Japanese breakfast
 

Could anybody tell me what does the traditional Japanese breakfast consist of? Does it have rice?
Besides, I’d like to know if it has suffered changes in recent years (for example, including ingredients from other countries, as cereal from United States).

和食　朝食 - Google Search

Rice, miso soup, some kind of fish(Salmon or Mackerel is common), an egg of some style(Japanese omelet, fried, poached or… raw), some veggies (stir fried, boiled, pickled, etc.), and in some areas including Tokyo, Natto (fermented soy).

Western style breakfast is pretty popular too, although you never mix some of the things with Japanese dishes, like cereal and Natto sounds impossible. A lot of people do something like egg, sausage and rice.


My breakfast consists of milk, coffee beans and water...

When I hear "Japanese Style Breakfast" I have a very strong image in my head. Here's what it is:

Rice
Tsukemono (which could be an umeboshi on the rice or some takuwan on the side or something like that... it's usually eaten with the rice).
Miso Soup (which will usually have green onion type things & tofu & daikon and stuff like that in it)
Tamago-yaki (this is like a Japanese omelette... without cheese.)
Shake/sake (This is the main. It's like grilled salmon. It will usually be garnished with grated daikon with some soy sauce poured on top)

Sometimes you will get tea, but I get the feeling that the miso soup serves as the drink.

Here's a good image of what it looks like:
http://img.travel.rakuten.co.jp/shar...GE/7ZmwRK.jpeg

(just for the record, this picture shows what I think is a softboiled egg which is instead of tamago yaki).

Sometimes they also come with a small salad.

I believe this image comes from the hundreds of posters I've seen in Japanese schools and doctors offices and stuff like that. There are of course variations of it, but that is what the strongest image of a "japanese style breakfast" is. Everyday reality and what's on posters is often different, though.

no that's a raw egg. Raw eggs = Hardcore. Have you seen the movie Rocky? :P

Everything else you said sounds really accurate.

Soft boiled egg? Chances are it`s raw and to be put on the rice.

haha, you're definitely right. I've had softboiled eggs like that though in Japan quite often for breakfast. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that I've probably seen sotboiled eggs more than raw eggs for breakfast in Japan. I thought the cup on the top right was to put the egg in, but upon closer inspection there is tea in that cup so there's no doubt that's a raw egg to put on the rice.

Although I have to admit... I've never cracked open a softboil egg myself as they're always ready-made, or so to speak, in a bowl when ordered.

I believe it is illegal to serve raw egg in most of the US right now. I developed quite a taste for raw egg over rice, raw egg with shabu shabu and the soft boiled egg in Japan. My American friends think I am nuts. We used to think tomatoes were poisonous, too.

Yeah, that's 温泉卵, Japanese equivalent of poached egg.
温泉卵 - Google Search
They are yummy too. drool


I can order raw eggs at my local Japanese restaurant. When I do, I hide it from American guys like I'm smoking something funny. It's true it can be slightly dangerous though. The shell sometimes has salmonella. But in 17 years living in the states and the UK, I had hundreds of raw eggs , and never had a single incident of food poisoning, so I deem it fairly safe. People thought the Japanese were crazy to eat raw fish with rotten soy bean sauce, i.e. Sushi, just 20 years ago. May be raw eggs will be "in" in 10 years... umm... actually, probably not.

They may be breaking the law. I know a Japanese restaurant here in Portland that got a fined for serving raw fish that hadn't been frozen at least once. That's the law here: raw fish must be frozen at some point. We are 30 something miles from the Pacific Ocean, but that doesn't matter.

There are places here where you can get raw egg and fresh raw fish, but they don't put that on the neon signs.

That's a shame! Freezing the fish takes a way a lot of the goodness. Unfortunately that happens a lot of the time in Japan too...

Haha, you should move here, a cowboy states Colorado, people take risks here :)

Actually, raw eggs may be illegal or at least fishy, but I know for a fact non-frozen fish isn't illegal here or in California. How do you guys eat oysters?

As insane as it sounds, I think it is OK to serve oysters raw and never frozen, as culturally it is part of our "diet", where raw salmon, tuna, yellowtail, etc. is not a cultural part of the typical American diet.

Of course, I have heard more horror stories about bad oysters than bad tuna, but that doesn't really matter.

