Yoshoku Adventure: The Best Western-Japanese Delicacies

When most people think of Japanese food, sushi, miso soup, white rice, and ramen come to mind. These dishes are known as washoku 和食, (traditional) Japanese food, but did you know that in Japanese cuisine, many dishes were inspired by other countries? Even though these dishes are called yoshoku 洋食 Western food, you wouldn’t find any of these dishes outside Japan.

What is yoshoku?

Most of these dishes were created about 100~200 years ago during the Meiji era (1868-1912), inspired by popular cuisines from other countries like France, Italy, America, and the UK. The Western dishes were adapted to Japanese culture and made with available ingredients. For example, rice was added to many yoshoku dishes, like taco rice, inspired by Mexican food but with rice! Here are five popular Yoshoku dishes that you just have to try!

Japanese curry rice (kare raisu)

Kare raisu is the Japanese pronunciation of Curry rice which is a Japanese version of curry. Interestingly, curry wasn’t introduced to people from East-Asian countries like India. British people were the ones who introduced the dish to Japan! Japanese curry is always eaten in combination with Japanese white rice. Since many Japanese people aren’t too keen on spicy food, the Japanese version of curry is relatively mild.

In Japanese curry restaurants like Coco Curry House, you can eat the dish as spicy as you want! The sauce is generally thicker than Indian curry, and Japanese red pickled ginger is added. The ingredients traditionally used in Japanese curry are potatoes, beef, carrots, and onions, but you can also get seafood curry in restaurants. Japanese curry is one of the most popular dishes in Japan, especially among children.

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Omelet rice (omurice)

Japanese omurice or omelet rice is another popular dish also loved by children as well as grown-ups! It is unknown what Western dish it was inspired by, but the use of ketchup suggests that it might have been inspired by American food. It’s a relatively easy-to-cook dish, yet delicious!

Rice, meat, onions, and green peas are mixed, and ketchup is added. A thin omelet covers the rice perfectly and is decorated with ketchup. Sometimes demi-glace is used instead of ketchup. Recently restaurants also started offering extra fluffy omelets!

Hamburger steak (hambagu)

One of the confusing things I realized in Japan is that the word hambagu doesn’t refer to an American-style hamburger that is referred to as hambaga but to the Japanese hamburger steak. This beef patty dish was introduced to the world by Germans and is somewhat similar to the Salisbury steak. This dish became popular in Japan at the beginning of the 19th century.

Nowadays, this is still a trendy dish that can be found in family restaurants like Denny’s, Saizeriya, and Gusto. The beef patty is served with potato wedges and corn. Many variations and toppings include mushrooms, vegetable salsa, tomato sauce, or demi-glace sauce. Of course, many people enjoy this dish with a bowl of rice on the side!

Pasta Naepolitan (naporitan or napolitan)

This pasta sounds very Italian but is, in fact, a Japanese dish named after Naples by the chef who invented it. Inspired by Italian pasta but made with easy cheap ingredients… like ketchup! Italians probably cringe just imagining it, but it tastes nice and has an interesting sweet flavor.

Other ingredients used are bell pepper, sausage, and ham and topped with powdered cheese. This yoshoku dish can be eaten at Japanese cafes or family restaurants, or it can be made at home!

Tonkatsu (pork cutlet)

Fried food is also trendy in Japan, fried shrimp, fried chicken, and in this case, fried pork called tonkatsu! They are made by deep frying the pork with bread crumbs. It is served with shredded cabbage and eaten with a unique tonkatsu sauce!

It’s inspired by Worcestershire sauce and similar to other Japanese sauces like takoyaki and okonomiyaki sauce. And, of course, Japanese people like to eat Tonkatsu with white rice! Did you know any of these dishes? Which one would you like to try? Let us know in the comments below!