Top 10 Most Delicious and Popular Dishes in Japan

Miso Soup is a regular feature in every Japanese meal, whether it's breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The broth is made from dashi (a base prepared with dried fish, kombu seaweed, and bonito flakes), miso paste, and ingredients such as finely chopped seaweed and tofu. There are various versions of miso soup with additions like fish, mushrooms, crab, daikon radish, clams, and potatoes, based on the eater's preferences or regional and seasonal factors. The choice of miso paste is crucial as it greatly influences the flavor and character of the soup. Miso comes in different types: red (akamiso), white (shiromiso), or a blend of both (awase). There are variations in flavor depending on the region, such as Shinshū miso or Sendai miso.

The most common dashi is made with dried fish (small dried sardines), dried kombu (seaweed), bonito flakes (dried, thin, smoked tuna), or dried shiitake mushrooms. Kombu can be combined with bonito flakes or shiitake mushrooms, along with other ingredients, to create dashi. Dashi made from kombu and shiitake mushrooms is served as a vegetarian option in Japan. The ingredients for dashi are chosen based on the region, season, and climate. They are selected to create contrast in color, texture, and flavor. Therefore, common ingredients like onions and tofu are used to highlight the soup's flavor. Floating ingredients like dried seaweed and submerged ingredients like mushrooms, potatoes, seaweed, onions, shrimp, fish, and grated or sliced daikon radish are added for texture and flavor.

Tempura refers to dishes where vegetables or seafood are coated in flour and deep-fried in oil. The preparation time is usually short to preserve the food’s flavors. The most popular type of tempura is shrimp tempura. Tempura is often dipped in soy sauce or wasabi, served alongside rice balls, Japanese noodles, or enjoyed as a snack with beer. Loved by both Japanese locals and international visitors of all ages, tempura is appreciated for its delightful crispiness and simple preparation. It is a common dish in Japanese meals, ranging from bento boxes to high-end feasts. Along with sushi, tempura is among the most internationally recognized Japanese dishes.

What distinguishes tempura from other battered fried dishes, such as ebifurai, is the unique batter, oil, and dipping sauce or condiments. The batter for tempura is a runny mixture of wheat flour, egg yolk, and cold water. The frying oil is a combination of regular cooking oil and sesame oil. The dipping sauce or seasoning varies depending on personal taste or the restaurant, commonly soy sauce (nowadays, specialized tempura soy sauce is available), or fine salt. Some Japanese people and restaurants add wasabi to the dipping sauce for tempura. Another variation involves grating fresh daikon radish and mixing it with soy sauce for dipping. The primary ingredients used in tempura are seafood, with shrimp, squid, and fish being the most common, along with vegetables such as pumpkin, shishito peppers, sweet potatoes, perilla leaves, bell peppers, and okra. Tempura is often served with beer, sake, rice, or Japanese noodles such as soba or udon.

Sashimi is a Japanese dish consisting of raw seafood, meticulously sliced into thin pieces and served without any additional seasoning. It is typically enjoyed by dipping it in soy sauce or wasabi, depending on personal taste. While it may seem like a simple dish, sashimi requires great skill and precision. The chef must select the freshest seafood and have a deep understanding of each part of the fish, shrimp, or octopus. Additionally, a chef must possess the knife skills to cut the seafood into perfect slices. To experience authentic sashimi, one should visit high-end restaurants.

Sashimi is often served as the first course in a formal Japanese meal, but it can also be the main dish, eaten with rice and a side of miso soup. Many Japanese people consider sashimi, traditionally regarded as the finest fish dish in Japanese cuisine, to be the first course to avoid overpowering the palate with strong flavors from subsequent dishes. In Japanese culinary culture, sashimi represents the artistry of the cuisine, celebrating subtlety and refinement. The purity of the dish can range from the traditional salmon (which is not native to Japan) to squid. The main component of sashimi, the sliced seafood, is often accompanied by decorative vegetables, typically shredded daikon radish and perilla leaves.

Ramen is a type of noodle similar to Chinese pulled noodles but with a more complex broth and distinct ingredients for accompaniments. The base of the broth is dashi, but it is combined with simmered bones like chicken, pork, seaweed, or mushrooms, which varies from shop to shop. The noodles are served in hot broth, accompanied by boiled eggs, dried bamboo shoots, a slice of pork, and fresh vegetables like green onions, corn, minced garlic, or dried seaweed, depending on the preparation style. This dish is a popular late-night snack in Japan, commonly sold at roadside stalls. Ramen comes in various forms, with different noodle thicknesses and lengths. The noodles can be thick, thin, or even as thin as ribbons, and can also be straight or wavy.

