A Guide to Japanese Cooking Ingredients

A list of common ingredients I use to cook Japanese food. To make good-tasting and authentic Japanese food, you will need to make sure you have these ingredients in your kitchen.

These can usually be purchased from your local Japanese supermarket or online. I will link some of the below products to Amazon (if available). You may also be able to find the below items at a Korean or Chinese grocery store, if a Japanese supermarket is not in your area.

Dashi

(だし)

Dashi is Japanese soup stock made from fish and kelp.

This is my favorite Dashi powder and I use it often in a variety of dishes I make. This is the secret of Umami. You don’t need to add MSG to have an Umami taste.

Available here

Soy Sauce

(Shoyu – 醤油/しょうゆ )

Soy sauce is one of the essential ingredients for Japanese dishes and so many of Japanese dishes use it as a main base taste or as a hint of the taste of the dish.

Available here

Cooking Sake

(Ryorishu – 料理酒)

Cooking Sake is one of the essential ingredients for Japanese dishes.

Japanese sweet rice wine

(Mirin – 味醂/みりん)

Mirin is one of the essential ingredients for Japanese dishes.

Available on Amazon here

Rice vinegar

(Su – 酢/す)

Rice vinegar is often used in Japanese dishes.

Available on Amazon here

Japanese Mayonnaise

(マヨネーズ)

Japanese mayonnaise tastes a bit different from other ones like more sour.

I assume you think of Kewpie brand mayonnaise when you hear “Japanese mayonnaise”. There is no doubt that Kewpie mayonnaise tastes good! But I personally prefer other brand ones which don’t contain MSG. And if I can’t get one of those, I just make that regular American mayonnaise into Japanese mayonnaise with some super easy secret tips.

Here is the recipe:

Organic Japanese Mayonnaise Recipe

Toasted Sesame Oil

(Goma Abura – ごま油 )

I often use sesame oil as a cooking oil to add some flavorful taste to the dishes.

Available on Amazon here

Egg roll wrappers

(Harumaki-no-Kawa – 春巻きの皮)

I’m generally trying to use organic ingredients as much as I can when I cook, but when I can’t get an organic product of the item, I at least try to find additive-free stuff. And this egg roll wraps I’ve recently found at a local store made me happy as it doesn’t contain any additives such as Sodium Benzoate which is often used as a preservative for most of those egg roll wrap products. The surface is not gonna be smooth texture when you fry it but I prefer not to have those toxic additives into my body. 😉 You can find this at Ralphs or Target.