Japan and Korea

Best characterized not by sushi but by soy, Japanese cuisine developed, like so many others, based largely on geography. Meat is not a big part of the country’s culinary history; fish, rice, and soy are. Both the products of the sea (not only fish, but seaweed) and the bounty of soy (in the form of soy sauce, miso, and a few more esoteric products) are the defining flavors of Japanese cooking. In fact, a basic preparation, dashi—a quickly made stock whose flavor underlies countless dishes and lingers in the air everywhere—is a combination of seaweed (specifically kelp) and shaved dried bonito (a tunalike fish); dishes made with dashi are often finished with soy sauce.