There are many different types of ramen in Japan, which vary by region and specific shop, even within the same category. Ramen can be classified by two main components: the noodles and the broth. Kansui, a unique ingredient in ramen noodles, comes from the Inner Mongolia region, where certain lakes contain high levels of minerals and produce water considered ideal for making these noodles. Using kansui gives the noodles a yellow color and a firm texture. Eggs can also be used in place of kansui. Some types of noodles are not made with eggs or kansui and are only suitable for yakisoba, as they are weaker and become overly soft when cooked in soup broth.

Sukiyaki is a Japanese hot pot dish made with a broth consisting of soy sauce, sugar, and sweet mirin wine. It is typically served with thinly sliced beef, vegetables, and tofu. To eat, diners break a raw egg into a separate bowl, then dip the beef from the hot pot into the egg mixture before eating. This dish is a popular choice during cold winter days, whether among friends or simply enjoyed with family gathered around a warm pot. If you're a fan of Japanese cuisine, you likely know of Sukiyaki—one of the country’s renowned hot pot dishes, alongside Sushi, Tempura, and Sashimi. Sukiyaki is considered a high-end dish, prepared with premium ingredients and a unique cooking and dining style. It is often served at special gatherings and celebratory events.

However, this dish may be unfamiliar to some, so let’s explore what sukiyaki is, its main ingredients, and how to enjoy it. Premium beef slices are quickly dipped into the hot broth, then dipped into the beaten raw egg. The heat from the beef cooks the egg, creating a thin, silky layer around the meat. The tender sweetness of the beef, combined with the rich, creamy egg, is a delightful combination that once tasted, is unforgettable. As a gourmet dish, Sukiyaki is made with high-quality ingredients. The primary ingredient is beef, which can be Australian or Kobe beef. Given the expense of Japanese beef, Sukiyaki is typically enjoyed during special occasions or after payday. The beef is sliced thinly to ensure quick cooking, allowing it to absorb the flavors of the broth and create a tender, sweet, and easily chewable texture.

Takoyaki is one of Japan’s most famous street foods. Essentially, it is a ball-shaped snack filled with octopus and cooked in a special round mold until golden and crispy. Takoyaki is often topped with dried bonito flakes and various Japanese sauces, with optional green onions for extra flavor. Typically eaten while hot, the exterior is crispy while the inside has a soft batter with chewy octopus, making it a favorite for young people in Vietnam in recent years. Originally, Takoyaki was eaten plain, without any sauce. The addition of sauce didn’t occur until after World War II in 1948, when different shops began to create their own unique sauces with varying flavors.

Takoyaki was first sold in Osaka by a street food vendor named Endo Tomekichi, who originally made beef-filled pancakes dipped in soy sauce. However, after trying the local dish Akashiyaki in 1935, he was so impressed that he switched to using octopus as the filling and named it Takoyaki. The dish quickly gained popularity in the Kinki region before spreading across Japan. By the time World War II ended, Takoyaki had become a recognized specialty of Osaka, and more vendors began to sell it. Initially sold at food stalls during festivals, by 1955, there were over 5,000 Takoyaki restaurants in Osaka alone. Nowadays, Takoyaki can even be found pre-packaged at supermarkets, and it has begun to spread internationally.

Mochi is a traditional Japanese sweet made from glutinous rice flour or pounded sticky rice. Not only is it enjoyed as a treat in daily life, but it also holds cultural significance as a symbol of luck and is often offered to the gods. Mochi plays a key role in New Year’s celebrations, where it is displayed in the sacred Toko-noma alcove of the home or the kitchen. These special Mochi cakes, called Kagami-mochi, are presented to the deities. On New Year’s Day and during the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Japanese offer Mochi as a prayer for longevity. In traditional ceremonies, the Japanese would tie Mochi cakes to a long bamboo stick and roast them over a fire. It’s believed that eating the roasted Mochi at the Dondo-yaki festival brings health for the entire year. Mochi is also an essential part of the Choto-shiki ceremony, which celebrates the construction of a new house.

