I noticed a couple of menus..I have never been into Japanese food or should I say never really had too much of it.Sushi is a no no but I noticed dome steak and shrimp on the menus.Can anyone give me input? oh and what is tempura?

Tempura is usually something deep fried in a batter of sorts. Ive had different kinds at different Japanese eateries but veggie tempura is my fave.

The steak and shrimp done there are very good and tender. If you are wondering about the differences between how it is cooked vs how its done "Japanese style" the difference is in technique and seasonings. Thats an over-simplified explanation but overall well worth the try.

I too consider sushi a no no, but love Japanese food. I have not tried the Japanese restaurants in Epcot in years however.
Tempura is fantastic...when done well its a tasty almost light fried batter. I'm personally partial to vegetable (espeically sweet potato) tempura, but chicken can be good too especially if you have children.

There are several dining options, and you can certainly avoid sushi. Be aware that not all sushi is raw fish, in fact the term refers to the rice, not the fish. Most menus will specify the selections that are cooked, and several rolls contain cooked (often fried) shrimp or crab, or just veggies. California roll, for example, contains processed crab, and is not raw. You don't have to do the sushi, though. You should be fine with tempura, which is deep fried, in a light batter, and the stir-fried and teriyaki type of meals. We really like the counter-service restaurant at the Japan pavillion, and my children love the teriyaki meal. I think the sit-down restaurant is one where they cook in front of you, and you can do meat or chicken. There is usually fried rice, and a salad. It's not all that authentic, and well within the comfort zone of most Americans. OK, I just looked at the menus. The grilled items like steak, will have a bit of sauce that is lighter than what you get at an American-style Chinese restaurant (what you find anywhere except a Chinatown), and is, probably a safe choice for you. They offer Edamane (soy beans), which is worth trying. My kids love it for a snack, and you can buy it in the frozen foods section of most supermarkets. It looks like pea pods, and you boil it briefly, and just eat the beans right out of the pod. The beans are crunchy and a bit sweet.

For those that have said sushi is a no no, I'm wondering if you've ever tried it. I was a latecomer to sushi, but was finally practically forced to eat a piece of California Roll. Now I can't get enough of it! I still try to stay pretty basic with California roll or crab roll. The California Grill makes some incredibly tasty sushi!

Beware of Mercury levels in Sushi--especially Sushi here in America. Also keep in mind that all it takes is ONE morsel of tainted seafood and it can trigger seafood alergies that are irreversable.

That's what happened to me. I had a bad batch of crab or lobster from a popular seafood restaurant and it triggered seafood alergies. I can't eat any seafood--not just shellfish, but NO seafood or I can go into anaphylactic shock.

So think twice before you eat those crablegs or sushi from buffets. I haven't tasted shrimp in nearly a decade. Sigh.

Definitely don't eat the sushi. More for me. ;)

There are two table-service restaurants in Japan: Teppan Edo, which is grilled food right at the table (lots of fun for kids, but be prepared to sit with people you don't know), and Tokyo Dining, which is more traditional Japanese fare.

On our trip in Dec. 2007 we tried Tokyo Dining. They have sushi, but it was only a small part of the menu. You won't have to worry about accidentally ordering raw fish. The menu is very clear. The tempura there is very good! Our tempura had veggies, shrimp and scallops, all well cooked and delicious. I think you will have no problem finding something enjoyable to eat there.

I noticed a couple of menus..I have never been into Japanese food or should I say never really had too much of it.Sushi is a no no but I noticed dome steak and shrimp on the menus.Can anyone give me input? oh and what is tempura?

Being Japanese I can give you descriptions of everything on the menu. If you have any specific questions let me know. We have a complete menu listing -- just click on the restaurant links in the Japan pavilion here (http://www.mouseplanet.com/guide.php?pg=BDH000).

If you have a traditional Midwestern palate, one thing you need to know is that sushi is not the only Japanese food there is. In fact, most Japanese people don't eat sushi very often. It's kind of like assuming that all French people must eat fondue everyday, or all Germans must only eat saurkraut everyday. In fact when I lived in Japan, the only time we'd eat sushi is when we had special company over, and we'd order a delivery to our home... or we were going out for a very fancy dinner once in a blue moon. That is, sushi is not considered commoner food in Japan.

Second, sushi is NOT "raw fish." What you are thinking about is "sashimi," which in the dictionary means "raw fish" -- and some--SOME sushi uses sashimi. But there's a lot of other types of sushi that has nothing to do with raw sushi. Especially in the U.S., there's all kinds of sushi... California rolls include crab meat with mayonnaise and avocado strips with a bit of julienned cucumber for a bit of crunch. There are others that include cream cheese and such as well.

