Japanese & Nanyang food terms
These words are often used loosely, or treated as synonyms when they are not. Here are accurate definitions — including the distinctions most often confused.
Udon
Japan has three great udon traditions: Sanuki from Kagawa, Inaniwa from Akita, and Mizusawa from Gunma. Below, each is defined — including the distinction most often confused: teuchi and tenobe are two different methods, not thick and thin versions of one.
Sanuki udon
From Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku, known as "udon prefecture". Made into thick, round noodles with plenty of water, with a firm, springy bite. One of Japan's three great udon.
Inaniwa udon
From Inaniwa-chō, Yuzawa, Akita Prefecture. Almost the opposite of Sanuki — flat, thin, soft and silky, faintly translucent when cooked.
- 1665 — the method was established
- 1752 — became an official provision for the Satake lords of Akita domain
- The method was passed to a single heir and never taught outside the family
- 1972 — released publicly by the seventh generation, Satō Yōsuke
Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries states that its method and origin are restricted, and anything not meeting the standard cannot call itself "Inaniwa udon".
Mizusawa udon
From the Ikaho Onsen area of Gunma Prefecture. Around four hundred years old, hand-kneaded, with a faint translucence. One of Japan's three great udon, alongside Sanuki and Inaniwa.
teuchi (hand-kneaded)
Noodles formed by kneading by hand. Sanuki udon is made this way.
tenobe (hand-stretched)
Noodles made by stretching by hand — not the same method as teuchi. After kneading flour with salt water, the dough is looped in a figure-of-eight over two rods and stretched to about 120 cm before drying. Inaniwa udon is made this way, and unlike somen, uses no oil.
Sanuki is teuchi; Inaniwa is tenobe. They are not thick and thin versions of one method.
Nanyang cooking
Vocabulary from Singapore and Malaysia — several of which are frequently misunderstood or treated as synonyms outside the region.
cham cham
A Singapore and Malaysian hawker term for mixed noodles — usually yellow noodles with rice vermicelli. Two textures in one bowl. Rare in Hong Kong; everyday vocabulary in Singapore.
laksa
A Southeast Asian noodle soup with a coconut or sour-spicy broth, central to Singaporean and Malaysian cooking.
The usual method is to pound or fry a spice base — galangal, lemongrass, dried shrimp, laksa leaf — then simmer it into a broth of coconut milk or tamarind, and cook thick rice vermicelli or yellow noodles in it with prawns, fish cake and tofu puff. The name covers a wide family of dishes: the same word can mean a rich coconut curry laksa or a sour tamarind asam laksa — two entirely different bowls.
It often appears alongside cham cham, which means mixing yellow noodles with rice vermicelli — so "laksa cham cham" is a laksa broth served with both noodles in the same bowl.
bak kut teh — two schools
Most people do not realise there are two distinct traditions, and they differ sharply:
| School | Broth | Flavour |
|---|---|---|
| Teochew | Clear | White pepper — sharp and light |
| Hokkien / Nanyang herbal | Dark | Chinese herbs and spices, simmered long, deeper |
Hainanese chicken rice
A rice dish originating in Hainan, China and developed in Singapore. The core is poached chicken — never roasted or fried — with rice cooked in chicken stock, served with chilli sauce, ginger relish and dark soy. Whether the chicken is boned, and whether it is slow-cooked, is where kitchens differ.
Japanese establishments and cuisine
Two Japanese terms that are regularly conflated elsewhere: yoshoku and kissaten.
yoshoku
Western cooking as it was absorbed and reworked in Japan — Naporitan spaghetti, omurice, korokke. Not European dishes reproduced as they are, but a branch that grew in Japan.
kissaten
A traditional Japanese tea room and coffee shop with roots in Taisho-era Ginza. Usually owner-run, built around tea, coffee and yoshoku light meals, at a slower pace than a café.
