Tsuke-Mono つけもの
Tsuke-Mono/O-Shinko - pickles I don't know if we can call it as a dish, but these salt vegetables acoompany almost always Japanese meal. Taste varies from simple salty one to the sweet sour precious one.
Tempura 天ぷら
Nobody in Japan doubt that the word "tempura" is originally Portuguese. And nobody doubt that the tempura is a typical traditional Japanese dish. Deep fried, yet not fatty. There are deep fried food in almost every country. If you have'nt tried tempura yet, please make a chance. The grated white radish is not only for seasoning, but also good for the digestion. So please mix it with sauce.
Onigiri おにぎり
O-nigiri - Rice Ball nigiri/nigiru - grasp/clasp "O" is a prefix to express the respect. Respect and gratitude for the meal, God or farmers. Onigiri may be one of the oldest Japanese sack lunch. When you see a Japanese old film, there must be always some scenes eating onigiri. However the precious white rice were rare, usually it was made with brown rice.
Ochazuke お茶漬け
Ocha - green tea tduke/zuke - soak In fact you call every boiled rice poured with green tea ochazuke. However usually ochazuke inclueds not only rice and tea, but also season vegetables, pickles, nori, and wasabi. In good restaurant they use even specially prepared consommé instead of tea. At home many people use powder ochazuke, so that you can pour either only hot water or green tea on the rice.
Katsu-Don カツ丼
Katsu - Pork cutlet Deep fried pork with sauce stirred with eggs on the rice. You know that the pronounciation of "t" is difficult for many Japanese. Many pronounce "tsu" for "t". Got it? Hire-Katsu is tender fillet and more expensive. Same Janglish "hire" for "fillet". When you want pork and rice separately, you have to order Ton-katsu. It is same, but more expensive. That is a clue. All the dishes with a suffix "-don", donburi (bow), are cheaper.
Gyu-Don 牛丼
Gyu - Beef Rice on the thin sliced beef. Sliced beef is like sukiyaki, which has sweet soy sauce taste. Right after that the famous discount gyudon family restaurant chain "yoshino-ya" landed in the USA, many people on the world got to know the name and taste of the gyudon.
Curry Rice カレーライス
In the past we did not call curry rice, but rice-curry!?
Nowadays we find rice-curry only at the canteen or snack bar. What's the difference? Anyway, Indian and Englishman should have brought curry to Japan, but the extraordinary popularity in Japan was gained after that some chef have changed the recept.
Cha-Han 炒飯
Cha - fry Han - rice Cha-Han, as well as cha and han are Chinese word. Japanese call every kinds of fried rice cha-han. As you can mix almost every ingredient, many houswives and housmen make cha-han with the rest. As it is originally Chinese dish, it is recommended to use sesame oil with some fresh ginger.
