What's Japanese food culture like?

When it comes to diet, it is not only Japanese-style meals with rice as the staple food and vegetables, fish and meat as the non-staple food, but also China meals in western Europe are generally popular, and you can taste a variety of meals in Japan. Japan is a country with abundant high-quality water resources and perfect sanitary facilities, so tap water can be drunk anywhere in Japan. Modern Japanese culture is even more colorful. While studying the traditional Japanese culture since ancient times, such as tea ceremony and flower path, girls also dance disco. It's not unusual to see the city, ancient temples and high-rise buildings built next to each other. Therefore, modern Japanese culture is formed by combining ancient, emerging, western and oriental cultures. Japanese people generally like to eat raw fish, so sushi covered with sashimi is the most popular food in Japan. Japanese cuisine pays great attention to maintaining the original flavor of food, and does not advocate adding too many seasonings, mainly light. In particular, there is a high demand for the color of dishes. Not only are all kinds of exquisite containers used to hold food, but also the shape, arrangement and color matching of food are carefully considered. Looking at the Japanese cuisine that is as delicate as a landscape painting, tourists who have just arrived in Japan often can't bear to destroy that beauty. Eating habits Japanese cold noodles are put on bamboo plates, picked up with chopsticks and eaten in cold soup. Some restaurants don't attach spoons, and Japanese people are used to picking them up and drinking soup. Nightlife Japanese people are used to drinking in groups after work. In the entertainment center of metropolis, there are bars, discos and nightclubs everywhere. Japanese alcoholic beer: Japanese people like to drink beer best, whether it is draft beer or bottled beer. In summer, some department stores have outdoor beer halls, which attract a large number of tourists. Sake: Sake can be drunk hot or cold. No matter which kind of sake, it is the best match for Japanese dishes. Wine tastes delicious and sweet, and it is easy to get drunk after drinking too much. Whiskey: Japanese people like to drink whisky and Mizuwari. This kind of wine is made of sweet potatoes, barley, sucrose and other materials. The filtered alcohol is somewhat similar to vodka. In Japan, China's food culture had a great influence on Japan, whether during the period of sending envoys to the Tang Dynasty or when Zen Buddhism was introduced to Japan, as well as during the Japanese-Ming trade period and the Edo period. For example, crops such as soybeans, red beans, rice, millet and corn cultivated in Japan, and sauces, wine, vinegar, salt, lobster sauce and sour rice balls commonly used in Japanese diet were mainly introduced to Japan through China. It can be said that the formation of Japanese food culture is mainly influenced by China culture. Japanese diet can generally be divided into staple food and non-staple food. Rice is the staple food, while vegetables and fish are non-staple food. From the Middle Ages to the Meiji period, influenced by Buddhist thought, Japanese people were taboo about meat, so they seldom ate meat. After Meiji, this taboo was eliminated. After World War II, bread and other pasta were also popularized in Japanese diet. With the growth of economy and the continuous infiltration of western culture, the intake of meat and dairy products has also increased significantly. Coupled with the popularity of fast food, Japanese people's diet life has become more diversified. The main ways of cooking are cooking, frying, roasting and cold salad, accompanied by miso soup (miso soup) and pickled pickles (pickles). Nowadays, there are also many combinations of western food or Chinese food in non-staple food. There are several words with "fire" in Chinese cooking methods, such as explosion, stir-frying, stir-frying, simmering, burning, stir-frying and stewing, which are hard to find in Japanese. Japanese cuisine is characterized by raw, cold, less fat, less weight, many kinds, beautiful colors, and very particular about the choice of utensils. That is, the color is natural, the taste is delicious, the shape is diverse, and the utensils are excellent. Japanese cuisine is also called "five flavors, five colors and five methods" cuisine. The five flavors are sweet, sour, pungent, bitter and salty; The five colors are white, yellow, cyan, red and black; The five methods are