Table layout in Japanese restaurants – is it difficult to restore it at home?

Rules of table layout in Japan  differ very strongly from European. Japanese don’t eat at one table together.  Each guest sits on pillows at the separate low little table. On each table all dishes are served together.

Japanese eat the majority of them of room temperature. Exception is for soup and rice because they surely have to be hot. Dishes given to a table can be eaten in any order you want.

Japanese menu

At table layout the principle is esthetic view. The menu is carefully thought carefully from the point of view of compatibility of products. Also it’s taking into account the esthetic look of a dish. All dishes are beautifully displayed on various small plateaus, saucers etc. There are many wares for every type of dish. Sake is  a national drink. It is served in small clay or porcelain small jugs without handles. Sake is warmed up in the same ware. Sake is drunk from small piles or small square wooden boxes on which the sort of Sake or the name of restaurant is surely indicated. At table layout Japanese widely use the dark varnished ware. It emphasizes a whiteness of the main national product – rice.

Strict rules of serving Japanese food

Japanese developed also rules of dishes serving. According to them a rice has to be  put on the left side, soup on the right and a main dish is on the center because is closer to the eater. Various marinades and a pickles serve on the left, on the right and it is a little behind a main dish. Sauces and seasonings are placed to the right of that food for which they are served. Chopsticks (hasa) are put on special little desk or ashtray that they didn’t touch a table. Thus they have to be turned to the left by that end with which take food.

Japanese bento

The special type of Japanese laying is bento. It is a set of traditional food in the special box divided into some sections. In every section is placed one type of products. Bento is made in house or can be bought in shop. Japanese eat bento while traveling in a train or during country walks. Bento has wide popularity  among school students and students, workers and employees.

The set of  products entering in bento is extremely different. But it surely includes boiled rice and a tube of soy sauce. Never forget about chopsticks. There also various vegetables (carrots, bamboo sprouts, cabbage, marinated plums, etc). Also can be inside seaweed and fish or meat. In bento which is prepared  at home it can be anything  inside from sandwiches to an omelet and fried meat. There are also special versions of bento prepared for European and American tourists.  This bento has the name “station  bento” because they are generally on sale at railway stations. They include inexpensive views of  land, sandwiches, Chile sauce, stewed fish and other dishes, habitual for non Japanese. It can be also any local delicacy. On boxes with bento is written a time of food preparation.

Japanese dishes are served on several trays

In Japan there is quite clear split of food on house and restaurant. However in both cases any dish needs to be eaten within 10 minutes after it was prepared. So it didn’t lose taste yet which cook wanted to give it. At Japanese restaurants a dishes are served in several times on separate trays. The order of serving is defined quite strictly. On the first tray are vegetables, sashimi and oyster dishes. On the last are soup, rice and marinades. In interval trays between them various foods from fish and meat can be served with all seasonings. Two-three options including 10-12 dishes given in strict order. They are usually presented in menu of very expensive restaurants.

What meal is prepared at home

During house meals usually there are a rice, soup, fish dishes and fried or stewed vegetables on a table. If  there are guests so snack, salads, marinated vegetables and sake are added to this list. Very many tasty dishes prepare directly in the presence of guests. Because isn’t required a lot of time and forces for this purpose. Only the frying pan and in advance prepared products which are beautifully spread out on a tray are necessary. The dessert on a house table is absent, but green tea is served after and during the meal.