When most people when they think of Japanese food, sushi, miso soup, white rice and ramen comes to mind. These dishes are known as washoku 和食, (traditional) Japanese food.
But did you know that in Japanese cuisine, many dishes were inspired by food from other countries?
Even though these type of dishes are called yoshoku (洋食 or Western food), you won’t find any of these dishes outside Japan.
Most of these dishes were created about 100~200 years ago during the Meji era (1868-1912) inspired by popular cuisines from other countries like France, Italy, America and the UK.
The Western dishes were adapted to suit the Japanese culture and made with ingredients that were available.
Japanese Salibury Steak From children to adults, everyone loves hambagu. Pour rich demi-glace sauce for western style, or top it with grated Japanese radish and soy sauce for Japanese style. You can enjoy it a million ways depending on the finishing sauce.
Spaghetti Napolitana
Curry Rice (or more accurately, Curry and Rice) Kare-raisu can be considered Japan’s national food. In fact, there’s an emoji for it! 🍛 The dish originates from navy curry that was imported through the British Navy in the early Meiji period. Each family creates their own recipe for the sauce using various ingredients. Or you […]