Request for list of common Japanese food words
 

I'm looking for a list (in some flashcard format preferred, but not required) of the most common 100-250 food words found on menus in Japan. But not in Romanji, I want them in Kanji/Hiragana/Katakana (whichever is commonly used for that word) so I can read them on a menu.

I've looked for such a list here and using google, but to no avail. I've found many lists, but they are in Romanji. Wikipedia has a fairly extensive listing, but the Kanji/Hiragana/Katakana are typically available only by following links and hence it will take a long time to generate a list.

Can anyone one point me to such a list? Or any other suggestions?

[In case you're wondering why, we're probably heading to Japan in a couple of months. I've set myself a modest-but-I-hope-achievable goal to learn Hiragana, Katakana, and about 100 food words before I go. Thanks to other posts here I've found some great Hiragana and Katakana resources, but nothing yet on common food words.]

There's something of a list here: 4Japan.Info - Japanese Food Glossary which is mostly all traditional izukaya/ resturant foods. It's probably not exactly the best list you'd want as a tourist, but it's got some useful words on it.

You know, I'd almost recommend learning the most common kanji found in food rather than entire food names since you're doing sort of a crash course. When I lived there, my first few months of eating out involved such detective work before I learned more. ;)

For example, it's not likely you'll be able to memorize 200 long phrases if you've never studied kanji before, like 揚げ出し豆腐, but if you learn 豆 is bean, or that bean followed by something hideously complicated (腐) is "tofu", then you'll have a basic idea of what you're ordering. (The long one is agedashidoufu, deliciously fried tofu served with a yummy sauce).

I would sit down and think of a list of very basic food ideas in English and then go look them up in Japanese and make flash cards. More examples:

肉 - niku, meat in general or sometimes beef specifically
鳥 - tori, bird but usually means chicken in terms of food
牛 - gyuu - beef
卵 - tamago - egg
魚 - sakana - fish
野菜 - yasai - vegetables
そば - soba
うどん -udon
酒 - sake - Japanese sake or sometimes alcohol in general
丼　- don, "bowl", as in a bowl of rice with stuff on top, like 牛丼
飲み物 - nomimono - drink
食べ物 - tabemono - food

And two long but magical phrases, worth memorizing:

食べ放題 - tabehoudai
のも放題 -nomihoudai

All you can eat or all you can drink, respectively, for a set period of time, ordering off a set menu.

Good luck and enjoy your trip! :)

@columbine: thanks for the list. That's not too far from what I was looking for, and it's already in table format, so it should be pretty easy to parse out into a format for a flash card program.

@CityofTrees: I meant to mention in my first posting that I'm studying Chinese and know about 1500 characters. I realize that kanji is not quite the same as Chinese (e.g. some characters are written differently, many characters have different meanings), but I don't fear kanji :) I was surprised, however, to see that much kanji in food words. In my previous (and only) trip to Japan, I was expecting to have some vague idea of menus by reading the kanji. However, I was very disappointed and surprised to find almost no kanji on the menus. Does this not match other peoples' experience?

No that's pretty standard to find menu's without lots and lots of kanji. Don't forget, there are people in Japan who struggle with them, and school kids who haven't learnt them all so excepting very traditional high-end restaurants, most provide simple kanji and hiragana to make life easier. You might also want to learn katakana as things like drinks (coffee and non-sake alcohols for example) are often listed in 'kana.

Well, man, I feel like a chump having written all that out. Usually, in my experience, folks just getting started in kana have never seen kanji of any kind before. Doh!

I lived in Japan for five years and ran across plenty of kanji in my time in restaurants, but if in your experience if you found only hiragana and katakana names, why not just use the romaji lists you've found and figure out/copy down the appropriate kana? For example, if you see "yakisoba" you know it'll be やきそば at a kanji-less level. Foreign dishes/beverages will be in katakana: "beer": ビール.

Now you've made me feel guilty! Sorry for not mentioning that earlier.

Take heart, however, that list of kanji was pretty useful to me. For example, I know 鳥, but I don't think one would see that on a Chinese menu, one would see 雞 instead, so now I know to keep an eye out for that. Similarly, one doesn't see 卵 on Chinese menus, 蛋 is used instead. And rather than 丼, 碗 is used. So I already learned some important differences!

And, most importantly, 放題! I'm not even sure how to say "all you can eat" in Chinese (although I can say buffet), but now I do in Japanese!

