REPOST: 10 Ways to Eat Healthily at the Japanese Restaurant

Are you planning to dine in a Japanese restaurant soon? Then better be guided by this MensHealth.com article that features what Japanese food to avoid and indulge in if you want to stay on the healthy side.

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According to a 2010 World Health Organization report, the Japanese have the highest life expectancy in the world. And that may be partly due to their diet, which traditionally consists of vegetables, rice, legumes, and fish. Another outstanding feature of the Japanese diet? Their ways of preparing foods: raw, boiled, steamed, and using a wok. That said, Americans have a way of perverting even the healthiest dishes, drowning them in sodium-packed soy sauce or serving elephant-sized portions. Eat Japanese food the way its originators intended with the 10 tips found in this slideshow [article].

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Miso Soup

Miso is made from fermented soybeans, which means that every bowl brings a wholesome serving of isoflavones. These powerful compounds have anticarcinogenic properties, and at least one study shows that they prevent your body from overproducing fat cells.

Edamame

Consisting of nothing but fresh soybeans, edamame makes a great start to your meal. Working them free from their pods keeps you from eating too quickly, and each bean provides a nourishing mix of protein, fiber, and omega-3 fats. Just ask for your bowl unsalted and add a small pinch at the table.

Noodle Soups

Soba noodles are thin buckwheat noodles, while udon are thick and wheat-based. Think of udon like normal spaghetti, while soba can save you calories and boost your fiber intake.

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Vegetable Tempura

Vegetable or not, this is still the Japanese version of deep-fried food, which makes it essentially the same as Southern staples like fried okra and onion rings. The batter might be slightly lighter than the American version we're used to, but with so many truly healthy items on the menu, why waste your calories on fat?

Sushi Roll Decoder

Cucumber Roll: 110 calories, 0 g fat
Tuna Roll: 140 calories, 2 g fat
California Roll: 255 calories, 7 g fat
Spicy Tuna Roll: 290 calories, 11 g fat
Dragon Roll: 490 calories, 12 g fat
Shrimp Tempura Roll: 510 calories, 21 g fat

Nigiri

This is slabs of raw fish fastened to ice cube-size blocks of rice with pieces of seawood. Most people find raw fish easier to handle when it's mixed with rice, but beware: That rice acts like a sponge as soon as you dip it in soy sauce. Every tablespoon you eat gobbles up as much as 40 percent of your day's sodium limit.

Unagi

The consumer-awareness organization Seafood Watch has warned consumers to avoid eel for fear of adding more pressure to the already declining population. Worry not, though; using salmon as a benchmark, eel has less protein and 80 percent more fat, plus it's often prepared with a crust of cooked sugars. Skip it and go straight for the salmon.

Sashimi

Seafood in its purest form, this dish consists of nothing but thin slices of raw salmon, tuna, squid, or whatever else is fresh. No matter which fish you choose, you're guaranteed to get a massive load of protein with relatively little fat.

Omakase

The Japanese equivalent of a multi-course tasting menu. Go ahead, let the chef feed you; he knows what's truly fresh, and unlike American cooks, sushi masters aren't likely to stuff you until you're stuck to the chair.

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Sake

The rice wine might go well with sushi, but you're better off drinking beer or regular wine. A 6-ounce serving of sake has about 230 calories. The same amount of wine—or  a 12-ounce beer—has about 150. Choose accordingly.

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Before you eat: Japanese dining etiquettes and taboos

Image Source: MyCrazyBuffet.com

Japanese culture is centered on politeness, respect, and graciousness. Such reverence and refinement is observed not only in how they treat each other, but also in their manner of eating and dining.

For those who are foreign to the table manners and dining taboos of Japan, there are some essential things to keep in mind before eating Japanese food.

At the beginning of the meal, the Japanese bow and position their hands in a Namaste manner and politely say “Itadakimasu” which means “I gratefully receive.” This gesture is an expression of gratitude and appreciation for the collective efforts made by many in the preparation of the meal.

Image Source: ChopstickEtiquette.com

It is customary for the Japanese to use chopsticks, and one of the most fundamental elements of Japanese table manners is the proper use of chopsticks. When there is shared food, the ends of the chopsticks which are not used for eating are usually used to take food from the shared plate. The other end is used for eating and should not be used to pick up shared food. In addition, it is taboo to stick the chopsticks into the rice. In Japanese tradition, sticking chopsticks into the rice is done only at the funerals.

