Food!
From our trip to Benkay Japanese restaurant.
Traditional Japanese food uses ingredients available during the season. Breakfast might have of miso soup, rice, dried seaweed, pickles, and green tea. Lunch is usually simple and consists of noodles. Dinner might have rice, a main dish of fish or meat, a side dish of vegetables, miso soup, and pickled vegetables. Japanese usually use chopsticks to eat.
Sushi is not raw fish. Raw fish is called sashimi in Japan and is not the same as sushi. Sushi is foods that use rice seasoned with sweet rice-wine vinegar. Raw fish is the most popular ingredient in sushi, but the main part of sushi is Japanese sticky rice. There are many kinds of sushi, which don't include raw fish. Cooked fish, shellfish, and other ingredients can be combined in sushi. The origin of sushi is not Japan. Sushi was introduced into Japan in the 7th century from China. People began making sushi to preserve fish from spoiling since there were no refrigerators. Since salt and rice were needed in order to keep fish from going bad, sushi became closely related to rice in Japan. Then, it developed into current sushi, which combined fish and rice.
Most Japanese restaurants show what they serve by displaying plastic food. The plastic food is quite expensive and very realistic as seen in the pictures below. Before eating the meal, the Japanese say "Itadakimasu" which is a polite phrase meaning "I receive this food." This expresses thanks to the person who prepared the food.
At the end of the meal, the Japanese say "Gochiso-sama" which is a polite expression to give thanks for the delicious meal.
Here I am enjoying my dinner at Benkay!
