Here are popular summer dishes which are good for keeping cool or beating the heat.
Cold Somen
Boiled and chilled somen (thin wheat noodles) are served with dipping soup and various toppings.Hiyashi Chuka Noodles
Hiyashi chuka is a popular summer noodle dish. It's like a noodle salad. Restaurants in Japan serve hiyashi chuka only during the summer. Colorfully served hiyashi chuka can be very appetizing.
Edamame Appetizer
Salt-boiled edamame in pods are eaten by squeezing beans out of pods with fingers. It's a popular Japanese summer appetizer and go well with cold beer.
Hiyayakko
Hiyayakko is the simplest and most popular tofu dish. All you need to do is place toppings on top of chilled tofu. It's a great summer appetizer or side dish.
Rei-Shabu
Rei-shabu is cold shabu shabu. When it's too hot to eat shabu shabu, this dish is a great alternative. It's a nutritious dish to eat lots of vegetables with meat.
Vegetable Curry
This vegetable curry recipe is a variation on basic Japanese curry. Eggplants add great texture to the curry. Add your favorite summer vegetables.
Unagi Rice Bowl
It's said unagi gives us stamina, and it's consumed the most during the summer in Japan. This is a basic Japanese unagi rice bowl which is topped with glaze-grilled unagi and kabayaki sauce.
Deep-fried Marinated Vegetables
This dish is called age-bitashi as age means deep-frying and bitashi means marinating in Japanese cooking. Chilled age-bitashi is a great summer dish.