AMAZAKE

A sweetener or refreshing drink made from cooked sweet rice and koji starter that has fermented into a thick liquid. Also spelled amasake.

ARAME

A mild-tasting sea vegetable that is similar to hijiki. Arame is a brown algae that grows in deep waters. Rich in iron, calcium, and other minerals, arame is often cooked with sweet root vegetables and served as a side dish.

ASPERGILLUS

A specific group of molds used to inoculate beans and grains to make koji, Aspergillus is the starter for many Japanese fermented foods.

AZUKI BEANS

Small, dark red beans. Especially good when cooked with kombu and winter squash. This bean is also spelled adzuki or aduki.

BANCHA TEA

Japan's coarse summer tea leaves that are sold as lower-quality green tea.

BENTO

meal served in a compartmentalised, laquered wooden box.

BIFUN NOODLES

Light, transparent noodles made from rice flour and potato starch.

BULLDOG SAUCE

The leading brand of tonkatsu sauce.

BURDOCK

A hardy plant that grows wild and is cultivated throughout the US as well as Japan. The long, dark burdock root is delicious in soups, stews, and vegetable dishes. It is highly valued in macrobiotic diets for ist strengthening qualities. Burdock's Japanese name is gobo.

CALPIS

A sweet soft drink derived from milk, that's similar in taste to barley water, dilute to taste and serve icecold.

CHA

The japanese word for tea.

CHA-NO-YU

The Zen Buddhist tea ceremony.

CHAWAN-MUSHI

A savoury egg custard served in a tea tumbler (chawan).

CHIRASHI SUSHI

Sushi format, raw sliced fish scattered on top of the rice.

DAIKON

A long, white radish, often grated or cut into fine strips. Daikon helps dissolve stagnant fat deposits that have accumulated in the body. Freshly grated raw daikon is especially helpful in the digestion of oily foods.

DASHI

An all-purpose stock for soups and simmered dishes usually made with kombu (a type of seaweed) and flavoured with dried shiitake or bonito (a type of tuna) flakes.

DOBIN-MUSHI

a variety of morsels (prawn, fish,chicken, shiitake, gingko nuts) in a gently-flavoured fish-stock based soup, steamed (mushi) and served in a clay tea-pot (dobin).

DONBURI

A bowl of boiled rice with various toppings, such as beef, chicken, egg.

ERITADENINE

A substance found in shiitake that lowers blood cholesterol.

FU

A dried wheat-gluten product. Available in thin sheets or thick round cakes, fu is a satisfying high-protein food used in soups, stews and vegetable dishes.

FUKI

bog rhubarb.

FUTO MAKI

Thick rolls of rice filled with a mix of vegetables and raw fish and rolled in nori.

GARI

Pickled ginger, usually pink and thinly sliced. Served with sushi to cleanse the palate between courses.

GOHAN

Rice.

GYOKURO

Japan's rarest, most expensive tea, Gyokuro is made from the tender first tea leaves of spring.

GYOZA

Soft pastry cases stuffed with spiced pork and herbs, broadly similar to ravioli, or some types of chinese dim sum. They are cooked by a combination of frying and steaming, and usually eaten as an accompaniment to ramen noodle dishes.

HASHI

chopsticks.

HIJIKI

A dark, brown sea vegetable that turns black when dried, hijiki has a spaghetti-like consistency. It is stronger-tasting than arame. and is very high in protein,calcium and iron. Also spelled hiziki.

HOJICHA TEA

A Japanese tea made from roasted coarse leaves and stems.

KAISEKI

A traditional Japanese meal consisting of a series of small,seasonal dishes,each resembling an appetizer both in size and beauty of presentation. Natural,hand-crafted serving-ware is carefully chosen to complement the season, the food, and the food's arrangement. Like the tea ceremony. kaiseki was initially a formal, highly refined, spiritual discipline marked by the Zen ideals of simplicity, harmony, and restraint.

KATA DOFU

A firm, coarse type of tofu.

KATSU

breaded and deep-fried meat, hence tonkatsu (pork katsu) and katsu curry (tonkatsu or chicken katsu with rice in a curry sauce).

KOJI

Grains or beans inoculated with Aspergillus mold and used as a starter for most Japanese fermented foods,including miso, tamari, shoyu, amazake, mirin and rice vinegar.

KOMBU

A wide, thick,dark green sea vegetable that is rich in minerals.Kombu is often cooked with beans and vegetables. A single piece may be used two or three times to flavour a soup stock.

