Desiccated Foods (乾物)

Desiccated foods are foods that have been dried with the aim of enhancing flavor and storage qualities. Stores that specialize in desiccated foods are known as 'dried food stores' however, such stores have become scarce in recent times and in their stead, supermarkets, department stores and internet shopping retail have spread. As part of trade between China and Japan, Japanese desiccated foods were a commodity brought into China (Three types of desiccated foods were often used as an ingredient in Chinese food: shark fin, dried abalone and, dried sea cucumber). In China, these items were known as 'gan huo' (dried food).

Main Desiccated Foods

Vegetables, edible wild plants, edible fungus

Dried gourd

Dried strips of daikon radish

Judas's ear (auricularia auricula)

Shiitake mushrooms

Dried Shimeji mushrooms

Yamakurage (dried stem lettuce)

Flowering fern

Dried potato

Dried leaf

Dried taro

Fruit (Dried Fruit)

Raisins

Chinese wolfberry fruit (Lycium chinense)

Dried persimmon

Seaweed

Agar-agar

Seaweed laver ("nori")

Green laver (Enteromorpha)

Hijiki (edible brown algae)

rame seaweed (Eisenia bicylis)

Kelps: kelp for making soup stocks, yam kelp, Oboro kelp, kelp root, natto (fermented soybean) kelp

Wakame seaweed

Seafood

Shark fin

Dried abalone

Dried sea cucumber

Dried prawns

Dried and sliced herring

Dried shellfish

Dried codfish

Saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis)

Salted jellyfish

Dried bonito

Dried sardines

Dried young sardines

Toba dried salmon

Dried squid

Dried squid formed in the shape of tokkuri (sake bottles)

Dried octopus

Dried lamprey eel

- used as a health food.

Other

Tea

Freeze-dried bean curd

Jerky

Oil cake (edible)

Fu (bread-like pieces of wheat gluten)

Dried konjak (devil's tongue jelly)

Dried noodles

[Original Japanese]