raw, boiled, roasted, fried and steamed. The criteria for tasting Japanese food are fragrant, rich, ripe, sweet and tender. Because Japanese food emphasizes appearance and texture, the quantity of each dish is usually small, but the quality of raw materials is unparalleled. What they emphasize most is fresh materials, exquisite knife work and artistic display. When eating Japanese food, you can see on the menu that there is a supply of "Sheng He", the so-called miscellaneous brocade. Usually, shopkeepers will supply mixed brocade with specific flavors, and use pine, bamboo and plum to represent large, medium and small, and they are mostly divided by weight and materials. Pine is super-loaded, bamboo is super-loaded, and plum is ordinary. This shows that Japanese cuisine is very elegant. Japanese people usually use wooden chopsticks when eating. Their chopsticks are shorter than those in China, and women's chopsticks are shorter than men's, 22 cm for men and 21 cm for women. There are many kinds of Japanese cuisine, among which the famous ones are: Huaishi cuisine. Literally, it means holding a stone in your arms. It is said that a long time ago, a monk could only eat one meal a day in the morning. Of course, at night, you will be hungry, cold and hungry. So the monks thought of a way to hold the heated stone (Wenshi) in their arms. Later, people called the light vegetarian food and simple food that only filled the empty stomach and heated the body as Huaishi cuisine. In fact, this idea comes from Zen Buddhism. Because Zen Buddhism and tea ceremony are closely related, some simple meals that are only eaten before drinking tea are also called Huaishi cuisine. However, nowadays, people refer to a small amount of meals before drinking tea in the order of Huaishi style as Huaishi cuisine. Huaishi cuisine is simple and elegant, but also pays great attention to the quiet environment. Zhuofu cuisine. Zhuofu is a Chinese dining table, that is, the Eight Immortals Table. Zhuofu cuisine is a Chinese cuisine, including mushrooms, fish cakes, noodle soup with vegetables, and noodles with noodles. Its characteristic is that the guests sit in armchairs around a table, and all the meals are placed on a table. This kind of cuisine originated from Buddhist vegetarianism in ancient China, and was promoted by Zen master Yin Yuan as a "general tea cuisine" (that is, a cuisine in which tea replaces wine). Because it is popular in Nagasaki, it is also called Nagasaki cuisine. Chefs used local aquatic meat in Buddhist vegetarian dishes and founded Zhuofu cuisine. Zhuofu cuisine mainly includes shark fin clear soup, tea, large plate, medium plate, side dishes, stews, rice cake and bean soup and fruits. Small dishes are divided into five dishes, seven dishes and nine dishes, with seven dishes being the majority. Put all the side dishes on the table at the beginning, and put shark fin clear soup and other dishes on the table while eating. Tea party cooking. Tea ceremony prevailed in Muromachi era (14th century) in Japan, so tea banquet and tea party cuisine appeared. The original tea party cooking was just an ornament of the tea ceremony, which was very simple. By the end of Muromachi, it became very luxurious. Later, Sen no Rikyū, the founder of the tea ceremony, restored the original light and simple face of tea party cooking. Tea party cooking should be as economical as possible in terms of space and labor, and the staple food only uses three utensils: rice bowls, soup bowls and small plates. During the dinner, there are soup, prunes and fruits, and sometimes two or three delicacies are served, and finally tea is served. Practice cooking. Practice cuisine is also called "intensive cuisine", which means eating fast and being vegetarian. The ingredients are buckwheat noodles, tofu, pickles, fried shrimp and so on. In fact, the so-called "intensive cuisine" is a vegetarian cuisine that does not use meat. Sashimi Sashimi is the most famous Japanese cuisine, which is a masterpiece of Japanese cuisine. Japan has had the habit of eating raw food since ancient times. Before the Edo era, sashimi was mainly made of snapper, flounder, perch and so on, all of which were white. After Meiji, tuna and bonito with red meat became the first-class materials for sashimi. Now, the Japanese cut shellfish and lobsters into thin slices, which is also called "sashimi". The puffer fish with puffer fish poison removed and sliced is the best among sashimi, fresh and delicious, but it is expensive. Sashimi must be seasoned with