Sukiyaki ya Restaurants in Japan

Sukiyaki ya Restaurants in Japan

Any tour of Japan is incomplete without a trip to the restaurants of the country. Dining options in Japan are numerous and many restaurants in Japan offer traditional Japanese dishes. Some of the restaurants in Japan are specialized restaurants and offer only a certain food item. For example the sukiyaki-ya restaurants in Japan only serve dishes like sukiyaki and shabu-shabu. These restaurants are on the expensive side and are few in number.

Sukiyaki is one of Japan's traditional meat dishes, which is made from thin slices of beef, shirataki, ito konnyaku, negi or Welsh onions, Chinese cabbage, enokitake mushrooms and broiled tofu. All these ingredients are then cooked in a special cooking pot. In the sukiyaki-ya restaurants the dishes are cooked at the table of the customer. Generally one has to serve the sukiyaki dish from the pot with the help of a chopstick, after which you have to dip your food in a bowl containing a raw egg. One of the most important ingredients of sukiyaki is the beef and the quality of the beef determines the quality of the dish. The beef which best suited for the sukiyaki dishes are called "shimofuri". Usually shimofuri beef is extremely tender and also expensive.

Sukiyaki as a dish is perfect for parties; one has to just cut the ingredients in a large plate and then the ingredients need to be cooked in a skillet on a table. One interesting fact about sukiyaki is that one can cook it while eating. Usually sukiyaki is consumed on colder days and is a must in the Japanese year end parties. The sukiyaki dishes are cooked in different ways in different regions of Japan. For example ingredients like soy sauce, sugar, and mirin are mixed with the sukiyaki dishes before they are served whereas in the Kansai region the same ingredients are mixed at the table of the customer.

The name sukiyaki is actually derived from "yaki", which means "sautee" or "grill" in Japanese. The name of the food item is relevant to the delicacy as the beef slices have to sauteed in the hot skillet before cooking.

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