Japanese Home Cooking Is Simple

The simple answer is that traditional Japanese home cooking tends to center around a main protein dish with a few additional vegetable dishes, and is typically eaten steamed with rice, miso soup, and pickles.

This is also true for breakfast.

The main dish can be fish, chicken, beef, or pork.

The Japanese dislike lamb due to its strong flavor, but will eat venison and other game, especially in rural areas.

Seaweed is typically included in the meal.

Flavorings often rely on soy sauce, sake, mirin (sweet rice wine), dashi (seaweed and fish broth), and miso.

Home cooking typically doesn’t begin with appetizers, but may include dessert and is typically family-style, with large dishes served at the table from which you help yourself.

A more accurate answer is that Japanese cuisine is very complex.

There are many styles of Japanese cooking, and even at home, there are many different styles, including street food and snack versions.

After World War II, Japan became especially open to international cuisine and clearly absorbed concepts into its own genre. For example, the very popular Japanese curry would be unrecognizable to any self-respecting Indian! Similarly, although McDonald’s is well known in the country, what many call a hamburger in Japan is probably more accurately called meatloaf in the US.

Noodles from China have also evolved in Japan over the centuries, with many different varieties made from ingredients such as wheat flour, buckwheat, and so on, with or without egg.

Another import is foods like tempura, a Portuguese invention that many today consider Japanese.

Tempura be tempura, but Japanese cuisine favors grilling, steaming, and braising. Frying is often used for Chinese-style dishes. The menu also includes a lot of raw food, as well as dried and preserved foods.

Seasonal ingredients are highly prized. Great attention is paid to providing a variety of ingredients, textures, flavors, and colors. The goal is to enhance the flavors of the ingredients rather than overpower them with spices and sauces. Many home producers are very health-conscious and nutritionally conscious.

There are also many ingredients and foods that are uniquely Japanese and never make their way across the sea to other countries, even those with Japanese restaurants. Natto, fermented beans, or raw eggs cracked onto hot rice for breakfast are things rarely popular in other cultures.

That said, many Japanese will eat toast or cereal with tea or coffee for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and spaghetti Bolognese for dinner.

Japanese home cooking could probably easily become a full-length dissertation. I hope this helps a little.