Japanese cuisine offers a great variety of dishes and regional specialties with the staple being rice. For over 2000 years, rice has been the most important food in Japanese cuisine. Despite changes in eating patterns over the last few decades and slowly decreasing rice consumption in recent years, rice still remains one of the most important ingredients in Japanese cuisine today.
Japanese Rice Dishes
We have selected some of the most popular Japanese rice dishes which you can find in traditional Japanese restaurants all over the world, including Tenkaichi in Cardiff.
- Rice Bowl : A bowl of plain cooked rice is served with most Japanese meals. In Japan it is also eaten for breakfast, usually mixed with a raw egg and soya sauce (tamago kake gohan).
- Sushi: Sushi any dish that contains sushi rice which cooked white rice flavoured with seasoned rice vinegar. There are various kinds of sushi dishes, such as nigirizushi (hand formed sushi), makizushi (rolled sushi), and chirashi (sushi rice topped with raw fish). Sushi is the most famous Japanese dish outside of Japan, and one of the most popular dishes among the Japanese themselves.
- Donburi: Donburi is a bowl of plain cooked rice with some other food on top of it. Donburi are served at specialty restaurants, but they are also a common dish that can be found on all kinds of restaurants’ menus. Some of the most popular varieties are gyudon (stewed beef), katsudon (tonkatsu), tendon (tempura), oyakodon (chicken and egg), tekkadon (maguro), and kaisendon (raw seafood).
- Rice Balls (Onigiri): these are made of cooked rice and are usually wrapped in nori seaweed. They are lightly seasoned with salt and contain a filling such as umeboshi (pickled Japanese plum), okaka (dried bonito shavings and konbu), or salmon. Rice balls are a popular and inexpensive portable snack available at convenience stores, but are also commonly served at general restaurants.
- Kare Raisu (Curry Rice): this dish is cooked rice with a Japanese curry sauce. It can be served with additional toppings such as tonkatsu. Curry is not a native Japanese spice, but has been used in Japan for over a century.
- Fried Rice: also known as chahan this is a dish that was originally introduced from China. You can add a whole host of ingredients to fried rice like peas, egg, green onions (negi), carrots and pork.
- Chazuke (Ochazuke): this is another simple comfort food consisting of hot water, tea, or light fish stock poured over rice. Chazuke is often garnished with toppings such as umeboshi, grilled salmon, or pickles.
- Kayu: Kayu, or okayu, is Japanese rice porridge made by slow cooking rice in lots of water. It tends to be thicker than other rice dishes and is a great way of using left over rice.
Rice dishes at Tenkaichi
Rice dishes are some of the most popular dishes that we serve to customers at Tenkaichi. In addition to the examples listed above, our menu choices are extensive and we have something to suit all tastes.
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