Fancy Ingredients | Articles on Japanese Restaurants | Japan Restaurant Guide by Gurunavi

Cuisine Summary

Here are some luxury ingredients and dishes using these ingredients that can be eaten in Japan. These ingredients, when included as part of a course menu at traditional or contemporary high-class restaurants, are often used in one of the course dishes. Specialty shops specializing in dishes featuring these fancy ingredients are also common.

Types of Dishes Using Fancy Ingredients

Ingredients that are difficult to obtain due to low fishing yields or being difficult to find are very expensive. However, food that uses these expensive but delicious or extremely rare ingredients is very popular in Japan. Examples of these ingredients are tuna (maguro), brand-name beef, crab, matsutake mushrooms, and abalone (awabi).

Enjoying Dishes Using Fancy Ingredients

At traditional Japanese restaurants, high-class restaurants

Such ingredients are often included in dishes that make up a course menu. If there's something you would like to try, please tell the restaurant what you would like when making a reservation. If the ingredient is rare, the restaurant may not be able to accept your order if they cannot find any to serve.

At specialty shops

Shops specializing in crab, blowfish (fugu), monkfish (anko), and brand-name beef are common. At these shops, you can eat single dishes based on these ingredients, while some shops offer course meals featuring the ingredient in each course. For example, at shops specializing in crab, they might offer crab prepared in many different ways, such as appetizers, sashimi, tempura, sushi, and crab hot pot.

Typical Dishes Using Fancy Ingredients

These are some typical dishes featuring fancy ingredients.

Maguro (Tuna)

Honmaguro (Pacific bluefin tuna) fished from the areas around Japan is the most prized type of tuna. Tuna from Oma and Toi are recognized as brand name tuna. Maguro has a rich savoriness and a light fattiness that melts in your mouth.

Maguro Sashimi

Maguro Sushi

Brand-Name Beef

Brand-name beef are types of beef, such as Matsusaka beef and Omi beef, that meet certain regulations for where the cows were raised and what they were fed. Beef with finely distributed fat and a very soft texture is the most popular. There are also shops specializing only in brand-name beef.

Sukiyaki

Steak

Crab

Crab is eaten throughout the world, but Japan's snow crab is known as one of the tastiest. Crab that is so savory it almost tastes sweet are the most popular. There are also shops specializing only in crab.

Matsutake Mushrooms

Matsutake mushrooms are deliciously aromatic. They are extremely difficult to find, and Japanese matsutake are the most expensive. Matsutake aren't so much enjoyed for their taste as they are for their aroma.

Dobin-mushi

Matsutake gohan

Awabi (Abalone)

The fanciest of all the shellfish. The thick awabi meat has a unique crunchiness when eaten raw, but also has a rich flavor that develops when cooked.