• Aburage — Fried tofu pouches prepared by cooking in sweet cooking sake, soy sauce, 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.

• Aji — Spanish Mackeral

• Aji-no-moto — Monosodium glutamate(MSG)

• Aji-no-tataki — Fresh Spanish mackerel.

• Akagai — Red Clam

• Aka miso — Red soy bean paste.

• Akami — Akami, which literally means red meat is the leanest part of the fish. It should be noted that with 26% fat it is still significantly fattier than salmon. It is the most abundant part of the fish which makes it less expensive than other cuts. Many Japanese chefs prefer akami because it has a clean bright flavor and vibrant color amd it is excellent for classic western preparations such as tartar or carpaccio.

• Ali-no-moto — Monosodium glutamate (MSG).

• Ama Ebi — Raw Shrimp

• Anago — Saltwater Eel

• An — Sweetened puree of cooked red beans.

• Ana-kyu-maki — Conger eel-and-cucumber rolls.

• Ankimo — Monkfish liver.

• Anko-nabe — Monkfish stew.

• Aoyagi — Yellow round clam.

• Awabi — Abalone

• Ayu — Sweetfish.

B

• Baigaiu — Small water snails.

• Bamboo shoots — Bought sliced in supermarkets or whole in Japanese markets

• Bara sushiu — Sushi Rice and ingredients mixed together, as a rice salad.

• Baran — Baran is decorative plastic sushi grass used for its colorful appearance and interesting shapes. Baran is also a functional garnish when used to separate different pieces of sushi.

• Basashi — Horse sashimi.

• Battera - Zushi — oshi-zushi topped with mackerel

• Beni shoga — Red pickled ginger

• Bento — A meal in a tray or box with different compartments for each type of food. Usually a couple pieces of Sushi, Tempura, Teriyaki, and Rice.

• Biiru — Beer.

• Bonito — English word for the Japanese Katsuo.

• Bulgogi — A Korean marinated beef dish

• Buri — Adult yellowtail

• Buta — Pork

C

• California Roll — Crab meat (or fake crab meat sticks), smelt or flying fish roe, avocado.

• Chakin - Zushi — Vinegared rice wrapped in a thin egg crepe.

• Cha kaiseki — Small meal served with as part of a tea ceremony.

• Chikuwa — Browned fish cake with a hole running through its length.

• Chirashi — Sampler of fish served over a bowl of sushi rice.

• Chirashi - Zushi — Bed of sushi rice with other ingredients mixed on top.

• Chirashi sushi (Iso-don, gomoku sushi) — Sushi rice bed under other ingredients.

• Chutoro — Medium fatty tuna, from the upper belly.

• Chutoro - maki — Marbled-tuna roll.

• Cloud ears - Alternate name for Kikurage.

D

• Daikon — Giant, long white radish, sweeter than round, red radishes.

• Dashi — Basic soup and cooking stock made with kombu and katsuoboshi.

• Doburoku — Sort of a thick, soupy sake.

• Donburi — Large bowl for noodle and rice dishes.

• Donburri — Donburri is like Chirashi but just one kind of fish that you would choose. For example Unagi-Donburri would be Just Unagi (freshwater eel) served over a bowl of sushi rice.

E

• Ebi — Cooked/Boiled Shrimp

• Edamame — Soy beans that are steamed and served in the shell/pod. Usually garnished and eaten with sea salt and lemon.

• Engawa — The muscle that controls the fin on halibut or the meat surrounding the muscle in a scallop.

F

• Fugu — Poisonous Blowfish (This can be deadly if it is not prepared correctly. Part of eating this fish is enjoying the sensation of taking your life in your hands. Or really putting your life in the hands of the sushi chef. The Fugu's organs contains a dangerous neurotoxin, which if ingested will result in paralysis and death in 15 minutes.)

• Fugu-chiri — Cooked, sliced raw fugu meat in a stewpan.Blowfish soup.

• Fuki — A fibrous vegetable often simmered in broth.

• Fukusa sushi — A type of sushi which is wrapped in a crepe.

• Funamori (Gunkan maki, kakomi sushi) — Nigiri sushi wrapped to hold in less solid ingredients.

