Japan as a travel destination has been growing exponentially, with over 40 million visitors in 2025. One of the main appeals of Japan to its visitors is its culinary culture, often ranked among the top cuisines of the world. But while many people may be familiar with Japan’s more famous dishes such as ramen, sushi or onigiri, there are more foods that are staples within the Japanese home meal culture that rarely gain social media fame.
With summer approaching, here are a few dishes that you can make yourself that will give you a taste of Japan at home without the cost of an expensive dinner out.
Before getting into the dishes, it is important to stock your kitchen with staple ingredients used in every Japanese household.
The Staple Ingredients
First is dashi, the Japanese soup stock that is the foundation of many classic dishes. One of the most common ways of making dashi is using a combination of konbu and benito flakes. Start by soaking the konbu in the water for at least 30 minutes, then simmer over heat for around 10 minutes (try to not let the water boil during this time). After removing the konbu from the dashi, add the benito flakes and bring the dashi to a boil. Let it boil for around three to four minutes, strain the dashi with a paper towel in a colander and collect the dashi in a bowl underneath.
The rest of the standard ingredients don’t involve cooking and can be bought very easily. Soy sauce is probably the most well-known and common ingredient out of this list. It is available at any supermarket and most people already have it in their homes.
Rice vinegar is also very popular. While other types of vinegar are used, the most common type used in Japan is rice vinegar. To find some, check out an H-Mart or an Asian supermarket, as they tend to be sold there.
Mirin is an ingredient possibly less familiar to people, but is a principal ingredient in Japanese food, often used in conjunction with soy sauce. It is made with rice wine, and on its own is a little sweet, but also brings out the umami in any dish.
Miso is the fermented soybean paste most commonly used for making miso soup. But it is not only used for making this classic Japanese soup; it can also be used to make a variety of other dishes such as the first dish that will be covered, hiyajiru.
Temperature is not the only thing that differentiates hiyajiru from miso soup. The ingredients of hiyajiru usually utilize more seasonal summer ingredients such as cucumber, shiso and myoga.
Hiyajiru
Hiyajiru literally means cold soup, and is a form of chilled miso soup perfect for a hot summer day. However, the temperature is not the only thing that differentiates hiyajiru from miso soup. The ingredients of hiyajiru usually utilize more seasonal summer ingredients such as cucumber, shiso and myoga.
The trickiest ingredient to procure for New Yorkers will most likely be myoga, or Japanese ginger. It is not a common ingredient in the U.S. and will most likely only be found in an Asian grocery store or even the slightly more specialized Japanese grocery store. Nonetheless, this is a traditional ingredient, and its ability to bring a strong, refreshing taste to the hiyajiru makes it a vital one.
The other ingredients you will need are dashi, miso, cucumber, myoga, shiso, tofu, sesame seeds and some sort of dried fish. The quickest and easiest version is to use a can of tuna. This will be the version that we use for this article.
The steps to make it are quite simple.
First, prepare your vegetables. Thinly cut your cucumber, myoga and shiso. Lightly salt the cucumber to remove any excess water. Then in a bowl, combine approximately 500 milliliters (16.9 ounces) of dashi and four tablespoons of miso. Whisk this together so that there are no clumps of miso in your soup. Once it is nicely mixed, add your tuna, cucumber slices, myoga and shiso leaves and mix all of it up. Then add tofu and your sesame seeds, and while doing so, crush the seeds between your fingers to sprinkle them on.
To serve, make sure it is properly chilled in the fridge so that it is nice and refreshing. It is commonly served over rice, but it is still just as good on its own.
The word “ohitashi” means to soak, and is a reference to the style of dish, so you can use a plethora of vegetables.
Ohitashi
The next dish is ohitashi, a simple side dish that consists of vegetables that are cooked and marinated in a dashi-based broth. The word “ohitashi” means to soak, and is a reference to the style of dish, so you can use a plethora of vegetables. In the summer, many people make it with summer vegetables such as eggplant, okra, tomato or peppers.
Soaking the vegetables is key to making the broth. It is made using dashi, soy sauce and mirin with a ratio of 100 milliliters (3.38 ounces) to one tablespoon of soy sauce to one tablespoon of mirin. Then, you should bring it to a boil in a small pot to burn away the alcohol in the mirin. If you are making a larger portion of vegetables, you should make more broth, maintaining the same ratio of ingredients. Your aim should be for all of your vegetables to be completely covered by the broth while it is soaking in the fridge.
Now, you can cook your vegetables however you like. For example, using green peppers, you can cut them into larger sections and then fry them in a pan until they are cooked through. It is suggested to not use oils with too intense a flavor, like vegetable or canola oil.
Then put the vegetables in the broth and let it soak for around 30 minutes in the fridge. It will absorb the flavor and will have a subtle and deep flavor that pairs well with many Japanese meals.
Somen
The last dish to cover that is possibly the most quintessential Japanese summer dish is somen. Somen is a very simple Japanese dipping noodle dish that is incredibly easy to make. The noodles are very thin and only take minutes to cook.
The noodles are wheat-based and have a long history in Japan. While there are stories of it originating in Nara prefecture, the most common theory is that its original form came from China in the Nara period (710-784 A.D.), and developed into its current form in the Kamakura period (1183-1333 A.D.). They used to be a luxurious food only accessible to upper-class diners, but now they are commonly enjoyed by all Japanese people. One way that it is served is by dropping clumps of noodles down a carved-out and halved bamboo with water flowing down the stalk. The goal is to try and catch the clump with your chopsticks; this way of eating it is called “nagashi-somen.”
Just like any other noodle, bring a pot of water to a boil and put in your noodles. Boil them for a minute and a half to two minutes, and then strain them in a colander. When doing so, rinse it off with cold water to immediately cool down the noodles and prevent them from sticking to one another. Then you can put the noodles in a bowl with some ice cubes to make sure that they stay cold.
The dipping sauce is easy to buy at an Asian grocery store. You just have to look for a bottle of tsuyu, which is usually sold as a concentrate, so you will need to dilute it accordingly. But if you are looking to use some of your extra dashi, you can make the dipping sauce by combining 50 milliliters (1.69 ounces) of dashi, one tablespoon of soy sauce and one tablespoon of mirin and boiling it in a small pot just like you did for the ohitashi.
Make the dish your own by adding whatever ingredients you like to your dipping sauce. The most common additions are fresh-grated ginger or a tiny handful of green onions, but it is also common to use myoga when it is in season.
