Japanese have many types of cooking styles and each method has its own unique way of cooking food. Learning to distinguish the differences between these cooking methods in Japanese can be very useful for learning Japanese recipes.
Let’s start with the most basic way of cooking and that is boiling. The Japanese verb to boil something in Japanese is waku. Waku means to cook something with water.
Ane wa ima oyu wo waite imasu.
My sister is now boiling hot water.
Kono niku wo sanjikan waku to, yawaraku narimasu.
If you boil this meat for 3 hours, it will become tender.
Oyu mo wakasenai, anta ittai dou yatte ryouri suru no?
You can’t even boil hot water, how the hell are you going to cook?
The most popular and healthiest way to cook is to steam your food. To steam your food, you need to place it over boiling water and close it with a lid (steam or hot air will cook the food). The Japanese word for steaming is musu.
Watashi wa mushi buta ga daisuki!
I love steamed pork.
Tamago has butaniku to isshoni musu to, sugoku oishiku narimasu yo.
If you steam the eggs together with the pork, it will be super delicious.
One of the easiest ways to cook is to fry your food. You will need abura (oil) to fry any food.
The Japanese verb for frying is ageru.
Kono butaniku no agekata wo watashi ni oshiete kurenai?
Can you teach me how to fry this pig?
Watashi wa tabemono wo ageru yori, masu no hou ga kenkou teki to omoimasu.
I think it is healthier to steam food than to fry it.
Toufu wa sonna fuu ni ageru to, mazuku matte shimau zo.
If you fry the toufu like that, it will become horrible.