• Futomaki — Thick rolled sushi with many ingredients inside and each piece is very large.

G

• Geoduck — Mirugai, in the American Pacific northwest.

• Geta — The wooden block used at a sushi bar as a plate for gari, wasabi and smaller pieces of sushi.

• Gari — Pickled Ginger (Bright pink thinly sliced ginger, served on the side of every sushi order. Gari is served as a palate cleanser to be eaten between bites of different types of sushi.)

• Geta — Wooden block used at a sushi bar as a plate.

• Gobo — Burdock root. Crunchy slender carrot looking root. Commonly found in Futomaki.Goma Sesame Seeds (Black or White)

• Gohan — Plain boiled rice.

• Goma — Sesame seeds.

• Gomoku sushi — Alternate name for chirashi-sushi.

• Gunkan maki — Battleship roll, an alternate name for Kakomi sushi.

• Gunkan Nigiri — A type of Nigiri that holds the ingredients like a boat, usually seen when ordering Tobiko, Ikura or Uni.

• Gyoza — Pan-fried and/or sauted and/or steamed, stuffed wonton or other wrappers, akin to potstickers.

• Gyu Tataki — Beef tataki.

H

• Hamachi — Yellowtail Tuna

• Hamachi Kama — Literally meaning the head of the Yellowfin Tuna, this is the gill plate from the fish that is broiled with a Ponzu sauce. There is a lot of meat on the gill plate and is commonly seen as a appetizer for 2 people.

• Hamaguri — Clam

• Hamo — Pike conger. Usually cooked.

• Harusame — Thin, transparent bean gelatin noodles.

• Hashi — Chopsticks

• Hatahata — Sandfish

• Hichimi togarashi — Mixed hot spices for table use. The seven flavors: red pepper (togarashi), ground sansho pepper pods, dried mandarin orange peel, black hemp seeds or white poppy seeds, nori seaweed bits, and white sesame seeds

• Hijiki — Black seaweed in tiny threads.

• Hikari-mono — Fish sliced for serving with the silver fish skin left on. Typical of iwashi, aji, sayori, sanma, kohada.

• Himo — "Fringe" around an ark shell.

• Hirame — Flounder/Halibut

• Hocho — General Japanese term for knives.

• Hokkigai — Surf Clam

• Horenso No Ohitashi — A spinach dish.

• Hosomaki — Thin Rolled sushi with the Nori (seaweed) on the outside.

• Hotategai — Scallop

I

• Ika — Squid/Calamar

• Ika-geso — Squid's tentacles.

• Ikura — Salmon Roe (large orange carviar with a salty taste.)

• Inada — Very young yellowtail.

• Inari — Fried Tofo skin (Commonly used as a pouch and stuffed with rice or a mixture of rice and vegetables.)

• Inari-Zushi — Vinegared rice and vegetables wrapped in a bag of fried tofu or Aburage stuffed with sushi rice.

• Ishikari-nabe — Salmon stew with sake.

• Iso-don — Bed of sushi rice with other ingredients mixed on top.

• Itamae — Sushi Chef (Not to be confused with Shokunin which means master sushi chef.)

• Iwana — Char

• Iwashi — Sardine

J

• Ji- — Prefix: locally made or caught.

K

• Kaibashira — Eye of scallop or shellfish valve muscles.

• Kaiseki-bento — Smaller, less expensive version of kaiseki-ryori, often eaten at lunch.

• Kaiseki-ryori — A multi-course meal of many small, simple, and typically seasonal dishes.

• Kaiware — Daikon Radish Sprouts

• Kaiware - maki — Daikon-sprout roll

• Kajiki — Swordfish

• Kakomi sushi — Nigiri sushi wrapped to hold in less solid ingredients. Also called Gunkan maki (battleship roll) and Funamori (boat wrap).

• Kamaboko — Fish cake made from pounded whitefish mixed with cornstarch, formed into a sausage shape and cooked.

• Kampyo — Dried gourd that comes prepared in long, translucent brown strips like fettuccine.

• Kani — Crab

• Kanikama — Imitation Crab also called Krab (Often found in California Rolls. This is made from various white fish that are pureed, seasoned and cooked into sticks. Also called Kani-kamaboko or Surimi.) Kanpyo — Pickled Gourd (Dried and pickled Gourd thin strips commonly found in Futomaki.)

