Kanji for Food — 食

食 is read shoku in compounds and appears as 食べる (taberu), to eat, in its verb form. It means food and the act of eating together — nine strokes, learned in second grade, and among the most useful characters for anyone travelling in Japan.

The character shows a lid over a vessel of grain: a covered bowl of cooked rice. On the left of another character it narrows into 飠, the food radical, which marks 飲 (drink), 飯 (cooked rice), 館 and much of the restaurant vocabulary you will see on signs.

Read it on menus and doors: 食事 (shokuji) a meal, 定食 (teishoku) a set meal, 和食 (washoku) Japanese cuisine, 食堂 (shokudō) a canteen, 食欲 (shokuyoku) appetite. It also means an eclipse — 日食 (nisshoku) is the sun being eaten.