The Japanese cuisine is very much different form any other cuisine in the world. For people living in the Asian region it is as important as the French one for Western people. The secret of the Japanese cuisine is in thorough selection of products, beauty of serving and respect of products in general. Only the best gifts of the earth and water deserve to find themselves on a table, and the main goal of a chef is to save their initial characteristics. The main rule of the Japanese cuisine is "don't create but find and discover" as nobody can compete with what was created by nature.

Table setting, seasonality, portions

An important part of the Japanese cookery is the art of table setting. The Japanese eat with "eyes", as the view of dishes is essential for them. Probably nowhere in the world eyes participate in meals to the extent they do in Japan. May be this comes form past times when beauty and fineness of dishes replaced a moderate list of products.

The Japanese cuisine has one more unique feature. Apart from beauty and harmony of forms and colors the dishes reflect seasons of the year. Each season grants its own delicacies. Correspondence to season as well as freshness of products is appreciated in Japan more than preparation itself. No wonder that in the Indian summer you may be served with soup containing pieces of carrot in the form of maple leafs and some spring dish will remind you of blossoming sakura outside.

Great attention is paid to the quantity of food served. Unlike the Russian cuisine with its large portions all the dishes of the Japanese cuisine are served in the quantity that do not let you be fed up. The Japanese like when meal consists of a large number of small dishes of different taste. The classic Japanese meal consisted of 15-20 small dishes served one after another.

Rice for health

One of the ancient names of Japan is "the land of rice heads". It is no wonder as the Japanese started to cultivate this culture about 2500 years ago. This time may be considered the birth period of the Japanese cuisine the main component of that was and still is rice (gohan). Among 700 sorts of rice known in the world 44 are bred in Japan. "Japanese rice" (general name of several sorts) is noted for high adhesiveness when boiled. Such rice is convenient to eat with sticks (hashi).

The Japanese eat rice two-three times a day. They believe that rice saves their health. Indeed according to statistics the Japanese suffer from cardiovascular diseases rarer than the Europeans.

Rice is a main component for sake and syotyu. Old sake (aged for several years with 16-18о alcohol) is similar to good wine called Xeres. Syotyu (rather strong rice vodka) doesn't have such refined taste.

Fish and seafood

Japan is an island state washed by the Sea of Japan, which is inhabited by different fish and mollusks. So it is no wonder that the second important component of nutrition for the Japanese is fish and seafood. Today the Japanese consume 1/6 of all the seafood caught in the world. Besides they eat such additions to fish dishes as seaweed and sea grass.

The Japanese know more than 10 thousand species of sea animals most of that are eatable. It is not the custom with the Japanese to fry fish and other sea gifts. They are usually fried a little, stewed, steamed or served almost fresh. Being prepared like that the dishes digest well and save most their nutritious qualities and taste. One popular means of preparation is frying fish soaked in vinegar.

Probably, the most popular dish in Japan is sashimi, sliced fresh fish. It is notable that the species most delicious this time of the year and in this particular district are taken for this dish. To make emphasis on the natural taste of fish sashimi is to be dipped in soy sauce in which Japanese horse reddish wasabi is dissolved. Another dish that has been popular outside Japan for a long time is sushi. In Japan pleasant taste and cheapness of sushi accounts for its popularity.

Sometimes fish and other seafood are eaten not simply fresh but alive. Such dishes are called "odori". For example, salmon and dish with a romantic name "dancing perch" are cooked like this. The process of preparation is as follows: perch is washed down by boiling hot water, poured with sauce, cut into pieces and eaten, though at this time the fish moves its tail and lips.

There is a very special delicacy in the Japanese cuisine. It is fugusashi made of fugu fish. Fugusashi is a very beautiful dish with unique taste. Pearl pieces of fugu fried or fresh are laid by leafs on a round plate and eaten dipping them in the mixture of ponzu (vinegar sauce), asazuki (tiny chive), momiji-oroshi (grated daikon) and red pepper. The dish is served with sake in glasses, where grilled fugu fins (fugu hire) are put for 1-2 minutes before being served. Also together with fugu sashi fugu zosui, soup made of boiled fugu broth, rice and fresh eggs, is served.

Every year 1,5 thousand tons of fugu are eaten in Japan. Archeological excavations showed that several thousand years BC the inhabitants of the Japanese islands eat this thorny spherical fish. Muscles, liver and caviar of this fish contain tetrodotoxin, a poison of neuroparalytic action which is 25 times stronger than curare and 275 times more toxic than cyanides. One fish contains poison enough to kill 30-40 people. Besides there is still no antidote for fugu poison.

Chefs cooking this delicatessen and expensive (the price may be up to 750 dollars for portion per 4 persons) dish are to finish a special school and get a license. The process of fugu preparation is as follows: a chef removes fins by fast blow of "hocho" (sharp and thin knife), then cuts a mouth and cuts open the belly of fugu. Then he slowly removes the poisonous parts (liver, sex glands, kidneys, eyes), gets rid of the skin (which is equally poisonous) and slices the filet (so that the slices are almost transparent). Then the meat is washed by running water to remove all tiny tracks of blood and poison. The filet prepared like that is placed by the chef on a plate in the form of landscape, butterfly of flying crane.

Meat and milk foods

The opinion that the Japanese are strict vegetarians is wrong. Dishes made of beef and pork appeared in the Japanese cuisine under the influence of the Chinese cuisine traditions. However, to be fair, they were not very popular. If the literature sources survived until now are telling the truth the smell of pork and beef even made the Japanese faint. The situation with milk products especially with cheese was just a little better. The number of dishes containing beef and pork increased only in the XIX century when more and more Europeans started to arrive in Japan. However these dishes were more often used as a delicacy rather than everyday meal.

In contemporary Japanese cuisine several meat dishes, nabe, sukiyaki, shabu-shabu, are the most popular ones. In many restaurants a tempting dish yakitori (tempting shashlik made of chicken and vegetable pieces on short skewers) and katsudon (chopped cutlet poured with egg) are served.

Many people heard of a dish that is by right considered a pearl of the Japanese cookery (kobe-gu) cooked in front of your eyes on teppanyaki stove near a dining table. The taste of this meat is so delicate that nearly melts in your mouth. The secret of this dish lies not in the means of preparation but in the quality of meat. Cattle-risers of Kobe graze young bulls on the cleanest meadows, feed them with selected food, water with spring water and beer and electromassage them everyday. As a result the meat gets a beautiful marble pattern of streaks.

Sukiyaki dish which is 150 years old is cooked of the marble meat. To prepare this dish the Japanese used to fry meat on a special shovel called "suki". And any fried dish in Japan is called "yaki". That is where the name of this dish comes from. In restaurants you will frequently see sukiyaki nabe, boiled marble meat with soy curd, vegetables, noodles and fresh egg. A chef only prepares all the ingredients for this dish and customers boil pieces of beef in a pot with water or light broth by themselves. As everybody is eating a chef adds different spices in the sauce. If the sauce is too spicy he adds more sake of water.

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