"Tempura" is batter-fried foods. Usually slices of veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli). The batter is much lighter than the batter used for fried chicken, and it's light and crispy. It's usually served on a basket or a plate lined with paper that will soak up the extra oil so it doesn't taste greasy. They normally come with a little cup or saucer of tempura sauce, which is a soy sauce-based sauce that's a bit thinner and a bit sweeter. Most Japanese will eat a mouthful of tempura with a mouthful of sticky white rice... it's a lot of if you take a bite of meatloaf and a bite of mashed potatoes. Same thing.

"Croquettes" are to die for. They are little balls of mashed potatoes (sometimes with a little bit of ground beef thrown in, or corn), pressed down into a patty a little smaller than a quarter pounder patty. They coat it with "panko" (bread crumbs) and fry it. You get a great little crunchy skin on your mashed potatoes. We often drizzle a bit of sauce on it... the sauce is usually similar to a BBQ sauce. Great little crunch of warm potato goodness. Mmmm.

OK now I'm hungry.

Beware of Mercury levels in Sushi--especially Sushi here in America. Also keep in mind that all it takes is ONE morsel of tainted seafood and it can trigger seafood alergies that are irreversable.

I'm not going to argue with your personal experience, as I know little about this subject. I will say that I find it very unlikely that one bite of tainted seafood would do anything other than make you sick for a time. And I'm simply not believing that there is enough mercury in sushi in America to be any kind of health risk. I will be reading a bit today, though, and can easily be proved wrong.

I've been to Teppan Edo twice at Epcot, and it is very good! My friend does not care for "foreign" foods, but she loved it too. The chef grills everything at your table which is fun. It was my birthday last time, and the chef made me a chef's hat and gave me free dessert! The food is basic grilled meats, veggies and rice and all the sauces are on the side, so you can try them in small doses, or ignore them if you prefer.

I'm not going to argue with your personal experience, as I know little about this subject. I will say that I find it very unlikely that one bite of tainted seafood would do anything other than make you sick for a time. And I'm simply not believing that there is enough mercury in sushi in America to be any kind of health risk. I will be reading a bit today, though, and can easily be proved wrong.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/22/america/fish.php

Mercury levels in Japan are CLOSELY watched and regulated. Fish containing mercury in Japan is HALF the level of sushi here in the US. And yes Dan, one bad seafood dinner will trigger seafood allergies. A lot of buffets don't maintain the proper heat levels on their food bars which result in many food illnesses. Seafood that is not fresh can be contaminated and can result in sickness or allergic affect. I was never allergic to seafood until I was 27 years old. I actually had the allergic reaction DURING my meal. No joke.

Pregnant women are now warned against eating sushi/fish due to mercury levels.

I did some reading today beyond the link that you provided. It seems that the problems are in bluefin tuna. And even then, you're ok unless you're eating a steady diet of sushi. Still, nothing to sneeze about.

And on the allergies, I appear to be flat wrong on that -

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/10491.php


"The study "Prevalence of Seafood Allergy in the U.S." revealed that the onset of seafood allergy is likely to begin in adulthood and frequent, severe reactions are reported by sufferers."

Here's hoping I'm not one of them - I loves me some shellfish!!!

I used to know someone who'd gotten sick eating a raw oyster in New Orleans, and she developed an allergy to it and she could never eat oysters again.

From what I'm reading, the allergies sometimes develop later in life. You could go for 30 years with no problem, and then one meal it hits you hard and you can't eat whatever again.

this has almost naught to do with sushi, but i am an adult-onset allergy sufferer. after a childhood replete with happy memories of digging up carrots from the garden and eating them fresh from the dirt whenever possible, one night in my mid-twenties while preparing dinner I chomped on a chunk of carrot as I was peeling them and minutes later was in the midst of a mild anaphalatic shock - my throat swelled up and I couldn't breath. i didn't know what had caused it so we had to do tests to rule out various things, and it turns out that I am like 25% of europeans - I have developed an adult-onset case of carrot allergy because of an allergy to beech pollen. I had never heard of such a thing! For a few years I wondered if it was something to do with the chemicals used in Canada (where I had been living at the time), so I tried again with an organic carrot in Australia and the reaction that time was very bad (ie hospital bad) - as I now know, reactions get worse, they don't fade, over time. It's such an embarrassing and inconvenient thing to be allergic to - many people (eg the women at my uni cafe who make the sandwiches) think that I am just being fussy, or that I just don't like carrots but am too embarrassed to say so ... but its real! it was really inconvenient at WDW because all the salads seem to come with grated carrot; I almost went into meltdown one day at HS because I could not find anything vegetarian without carrot, until a really lovely CM went away and made me a salad from scratch. its such a shame, because raw carrots are such a yummy treat!

My one major treat in life is that of a shrimp! If I were to establish an allergy I don't know what I would do.I did go without for my last pregnancy and it was not easy!:)