Food in Japan

Gurukun is Okinawa’s prefectural fish, and most visitors first meet it as a whole small fish split open and deep-fried until the bones crunch. Locals call the dish gurukun no karaage. It tastes mild and clean rather than strong, so it suits people who normally avoid oily fish.

Walk into an izakaya in Naha around seven in the evening and glance at the tables ...

Barappa manju is a steamed wheat-flour bun filled with sweet red bean paste, cooked on a single wild leaf. It comes from the Hokuso area of northern Chiba Prefecture, and people there eat it during summer festivals and Obon. The leaf gives the sweet its name, its scent and most of its character.

This guide covers what barappa manju actually is, how it tastes...

Two breweries can start with the same rice variety, the same well, and the same yeast. Yet the sake in the glass tastes nothing alike. The reason usually hides in a document that drinkers never see. Brewers call it the shikomi haigo.

So what is Shikomi Haigo? Shikomi Haigo (仕込配合) is the complete brewing recipe for a batch of sake. It fixes the weight of stea...

Kumimizu buai (汲水歩合) is sake’s water-to-rice ratio. Brewers calculate it by dividing the brewing water in liters by the total rice in kilograms, then multiplying by 100. Most breweries work somewhere between 125 and 135 percent.

That single number decides a great deal. It sets how thick the mash runs, how hard the yeast has to work, and whether the finished ...

Sawara (鰆) is the Japanese Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus niphonius), a slender member of the mackerel family. Japanese cooks prize it for its pale flesh, soft texture, and mild savory flavor. Although the flesh looks white, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries classifies sawara as a red-fleshed fish. Okayama Prefecture and the wider Seto Inla...