Essential Ingredients for Traditional Flavors

Here’s the list of herbs, spices and seasonings that the Japanese consider essentials to Japanese cooking.

Bonito flakes are used to make dashi and as a seasoning in many other dishes. Bonito or skipjack tuna belongs to the mackerel family. The fillets are cooked, smoked, dried and cured with mold in a process taking several months. Once hardened, the fillets are shaved into flakes, called katsuobushi.

Kombu is a sea kelp that is dried and used most famously to flavor dashi broth. Kombu is high in glutamates, giving it a savory umami flavor that is often imitated by monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Mustard powder or karashi is powdered mustard seed, sometimes blended with dried horseradish. It needs to be diluted with a bit of water, or it can be purchased as a paste. Karashi is hotter and more intense than Western mustard, and is used sparingly as a condiment or as an ingredient in dressings and dipping sauces.

Sansho powder, or Japanese pepper, is a golden spice ground from the seedpod surrounding the berry of the prickly ash shrub. It has a citrusy, minty aroma and flavor, and a slight tongue-tingling effect. It is used in shichimi togarashi and as an all-purpose seasoning.

Sesame seeds or goma, both black and white, are used widely in Japanese cooking as a seasoning and garnish in sweet and savory dishes. Both black and white seeds benefit from toasting before use to bring out their flavor and aroma.

Shichimi togarashi is a blend of seven dried and ground spices that often includes red chiles, sansho, roasted orange peel, yellow and black sesame seeds, ginger, hemp seed and nori. It’s commonly used to flavor soups and noodle dishes and as an all-purpose seasoning.

Wasabi powder/paste is Japanese horseradish. Fresh wasabi is largely unavailable in the West, but is easily found dried in powdered form or as a paste. The powder needs to be reconstituted with a bit of water; the paste is ready to use but quickly loses pungency after opening. Wasabi has a very pungent flavor and aroma and is paired in small amounts with sushi and sashimi.

Flavors Uniquely Japanese in Seattle

Experience the unique flavors of our soups, cold plates, lunch and main menus spiced with herbs and seasonings essential to our cuisine. Come visit your favorite Japanese sushi restaurant in Seattle.

How a Snack Food Became a Meal

Most westerners love their crunchy tempura. Fresh shrimp or any seafood for that matter, and its slightly sweet and slightly tangy dipping sauce is a delicious mix of batter outside and juiciness inside make it a must-order in a Japanese dine-out.

What’s inside tempura? Usually, it consists of seafood, either shrimp or white fish deep fried in batter. There’s also vegetables, like onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, Japanese pumpkin, carrots and green peppers. You can also have kaki-age, a mix of seafood and veggies. However, it is tempura’s batter that makes it distinct from other Japanese fried foods. It doesn’t use bread crumbs and uses less grease. Batter is basically beaten egg, flour and cold water, and sometimes oil, starch or spices may be added.

The Japanese actually borrowed tempura from the Portuguese. Thanks to their ability to turn foreign foods into something that suits their taste. Latin-speaking Portuguese missionaries came to Japan in the 1600s, and introduced this method of frying food, quite unknown to the Japanese at the time. It was basically meant for Lent when eating meat was disallowed observance. The dish was referred to as tempora cuaresme, meaning ‘in the time of Lent.’ It was introduced at the port of Nagasaki when it were only the Dutch, Chinese, and the Portuguese who were allowed to trade with then closed-off Japan. It became a quickly loved snack food, served between meals.

By the turn of the 18th century, differing from eating raw, fresh food, the Japanese chefs experimented with frying whole fish and vegetables. The foods still preserved their unique taste and character. What was then a snack became a meal, and it was truly Japanese. Today, tempura is served on a rice bowl called tendon or on top of soba noodles. It is also ordered as a side dish with dipping sauce. Sometimes, other foods are batter-fried tempura style – like sushi rolls, fruit or noodles. The Japanese have made tempura their own, making it a traditional Japanese cuisine.

Enjoying Tempura in Seattle

Love our tempura at I Love Sushi, your Japanese restaurant in Seattle. We have a wide variety of tempura-styled selections you will love. Our fried foods are as tasty as our fresh delights.