To make Mochi, one selects high-quality glutinous rice, steams it thoroughly (sometimes in two rounds), and then pounds it into a smooth, sticky dough. Typically, young men are tasked with this process, as only they can achieve the right consistency; if the rice isn’t pounded correctly, the Mochi will be less tasty and may spoil. For flavored Mochi, food coloring can be added to the water to achieve the desired hue (although coloring is optional). The rice flour is mixed with sugar and colored water, ensuring that the dough is sticky yet slightly firm. Once the dough is ready, it’s wrapped in plastic wrap, microwaved for 3 minutes on high, stirred with a wooden spoon, and microwaved again for another minute. After a final 30-second stirring, the dough becomes perfectly chewy.

When thinking of Japan, one immediately recalls the traditional sushi. The most important ingredient in making sushi is vinegar-seasoned rice, combined with other ingredients such as seaweed, scrambled eggs, various seafood like raw fish, octopus, squid, shrimp, salmon roe, or vegetables. As a result, there are many variations of sushi. All of them are typically served with soy sauce or the spicy, distinctive wasabi mustard of Japan. Historically, the Japanese have known how to preserve fish, shrimp, and other seafood in rice to maintain their delicious flavor. During the preservation process, the rice is often mixed with a little vinegar for a sweet-sour balance, which gives the preserved fish the distinct flavor that characterizes sushi.

The vinegar-mixed rice used for sushi is called sumeshi or sushimeshi. This type of vinegar is not ordinary vinegar but a mixture containing salt, sugar, and the sweet Mirin wine. Therefore, it's referred to as awasesu or sushi vinegar. Once the rice is cooked (it is not fully cooked like regular rice), it is placed in a wooden tub called a tarai and mixed with the vinegar. While the rice is being mixed, a sushi master uses a fan to cool it down, allowing the vinegar to retain its flavor. The seafood used for sushi is called Neta. Neta may include tuna, salmon, eel, pufferfish, mackerel, shrimp (especially the sakura ebi variety), squid, octopus, various sea snails, and crab. Brown rice can also be used to make sushi for people following a diet.

Onigiri, known as rice balls, is so widely loved today that you can easily find it in convenience stores across both Vietnam and Japan. This dish is made primarily from rice, which is shaped into balls or triangles, with fillings that could include tuna, salmon, or pickled plum. In modern times, other fillings such as crab sticks, teriyaki chicken, and tempura shrimp have also become popular. The rice is then wrapped in a piece of dried seaweed. Onigiri is not only a nutritious meal but also a convenient option for busy people who don’t have time to prepare a full meal. During the Kamakura and early Edo periods, onigiri was a quick and easy meal. Chefs only had to focus on preparing enough onigiri without worrying about service. At that time, onigiri was simply rice with a bit of salt. The addition of nori to onigiri became widespread during the Meiji period, when nori farming was introduced and it became available as thin sheets.

There was a time when it was believed that onigiri could not be made by machines because shaping the rice balls by hand was thought to be too difficult for machines to replicate. However, in the 1980s, machines that could make triangle-shaped onigiri were developed. Initially, they faced skepticism because, instead of rolling the filling inside, the filling was simply placed in a hole in the rice, which was then covered with nori. Moreover, onigiri produced by these machines were always pre-wrapped in nori, which over time would become soggy and stick to the rice. The wrapping technique was improved by separating the nori from the rice, allowing consumers to wrap the nori around the onigiri themselves when they ate it. While this method of inserting fillings instead of rolling them inside was seen as a limitation, it actually made it easier to change the ingredients inside the onigiri when desired.

Although it does not originate from Japan, curry rice has been extremely popular in Japan for over a century, ever since the Meiji era. Japanese curry is not as spicy and intense as Indian curry; it tends to have a milder and sweeter flavor. The sauce is typically made with vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, onions, and meat, then poured over hot rice. This dish can be accompanied by pickled cucumbers or a slice of crispy fried pork, depending on personal preferences. In addition to the sauce, various vegetables and meats are used to prepare Japanese curry. The most common vegetables include onions, carrots, and potatoes, while beef, pork, and chicken are the most popular meat choices. Katsu-karē is a breaded and deep-fried meat cutlet served with Japanese curry sauce.

Curry was introduced to Japan during the Meiji period (1868 - 1912), a time when the Indian subcontinent was under British colonial rule. By the 1870s, curry began being served in Japan and quickly became a staple in the Japanese diet. It wasn't until the early 20th century, when curry was adopted by the Japanese Navy and Army, that it gained widespread popularity. After its successful introduction in the military and navy, it became a regular feature in school cafeterias. By the 2000s, curry had become a more common meal than sushi or tempura.