KORI DOFU

Tofu that has been dehydrated by a natural freezing and drying process Also called snow-dried dofu.

KOYA DOFU

A form of snow-dried tofu that has been dehydrated in a heated shed.

KUKICHA TEA

A Japanese tea made from roasted tea twigs and stems.

KURO-SU

The Japanese name for brown rice-vinegar.Kuro-su is valued for ist high concentration of essential amino acids,its medicinal qualities, and its mellow taste.

KUZU

A white starch made from the root of the wild kazu plant. It is used in making soups,sauces,desserts, and medicinal beverages.

MAKI

Sushi format, rolled piece of rice filled with raw fish (tekka maki - tuna, sake maki - salmon) or vegetables like cucumber (kappa maki), wrapped in nori and cut into four to six handsome pieces.

MATCHA

The jade green powdered tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

MIRIN

Sweet rice wine traditionally made by a complex destillation and double-fermentation process. Used in cooking as a high-quality sweetener and seasoning.

MISO

A protein-rich, fermented bean paste made from soybeans,usually with the addition of barley or brown or white rice. Miso is used in soup stocks and as a seasoning.It comes in a wide variety of styles from white to red, from slightly sweet to very salty and earthy, and crunchy or smooth.

MISOSHIRU

Classic miso soup with pieces of beancurd. Drink it from the bowl, and eat the beancurd with chopsticks.

MIZU AME

Rice malt.

MOCHI

A heavy rice cake or dumpling made from cooked, pounded sweet rice. Mochi is said to be good for lactating mothers, as it promotes the production of breast milk. Mochi can be made at home or purchased ready-made.

MOROMI

The thick slurry of fermenting koji and other ingredients that forms during the brewing process of soy sauce , sake , and mirin.

MUGWORT

A mineral-rich herb that is dried and used a medicinal tea. Dried ground mugwort is also added to mochi and soba noodles.

MURO

A uniquely constructed room used to incubate koji.

MUSHIMONO

Steamed food, such as chawan-mushi, a savoury egg custard served in a tea tumbler (Chawan).

NATTO

Fermented soy beans, it has a stringy, mucous consistency.

NIGARI

The traditional Japanese tofu coagulant, nigari is extracted from dehydrated sea water.

NIGIRI SUSHI

Sushi format, hand-shaped piece of rice with any sort of sliced raw fish on top.

NOODLES

Second only to rice as Japan's favourite staple. See ramen, udon, soba. Noodles are served hot or cold, dry or in soup and sometimes fried.

NORI

Thin sheets of dried sea vegetable. Nori is often roasted over a flame until its colour turns from black or purple to green. It is used as a garnish, wrapped around rice balls or other foods, or cooked with tamari as a condiment.

O-CHA

The Japanese word for tea, o-cha is also used to designate a tea break.

O-HAGI

Mochi that has been formed into small flat cakes or balls, then coated with puréed azuki beans or chestnuts,roasted and ground nuts or sesame seeds,or soybean flour.

OKONOMI-YAKI

Japanese pizza, in fact more like an overstuffed omelette, usually cooked in front of you on a teppan-yaki grill.

OKEYASAN

Name for Japanese carpenters who specialize in making and repairing traditional wooden vats and barrels.

O-TOSO

A medicinal drink made by infusing a combination of herbs in mirin.O-Toso is traditionalls drunk on New Year's day.

RAMEN

Chinese-style egg noodles.

RICE MALT

A natural, high-quality sweetener made from malted barley or koji, rice, and water.

SAKÉ

Fermented rice wine made from koji and rice (between 15% and 16% alcohol). Sake is usually served warm in small cups but can be served at room temperature or chilled in small wooden boxes with salt at the rim.

SANSAI

'wild mountain vegetables', a mix of very yound shoots that might include warabi (bracken), Zemmai (flowering fern), Fuki (bog rhubarb) and seri (dropwort).

SASHIMI

Raw, slivered fish, usually served with a dip made of shoyu and wasabi. The different styles of filleting are highly ritualised,different fish are cut in different ways.

SENCHA

High-quality Japanese green tea made from young,tender leaves.

SERI

Dropwort.

SHABU SHABU

Originally a traditional peasant dish designed to capture all possible nourishment from the little food available. A pan of stock is heatd at the table and plates of thinly-sliced raw beef and vegetables are cooked piece by piece in it. The broth is then portioned out and drunk.