mustard and soy sauce. Mustard, called Wasabi in Japanese, is a very clean plant ("wasabi") that grows under waterfalls or mountain springs, and wilts when it is polluted. Wasabi is like radish, with black skin and green meat. After grinding, it is dipped in soy sauce when eating sashimi. Mustard has a special pungent smell, which is both bactericidal and appetizing. Japanese sashimi is unusually fresh, with uniform thickness and uniform length. The sashimi dish is dotted with shredded white radish, seaweed and perilla flowers, which reflects the Japanese food culture close to nature. The practice of sashimi is also the concern of many people. In fact, the practice of sashimi is relatively simple. As long as you master the basic processes such as material selection, knife work, plate loading and seasoning, it is not difficult to make sashimi. Raw materials for making sashimi are extensive, but mainly fish and other seafood produced in deep sea. Such as salmon, swordfish, perch, tuna and so on; Crustaceans include sea urchin shrimp and lobster; Shellfish include abalone, oyster, red shellfish and arctic shellfish. The selection of raw materials for sashimi is very strict, and the raw materials should be fresh, clean and pollution-free. Beautiful shape is a major feature of sashimi, so the process of plate loading is particularly important. Sashimi is mostly served with exquisite tableware such as semicircular, boat-shaped or fan-shaped, and fresh coriander, perilla leaves, mint leaves, seaweed, chrysanthemum, cucumber flowers, ginger slices, shredded radish and sour orange are used as accessories. These accessories can not only be used for decoration and embellishment, but also play a role in removing fishy smell and increasing appetite. For example, first spread perilla leaves or lettuce leaves on the plate, and then put the sliced salmon slices in groups of 5-7 (that is, one person) on the perilla leaves, and decorate them with shredded radish and cucumber flowers, giving people a very refreshing feeling. Mustard and Japanese light soy sauce are the main condiments for sashimi, and green mustard is commonly used in powder and paste. The preparation method of powdered mustard is to mix powdered mustard with water in a ratio of 1: 2, and then seal it for 3 minutes. When the unique pungent taste of mustard is produced, it can be put into a dish. Paste mustard is a finished product, which can be directly squeezed into a dish when used. Sushi Sushi, also known as "Four Happy Meals", is the representative of Japanese food. Japanese rice is rich in nutrition and high in quality. The cooked rice looks like pearls and is fragrant. The Japanese call rice a "relic" and rice a "silver relic" to describe it as crystal clear and as precious as a Buddhist bone. Sushi is a unique food in Japanese cuisine, and there are many kinds of sushi. According to the different preparation methods, it can be mainly divided into raw sushi, cooked sushi, pressed sushi, held sushi, scattered sushi, roll sushi, crucian sushi and so on, among which crucian sushi is regarded as the most famous and representative sushi in Japanese cuisine. Crucian carp sushi is made from crucian carp, rice and refined salt after several months of pickling and fermentation. Sushi made by this method will produce a large number of lactic acid bacteria in the raw materials, adding a special sour taste to the finished product, and these lactic acid bacteria themselves also have antiseptic effect. However, this kind of sushi made by the ancient method is rare today. Modern Japanese sushi mostly uses vinegar mixed with rice to process its main ingredients, and because more than four seasonings are usually added to rice, sushi is also known as "four-happy rice". The main raw material commonly used in sushi is sushi rice, that is, Japanese japonica rice, which is characterized by white color and round particles. The rice cooked with it is not only elastic, chewy, but also sticky. Secondly, the raw materials used to wrap the skin of sushi, that is, high-quality seaweed, seaweed, kelp, egg roll skin, bean curd skin, spring roll skin, Chinese cabbage and so on, are common. Then there is the stuffing of sushi. Sushi stuffing is rich and colorful, and it can best reflect the characteristics of sushi. The raw materials used for stuffing are marine fish, crab meat, shellfish, freshwater fish, fried eggs and seasonal fresh vegetables such as mushrooms, cucumbers, lettuce and so on. Authentic sushi can have sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty and other flavors. Therefore, when eating sushi, we should match the seasoning according to the type of sushi. For example, when eating hand-held sushi, because there are sashimi, fresh shrimp, etc. in the stuffing, you need to dip in thick soy sauce and apply a proper amount of green mustard; When eating sushi, it is best not to dip in soy sauce, so as to eat its original flavor. In addition to thick soy sauce and green mustard, sushi has a more important seasoning, namely vinegar ginger. Adding a slice of vinegar ginger to sushi not only helps to add flavor, but also makes sushi more fresh and delicious. Tempura We often hear the name "tempura" in Japanese dramas. In fact, "tempura" is fried food. That is, flour, eggs and water are used to make it into a paste, and then fish, shrimp and vegetables are wrapped in starch and fried in an oil pan until golden brown. When eating, they are dipped in soy sauce and radish paste, which is fresh and delicious, fragrant but not greasy. Sukiyaki. "Sukiyaki", also known as Japanese hot pot, was popularized only after the second half of the 19th century. It cuts beef into thin slices, cooks it with seafood and vegetables, and eats it with seasonings made of raw egg juice, soy sauce and sugar. This kind of eating habit existed in ancient Japan. Before Meiji Restoration, farmers cooked animal meat on hoes outside the house, which was originally called "hoe burning". Later, it developed into a "Shouxi Shao" in which onions, tofu, fish and vegetables were added to the iron pot in the pit, and everyone cooked and ate. Stone burning. "Stone burning" means slate burning. It is to cook the cows on a hot stone and dip them in fresh soy sauce. This kind of beef is raised by specific feeding techniques. It is said that during the feeding period, cows will be regularly given some beer with low alcohol content (4% ~ 5%) to make their blood gas run and accelerate their metabolism, and then some hay or brush will be used to brush the whole body of cows to make the fat evenly distributed, instead of the red, red, white and white beef we often see. Therefore, this kind of beef called "Kobe Cattle" and "Matsuzaka Cattle" is soft, tender and unusual, and tastes very fragrant. It is specially used for flagstone burning. Burning birds. That is, roast chicken That is, the chicken is sliced and strung on a thin bamboo stick, dipped in soy sauce, sugar, cooking wine, etc., and then roasted on the fire. It is also useful to use the internal organs of chickens or pigs as raw materials, but they are all called roast birds. It is cheap, and many people like it as an appetizer. "Bird burning houses" can be seen everywhere in Japan. Teppanyaki Teppanyaki is very popular in Japan. Authentic Japanese Teppanyaki, as its name implies, barbecues all kinds of delicious food on a large iron plate, and Teppanyaki becomes an expensive kind of Japanese cuisine because Teppanyaki uses the best materials, such as fresh seafood, including lobster and abalone, and domestic cattle, such as Kobe Cattle, Matsuzaka Cattle or Near River Cattle, are also used as meat. University cuisine. Generally, there are two main types of dining halls in Japanese universities-rice and noodles. According to the side dishes, rice is divided into curry, stir-fry, fried and mixed rice. Common Japanese curries include general beef curry, fried meat pie curry and fried mashed potato cake curry; The common types of cooking are ginger roast, mapo tofu and fried eggplant; Fried prawns, fried vegetables and so on are common. As for fried dishes made of fish and oysters, they are probably too expensive to eat in the school cafeteria. Mixed rice There are beef rice, pork rice and chicken rice in the mixed rice. The name of chicken mixed rice sounds a little cruel. It's called "parent-child" mixed rice, which is to stew chicken and eggs together to make mixed rice. Noodles are mainly divided into white, thick and soft udon noodles, thin and yellow egg Lamian Noodles, and buckwheat noodles which are neither white nor yellow according to the processing methods of noodles. School cooking is relatively cheap, a meal is generally around 5 yen, and if you are in a restaurant outside, it will cost at least 7 ~ 1 yen. As mentioned above, there are several kinds of noodles in Japan, such as Lamian Noodles, buckwheat noodles, wide noodles and udon noodles. These pasta ingredients are exquisite and cheap. Buckwheat noodles, in particular, are popular foods. Order food. A popular one in Japanese restaurants today.