Japan may be well over 5,000 miles away from the UK, but that hasn’t stopped its food from making serious in-roads into our own cuisine. It all started with sushi, spurred on when restaurants like Nobu and Yo! Sushi opened up in the 1990s. Since then we’ve fallen for the charms of katsu curry, warmed ourselves up with steaming bowls of ramen, enjoyed the pinnacle of sandwich-crafting with sandos and so much more. However, considering how much of a hit Japanese food has become in the UK, it’s still seen as an intimidating cuisine to recreate at home.
People presume that they won’t be able to match the same umami-rich flavours and precise, perfected textures they experience in Japanese restaurants, but a whole host of Japan’s most classic dishes are easier to cook than you might think. While you might not turn into a sushi master overnight, these eight recipes for some of Japan’s most recognisable dishes are a perfect illustration of how accessible Japanese food can really be.