So thanks.

Because doing so involves a lot of work :D And I am surprised that such vocab lists don't already exist.

Seriously, now that I've started to learn kana, I realize that won't be as hard as I feared, so I just might. Learning kana is not that bad. Not as easy as Hungul, but not too bad.

Aww, no, I'm sorry! I just like to ramble, so it's easy for me to write a lot. >_>

And yes, houdai is a glorious word ;) though I realize my autofill in Japanese didn't do the kanji right for nomihoudai: 飲み放題 is the sign you want to keep an eye out for, not のみ放題. There's also the English-borrowed "Viking", which for some reason means buffet as well.

Think of it as practice, regarding the kana, if you decide to do it! I'll even spotcheck it for you, if you, like, once you're finished. :)

And, on a random note, if you don't mind me asking... I once heard that while 手紙 is "letter" in Japanese (which I know), I heard the same characters are "toilet paper" in Chinese. Is that true?

You know, now that you mention it, I don't even know how to say "toilet paper" in Chinese. I try to bring my own when traveling there so the issue never came up :D

According to MDBG (popular online Chinese dictionary), it's "衛生紙". While it's possible that it's a regional and/or slang that hasn't made it in yet, a search on google images shows only letters, no toilet paper. Humm, limiting the search to Taiwan shows some pictures of what I think are paper towels, not toilet paper. So that may be the answer, it's a Taiwan name for paper towels, doesn't seem to be called that in China.

Oh, I asked about this once; apparently it's supposed to be "Smörgåsbord" (swedish buffet):eek: but that was just too difficult for Japanese people to pronounce/remember so they just changed it to 'Viking'.

As for kanji on menu's, I think the worst (or most inconvenient for those of limited kanji) I ever saw was 麦飲 for 'beer'. The whole menu was like that. Like a kind of cryptic kanji crossword.

Sigh. My learning of food words hasn't progresses as fast as I had hoped. Shocking.

I put together a list of words based on the link Columbine provided and CityofTrees, 109 words in all. I was hoping at this point to have learned most of them and I could move on to actual menus, but I'm only about half done, and I only have about 6 weeks left to study.

So I'm wondering if anyone could do me a favor and critique this list. For now, I'm just interested in words I would find on menus. I'm sure there are words here I wouldn't see (e.g. do I really need to know how to read 8 different types of seaweed?), and I'm sure there are very common words on menus that aren't listed.

Any help is appreciated!

That is a hard list to read in the text doc. It isn't so long, so just post it here.

Hmm, the first thing I looked at on that list was a mistake, "karei katsu" かれいかつ for "katsu karee" カツカレー. Most of the rest of it looked ok, but I don't feel like checking it in detail.

Wondering if the OP seriously expects to learn food item names before he has eaten and is familiar with what each item looks and tastes like. If you aren't using your senses (see, smell, taste) in mastering these terms, it will be a very tough challenge.

I didn't really read it myself; I just googled for a list. That is pretty poor though. Forgivible if they were talking about some sort of breaded flounder, but they're not.

Agreed, it is somewhat challenging. I already know a good number of them (those common at Japanese restaurants in the USA), but others are new.

OTOH, I don't really have much of a choice. Learning them after I return isn't going to help me when traveling. Plus, I'm unlikely to order it if I don't know what it is, so I won't ever get familiar with it.

Sure, I thought it would be easier to read as an attachment, but I'm flexible. Especially when I'm asking total strangers to help me for free :D