• Kani-kamaboko — Fake crab meat.

• Kanimiso — Green contents of a crab's head.

• Kanpachi — Very young yellowtail.

• Kanpyo — Dried gourd strips.

• Kanpyo - maki — Pickled-gourd rolls.

• Kappa — Cucumber, when used in a roll.

• Kappa - maki — Cucumber-filled maki-zushi

• Kareh katsu — Curry sauce poured over deep-fried pork cutlet.

• Karei — Flounder, flatfish.

• Katsu — A cutlet.Katsu refers to fried foods made coated with bread crumbs, as opposed to tempura, fried foods coated with batter.

• Katsudon — Deep-fried pork cutlet served with sauce over rice.

• Katsuo — Bonito Tuna also known as Skipjack tuna

• Katsuo-boshi — Dried bonito fish

• Kazunoko — Dried and salted herring roe sacs, considered a Japanese delicacy.

• Kikurage — A dried fungus.

• Kimachi — A small fish from the yellowtail family.

• Kim chee — Spicy marinated cabbage

• Kinome — Leaves of the Japanese prickly ash (sanshoo), used in soups and to flavor simmered foods.

• Kirimi — Take the head and tail off, leave in the guts (called kirimi), and then freeze the fish or portion cut from a fillet, then tempura fried.

• Kohada — Gizzard shad

• Koi — Saltwater carp

• Kombu — Kelp, possibly dried; a kind of seaweed, in sheet form. Kombu is a large type of seaweed that is often used as a soup stock or in nabe (hot pot) dishes.

• Konnyaku — Gelatinous, rubbery oblong cake made from the snake palm plant.

• Koyadofu — Freeze-dried tofu.

• Kuro goma — Black sesame seeds

• Kurodai — Snapper

• kuruma-ebi — Prawn

L

• Langostino — A small shellfish about 1 inch long that have a strong shrimp flavor.

M

• Madaii — Red seabream

• Maguroi — Tuna.

• Maguro — Bluefin Tuna

• Maguro-temakii — tuna temaki

• Makajikii — blue marlin

• Maki — Sushi Rolls (There are many types of Maki, Futomaki, Hosomaki, Temaki, Uramaki, etc.)

• Maki-monoi — vinegared rice and fish (or other ingredients) rolled in nori seaweed

• Maki-Zushii — vinegared rice with insertions, rolled up in Japanese seaweed. Most maki places the nori on the outside, but some, like the California roll, place the rice on the outside.

• Makisui — Mat made of bamboo strips to roll up makesushi or norimake sushi

• Manjui — Sweet bun filled with an

• Masui — Trout

• Matsutake — Very rare pine mushroom.

• Meji (maguro)i — young tuna

• Mekajikii — Blue marlin / swordfish.

• Mentaikoi — Spicy, marinated cod roe.

• Meshimonoi — Rice mixed with meat or vegetables

• Mirini — Sweet rice wine for cooking

• Mirin — Sweet rice wine exclusively used in cooking.

• Mirugai — Horseneck Clam/Geoduck

• Mirugaii — Long neck clam. Sometimes called Geoduck.

• Miso — Soy bean paste.

• Mitzutakii — Cooked in liquid Usually, mizutaki includes tofu and vegetables cooked in water

• Mochi — Pounded rice in paste (Usually seen as Mochi ice cream, which is small scoops of ice cream with a thin layer of Mochi on the outside.)

• Mochigomei — Mochi rice

• Mochikoi — Sweet glutinous rice flour

• Momen tofu — "Cottony" bean curd.

• Moyashi — Bean sprouts

• Murasakii — Sushi bar term for soy sauce

• Mushimonoi — Steamed foods

N

• Nabemono — One-pot meals

• Nama- — Prefix: (food) raw, (beer) draught.

• Nama-tako — Fresh or raw octopus.