It's interesting that serving salmon raw wasn't really Japanese culture originally. You are totally right that it is all about culture. And the Japanese know a bit more about eating things raw. Tuna = OK. Mackerel = you have to be really careful, Salmon = traditionally a big no-no, cause salmon around Japan have parasites, but someone found that western salmon don't, so it's a collaboration of the West and Japan that we have salmon sushi today.

20 years ago, I didn't even dare eating sushi outside Japan, but now we have quite a lot of places that serve good sushi. Things have changed. I'm still sometimes a bit skeptical about American Sushi chefs though... so I somewhat see the reason for the raw fish ban. But still, liberate raw fish! It's chef's fault, not fish's.

Anyway, I'm digressing like crazy. goodnight everyone.

I've always been partial to Natto and rice.:D

Yeah, this is something I learnt on a cookery course; as long as the eggs are fairly new (easy to check by shaking to see if there's a noise or floating in something. Fresh eggs sink.) and the shells have been scrubbed clean, you should be fine to eat it raw. You're more likely to get salmonella off of undercooked chicken or leftover rice than eggs anyway. If you are ever concerned, the best thing is to not let the egg get in contact with anything the shell has touched. So like, don't put an egg in a bowl and then crack it into the same bowl. Crack it into something else, discard the shell and then wash your hands before continuing.

I'm not surprised to hear more people get ill from oysters in the USA than egg, some restaurants can get pretty lazy about checking over their stock and as a customer it's harder to tell if shellfish is off after it's been cooked. Sometimes it can look and taste fine, and still make you really ill. I've had a couple of bad shells in my time so I'm hyper alert to off-fish now; thankfully I can usually tell from the smell and the taste; off or on the turn fish has that muddy hint.

Back on subject, the japanese kids I used to live with pretty much had one of two things for breakfast; omelette and salad or toast and coffee. It was only one girl when she was particularly ill or hungover or homesick who would bother with miso and rice and things, because it took too much effort to make it everyday.

It’s really interesting to see the differences among cultures. For me soup and fish would be more appropriate as a supper. I cannot imagine myself eating any of these things just after getting up in the morning, let alone the miso soup with its green onion.
I guess many Japanese people couldn’t imagine themselves having my favourite breakfast, toasts with olive oil and tomato. I've found a link with a picture of it:

Tostada con tomate - a cheap Spanish breakfast or snack

I believe that you can't eat raw salmon unless you freeze it, or smoke it, because of the parasite.

I like Japanese breakfast, natto+raw egg+rice, oh wow delicious.

If you can try raw egg, try it! beat it up and put some shoyu, or umm... like in Yoshinoya pour it into Gyudon. Oh yeah!

You can order gyudon+raw (or half-cooked) egg in Yoshinoya (umm... I think you can order it in the other gyudon shop like Matsuya or Sukiya too, I'm not sure)

Why is it that Japanese like raw food (eggs, fish…) so much? Do you think it has to do with a general philosophy, a preference for simple, natural things?

It's mainly about taste I reckon and the fact that with seafoods it's so easy to get them fresh daily here. Few places in Japan are more than a few hours from the coast. The texture and taste of raw meats is just so different to the cooked variety. If you enjoy the texture and flavour, like I do, then no other reason is needed to explain why you'd like to eat things raw.
I think a lot of the cooking the hell out of meats in western societies arose from there not being access to fresh foods too often. They really needed to cook everything so as not to get disease. In Japan fish caught that morning are on your plate that evening. Awesome! :D

Ohhh yes!!! LOVED it!

納豆/Natto is definitely an acquired taste and I unfortunately can't stand the stuff.

I'm not sure if many families still go through the trouble of making/eating traditional Japanese breakfasts anymore due to the preparation times. I know that at the various Ryokans (旅館) it's definitely served but I think most Japanese families opt to eat simple and fast breakfasts like toast and jam, cereal, salad or ham and eggs maybe perhaps miso and rice.

Here's a survey that was done in 2000 that's related to breakfast in Japan:
Survey: Breakfast in Japan

For natto, you got to try it at least 3-4 times before you get use to it. It's like when someone (such as me) try green tea without sugar for the first time in Japan (I remember it's Itoen's):

"Hey, why this drink got so much leaves' smell!?" At first it's very difficult to swallow, but after 2-3 bottles, "wow I like it"

Just try it, it may be easier if you buy the one that include shoyu inside the package, I think shoyu make it easier to eat.