-------------

肉 (niku) meat in general or sometimes beef specifically
牛 (gyuu) beef
魚 (sakana) fish
野菜 (yasai) vegetables
そば soba
うどん udon
酒 / (sake) Japanese sake or sometimes alcohol in general
丼 (don) "bowl", as in a bowl of rice with stuff on top, like 牛丼
飲み物 (nomimono) drink
食べ物 (tabemono) food
食べ放題 (tabehoudai) all you can eat
飲み放題 (nomihoudai) all you can drink
やきそば yakisoba
ビール beer
あえ物 / あえもの (Aemono) Vegetables or meats mixed with a ground sesame seed dressing
揚げ物 / あげもの (Agemono) Fried foods, divided into the following:<br /><br /> 1. suage - fried without a coating of flour/batter.<br /> 2. karaage - fried in a coating of flour or arrowroot starch.<br /> 3. tatsuage - food marinated in a mixture of sake, soy sauce and sugar that is fried in a coating of arrowroot starch.<br /> 4. tempura - fried in a coating of batter. <br />
馬刺し / ばさし (Basashi) Horse sashimi
ブタ (Buta) Pork
茶碗蒸し / ちゃわんむし (Chawanmushi) Steamed egg custard with shrimp, shiitake, chicken, ginnan, and topped with a vegetable called mitsuba
出し / だし (Dashi) Fish stock for cooking, generally made from kombu (a type of sea weed) and katsuobushi (dried bonito fish shavings.)
牛叩き / ぎゅうたたき (Gyu Tataki) Beef cooked on the outside and rare on the inside.
重箱 / じゅうばこ (Jyūbako) A box lunch served in a lacquered tray.
蒲焼き / かばやき (Kabayaki) A fish that has been de-boned and grilled.
カツ (Katsu) A breaded cutlet.
カツ丼 / かつどん (Katsudon) Deep-fried pork cutlet served with sauce over rice.
カレイカツ (Karei katsu) Curry sauce poured over deep-fried pork cutlet.
召物 / めしもの (Meshimono) Rice mixed with meat or vegetables.
水炊き / みずたき (Mizutaki) Refers to food cooked in water.
餅 / もち (Mochi) Sweet glutinous rice cakes.
糯米 / もちごめ (Mochigome) Mochi rice.
糯粉 / もちこ (Mochiko) Sweet glutinous rice flour.
蒸し物 / むしもの (Mushimono) Steamed foods. There are two types: shiomushi, which are foods sprinkled with salt then steamed and sakamushi, which are foods sprinkled with salt and sake then steamed.
鍋物 / なべもの (Nabemono) Meals cooked in a nabe (clay pot)
生 / なま (Nama) Prefix for raw food and draught beer.
煮物 / にもの (Nimono) Simmered or boiled foods. Examples include nitsuke, fish/seafood simmered in a mixture of sake, soy sauce, mirin and sugar.
ポン酢 / ポンす (Ponzu) Sauce made with Japanese citron.
炉端焼き / ろばたやき (Robatayaki) Fresh ingrediants cooked over a wood fire.
酒蒸し / さかむし (Sakamushi) Steamed over sake.
シャブシャブ (Shabu Shabu) Shabu Shabu
汁物 / しるもの (Shirumono) Common term for soup divided into two types: sumashijiru (clear soup) and misoshiru (soup made from miso paste.)
シュウマイ (Shumai) Stuffed wontons, served steamed or deep-fried. Origin of food is China.
酢 / す (Su) Rice vinegar.
鋤焼き / すきやき (Sukiyaki) Beef fried in a with a soy based sauce.
酢の物 / すのもの (Sunomono) Vinegared foods.
卵 / たまご (Tamago) Egg.
卵焼き / たまごやき (Tamagoyaki) Fried egg.
照り焼き / てりやき (Teriyaki sauce) A sweetened soy sauce.
滴れ / たれ (Tare) Term used to generically identify sauces.
叩き / たたき (Tataki) Finely chopped.
天ぷら / てんぷら (Tempura) Battered and deep-fried seafood or vegetables.
トンカツ (Tonkatsu) Breaded and fried pork cutlet.
鳥 / とり (tori) bird but usually means chicken in terms of food
梅紫蘇 / うめしそ (Ume shiso) Plum paste and shiso leaf mixture.
鰻丼 / うなどん (Unadon) Unagi, which is eel, grilled and placed on a bed of rice. Unadon is served in a clay dish. A similar dish called unajyu contains the same contents, but is placed in a wooden bowl.
薄口 / うすくち (Usukuchi shoyu) Light Japanese soy sauce.
薬味 / やくみ (Yakumi) One of several strongly flavored seasonings.
