Aemono
Dressed dishes ("cooked salads")
和え物
Sunomono
Vinegared dishes
酢の物
Aemono are dressed dishes, and sunomono are dishes dressed with vinegar.The term aemono literally means "harmonized things," i.e. cooked and cooled vegetables (sometimes with small pieces of poultry or fish), blended ("harmonized") with a dressing. Aemono are also called "dressed salads," but the point is that the vegetables are not raw, as in Western salads, but cooked. Also note that the ingredients must be cold.
Sunomono are dishes dressed in particular with vinegar (su).
"Aemono" and "Sunomono" form one of the main categories of the Japanese cuisine.
[Shira-ae, vegetables dressed with tofu]
The most popular dressings in these traditional dishes are:
aemono:
- sesame - called goma-ae
- tofu - called shira-ae
- mustard - called karashi-ae
- miso - called miso-ae
- vinegar and miso - called sumiso-ae or nuta
- ground green sprouts (in miso paste) - kinome-ae
and sunomono:
- vinegar - called sunomono
Examples of typical dishes:
- Horenso no goma-ae, spinach dressed with sesame, one of the most simple but also most delicious dishes.
- Ingen no goma-ae, green beans wit sesame dressing
- Tako to kyuri no sunomono, octopus and cucumber with vinegar dressing.
- Kyuri to wakame no sunomono, cucumber and wakame with vinegar dressing.
- Gomoku shira-ae, mixed vegetable salad with tofu dressing.
- Nanohana no karashi-ae, nanohana (rape blossoms) dressed with mustard sauce.
- Aoyagi to wakegi no nuta, clams and leeks with vinegared miso dressing
- Takenoko to ika no kinome-ae, bamboo shoots and squid dressed with kinome sprouts
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