Japanese Food Terminology List hope this will help you when trying to prepare some Japanese food and get stuck with terminology
Abura – oil
Aemono – cooked salad
Agari – green tea
Age – fried
Agemono – fried foods
Aka miso – red soy bean paste
Akagai – red clam
Akami – lean tuna
Ankimo – monkfish liver
Aoyagi – yellow clam
Awabi – abalone
Awaze-zu – rice vinegar
Azuki or aduki – small red bean
Baigai – small water snails
Bata – butter
Beni shoga – red pickled ginger
Biru – beer
Burokkori – broccoli
Buta – pork
Chiizu – cheese
Daikon – giant long white, carrot-shaped Japanese radish
Daizu – soybeans
Dango – dumplings
Doburoku – type of thick, soupy sake
Enoki – long, thin, white mushrooms
Fugu – chiri blowfish soup
Furutsu – fruit
Futomaki – large roll
Gari or shoga – sliced pickled ginger
Genmai – brown rice
Gohan – formal word for rice
Goma – sesame seeds
Gyu tataki – beef tataki
Hamachi – yellowtail tuna
Hari hari zuke – pickled vegetable mix (yellow)
Harusame – thin semi-transparent bean gelatine noodles
Horenso – spinach
Hotatagai – scallops
Iidako – small octopus
IIka-geso – squid’s tentacles
Ika – squid
Ikura – salmon roe
Iwashi – sardine
Kabu – small white turnip
Kai – generic term for shellfish
Kajiki – swordfish
Kamaboko – fish cake
Kani – crab meat
Kanten – gelatine derived from seaweed
Kappa – cucumber
Karei – halibut
Katsu – cutlet
Katsuo – bonito fish
Kinako – parched soya bean flour
Kinoko – generic term for mushrooms
Kohi – coffee
Koyadofu – freeze-dried tofu
Kyur – Japanese cucumber
langostino – small shellfish (a bit Italian really!)
Maguroai – tuna
Masago (or masagu) – smelt roe
Masu – trout
Matsutake – very rare pine mushroom
Mizu – water
Mochi – sweet glutinous rice cakes
Mochigome – mochi rice
Momo – peach
Moyashi – bean sprouts
Murasaki – sushi bar term for soy sauce
Mushimono – steamed foods
Myoga – variety of ginger
Nama-tako – fresh or raw octopus
Nasu – eggplant or aubergine
Natto – fermented soy bean
Negi – Japanese onion
Nihon shu – type of sake, rice wine
Niika – cooked Monterey squid
Nijimas – rainbow trout
Ocha – green tea
Ohba – Japanese beefsteak plant
Sake – rice wine
Sake – salmon
Sanma – Japanese mackerel
Sansho – Japanese pepper
Sato-imo – taro root
Sawagani – small crabs
Seigo – young sea bass
Senbei – thin, crisp rice crackers
Shiitake – Japanese mushroom
Shiratake – translucent rubbery noodles
Shira-uo – whitebait, icefish or salangid
Shiro goma – white sesame seeds
Shiro maguro – albacore tuna
Shiro miso – white soy bean paste
Shirumono – Japanese term for soup
Shiso – Japanese mint
Shoga – ginger root
Soba – buckwheat noodles
Somen – white, threadlike wheat noodles
Su – rice vinegar (also awaze-zu)
Sunomon – vinegared foods
Sushimeshi – rice for preparing sushi
Suzuki – sea bass
Tairagai razor – shell clam
Takenoko – bamboo shoots
Tako – octopus
Takuwan – pickled daikon
Tamago – eggs
Tare – thick sauce
Tekka – tuna
Tobiko – flying fish roe
Tofu – set soya bean curd
Togarashi – whole dried hot red peppers
Tori – chicken
Toro – fatty tuna
Tsukemono – pickles
Udon thick – wide wheat noodles
Umeboshi – pickled Japanese plum
Ume-shiso – plum paste
Usukuchi shoyu – light Japanese soy sauce
Wakame lobe – leaf seaweed
Wasabi – Japanese horseradish sauce (beware: very hot)
Yakinori – toasted seaweed
Yakitori skewer – grilled foods
Submitted by: Nazley Ally