• Nanami togarashi — Mixed hot spices for table use. The seven flavors: red pepper (togarashi), ground sansho pepper pods, dried mandarin orange peel, black hemp seeds or white poppy seeds, nori seaweed bits, and white sesame seeds

• Nasu — Eggplant

• Natto — Fermented soy bean with a very strong flavor and a mucous consistency

• Negi — A Japanese onion, resembling a leek, but thinner

• Negi-Toro — chopped and mixed negi-onion and toro.

• Negitoro - maki — scallion-and-tuna roll

• Neta — The fish topping in nigiri sushi.

• ni-ika — squid simmered in a soy-flavored stock

• Nigiri Sushi — Pieces of fish on top of two balls of sushi rice, sometimes a slice of roasted Nori (seaweed) is put on to bind the fish to the rice and to add flavor and eye appeal.

• Nigiri-Zushi — pieces of fish, shellfish, or fish roe over vinegared rice balls.

• Nihon Shu — Sake, rice wine

• Niika — Cooked Monterey squid.

• Nijimasu — Rainbow trout.

• Nimono — Simmered or boiled foods

• Nori — Seaweed Sheet (Roasted Seaween sheet used as sushi wrapper in sushi rolls. Shredded finely for garnishes.)

• Nori - maki — same as kanpyo-maki; in Osaka, same as futo-maki

• Nori-tama — sweetened egg wrapped in dried seaweed

O

• Ocha — Tea

• Odori-ebi — Dancing shrimp, Ama Ebi served living.

• Ohba — Japanese beefsteak plant

• Ohitsu — A special bowl to keep rice warm

• Okonomi-Zushi — Home-style Nigiri sushi.

• Onigiri — Balls made with plain steamed rice with various stuffings, possibly wrapped in nori

• Odori-ebi — "Dancing shrimp," ama ebi served living.

• Oshi-Zushi — Osaka-style sushi: squares of pressed rice topped with vinegared/cooked fish

• Oshibori — Rolled up hot towel served to sushi bar customers.

• Oshinko — Generic term for pickled vegetables but usually people mean Takuan.

• oshinko - maki — pickled-daikon (radish) rolls

• Oshiwaku — Wooden box with top

• OshiZushi — sushi rice and other ingrediants pressed into a box or mold

• Otoro — Fattest tuna, from the lower belly..

• Otoro - maki — fatty-tuna roll

P

• Pan-joon — Very light scallion Korean pancake with spicy dipping sauce

• Philidelphia Roll — Salmon (sometimes fresh, sometimes smoked), cream cheese, and some sort of vegetable filler.

• Ponzu — Traditional sauce that is tart and salty made from simmering soy sauce, lemon juice, Mirin (rice wine), and dried bonito flakes.

Q

R

• Rainbow Roll — Alternate name for Tazuna sushi.

• Rice Bowl — A rice bowl is made with nori and rice. The nori is wrapped around the rice and formed into a bow. The rice makes the nori wet in only a few minutes so the markets wrap the rice and nori separately in small plastic bags until the consumer is ready to use them. The consumer, who wishes to eat it, can then eat the rice bowl with the fresh nori.

• Ramen — Thin noodles, often used infast-prepare packets.

• Renkon — Lotus roots

• Robata-Yaki — Fresh ingredients cooked over a wood fire.

S

• Saba — Mackerel

• Sakamushi — Steamed over sake

• Sake — Salmon (Fresh or Smoked) Pronounced differently than the rice wine (Sake).

• Sake — Fermented rice wine (Usually served warm in small cups, or bamboo or wood boxes. Some higher quality sake is often served at room temperature.

• Sanma — Japanese mackeral

• Sansho — Japanese pepper, made from the leaf of the prickly ash. Served with green beans.

• Sashimi — Only Sliced fish. Raw, cooked or pickled fish cut into 3-5 pieces. Usually presented on top of a few leaves of shiso and grated daikon with wasabi and ginger on the side.

• Sato-imo — Taro root

• Sawagani — Small crabs served grilled and whole.

• Sawara — Spanish mackerel

• Sayori — Springtime halfbeak

• Sazae — Conch

• Seigo — Young Sea bass

• Senbei — Thin, crisp rice crackers flavored with soy sauce or other seasonings.

• Shabu-shabu — Food blanched at the table; served with sauce.

• Shako — Mantis shrimp

• Shamoji — Plastic or wooden flat spoon or spatula used to serve rice.

