Japanese cuisine boasts of five basic flavors, which are soya sauce, vinegar, miso, salt, and sugar. But apart from that the top 5 spices of Japan have a definite role to play in making the cuisine world famous. Here is a list of the most popular Japanese spices, which you can take help from:-

1) Beni-shouga

This is basically ginger, salt-pickled and red in color and it is used to flavor okonomiyaki (a type of Japanese tortilla), yakisoba (noodles), and itame-gohan (fried rice).

2) Shouga

This is root ginger again, mixed with soya, and used to marinate pork, before it is sautéed. Another way of using shouga is to serve it atop daikon, which is eaten with tempura sauce. Shouga is also used to make okayu, a type of rice porridge, especially in winter season.

3) Gari

This spice is pickled in vinegar and it accompanies sushi, as a palette refresher. However, it has a more important role, that of being anti-bacterial, and it makes eating the raw fish inside the sushi a lot safer.

4) Hashouga

This ginger shoot, similar to a spring onion’s white bulb, is used in different dishes besides being eaten raw, pickled, or ripened.

5) Wasabi

This spice is used in frozen, powdered and paste form and depending upon that, it is used for various purposes. Similar to horseradish but more pungent in aroma, Wasabi is mainly used to accompany sushi and sashimi. In some Japanese restaurants, it is also mixed with cream and soya sauce, and is served with teppan-yaki dishes.

Japanese spices are an entity in themselves as they lend that fiery touch to an, otherwise, bland affair. It is up to you how you play with these spices and recreate the Japanese dishes in your kitchen.

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