Washoku: The Home Table

The everyday meal — rice, soup & okazu

Washoku is the everyday grammar of Japanese cooking: a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, and a few small dishes (okazu) arranged for balance of colour, taste, and method. It runs on dashi and restraint — from a two-minute miso soup to soy-simmered nikujaga and crackling karaage — and it is where any cook should begin.

Read the complete guide →

Every recipe

9 recipes in this region.

Two golden cubes of lightly fried agedashi tofu resting in a pool of clear amber dashi broth in a black lacquer bowl, crowned with a snowy mound of grated daikon, a dab of ginger, bright scallion rings, and thin curls of bonito flakes fluttering in the rising steam.

Veg

Japan (nationwide izakaya and washoku home cooking; an Edo-era classic) · Japanese

Agedashi Tofu (Lightly Fried Tofu in Dashi Broth)

A quietly elegant izakaya classic: silken tofu dusted in potato starch and fried to a delicate crisp, then bathed in a warm dashi-soy tsuyu with grated daikon, scallion, and a flutter of bonito flakes. Crisp, custardy, and deeply comforting.

IntermediateSnacksWashoku

A shallow white plate mounded with pieces of golden-brown chicken karaage, their craggy lacquered crusts catching the light, three bright yellow lemon wedges tucked to one side and a small nest of finely shredded cabbage behind, set on a dark wooden izakaya table.

Japan (nationwide izakaya and home cooking; Oita's Nakatsu is its spiritual capital) · Japanese

Chicken Karaage (Japanese Fried Chicken)

Japan's beloved fried chicken: juicy thigh meat steeped in a ginger-garlic-soy marinade, dredged in potato starch, and double-fried to a shatteringly crisp, lacy crust. The izakaya snack and bento hero you'll make on repeat.

IntermediateMainsWashoku

A round platter of pan-fried gyoza flipped crisp-side up, their golden pleated crescents joined by a delicate lacy browned wing, garnished with a scatter of sliced scallion beside a small saucer of soy-vinegar dipping sauce dotted with red chili oil, on a dark wooden table.

Japan (nationwide; strongly associated with Utsunomiya and Hamamatsu, Japan's dueling gyoza capitals) · Japanese

Gyoza (Japanese Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings)

Yaki-gyoza done properly: juicy pork-and-cabbage dumplings steam-fried into one skillet so they gather a lacy, crackling brown 'wing' underneath. With a bright soy-vinegar dipping sauce and a whole section on pleating.

IntermediateSnacksWashoku

A wide plate half-mounded with glossy dark-brown Japanese curry studded with tender chunks of carrot, potato, and chicken, poured against a neat bank of steamed white rice, with a small bright-red spoonful of fukujinzuke pickle on the rim, on a rustic table.

Japan (nationwide; adapted from British naval curry in the Meiji era and thoroughly naturalized) · Japanese

Japanese Curry (Kare Raisu) with From-Scratch Roux

Kare raisu, Japan's beloved national comfort food: sweet onions, carrots, and potatoes simmered into a thick, glossy, mildly sweet-savoury curry built on a scratch curry roux — with an honest note on the curry-block shortcut every Japanese household actually keeps.

IntermediateMainsWashoku

A small dark-glazed ceramic bowl of miso soup on a bamboo mat, the cloudy amber broth holding cubes of soft white tofu and dark-green ribbons of wakame, finished with a scatter of bright scallion rings and a curl of steam rising into soft morning light.

Keto

Japan (nationwide home cooking; a daily fixture from Hokkaido to Okinawa) · Japanese

Miso Soup (Miso Shiru with Dashi, Wakame & Tofu)

The quiet backbone of the Japanese table: a clear dashi broth loosened with miso and dotted with soft tofu, wakame, and scallion. Five minutes, a handful of ingredients, and a bowl that tastes like home.

EasySidesWashoku

A rustic bowl of nikujaga on a wooden table: chunks of golden potato, tender ribbons of beef, orange carrot, and soft onion glistening in a reduced amber soy broth, garnished with a few bright green snow peas, steam curling up beside a bowl of white rice.

Japan (nationwide home cooking; Kansai favors beef, Kanto often uses pork) · Japanese

Nikujaga (Japanese Soy-Simmered Beef and Potato Stew)

The taste of home in a Japanese kitchen: thin-sliced beef and tender potatoes simmered slow in a sweet dashi-soy broth with onion and carrot. Humble, deeply comforting, and the dish everyone says their mother makes best.

EasyMainsWashoku

A donburi bowl of oyakodon: glossy, barely-set golden egg over simmered chicken and sweet onion on white rice, scattered with bright green mitsuba and a dusting of red shichimi, in a dark ceramic bowl.

Japan (nationwide home cooking; the donburi tradition is rooted in Tokyo) · Japanese

Oyakodon (Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl)

The Japanese home-cooking classic: chicken simmered with sweet onions in a dashi-soy broth, bound with barely-set egg and slid over hot rice. Fast, frugal, and deeply comforting — dinner in under thirty minutes.

EasyMainsWashoku

Two glossy lacquered salmon fillets glistening with dark amber teriyaki glaze, crisp-skinned and topped with toasted white sesame seeds and bright green sliced scallion, resting beside a mound of steamed white rice in a pale ceramic dish on a linen napkin.

Japan (nationwide home cooking; the teri-yaki glazing method is classic washoku, popularized abroad from the Pacific Northwest) · Japanese

Teriyaki Salmon (Pan-Glazed with Real Teriyaki Sauce)

Salmon pan-seared and glazed in a scratch teriyaki reduction of soy, mirin, sake, and sugar — thickened by the pan, not a bottle. Teriyaki is a glaze technique, not a condiment, and it turns weeknight salmon glossy and lacquered in fifteen minutes.

EasyMainsWashoku

A breaded tonkatsu pork cutlet fried deep golden and sliced into strips, fanned on a plate beside a tall mound of finely shredded raw cabbage, with a dish of dark tonkatsu sauce and a lemon wedge.

Japan · Japanese

Tonkatsu (Japanese Crispy Breaded Pork Cutlet)

Japan's beloved breaded pork cutlet: a thick pork loin coated in airy panko and fried to a deep golden shatter-crisp, sliced into strips, and served with tangy tonkatsu sauce and a heap of shredded cabbage. Crunchy outside, juicy within.

EasyMainsWashoku