Japanese Cuisine

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30ºN

Four large islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.

Geography:

Cf climate

Df Climate

Physical Geography of Japan

Mountainous region, with ¾ lands are mountains. Located on the ring of the fire, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common. Only 13.9% of land are agricultural; 66.7% are forestsCold winter and hot humid summer (rainy June, and hurricanes later summer)

Staple food: rice

Rice is the most important of all food stuff to Japanese. It is the only agricultural product that is self-sufficient for its country

Rounded and sticky cool weather variety rice is preferred over the warm spices of narrow long, not sticky ones (easier to pick-up with chop sticks)

2000 varieties have been cultivated in Japan to match environments and technical requirements of different growing areas and tastes.

Compare rice with bread

If the protein required to maintain the human body is ingested solely from rice, a person weighing 70kg must eat about 0.8kg (uncooked) rice per day. (farmers can eat 1.5 kg of rice/day during labor-intensive season.If bread made from wheat were to be used as a sole source of protein, 3 kg would be eaten per day which is impossible. So bread diet must be supplemented with meat and dairy products. With rich animal protein, bread becomes necessary only for its calories-providing carbohydrate contentRice alone can give the body everything it requires apart from certain vitamins and minerals. Thus, if an adequate supply of rice can be guaranteed, the problem of sustenance is largely solved.

Characteristics of Japanese food

uses fresh ingredients that are found in season and enhance natural flavorPrepare food as close to its natural state as possible with minimum artificial technique (as opposed to others that regard cookery is the art of transforming materials that are not yet edible into palatable items)Emphasize on the visual appeal of foodAbsence of oil and fat Traditional meals are often named by the number of dishes that accompany the rice and the soup. Examples: Ichiju-Issai which means a “soup plus one” or “one dish meal”; Ichiju-Sansai- “soup plus three (odd numbers are preferred; rice, soup, and pickles are not counted as dishes)

Fish is very important: “Eat raw if you can, otherwise grill it, and it that won’t work, simmer it”

Fish in Japan

Japanese eat more fish than any other nations

Buddhism’s influence of no flesh of mammals

Long coastal line and easy fishing

Warm Japan current from south and the cold Kurile current from the north facilitate more species of fish than all but a few areas of the world

Fermented fish:

fish, shellfish, squid, or meat (rarely) pickled in salt (25-30% volume) in a container for a long time- paste produced

Eat with rice, drink with sake

Fish sauce: fish and salt sealed for a longer time until fish and organs are decomposed completely into a liquid form, then strained.

Popular in wet-rice paddy area-small scale fresh water fishery in rice field or crustaceans (large quantity of small just spawned fish caught at once in rice field during monsoon rain)

SushiOriginally referred to the long-fermented type of fish packing salted fish and boiled rice in a sealed jar for a long time forms rice ferments. Fish can be kept for a year or more and pasty remains of the rice are discarded and fish is sliced and eat in raw.

Sushi chefs are man (1) bare hand with rice and raw fish. Woman’s hands have fragrance of cosmetic transmitted to the food (2) it is one of the last occupations that still maintains the proud manliness of the Edo workman.

Sushi rolls

Nigiri-zushi

Sashimi: raw fish is sliced to a size that can be grasped with chopsticks dipped in soy sauce with grated wasabi (first class meal)

                                                                            

SoupsThe most common soup is Miso (eat three meals a day)

Miso is made of fermented soy bean paste and rice; rich source of various amino acids including glutamic acid: a taste enhancer (MSG)

MSG: monosodium glutamate. Invented by professor Ikeda Kikunae, University of Tokyo. (Glutamic acid was isolated from wheat, artificially formulated, and produced in crystallized form as the chemical flavoring)

Tofu, seaweed and green onions can be added to Miso

Served in lacquer bowls not ceramic ware. (keep warmth better and look warm)

Soup stock is made by dried bonito, dried sardines, kelp, and dried shiitake mushrooms (behind the scenes, do not be seen in soup)

                                             

Other food styles

Sakiyaki: many varieties of recipes: thinly sliced beef (high-grade sirloin, soft and marbled with fat), welsh onion, tofu, noodles and others (mushrooms, spinach, wheat gluten, etc) cooked on the table either in sautéing with fat or broil.

Shabu-Shabu: Japanese version of the Mongolian hot pot (sounds of meat swirling in the broth)

Mochi

Glutinous rice cake associated with sacred occasions. Due to labor intensive was only eat at special occasions before animal-powered or water wheeled were used.