SHIITAKE

Cultivated mushrooms grown on hardwood logs or enriched sawdust.

SHOCHU

A concentrated distilled alcoholic drink.

SHOYU

Fermented soy sauce made with cultured wheat and soybeans,water and sea salt.

SOBA

Noodles made from buckwheat flour or a combination of buckwheat and wheat flour. Some varieties contain other ingredients such as dried mugwort powder, mountain yam flour, or powdered green tea.

SOMEN

Very thin Japanese wheat noodles.

SUKIYAKI

Pieces of thinly-sliced beef and vegetables are boiled at table on a portable stove then taken out and dipped in raw egg, which cooks on the hot food.

SURIBACHI

A special serrated, glazed clay bowl. Used with a pestle-called a surikogi- the suribachi is used for grinding and puréeing foods. The suribachi can be used in a variety of ways to make condiments, spreads, dressings, baby foods, nut butters and medicinal preparations.

SUSHI

Nowadays sushi is commonly known as raw fish on a piece of rice.But actually sushi means vinegared rice that is rolled with vegetables, fish or pickles, then wrapped in nori, and sliced into rounds (Norimaki). There are different sushi formats: Nigiri (hand-shaped), futo (thick), maki (rolled), temaki (hand-rolled), chirashi (scattered on top of the rice).

TAMAGO-SU (EGG VINEGAR)

A medicinal tonic made by diisolving an egg in rice vinegar.

TAMARI

A wheat-fre fermented soy sauce made with cultured soybeans,water, and sea salt.

TATAMI

A heavy straw mat, the traditional Japanese flooring. A tatami room in a restaurant is a private room where you are required to remove your shoes and sit on the floor, Japanese-style, to eat.

TEA

Black tea is fermented, while green tea is heat-treated by steam to prevent the leaves fermenting. Bancha tea is the coarsest grade of green tea which has ben roasted, it contains stems or twigs as well as leaves, and is usualy served free of charge with a meal.

TEISHOKU

Japanese for set meal.

TEMAKI

Sushi format, rolled nori like a cylinder filled with rice and raw fish and vegetables.

TEMPURA

A method of cooking in which vegetables, fish or seafood are coated with batter and deep-fried in vegetable oil. Served with a shoyu-based dipping sauce, to which you add finely-grated daikon. Tempura is often served with soup, rice or noodles, and pickles.

TEPPAN-YAKI

'Grilled on an iron plate', or originally 'grilled on a plough share'. In modern Japanese restaurants a chef standing at a hot plate (teppan) is surrounded by six to eight diners. Slivers of beef, fish and vegetables are cooked with a dazling display of knifework, and deposited onto your plate. Most famous restaurants are the Daitokai chain.

TERIYAKI

A sauce made of a thick reduction of shoyu,saké,sugar and spice. It is also the name of the cooking method in which meat is marinated in shoyu and a wine (mirin or saké), then grilled and served in this sauce.

TE-UCHI

Hand-made Japanese noodles.

TOFU

Soybean curd made from soybeans and nigari. Used in soups, vegetable dishes, dressings. Tofu is high in protein, low in fat, and cholesterol-free.

TOKKURI

vase-like saké flask.

TONKATSU

loin of pork, covered in bread-crumbs and deep-fried, served with a tonkatsu sauce and shredded cabbage.

TSUKEMONO

Vegetables pickled in salt, usually an accompaniment to rice.

UDON

Japanese noodles made from wheat, whole wheat, or whole wheat and unbleached flour (like soft spaghetti).

UMEBOSHI

Tart, salty Japanese pickled plums, which stimulate the appetite and digestion. Shiso leaves impart a reddish colour and natural flavouring to the plums during pickling. Umeboshi can be used whole or in form of paste.

WAKAME

A long, thin brown sea vegetable used in a variety of dishes. Wakame has a sweet taste and a delicate texture. It is especially good in miso soup.

WARABI

bracken.

WASABI

A light green Japanese root that has been dried, powdered, and made into a paste. It is traditionally used as a seasoning in sushi, sashimi, and in dipping sauces. Wasabi is very hot with a taste reminiscent of horseradish.

YAKITORI

Barbecued chicken with strips of leek and bacon served on skewers.

YASAI

Vegetables.

ZEMMAI

Flowering fern.

ZENSAI

Small appetisers.