Sushi
Sushi is a Japanese dish of combining rice and toppings (mainly fish) together.
The commonly known sushi around the world is the "nigirizushi" in which the topping is placed over a small ball of vinegared rice and is shaped by both hands.
Wasabi is applied between the rice and topping in most sushi. Using either chopsticks or your hands,you dip first the sushi in a small soy sauce-filled saucer called "shoyu sashi".
You can ask the chef if you want to have a pinch of wasabi applied onto your sushi or not.
Other than "nigirizushi", there are also other types of sushi such as "makizushi" and a vinegared rice in a bowl and topped with sashimi cuts called "chirashizushi."
The art of making nigirizushi has a long history that traces back to the latter part of the Edo period where food stalls offered it and nigirizushi eventually became a popular food among the common people.
You can enjoy various styles of eating sushi, such as conveyor sushi where saucers move inside the restaurant and you eat sushi at the counter, and "demae sushi" which involves delivery of a sushi.
Tempura
Tempura is a Japanese food that refers to seafood or vegetables dipped in egg, coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried.
Being one of the "Three Flavors of Edo" along with soba and sushi, tempura has been popular since the old times and it is even currently the most popular dish overseas.
Fresh tiger prawns, eels, gobies, Japanese whitings, whitebaits, as well as vegetables such as eggplants and lotus roots are the primary ingredients for tempura, there are, though, also some seasonal ingredients or restaurant-unique ingredients.
Same as sashimi, tempura was originally a popular dish at food stalls back in old times.
Sashimi
Sashimi is a Japanese dish that refers to raw ingredients such as seafoods that are sliced into small pieces, and are eaten with condiments such as soy sauce. Sashimi is also sometimes called “tsukuri” or “otsukuri”.
Sashimi is a kind of dish that would make you taste the ingredient itself and allows you to enjoy its freshness and deliciousness.
Aside seafood, other existing sashimi varieties include horse meat, chicken, liver, konjac jelly, bamboo shoots, yuba (tofu skin) and gluten. Any raw food that are beautifully sliced may be called sashimi or otsukuri.
Sashimi is a dish that can be eaten with ease at izakaya (Japanese bars and pubs) and other places.
