Useful everyday kanji - eating and drinking

Quite a few food and drink names, particularly in fast food joints, are written in katakana. I recommend brushing up! However, here are some handy kanji.

酒 means 'alcohol'. Very nice kanji to learn. ^_^ You'll see this on convenience stores too, to show that they have alcohol for sale.

焼肉 (yakiniku) is Korean barbecue. You might think that's not very important, but I'm here to tell you otherwise. Ha ha ha. But they are good kanji in their own right and seen quite often; '焼' means 'grilled' or 'fried', and is also found in yakitori; 肉 means 'meat'.

飲み物 (nomimono) is 'drink'. The verb 'to drink' is 飲む.

食事 (shokuji) is 'meal'. Both these kanji are very useful. The first (食 'shoku') is also 食べる, 'to eat', 食べ物 (tabemono, 'food') or 食品 (shokuhin), meaning 'food (goods)' or 'groceries'.

The second, (事 'ji') is also 'koto', meaning 'thing'. It's in heaps of important words, such as 仕事 ('shigoto', job).

込 means 'included'. So if you order a meal and it says ドリンク込, it means 'drink included'.

果汁 ('kajuu') means 'fruit juice'. You will see it on drinks to show how much actual juice is contained, so when you see 'apple juice' with '果汁10%' you'll know it's not that good after all. ^_^ By the way, that second kanji 汁 can also be pronounced 'shiru', meaning 'soup', such as misoshiru, miso soup.