should not move. Hold it steady.

OK, I know it sounds complicated but bear with me ... it gets easier ...

Now hold the second chopstick with the tip of your thumb and first two fingers, exactly like a pencil. This is the one that moves, i.e. you close it against the first one to ‘grab’ the food.

(The trick is to apply just enough pressure to hold the food without projecting it at some innocent neighbour!!) You could try holding a couple of pencils now if you don’t have any chopsticks.

Holding them horizontally also helps, as it supports the weight of the food. Of course you need to make sure the two points meet, and that you hold the upper, not the lower, half. As with all new skills, practice is important.

A more advanced technique: you can also ‘cut’ some food with chopsticks, if the portion is too large to pick up or eat all at once. Do this by closing the chopsticks and sticking the two ends into the food, then gently forcing them apart. Don’t try it with hard food such as pieces of raw carrot (you should bite these instead) but it works well with softer food such as fish and most cooked vegetables. In practice, however, the food is usually cut first and served in small bite-size pieces.

I should also mention that in restaurants they normally use waribashi; these are plain wooden disposable chopsticks (rather than the lacquered type you may have at home for personal use). They are joined together at one end, so you need to separate them -carefully! - first. If you do use the lacquered type, be careful not to bite into them.

Finally, at the end of the meal it is polite to thank the provider of the meal - whether you see this as the physical or the spiritual provider - by saying ‘gochisosama deshita’.

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