There’s an emoji for almost everything these days, but sometimes I wonder what half of them even are. This is especially true when it comes to the food emojis. Obviously, many of the foreign food emojis are exactly that; emojis come from Japan.
But think back to a conversation with your bff when you’re both starving and send nothing but food emojis back and forth. You send your usuals (like the avocado, the french fries and the bacon). But wouldn’t it be nice to have more options? Here’s a breakdown of some of the uncommon food emojis for the next time you and your crew are deciding where and what to eat.
1. 🍖 Meat on Bone
You’ll find this “meat on bone” emoji next to the egg in a frying pan. It’s also known as the BBQ emoji, so you can use this whenever you’re inviting your friends over for an epic backyard cookout, or you know, just trying to convey your craving for a lamb chop.
2. 🍲 Pot of Food
This emoji is supposed to be a “pot of food.” It can pretty much be used in any context, since there’s no specification on what type of food is in the pot. So next time you’re making ramen or or a big pot of chili, use this emoji to invite your friends over.
3. 🍥 Fish Cake With Swirl
When you think of this emoji, think a type of sushi. In emoji terms its called a “fish cake with swirl.” A more technical term for this emoji is Narutomaki, which is very popular among the Japanese culture. Use this when you want to show off to your group chat how cultured you are.
4. 🍛 Curry and Rice
This emoji is supposed to be curry and rice. It’s a little hard to make it out since its so small, but now you know. Curry doesn’t mean any food in particular — it’s actually any food (such as meat or vegetables) that is cooked and served with a heavily spiced sauce.
5. 🍙 Rice Ball
At first glance, there’s not really any clear guess of what this food could be, but it’s actually a rice ball. This food is popular among the Japanese culture and it’s simply cooked white rice wrapped in seaweed (also known as nori).
6. 🍘 Rice Cracker
The iPhone gives you a rice ball emoji, so why not have a rice cracker one to go along with it? Well, that’s exactly what this unfamiliar emoji is. This cracker is made from rice (known in Japan as senbei) and sometimes is served wrapped in seaweed.
7. 🍡 Dango
This emoji is dango, a popular Japanese dessert that’s served on a stick. Dango is a sweet rice dumpling that comes in a variety of flavors, such as red bean paste, green tea, and soy sauce syrup.
8. 🍢 Oden
This emoji could be mistaken for dango, but it’s actually oden, a Japanese meal made of egg, fish cakes, radish and other foods. This food, served on or off a skewer and simmered in a soy sauce broth, is most often eaten on cold, winter days.
9. 🍮 Custard
At first glance, I thought this emoji was gelatin. If you look closely you might be able to tell that it’s actually custard with a caramel topping. Not the custard that resembles ice cream, but rather a custard dessert like flan or crème caramel.
10. 🍧 Shaved Ice
This emoji is supposed to represent shaved ice, which is a perfect summertime treat. You might know it better as a snow cone, but the two are one in the same. This dessert is mostly what the name suggests — shaved ice packed in a cup top with a flavored syrup.
11. 🍱 Bento Box
This emoji is a bento box — a lunchbox packed with rice, vegetables and meat that is very common within the Japanese culture. You can either make them yourself or buy one at the store (which tbh, is the most convenient way of getting one).
12. 🍨 Ice Cream
This is the ice cream emoji for everyone who prefers to eat their ice cream from a cup instead of a cone. It doesn’t matter what you eat your ice cream from — it all tastes the same in the end.
13. 🍠 Roasted Sweet Potato
This emoji is kind of strange, but it’s actually supposed to look like a roasted sweet potato. Sweet potatoes can have a variety of skin colors, and the purple skin of this sweet potato categorizes it as a Japanese sweet potato. You never know when you might need this.
Use these food emojis to show off how smart you are in your group chat or you know, if you’re casually jet setting off to Tokyo? You probably won’t use dango that often, but hey, more ice cream will always come in handy.