What's new

Eating Japanese food without fish?

Sabrina miew

先輩
9 Jan 2011
28
2
13
There is something I like to know. If I look in most Japanese cook books is see mostly fishy foods. It seems the food is mostly fish.

Is it possible to go out and eat at (semi )a traditional place and not get loaded with just fish and just one or 2 not fish related foods. *our any thing ells that lives partly under water.

Its not that I mind the fish I was wondering about it. Do have a big variety on non fish related foods?
Because it seems to me if its not just fish is something like fish flakes or so you will find in your food.
 
Yes, it is possible to eat out in a Japanese restaurant and eat meals that do not include fish. There are many Japanese dishes that include pork, chicken, beef, vegetables, pasta, etc. They may not be what you are accustomed to, but they have a Japanese flavor to them.

The books you are looking at are probably traditional Japanese cuisine that, yes, do include fish, but Japanese cuisine today includes a variety of meats and vegetables as mentioned above.
 
I agree with Pachipro. As a person who loves and tries to cook Japanese food, yet can't afford to buy fish much (quite expensive here), I can say that many Japanese meals don't have fish in them.
 
If you just don't like fish, it's not that hard to avoid, but fish products do make their way into a lot of dishes (fish broth is quite prevalent).
 
Thank you all for replying to my question. I'm happy to learn its not to so hard to avoid it.
Because here in Holland if I want to avoid ham I know how to deal with it. *I'm get red spots in my face if I eat it.
My BF will not and shale not eat anything that lives (partly) under water. It could be a bit of pain in Japan. Do any of you know any books that have conmen non fish dishes you can also order in most (semi) traditional restaurants?
he hates eating the same food a lot too. I can't keep him happy with witch rice + meat or ramen *He is picky, I know. So I would like know more about the possibilities sins there more things he won't eat.
Plus knowing him, he will forget to look into this sort of thing. *giving a book too him will help.
Any books you can recommend? Most shops here are will give you a sushi book. They don't have a lot of books with non fish dishes *I won't buy 1 book for just 3 recipes.
i think he dossen't mind the fish broth. *i think its more because he dos not know.
 
Last edited:
I've never heard of a fish-excluding Japanese cook book to be honest. If your bf can't have anything associated with fish at all, then it could be a problem, because many dishes although may not have fish in them, do have something known as "dashi", which is a stock consisting of dried seaweed and bonito (type of fish) shavings. There is dashi which is just with the dried seaweed (konbu), but I think the one with bonito flakes is more common, though I'm not sure.
 
As Pachipro and Jericho Desu have said there are a lot of dishes that don't have fish or other seafood in them. I am not a huge fish fan so I usually avoid it when we are in Japan (though I have had some fish and seafood there). I get things like miso soup, omurice, mabotofu, pumpkin soup, avacado pasta (not sure if its Japanese though), okinomiyaki, yakisoba, ramen (real ramen not that fake instant stuff you can get in the US), sukiyaki, coroke (spelling?), and lots of dishes with pork, beef, chicken, rice, eggs, vegetables, etc.

It can be difficult if you don't know what your ordering but just keep a look out for the example dishes at the entrance. They helped me out a lot! :D

As for cookbooks, I agree that you likely won't find one that excludes fish but you can probably find one that gives a lot of other dishes as well. Also have you tried looking on cooking sites on the internet? Thats where my wife and I get a lot of our recipes from.
 
Last edited:
Yes it's definitely possible for your boyfriend to eat Japanese food, but he just must be careful. You can ask for "no fish flakes" on any dish, or make sure that it doesn't have oyster sauce or fish stock in the liquid of the dish. Japanese food is too delicious to be passed up on!
 
Thanks every one
Sorry for the late reply *I have exams this week.

*Jericho. He is ok with dashi. I don't know he has some bad experience with fish and it smell.
I don't really know because he won't really tell me. He fine with dashi and me eating the fish and prawns. * I think he he's ok with dashi because he can't really smell and see the fish.
So far he never complained about it. I'm guessing he knows what it is.

*Kwaii95
Ramen is fine I think. He will just pas me the fish cake and order it with pork or something I just think he will get sick of it if he has to eat for 30 days or so.

*Petaris thanks for the examples. It helps (plus I'm getting hungry). I'll keep your tip in mind to look out for example dishes.

*Glenski. I Think you struck gold with what I meant. Thanks I'll go look up the book. That will really help.

*Ginkgoo
Thank you I will keep that in mind too.

On a side note its not like he is allergic to fish. Sins you pointed that out and Jericho about the dashi. I did ask him if he is allergic and I do use oyster sauce. He is not allergic.
Beef made in oyster sauce he will eat and love. It just the confrontation of smelly fish as for as I can tell. I think its something mental between him and fish *it sound stupid I know but I don't really see the point in forcing him. Besides as long as I ale to eat it its fine.
It's the same with pork *but I do get spots if I eat it. Not that bad but just a bit of a anions' to hace red spot al over your face.
 
Back
Top Bottom