Japanese Culture: Part 2 - Food

Raphael, y10

As promised, we will look at Japanese Cuisine today, and to do that we’ll dissect the plates one by one.

Rice, is the staple source of carbohydrate in East Asian countries. As an oversimplification, perhaps as you go West in Asian countries, the rice produced becomes drier and less sticky. Japanese rice resembles risotto rice in some ways in that they both pack a lot of carbohydrate in them and are rather sticky and stay partly hydrated and “inflated” after being cooked in water. Thai rice is a much more popular alternative and stands between the size and dryness of Indian rice. Japanese rice is very energy dense.

Noodles, in Japan are mainly split into four categories. Udon, Soba, Ramen noodles and Sõmen. Like other fishing-oriented countries, noodles were invented to effectively feed people’s stomachs, such you see udon and sõmen invented during periods of low yield of fish. Ramen was invented after the war in difficult times as well.

Seafood, as mentioned, takes up a large part of the cuisine, as top produce like crabs and sea urchins are widely considered as delicacies, served perhaps alongside the local vegetables.

This all comes to a head in Kaiseki. Kaiseki, is a multi-course Japanese dinner traditionally though to be originated out of Buddhist monks. Such courses include plates that hold a very small portion, but are plated in such beauty, one can say that the appearance of the plate is at peace with the flavor. There are courses set for Kaiseki, like a tempura dish, and a sashimi dish (raw fish), but it also allows for the chef to choose to fresh and best ingredients to tie the plates together.

But then colonialism creates a different kind of cuisine, does it not? Japan, after the war, has seen popular chains like Soup Stock Tokyo combine Japanese cuisine with a Western one. Curry is one prime example. Japanese curry is just like Indian curry except it’s not spicy whatsoever to suit the public.

I once went to a restaurant serving spaghetti in Japan, and instead of doing the usual Italian combination of Carbonara or Bolognaise, they serve spaghetti with miso and soy sauce, which to the modern European is horrifying and even disgusting. But somehow, with the care like how the Japanese serve the Kaiseki, it worked.

Again we see the ingenuity.

One main thing that I have not mentioned is sushi.

Sashimi is a raw fish platter; whereas Sushi is raw fish on rice. A common misconception is the salmon is the bane of sushi, whereas salmon was actually only introduced to Japanese sushi through the Norwegian high level of produce. Tuna is the main fish the Japanese use. A note here that the Tuna is a saltwater fish, whereas the Salmon does exist in Asia, but in rivers, therefore they have a higher chance of having parasites in them. The California roll, now synonymous with Japanese food, was not actually innovated in California or Japan. It was developed in Canada, but was popularized in California. Poke bowls are also not traditionally Japanese, but rather are Hawaiian or from Okinawa (one might recognize the name from the Pacific Theatre of WWII) The sheer popularity of Japanese cuisine has risen again in the past years, as you see restaurants popping up everywhere.

Next week we’ll peek into other cultural details of the Japanese mainland, and the geography of this magnificent country.