Tempura

Originally based on Portuguese cooking. Three theories for its name:

(1) tempera means to season

(2) Signified certain days in religion on which fish was to be eaten instead of meat.

(3) Has Chinese root

Chopsticks and table manners

Do not share chopsticks even with family members. (it is believed something touched other people’s mouth picks up that person’s character and might transmit a contamination spiritual and cannot be washed away.Noises made in eating noodles are acceptable (feel the slipping smoothly down the throat and consequently suck them down in a single breath without chewing well)Korean plates are not lifted to the mouth but remain on table. Japanese hold bowls of rice and soup up off the table before take food out of the container (beggar’s manners to Korean). Chinese shoveling rice from a bowl held to the mouth (coarse behavior).Dicing ingredients at the starting of the cooking process is a primary characteristic of East Asian Cuisine (no knife or fork used on table to cut) (chopping board in every kitchen).

Foods for Flavorings

Shoyu (soy sauce), sansho (Japanese pepper), mirin (a type of sake but for cooking), dashi (mixture of dried bonito and seaweed), sugar, rice vinegar, miso (red and white), salt, Japanese lemon, Wasabi, mustard, red pepper, ginger, shiso leaves, horseradish, MSG.Onion, garlic, leek, chive & shallots were discouraged by Buddhism but popular in modern JapanSesame Seeds, Sesame oil, Walnut or peanuts for dressing

                                                                        

Shoyu (Soy sauce)Shoyu was introduced as a main sauce to replace meat which was not acceptable starting 552A.S. when Buddhism was introduced to Japan.It is made by

(1) grilling wheat (or barley) in a big iron pan until dark brown in color and then crushing the grain

(2) soybeans are boiled in a large covered kettle with a heavy weight on the lid for 3-4 hours and cool in the kettle overnight

(3) Grilled wheat and boiled beans are mixed together and placed in a malt-room where malt seed is added along with salt water.

(4) The resulting mash is allowed to ferment and mature naturally for a full 18 months when it is pressed and the sauce obtained pasteurized to become refined shoyu

Cooking methods

Traditional Japanese cook books are arrange by cooking techniques not by ingredients like Chicken, Seafood or Salad which is common in Western cook books.Grilling, simmering, steaming, deep frying, poaching and pickling are the most common forms of cooking.A cook book would also have a special section for soups, sushi, rice, noodle and sweet dishes

Sake Brewing

Why Japan has Sake but not much fruit brewing?Environmental Factor:Too slow cooling in fall turns

sugar in fruit into various type of acid and become unsuitable for producing Fruit wine (yeast convert sugar into alcohol). Mulberry, persimmon, myrica and apricot wine were not fermented from the fruits, but rather were liqueurs made by soaking the fruits in sake, brewed from rice or in a distilled spirit

Pure liquor made from rice using rice Kôji (mold) is made only in Japan (malt or saliva must be used to change starch to sugar first).

Noodles

Popular noodles served are Udon, ramen, somen and sobaUdon is a thick white wheat noodleRamen originated in China and it is yellowish in color.Somen is a thin spaghetti like white noodle.Soba is a brown buckwheat noodle usually eaten cold.

Japanese New Year’s MealsKuro-mame (Black soybeans) - "Mame" means "health". (Wish for good health in the New Year) Konbu (Seaweed) - "Yorokobu" means "joy". (Wish for a joyful year) Tai (Red sea-bream) - "Medetai" means "happy event". (Wish for happy events in the New Year) Kazunoko (Herring roe) - "Ko" means "child". (Wish to be gifted with children in the New Year) Daidai (Japanese bitter orange) - "Daidai" means "from generation to generation". (Wish to be gifted with children in the New Year) Hot mochi soup for breakfast

Seaweed

Nori (laver): Japanese seaweed paper (made from sea kelp)Kimbu (giant kelp): for stock and wrapping dried fish Wakame: for soups, salad, or sprinkle over rice dishesHijiki: for sauteing or deep-frying tempuraAgar: agent for jellyingFor fertilize agricultural fields

Resource

www.bento.com

The history and culture of Japanese food by N. Ishige, Kegan Paul, New York, 273pp.

The Pleasure of Japanese Cooking by H. Tanaka and B. Nicholas, Prebtice-Hall,Inc., Englewood Cliff, New Jersey, 1963.