Japanese cuisine

One of the reasons for Japanese longevity is their traditional diet. Japanese cuisine is very important principle of seasonality, which relies on the selection of such food ingredients that reflect the current season - the "shun" concept, where fish, vegetables and fruit are richest in nutrients - only approximately 10 days a year.
The climate in Japan differs depending on the region but there is something which is common for all these regions... It is the fact that the fundamental part of nearly every dish is rice. The climate in all Japan is extremely conducive to growing of this very demanding plant. Moreover, especially back in the history, in Japan meat was hardly ever eaten, apart from fish. Meat is still not too popular. To be short, in order to describe the Japanese cuisine we can use only two words: "natural and harmonious".

 

Japanese savoir-vivre

• never pass the food to the other person using your chopsticks (it is related with the Buddist funerary ritual during which its participants pass on the funerary urn with the ashes of the body burnt in a cremation furnace); if you want to share your food, pass the whole plate to the other person and let this person choose
• if you are planning on eating together from one dish, use both ends of your chopsticks
• sushi can be eaten using your hands, sashimi – only using chopsticks
• do not hold your chopsticks in the middle, always try to hold the end part of it
• never use chopstick to draw dishes with food near you
• do not bite off a piece of a dish and put the rest back on the plate; once you picked something and put it in your mouth, eat it
• do not ask for a knife
• after meal, lean your chopsticks back against the hashi oki, it is best to do it perpendicularly to sushi bar; never put the chopstick directly on the table;
• never put the chopsticks back in your dish (in this case as well, the Japanese associate it with funeral)
• try to eat all your rice; leaving even a small portion of food is tactless, leaving rice – is extremely tactless (practically, this prohibition is only valid for Japan)
• under no circumstances light up a cigarette; tobacco smoke does not allow others enjoy the taste and smell of delicate dishes; moreover, what is relevant, it is the smell that lets you recognize whether the fish is fresh
• soya sauce is served for fish – never soak all your sushi in it
• when eating soup or a pasta dish, what is interesting, you may slurp (but not burp); you may lift your bowl to your mouth – first you pick the „hard” elements of your soup using your chopsticks, then you simply drink the rest
• sake is rather drunk before or after the meal; wine simply does not go with rice; during you meal you may drink beer, white wine, tea or water; traditionally sake is served only with sashimi
• beer or sake is poured for all the people sitting at the table; there is no such custom that everybody would drink out of his or her own bottle
• opinions of the Japanese are divided: some advise to start off with sashimi, through sushi, ending with miso soup with rice; others recommend to have sushi with omelette and vegetables first; then eat whatever you want and leave sashimi to be eaten last.