Why are Japanese portion sizes small and fine?
Small portion sizes to stay fit
As a rule of thumb, Japanese dishes are smaller in portion. As a Japanese living in the US, I am often surprised when I eat at local restaurants because they serve large amount of rice with “bento box,” or use thick batter to make tonkatsu or tempura. I am not used to seeing such excessive amount of carbohydrate in one meal.
Excessive quantity is not a priority for Japanese when it comes to eating, as they are usually very wary of overeating and becoming overweight. (“Oh I need to start watching my diet because I am getting overweight. I gained a pound (or two) over the last two weeks!” is what you hear from every Japanese everyday. I’m exaggerating, but that’s how it feels. They are obsessed with not gaining weight.)
It can become a problem of malnutrition especially for young women when they stick to a strict diet, but in general small portion sizes works to stay fit. Japan has very low obesity ratio.
Small portion sizes for quality over quantity
Japan is a small country with limited resources. Food has been no exception. Good quality, fresh ingredients can be expensive and hard to get by. Small portion sizes must have been a way to appreciate good quality ingredients in season. There’s also a long-standing tradition to serve “a little bit of everything,” meaning a meal often consists of multiple small side dishes that surround the main dish. Whether it’s vegetables, seafood or other ingredients, Japanese would pick small amount of different ingredients to make your meal appealing, rather than serving a large amount of one ingredient or dish.
If you want to try authentic “little bit of everything” Japanese plate,
try Japanese-style breakfast at a hotel.
You will most likely get a complete meal.
Small portion sizes for presentation
Then there’s presentation. Japanese cuisine is known for its fine presentation, and it pretty much supports small portion sizes. Kaiseki, multi-course traditional Japanese meal, is probably the most well known Japanese cuisine that features a variety of small-portion, fine dishes.
Kaiseki is a high-end food. It is expensive. But it’s worth trying, especially when you have a chance to travel to Japan. First of all, “small portion” is usually not that small. We typically end up overeating when we keep eating before your brain receives information from your digestive systems on how much food they’ve ingested. But if you take time and let your brain receive that information as you eat (you have to wait for each dish to be served), you will feel full by the time the kaiseki course is over. So you won’t be missing much. As a matter of fact, it’s pretty filling.
Second, what you eat is not so much the mass of ingredients, but the stories that surround each food. When they use ingredients that were carefully harvested and/or processed, there is so much to be told. You end up enjoying the entire experience, not just how many grams of meat you ate. Kaiseki also uses great quality dishes, plates, bowls and glasses. It’s also fun to check them.
Lastly, beautiful presentation is Instagrammable. You could allow yourself an expensive kaiseki course once in a while.
Kaiseki：向付 (mukozuke)
Mukozuke is a small sashimi dish that usually features “fish in season.” When Japanese relied on coastal fishing due to the lack of engines for boats and refrigerating/freezing to keep the fish fresh, they could only catch what was near your coast. As many fish migrate, you could only eat certain fish at certain conditions for a limited time. They were the fish in season and Japanese appreciated them a lot, and that tradition still persists, even though we now can eat pretty much any fish any time. If you travel to some coastal areas in Japan, you may come across very local fish in season.
Kaiseki：椀物 (wanmono)
Wanmono is a dish in a wan (bowl). It’s a warm dish that usually involve boiling of some ingredients with soup with good broth.
Hassun is an appetizer sampler, which is an assortment of ingredients in season. You will find many vegetables and seafood you don’t see at your local Japanese restaurants. Hassun is usually especially intricately presented.
Kaiseki：揚げ物 (agemono)
Agemono is a deep-fried dish.
Kaiseki：焼き物 (yakimono)
Yakimono is the main dish. It’s usually either grilled fish or steak. On one occasion I was served shabu shabu as “yakimono” – I was in a area famous for kurobuta pork.
Kaiseki：水菓子 (mizugashi)
Muzugashi is dessert. A lot of times it’s ice cream or sorbet with locally harvested fruits, but you may be served yokan, traditional Japanese jelly made of red beans.