• Shari — Sushi bar term for sushi rice.

• Shichimi togarashi — Mixed hot spices for table use. The seven flavors: red pepper(togarashi), ground sansho pepper pods, dried mandarin orange peel, black hemp seeds or white poppy seeds, nori seaweed bits, and white sesame seeds.

• Shiitake — A type of Japanese mushroom.

• Shima-aji — Another variety of aji

• Shime-saba — Marinated Mackerel

• Shira-uo — Whitebait, icefish or salangid

• Shirako — Sperms sacs of the cod fish

• Shiratake — Translucent rubbery noodles

• Shiro goma — White sesame seeds

• Shiro maguro — Albacore tuna

• Shiro miso — White soyt bean paste

• Shiromi — Seasonal “white meat” fish served as sushi/sashimi which are relatively white in color, as: tai, hirame, karei.

• Shirumono — Generic Japanese term for soup or thick soup.

• Shiso — Japanese mint. Commonly used as garnishes but quite tasty and edible. Used as a wrapper to pick up and eat food. Green Shiso is the most common but red is available also. Very tasty with pickled plum (Umeboshi).

• Shiro Maguro — Albacore Tuna (Usually served Tataki style seared or blanched on the outside and raw on the inside.

• Shiso — Japanese mint

• Shochu — Spirit made from potatoes or rice, usually 25-40% alcohol.

• Shoga — Ginger root

• Shokunin — Master Sushi Chef

• Shoyu — Soy sauce that is made by fermenting wheat, soybeans and seasalt. This does contain wheat.

• Shu-mei — Typical of Chinese dim sum. Small filled dumplings with a won-ton like skin, served steamed or deep-fried.

• Soba — Buckwheat noodles

• Soba-zushi — Sushi made with soba rather than rice.

• Somen — White, threadlike wheat noodles.

• Soy sauce — Salty sauce made from fermented soybeans.

• Spicy mayonnaise — A common condiment with some kinds of sushi rolls.

• Su — Rice vinegar

• Sudare — Floor or window sized bamboo mat.

• Suimono — clear soup

• Sukimi — Bits of fish scraped from the bones, used in rolls. Relates to tuna (maguro)

• Sukiyaki — Thinly sliced beef and raw vegetables cooked at the table.

• Sunomono — Pickled cucumber salad or vinegared foods.

• Sumitomo — A variety of cucumber salad

• Suribachi — A bowl with corrugations on the inside, used with a surikogi to grind nuts, spices, and other foods.

• Surikogi — Wooden pestle shaped like a big cucumber.

• Sushi — Anything made with vinegar rice

• Sushimeshi — Rice for preparing sushi.

• Suzuki — Sea Bass, Rockfish

• Sweet bean paste — Red azuki beans boiled with sugar.

T

• Tai — Snapper/Sea Bream

• Tairagai — Razor-shell clam

• Tako — Octopus

• Takenoko — Bamboo shoots

• Takuan — Pickled Daikon (Bright yellow pickled root. Very tasty and colorful in rolls. Some people call this Oshinko.)

• Tamago — Sweet Egg Omelette (Cooked in a block. This is the true test of a traditional sushi bar. In Japan, you can tell the quality of a sushi bar by its Tomago. If its bad, people have been known to walk out after tasting it.)

• Tamago yaki — Fried egg

• Tamari — Sory Sauce made by fermenting soybeans and seasalt. This contains NO wheat.

• Tarako — Cod roe

• Tare — Any thick sauce, usually soy-based and slightly sweetened

• Tataki — Style of cooking where a meat or fish is seared or blanched on the outside and raw on the inside.

• Tatami — Traditional Japanese flooring made of straw or bamboo. A Tatami room in a restaurant is a private room for your party where everyone must remove your shoes prior to entering.

• Tazuna sushi — A maki roll with diagonal strips of food across the top, often called a rainbow roll

• Tekka — Tuna, especially in a roll

• Tekka-maki — Tuna filled maki-zushi

• Tekka-don — Pieces of raw tuna over rice

• Tekkappa-maki — Selection of both tuna and cucumber rolls

• Temaki — Cone shaped hand rolls that are meant to be eaten from the hand like an ice cream cone. May contain: Maguro, sake, sukimi, o-shinko, natto, negi-toro, and ume-shiso.