Japanese tea
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| bancha | A later-harvested tea, and the base for hojicha |
| hojicha | Bancha roasted at high heat. Toasted, nutty, lower caffeine |
| matcha | Shade-grown tencha stone-ground to powder; the whole leaf is consumed, giving depth and umami |
Matcha is the whole leaf. Hojicha is the roast.
Cooking
Terms that appear on restaurant menus.
slow-cooked
Cooking at lower temperature for longer, used to keep meat tender.
- Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan — "Inaniwa Udon"
maff.go.jp - Wikipedia — 喫茶店
zh.wikipedia.org - Nishimura Banchaya Honten, official site
nishimura-gelato-factory.com
Dish and ingredient glossary
Both menus use Japanese and Southeast Asian terms. Here is what each one means, how it is eaten and where it comes from, so you do not have to guess when ordering. These are general definitions of the terms, not claims about this kitchen's recipes.
Teishoku (set meal)
A Japanese set meal: a main dish with rice, soup and a side, served in separate vessels. Unlike donburi, the topping is not piled on the rice. In Japan a teishoku is built around the rice, with the main, miso soup and pickles brought separately — it is the most common form of lunch.
Donburi (rice bowl)
Don means a deep bowl. Donburi is a one-bowl dish of rice with the topping laid directly on top — grilled eel rice bowl, pork cartilage rice bowl, oyakodon and so on. The difference from a teishoku is that rice and topping share the bowl and the soup comes separately.
Sukiyaki
A Japanese beef hotpot. Beef and vegetables are simmered in a sweet-savoury sauce of soy, sugar and mirin, traditionally dipped in raw egg before eating. Kanto and Kansai styles differ: Kanto mixes the sauce first, Kansai sprinkles sugar and soy straight into the pan.
Onsen tamago (hot-spring egg)
An egg cooked slowly at a low temperature, so the white stays soft and the yolk becomes custard-like. The name comes from Japanese hot springs, where eggs are left in roughly 65–70°C water for a long time. The texture differs from a soft-boiled or mollet egg.
Kabayaki
The Japanese method of grilling eel: steamed first, then grilled while repeatedly brushed with a sweet soy glaze — which is why it is dark and sweet-savoury. It is the counterpart to shirayaki, which is grilled with salt only and no glaze.
Yanagawa
A Japanese preparation in which meat or fish is simmered with shredded burdock in a sweet-savoury broth, then finished with beaten egg cooked to just set. It is named after Yanagawa in Fukuoka. The best-known version uses loach; pork cutlet is also used.
Katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
Paper-thin shavings of dried skipjack tuna, known in Japanese as katsuobushi or katsuo-bushi. Sprinkled over hot dishes — where they visibly move in the heat — and one of the two bases of Japanese dashi stock, along with kombu kelp.
Nasi lemak
Malaysia's national rice dish. The rice is cooked in coconut milk and traditionally served with sambal, fried whitebait, peanuts and egg. Here the "small fish" are fried whitebait (ikan bilis). It is eaten from roadside stalls to restaurants, breakfast through supper.
Sambal
A Southeast Asian chilli paste, built on chillies and often including dried shrimp, garlic and calamansi. Every kitchen has its own recipe; it is a base seasoning and also used as an ingredient, as in sambal prawns or sambal chicken skewers. Heat and aroma vary widely.
Padang / rendang
Padang is a place in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Padang beef is rendang — beef slow-cooked with coconut milk and spices until the liquid is fully absorbed. The longer it cooks, the drier and more fragrant it becomes, which makes it one of the most time-consuming dishes in Southeast Asian cooking.
Tom yum
A Thai hot-and-sour soup seasoned with lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf and chilli. Seafood and chicken versions are both common. Here it is also served with laksa, putting a Thai broth and a Nanyang laksa in the same bowl.
Fish maw
The dried swim bladder of a fish, a long-used ingredient in Chinese cooking. It has little flavour of its own, takes on the broth it is cooked in, and is soft and gelatinous in texture. Cantonese cooking treats it as a nourishing ingredient, so it is usually paired with rich broths.