A

Aburage - Fried tofu pouches prepared by cooking in sweet cooking sake, shoyu, and water.

Aemono - Vegetables or meats mixed with a dressing or sauce.

Agari - A Japanese sushi-bar term for green tea.

Agemono - Fried foods -- either deep-fat fried or pan-fried.

B

Beni shoga - Red pickled ginger.

Bonito - Also known as skip jack tuna.

Buri - Yellowtail. Hamachi refers to the young yellowtail and Buri are the older ones.

Buri Toro - Fatty Yellowtail. The belly strip of the yellowtail. Incredibly rich with a nice buttery flavour.

C

Chirashi-zushi - translates as "scattered sushi", a bowl or box of sushi rice topped with a variety (usually nine, nine is the Japanese lucky number) of sashimi.

D

Dashi - Basic soup and cooking stock made with kombu and katsuoboshi.

Donburi - A large bowl for noodle and rice dishes.

E

Ebi - Shrimp. Not the same as Sweet Shrimp, as Ebi is cooked, while Ami Ebi is prepared by "curing" in a mixture of juices.

I

Inari-Zushi - Aburage stuffed with sushi rice.

M

Mirin - Sweet rice wine for cooking.

Miso - Soy bean paste.

N

Nori - Sheets of dried seaweed used in maki.

O

Ocha - Tea.

S

Sake - Rice wine. Served both hot and cold depending on the quality. Some people love it, some people hate it.

Sashimi - Raw fish fillets sans the sushi rice.

Shamoji - A flat wooden spoon/spatula used in Japanese cooking to mix vinegar into the rice when making sushi rice.

Soba - Buckwheat noodles.

T

Tofu - Soybean curd.

V,W

Unagi - Eel (Freshwater) - grilled, and brushed with a teriyaki-like sauce, richer than salt water eel.

Wasabi - Japanese 'Horseradish.'