鰻　蕎麦　天ぷら　寿司
Unagi, Soba, Tempura, Sushi



◆　鰻 - Unagi
Unagi (eel) has been consumed in Japan since the 17th century. Unagi is rich in protein, calcium, vitamin A and E, and it's said to give people stamina. For this reason, unagi are eaten the most during the hottest time of the year.
A common unagi dish is unagi-no-kabayaki (grilled eel). Prepared unagi meat (the main bone is removed) is skewered and grilled with sweet basting sauce (kabayaki sauce). It's similar to teriyaki.
When unagi is grilled over charcoals, the fat from unagi drips and burns, causing smoke. The smoke adds a great flavor to unagi. The smell coming from unagi restaurants.
(Source: About.com – Japanese Cuisine)

◆ 蕎麦 - Soba
Soba noodles are native Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour (soba-ko) and wheat flour (komugi-ko). They are roughly as thick as spaghetti, and prepared in various hot and cold dishes. The most basic soba dish is zaru soba in which boiled, cold soba noodles are eaten with a soya based dipping sauce (tsuyu).
Like pasta, soba noodles are available in dried form in supermarkets, but they taste best if freshly made by hand from flour and water.
(Source: japan-guide.com)

◆　てんぷら Tempura
Fresh fish, shellfish, or vegetables dipped in a batter (koromo) of flour mixed with egg and water and then deep-fried. Tempura tastes best eaten right after frying, accompanied by a side dish of special tempura dipping sauce and grated radish. The sauce is a mixture of soy sauce, mirin (sweet sake), and dashi (stock).

The origins of tempura date to the mid-16th century, a time when many items of Portuguese and Spanish culture, including methods of frying game, were brought to Japan (the word tempura is generally thought to be a corruption of the Portuguese tempero or cooking). Cooking with oil had already been introduced in Japan from China as part of a vegetarian diet. The merging of these two elements, after adaptation to Japanese tastes and customs, resulted in tempura as it is known today. Open-air tempura stalls became popular in early-19th-century Edo (now Tokyo), and many of these stalls developed into full-scale tempura restaurants.

A wide variety of foods can be used as ingredients for tempura. Low-fat fish such as smelt (kisu), a kind of whitebait (shirauo), conger eel (anago), cuttlefish (ika), shrimp, and such shellfish as scallops are commonly used. Vegetables used include lotus root, mushrooms, ginkgo nuts, beefsteak plant (shiso), and green peppers. Shrimp tempura is commonly served in a bowl atop a bed of rice in a dish known as tendon, or atop noodles as tempura soba or tempura udon.
(Source: Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan)


◆　寿司 - Sushi
Today sushi can be divided into four broad categories:
Nigirizushi (hand-pressed sushi) is the sushi developed in Edo in the 1800s. It is also known as edomaezushi. It consists of a bite-sized portion of vinegared rice topped with a small slice of raw fish or shellfish (cooked shellfish is also used) and seasoned with a dab of wasabi (Japanese horseradish) between the rice and the topping. Some of the most popular fish used in nigirizushi are tuna (maguro), sea bream (tai), swordfish (makajiki), bonito (katsuo) and sea bass (suzuki). Also used are shrimp (ebi), salmon roe (ikura), octopus (tako), squid (ika), eel (anago), abalone (awabi), and cockle (torigai). Nigirizushi is dipped lightly in soy sauce before eating.
For makizushi (rolled sushi), vinegared rice is spread over a sheet of lightly toasted seaweed (nori) and various types of seafood and/or vegetables are arranged along the center; a thin bamboo mat placed beneath the seaweed beforehand is used to roll the makizushi into a cylinder, which is sliced crosswise into bite-sized pieces. Some of the most popular types of makizushi are tekkamaki (tuna roll), kappamaki (cucumber roll), kampyomaki (gourd roll), and futomaki (a thick roll of omelet, gourd, bits of vegetables, and other ingredients). For temakizushi the seaweed and other ingredients are loosely rolled by hand (without the bamboo mat) into a conelike shape that is not cut into pieces. The various types of makizushi may also be dipped in soy sauce for eating.
The category of chirashizushi (“scattered” sushi) is divided into two regional varieties. In the Tokyo variety cooked and uncooked seafood, vegetables, and sliced omelet are arranged over a bowl of vinegared rice. Soy sauce is served on the side for dipping. In the Osaka version cooked seafood and vegetables are chopped and mixed into the vinegared rice, and the whole is topped with thin strips of omelet.
Oshizushi (pressed sushi) is a specialty of the Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) area made by pressing marinated seafood and vinegared rice in a small, boxlike wooden mold. It is sliced into bite-sized pieces and eaten dipped in soy sauce. Battera is oshizushi topped with marinated mackerel. In making sugatazushi (figure sushi), a whole fish (head intact) is cleaned, deboned, and stuffed with vinegared rice so as to reproduce the original shape of the fish. Inarizushi consists of a pocket of deep-fried bean curd (aburaage) filled with vinegared rice mixed with roasted poppy or sesame seeds.
(Source: Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan)