{"id":78574,"date":"2026-08-22T18:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/78574\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T18:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:44:17","slug":"10-iconic-dishes-you-must-try-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/78574\/","title":{"rendered":"10 iconic dishes you must try in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The secret has long been out about Japanese cuisine. You can get umami-rich ramen, chewy mochi and fragrant katsu curries all over the world.. But visit the country itself, and you\u2019ll realise that\u2019s only the tip of a very large iceberg.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a borderline obsession with local, seasonal food in Japan<\/a>, and it\u2019s completely normal to travel to the other end of the country just to try a regional speciality. It\u2019s not all high-end, either \u2013 it may be yakitori (chargrilled chicken skewers) from a street-food stall, crispy pan-fried gyoza from an izakaya (traditional pub) or even a convenience-store fruit sandwich that you find yourself wistfully remembering years later.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to fit more than a fraction of Japan\u2019s culinary diversity into one article, so here are 10 definitive dishes to start with. You\u2019ll discover plenty more along the way.<\/p>\n

1. Tempura<\/p>\n

Crispy, deep-fried tempura was born in the 16th century under the influence of Portuguese cooking, and has a Latin etymology, but by now it\u2019s firmly in the pantheon of classic Japanese dishes. Made well, the filling \u2013 whether king prawn, sweet potato or foraged sansai (mountain vegetables) \u2013 is cooked to perfection, the coating light and crunchy without any lingering oiliness.<\/p>\n

Where to try it<\/p>\n

You can enjoy tempura throughout Japan, served as a topping for noodles or rice, or, usually in the old capital of Kyoto, it\u2019s elevated to edible art at Tempura End\u014d Yasaka<\/a>, where the seasonal tempura is the star of a multi-course kaiseki (Japanese haute cuisine) meal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The secret has long been out about Japanese cuisine. You can get umami-rich ramen, chewy mochi and fragrant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72,50370,50371,8,17,1043,501],"class_list":["post-78574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-asia","tag-better-life-evergreen","tag-better-life-experts","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-standard","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}