焼き物 / やきもの (Yakimono) Foods grilled on a mesh wire net, skewered like "shish kabob" over an open fire or cooked in a skillet. There are different types of yakimono: shioyaki, which involves sprinkling salt over the food prior to cooking, tsukeyaki, which involves marinating the food in a soy sauce and sake or soy sauce and mirin mixture called awase jōyu prior to cooking, teriyaki, which is a stronger flavored tsukeyaki, misozukeyaki, which involves marinating the food in a miso and sake or miso and mirin mixture.
焼き海苔 / やきのり (Yakinori) Toasted seaweed.
焼き鳥 / やきとり (Yakitori) Grilled chicken shish kabob.
寄せ鍋 / よせなべ (Yosenabe) A fish, seafood and vegetable soup made in a clay pot.
油揚げ / あぶらげ (Aburage) Puffy, brown fried tofu.
上げだし豆腐 / あげだしどうふ (Agedashi dōfu) Flour encrusted fried tōfu.
赤味噌 / あかみそ (Aka miso) Red soy bean paste.
按 / あん (An) Sweetened puree of cooked red beans.
厚揚げ / あつあげ (Atsuage) Deep fried tofu cutlet.
小豆 / あずき (Azuki) Small red beans used to make an.
がんもどき (Ganmodoki) Tofu patties.
ひじき (Hijiki) A type of seaweed.
豆腐 / とうふ (Kinugoshi tōfu) "Silky" bean curd.
昆布 / こんぶ (Konbu) A type of seaweed.
高野豆腐 / こうやどうふ (Kōyadōfu) Freeze-dried tofu.
めかぶ (Mekabu) A seaweed.
木綿豆腐 / もめんとうふ (Momen tōfu) "Cottony" bean curd.
もやし (Moyashi) Bean sprout.
もずく (Mozuku) Mozuku is a type of seaweed . It's generally packed in small containers enough for 1 or 2 servings .
納豆 / なっとう (Natto) Fermented soy bean.
海苔 / のり (Nori) A seaweed that is pressed into a paper thin shape
白味噌 / しろみそ (Shiro miso) White soy bean paste.
わかめ (Wakame) A type of seaweed, that is cultivated by submerging nets just below the surface of the ocean.
やまかき (Yamakaki) Grated mountain potato with chunks of maguro.
焼き豆腐 / やきどうふ (Yakidofu) Broiled or grilled soy bean curd.
餡子鍋 / あんこなべ (Ankonabe) Monkfish stew.
土鍋 / どなべ (Donabe) Refers to earthenware pots.
河豚散 / ふぐちり (Fugu-chiri) Blowfish soup.
石狩鍋 / いしかりなべ (Ishikari-nabe) Salmon stew with sake.
味噌汁 / みそしる (Misoshiru) Soup made with miso paste.
南部鉄鍋 / なんぶてつなべ (Nanbutetsunabe) Refers to cast iron pots. This type of nabe is generally found in the tohoku region of Japan.
御吸物 / おすいもの (Osuimono) Clear soup. Clear soups contain wakame (ワカメ) as a basic ingredient.
ちり鍋 / ちりなべ (Tirinabe) Refers to a fish stew.
湯豆腐 / ゆどうふ (Yudōfu) Refers to a simmered tofu stew.
榎だけ / えのきだけ (Enokidake) Small capped, long stemmed white mushrooms.
海藻 / かいそう (Kaisō) Sea vegetables.
茸 きのこ (Kinoko) General term for fungi (i.e. mushrooms).
まいたけ (Maitake) A mushroom.
松茸 / まつたけ (Matsutake) A fungi found in the mountains; considered a delicacy with price tags of $200 and up for one of these rear treats.
なめこ (Nameko) A button sized mushroom.
しめじ (Shimeji) A chunky stem and grey capped mushroom.
椎茸 / しいたけ (Shiitake) A dark brown, thick caps and stalks, mushroom. This mushroom is planted in the logs of evergreen oak, called shii, hence the name of this mushroom. Top quality shiitake is called donko
竹の子 / たけのこ (Takenoko) Bamboo shoots.
味噌 / みそ (Miso) Soy bean paste.
丼 / どんぶり (Donburi) a traditional lunch dish referring to the ceramic bowl and matching lid the contents of this dish are served in
牛丼 / ぎゅうどん (gyūdon) rice with a beef topping
焼き鳥丼 / やきとりどんぶり (yakitori donburi) rice with a chicken topping
天丼 / てんどん (tendon) rice with a tempura topping
カツ丼 / かつどん 2 (katsudon) rice with a pork topping
親子丼 / おやこどんぶり (oyako donburi) rice with a chicken and fried egg topping
付け / つけ (Tsuke) A rice soup
お茶付け / おちゃつけ (ochazuke) rice soup which adds green tea as the soup base
天ぷら付け / てんぷらつけ (Tempura Tsuke) rice soup which includes tempura battered items