Sharing food is also common in Japanese dining. In fact, it is practiced in private households and in restaurants such as an izakaya. When sharing food, it is proper to place a morsel of food onto a small plate and then pass the dish to another person. Passing food from chopstick to chopstick is an offensive gesture as it resembles the Japanese’s funeral tradition of cremation wherein the bones of the deceased are handled in almost the same fashion.

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When eating rice, the rice bowl should be held close to the mouth. This is done to avoid spilling the rice. It is also considered rude to pour an excessive amount of soy over the rice. Instead, a small amount of soy should be poured onto the dish, not on the rice. When eating sushi, it is expected that one will eat it in one bite. Separating or cutting the sushi into halves destroys the beautifully prepared sushi. Slurping is allowed when eating noodles; however it is not a universally practiced Japanese etiquette. In fact, it is considered offensive similarly with blowing one’s nose at the table.

To end the meal, one should always express gratitude by saying “Gochisosama deshita” or “Thank you for the meal.”

JC Uni-tec provides kitchen equipment perfect for making Japanese dishes. This blog offers more topics on Japanese cuisine.

The Japanese-Style Meal: Planning and Preparation

Discover the secrets of Japanese style meal planning and preparation in this Kikoman.com article.

 

In the 1970s, the daily diet revolved around the so-called Japanese-style meal—nutritionally balanced foods that arguably define Japanese cuisine. In our current Feature series, we take an in-depth look at these meals, including their planning and preparation.

The Ideal Ichiju San-sai

The Japanese-style meal involves some planning. The traditional menu is described as ichiju san-sai, or "one-soup, three dishes," and features soup, one main dish and two side dishes. Not counted but always served with these are rice and konomono, pickled vegetables.

Meal planning takes its cues from nature, and incorporates fresh seasonal ingredients. One begins with the staple, typically plain rice, or rice with seasonal ingredients added, such as bamboo shoots in Spring or chestnuts in Autumn.

Following this is the main dish, which usually contains a substantial amount of protein such as meat, fish or tofu. Examples are grilled or sautéed fish; yaki-niku (grilled meat); tonkatsu (pork cutlet); or agedashi-dofu (deep-fried tofu with soy sauce-based sauce garnished with ginger and green onion). Each of these would be accompanied by vegetables or some kind of potato.

Next are the two side dishes, for which one chooses vegetables not included in the main dish, prepared using a different method. Additionally, care is taken not to duplicate the ingredients or preparation methods of either of the side dishes themselves. The ingredients and flavoring of the soup, finally, should complement all three dishes.

A typical ichiju san-sai menu might include salt-grilled fish as the main dish, and miso soup with tofu and wakame (kelp). One of the two side dishes might be chikuzen-ni, whose ingredients of chicken, carrots, burdock, lotus root, sato-imo (taro), and konnyaku (yam cake) are sautéed together and then simmered. The remaining side dish could be goma-ae, blanched spinach with sesame dressing. The meal is accompanied by rice and konomono such as salt-pickled Chinese cabbage.

The main dish might be changed to one of meat and vegetables, while the second side dish—in this case goma-ae—could be replaced with a salad or with sunomono (a vinegar-marinated dish) made, for example, with cucumbers and wakame.

By choosing seasonal vegetables for as many of the dishes as possible, and by varying preparation methods—grilling, boiling, simmering, mixing with dressing (aemono), marinating with vinegar, and so on—the basic menu accommodates great variety.

Nutritional Balance

How well-balanced are such menus? If we use a current food composition table to calculate the nutritional value of the above menu, we find that rice (one-and-a-half bowls totaling about 80 grams), salt-grilled salmon (one slice at 70 grams), and individual servings of chikuzen-ni, goma-ae and miso soup, provide a total of some 620 kilocalories, which is roughly equivalent to one-third the recommended standard daily calorie intake for an adult woman.

The amount of protein is slightly high at 32 grams, and the fat intake is an almost appropriate amount of just over 25 percent of total calories. Moreover, this meal offers 35 percent of the recommended standard daily intake of calcium, which is relatively difficult to obtain; about the same percentage of vitamin C; and the appropriate amount of minerals. It also provides the recommended daily intake of vitamin A (retinol), most of this sourced from the carotene of vegetables such as carrots and spinach. Forty percent of the fats come from plant-derived foods, mostly sesame, and these are all very healthy.

The amount of rice consumed may be adjusted as appropriate for gender, age and level of physical activity. An appropriately balanced diet is therefore relatively easy to achieve by eating meals comprising rice with soup and three accompanying dishes.

Cooking Methods

The cooking of Japanese-style meals requires a fair amount of clean water. Rice is rinsed to wash away remaining bran prior to steaming; spinach for the side dish is blanched in boiling water, then plunged into cold water to preserve its fresh green color. In preparing raw fish for sashimi, plenty of water to wash the fish is indispensable.

Water is also needed to simmer or steam foods, such as niku-jaga (simmered meat and potatoes) or chawan-mushi (steamed egg custard); even when serving chilled tofu (hiya-yakko), the tofu is chilled in cold water and the accompanying green onion and ginger garnishes require water in their preparation.

Because Japanese-style meals are eaten with chopsticks, skill with kitchen knives is considered of great importance. Japanese kitchen knives are traditionally single-beveled, thought to help retain flavor in slicing fish for sashimi, for example. Although professionals use single-beveled knives, many households today use double-beveled, Western kitchen knives.

Many dishes call for ingredients to be cut into very thin, uniform strips or bite-sized pieces, and so a good cutting board is as indispensable as the proper cutting technique: cucumbers and daikon radish, for example, are often sliced very thin, and the white stems of long onions are precisely cut into long, fine, delicate strips called shiraga-negi, used as garnish.

Until recently, the Japanese-style meal was also the norm for breakfast in most homes: children would wake to the rhythmical sound of their mother's knife chopping vegetables, accompanied by the fragrance of miso soup.

Although ingredients differed from one family to another and each had its own favorite tastes, the basic styles of eating were repeated every day, and standard cooking techniques were mastered and used in all households. The recollection of such meals brings back warm memories for many.  

Source:http://www.kikkoman.com/foodforum/thejapanesetable/30.shtml

Feature: Tuna sushi with rocket salad

Published in BBC.co.uk, this recipe includes a step by step procedure on how to make tuna sushi, complete with dressing and a salad side dish. 

by: Simon Rimmer

For this recipe you will need a sushi mat.

30 mins to 1 hour: preparation time
Less than 10 mins cooking time

Ingredients

For the tuna sushi

• 200g/7oz sushi rice
• 350ml/12fl oz water
• pinch salt
• 30g/1oz caster sugar
• 50ml/2fl oz rice wine vinegar
• 100g/3½oz nigella seeds
• 1 tbsp ready-made wasabi paste, mixed until well combined with ½tsp water
• 200g/7oz raw top-grade tuna fillet, cut into very thin slices
• 100g/3½oz carrot, peeled, very finely sliced (use a mandoline if you have one) 

For the dressing

• 100ml/3½fl oz light soy sauce
• 1 lime, juice only
• splash fish sauce
• 1 tsp ready-made wasabi paste

For the rocket salad

• 150g/5½oz fresh rocket leaves
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds, out of their shells

To serve

• 10 -12 pieces pickled pink ginger
• soy sauce, to taste
• 1 tsp ready-made wasabi paste

Preparation method

1) For the tuna sushi, wash the sushi rice thoroughly in cold water and drain well. Place the drained sushi rice into a pan and pour over the water. Bring to the boil, then cover the pan with a lid and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer the rice for 4-5 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and set aside, covered, to cool.

2) When the cooked sushi rice has completely cooled, drain off any excess water, then transfer the rice to a bowl. Season, to taste, with the salt, then sprinkle over the sugar and drizzle over the rice wine vinegar. Mix until well combined.

3) Cover a sushi mat with cling film and sprinkle over the nigella seeds to form an even layer. Place a 1cm/½in layer of the sushi rice on top of the seeds, then spread over the wasabi paste.

4) Lay the tuna slices on top of the wasabi to form a thin layer, then arrange a layer of carrot slices on top.

5) Roll the sushi into a tight sausage shape using the sushi mat. (The sushi mat and cling film are used as guides to make the sushi easier to roll, but they should not be incorporated into the sushi roll, but should be peeled away as you roll the sushi).

6) Wrap the sushi roll in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. When the sushi roll has chilled, slice it into 2cm/¾in rounds, trimming off the ends.

7) For the dressing, in a bowl, mix together the dressing ingredients until well combined.

8) For the rocket salad, in a bowl, mix together the rocket leaves and pumpkin seeds. Drizzle over the dressing and mix well to cover the leaves.

9) To serve, divide the tuna sushi pieces equally among four serving plates. Place a few pieces of pink pickled ginger, a small dipping bowl of soy sauce and a dot of wasabi paste alongside. Pile the dressed salad alongside.


Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tunasushiwithrockets_91177