• Temaki-Zushi — Hand rolled cones of sushi rice and/or vegetables wrapped in seaweed.

• Tempura — Seafood or vegetables dipped in batter and deep fried. Tempura refers to fried foods coated with batter, as opposed to Katsu, which is fried foods coated with bread crumbs.

• Teriyaki — A sweetened soy sauce. Broiled foods marinated in a sweet soy sauce.

• Tobiko — Flying Fish eggs (Bright Red/Orange Caviar that is very crunchy, sweet flavored and often found around the outside of California rolls. Other colors/favors of Tobiko are occasionally seen, Green wasabi flavored, Black squid ink and more...)

• Tofu — Soybean curd

• Togarashi — Whole dried hot red peppers.

• Tonkatsu — A pork cutlet which is breaded, then fried. It is usually served with a sauce used specifically for Tonkatsu and served on a bed of rice.

• Tori — Chicken

• Torigal — Cockle clam

• Toro — Fatty tuna, distinguishable as Otoro-fattest, and Chutoro-fatty.

• Toshi-koshi soba — Japanese custom of eating soba at the end of the year.

• Tsubugai — Japanese shellfish.

• Tsukemono — Belly Meat from Bluefin Tuna. (The more fat the higher quality. There are a few "quality levels" associated with toro. They are based upon the amount of fat in the meat. The levels are Toro-Fatty Tuna, Chutoro-Fattier Tuna, and Otoro-Fattiest Tuna.

• Toro — Pickles

U

• Udon — Thick, wide wheat noodles.

• Umeboshi — Pickled plum (This salty, tart plum helps in digestion and leaves the mouth with a clean feeling. This can be found in a paste or whole plum. Very tasty with Japanese mint (Shiso).

• Ume-shiso — Plum paste and shiso leaf mixture most commonly served in maki form, rather sweet.

• Umeboshi — Small, bitter, pickled Japanese plum.

• Umeiiso — Maki

• Una-don — Grilled eel, served on rice.

• Una-lu — Grilled eel, served on rice. See also anago.

• Unagi — Freshwater Eel (Smoked eel and in a sweet sauce this freshwater eel is very common and delicious. Most sushi beginners start with this because almost everyone loves the flavor.)

• Unagi maki — Eel roll.

• Unagi No Kimo — Eel inards.

• Uramaki — Rice on the outside roll. Sometimes called inside-out roll. This style of sushi has become very popular and is most seen in sushi bars in America. Some people say that it is popular in America because the Seaweed is hidden on the inside of the roll and sushi beginners are less intimidated to eat it.

• Uni — Sea Urchin Roe

• Usukuchi shoyu — Light Japanese soy sauce.

• Uzura — Quail Egg (Usually served raw on top of an order of Tobiko or Uni.

V

W

• Wakame — Lobe-leaf seaweed, possibly dried, in strands. Wakame is often used in soups such as the miso soup or in sunomono salads. Wakame is usually sold in dried form, and is soaked in water before usage.

• Wasabi — Japanese Horseradish (Spicy Green Paste found on the side of every sushi order. This Green paste is really horseradish with food coloring. Real Wasabi is very expensive and almost never found at a sushi bar. The real wasabi is from a plant that grows in mountainous streams. The root is harvested and grated very finely. Traditionally the root is grated on a shark fin. The taste of real wasabi is sweeter and less spicy than what is commonly found.)

• Wood ears — Alternate name for kikurage.

Y

• Yaki — Grilled, toasted

• Yakidofu — Broiled or grilled soy bean curd.

• Yakimono — Broiled foods.

• Yakinori — Toasted seaweed.

• Yakitori — Skewer-grilled foods.

• Yakumi — Strongly flavored seasonings such as shichimi togarashi, grated daikon (daikon oroshi) and fine chopped negi. Typically used instead of wasabi in such nigiri as katsuo, iwashi, aii, and sanma.

• Yamakaki — Grated mountain potato with chunks of maguro.

• Yosenabe — The Japanese equivalent of bouillaibaise, a fish seafood & vegetable soup or stew.