Culture of eating raw food in Japan

Last Updated on 10/30/2021 by てんしょく飯

Speaking of raw foods that can be eaten in Japan, there is sushi. Currently, sushi is eaten all over the world and is one of the representative Japanese foods.

However, there are many other ingredients that can be eaten raw in Japan.

egg

Eggs are recognized as raw foods in Japan. In countries other than Japan, Korean yukhoe and European steak tartare are eaten raw as a dish that stirs raw eggs with raw meat and other ingredients, or as part of the ingredients (such as French milkshakes).

It is said that there is no eating habit of eating raw eggs overseas, and there is a risk of food poisoning because Salmonella may be attached to the shell overseas.

Raw eggs are prone to salmonella food poisoning, and the areas where they can be safely eaten are limited to some areas such as Japan. Outside of Japan, Japanese people eat raw eggs every year, but in Japan, which is premised on raw foods, general hygiene management such as complete washing of eggs by chicken egg farmers has been carried out, and salmonella food poisoning has decreased since the 2000s. It shows a tendency.

I think that all Japanese people admit that one of the rice that Japanese people love is “tamago kake gohan”. I don’t hear much about eating omelet rice overseas.

Tamago kake gohan is a dish of rice entwined with raw eggs, or how to eat it. Salty soy sauce and mentsuyu are used as seasonings.

sashimi

Sashimi is a Japanese dish in which ingredients such as seafood are cut into small pieces and seasoned with seasonings such as soy sauce.

Sashimi is a dish where you can taste the ingredients themselves, and it is important to prepare fresh and tasty seasonal ingredients. Next, it is a cutting method for making beautiful use of the material, and the cutting method and serving are performed according to the material using a special sashimi knife or the like.

In addition, it is developing by incorporating knowledge of the world, history, science, etc., such as adopting vacuum cooking method and low temperature cooking method, and aging and using large fish such as tuna and yellowtail by applying meat.