The United States has embraced Japanese food and now hosts an endless array of high-quality Japanese establishments in every city. But while the menu items on offer at Japanese restaurants in the United States tend to mostly revolve around sushi, fish sashimi, tempura vegetables, udon noodles, and miso soup, the food served in Japan can often look quite different. One of the things that travelers need to know about Japan before the visit is that the food will be amazing but it might be a little different from what you were expecting. Check out these Japanese foods that look nothing like what they serve in America.

Torisashi: Raw Chicken

In Japan, you’ll find a few questionable (from an American perspective, anyway) foods that only daring eaters would try. One of them is torisashi, or raw chicken. While raw fish is served in Japanese restaurants in the U.S., raw chicken sounds completely crazy to a lot of westerners who have always been taught to avoid it. The dish is actually made using the inner part of the chicken breast, which has the least chance of being contaminated.

Torisashi is actually cooked for a few seconds and is eaten like fish sashimi in that it’s dipped in soy sauce and eaten raw. This Japanese dish that most people outside of Japan don’t know about tastes surprisingly like tuna sashimi.

Gyutan: Cow's Tongue

Most Americans aren’t offered cow's tongue, or gyutan, when they visit Japanese restaurants at home. But this delicacy is quite popular at the grilled meat restaurants of Japan. These days, you’ll find the dish all over the country but it is most popular in Sendai, a city in the north of the country.

The tongue is served in thin slices after it has been grilled and dipped in lemon juice. Most often, it is served with a bowl of rice but you can also find it accompanying ramen noodles or curry.

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Kare Pan: Curry Bread

Japanese curry bread, or kare pan, is an authentic Japanese treat that you’ll wish was more common in the United States once you’ve tried it. It’s often eaten for breakfast or a snack in between meals and can be found in bakeries throughout Japan.

This dish resembles donuts and is similarly prepared in that the dough resembles balls and is fried. However, curry bread is a savory dish, obviously filled with curry instead of a sweet filling. Before being deep-fried, curry bread is covered in breadcrumbs to add another layer of texture and flavor.

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Monjayaki: Fried Batter

From the description alone, many comfort eaters would love to have monjayaki as a staple in Japanese restaurants across the United States. There isn’t actually an equivalent English translation for this specialty commonly found in the Kanto region of Japan, which can be described as fried batter.

There are a lot of ingredients that you can add to your monjayaki. Some of the most popular include pork, seafood, cheese, and curry. The ingredients are scrambled with water and heated until hard on the grill. The taste is said to contain hints of barbecue flavoring combined with whatever ingredients you’ve chosen, while the texture is delicious and crispy.

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Yakitori Entrails

Americans are used to yakitori or grilled chicken skewers that are served widely at Japanese establishments. In the United States, chicken breast or thigh meat is most commonly used. In Japan, however, no part of the animal is wasted. What makes this one of the strangest Japanese foods to try while you’re there is the fact that it’s sometimes made with various entrails.

While in Japan, you might come across yakitori skewers made with liver, tongue, knee joints, intestine, or hearts. Those who are brave enough to try them often note that when they’re grilled perfectly they don’t taste very different from the fillets used in western cultures.

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