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JAPANESE FOOD GLOSSARY AND FOOD TERMS

Aji-No-Moto: The Japanese name for monosodium glutamate, white crystalline powder prepared from wheat gluten and sugar beet residue, that heightens flavors without adding one of its own.

Cha: Tea. In Japan, green tea is commonly used.

Chanoyu: Ancient Japanese tea ceremony strongly influenced by the principles of Zen Buddhism.

Chawan-Mushi: Most famous of the individual steamed custard dishes. It is made of layered chicken, shrimp, ginkgo nuts, greens all covered with beaten egg then steamed. Eaten with lemon garnish.

Daikon: Long white radish. Turnips make a good substitute for daikon.

Dashi: A basic broth and seasoning used to enhance flavor in many dishes, sauces, and soups. It is made from dried fish (Katsuobushi) and seaweed (Kombu) briefly boiled in water and the flavor is heightened with Aji-No-Moto. Aji-No-Moto may be used as a substitute for Dashi.

Dipping Sauces: Served in tiny individual dishes, these accompany most main dishes and may include a simple vinegar, soy sauce and salt mixture, (e.g. Nihai-Zu) to a more complex cooked sauce thickened with egg yolks and cornstarch (e.g. Kimi-Zul)

Fu: Wheat gluten.

Ginnan: Ginkgo nuts.

Gohan: Rice meal or may refer to rice dishes.

Hakusai: Chinese cabbage. The appearance is similar to celery except stalks are succulent, smooth, and white and the leaves are pale to deep green. Taste somewhere between cabbage and radish.

Hashi: Name given to the chopsticks used at home. They are cleaned after eating and are often valuable.

Hibach or Hibachi: Small portable earthenware or cast-iron grill heated by charcoal embers or sometimes gas. Used for table cooking.

Japanese Ways of Cutting and Slicing: It is an art and each technique has a name. Artistic cutting and slicing to form designs and special shapes has its own vocabulary distinct from routine ways of cutting –

• Hangetsu-Giri: cutting round slices in half to form crescents.
• Icho-Giri: cutting round slices in quarters to form wedges.
• Kakumuki: cutting to remove both ends and then peeling in thick slices.
• Katsura-Muki: using a broad cutting blade to slice off thin wide sheets.
• Koguchi-Giri: slicing.
• Kushigata-Giri: slicing to form quarters, as in slicing an apple into quarters.
• Men-Tori: peeling the surface thinly.
• Mijin-Giri: slicing food into long thin strips, bunching them together then slicing finely crosswise to form a fine mince.
• Naname-Giri: cutting long narrow food strips diagonally, the piece of food is rolled with one hand while it is cut with the other.
• Sainome-Giri: chopping food in chunks or coarsely by slicing into strips then slicing the gathered strips into rounds or squares coarsely.
• Sen-Giri: slicing thin sheets of food into narrow strips.
• Tanzaku-Giri: cutting flat sheets of food into narrow rectangles.
• Wa-Giri: slicing long round food like carrots, parsnips, etc., in round slices.

Kabayaki: Eels split and broiled on skewers.

Kaiseki: The natural and appealing foods artfully prepared for Chanoyu (tea ceremony), said to be the epitome of excellence.

Kama: Name for the pot used for rice cooking. In many Japanese homes today this has been replaced by the electric rice cooker which is accurate for rice cooking and excellent for re-warming rice.

Kamado: A cooking range built from baked mud, used in rural areas especially to hold the deep iron rice pot called Kama.

Katsuobushi: Dried bonito fish with a residual greenish mildew. It is shaved and used especially for making Dashi.

Kombu: Tangle or dried kelp, a species of seaweed used in many dishes as a seasoning but an especially basic ingredient for making Dashi.

Matcha: The finest-quality highly prized powdered green tea used in Chanoyu (tea ceremony).

Mirin: Sweet rice wine.

Miso: A fermented soybean paste with added salt and malt used as a basic seasoning. Comes in two types: Shirumiso, which is white, and Akamisu, which is reddish.

Misoshiru: A strong broth of Dashi and Miso served with various garnishes, enjoyed most often for breakfast. Aji oil may sometimes be added; this oil is spicy hot because of the addition of Aji peppers.

Mushi Imo: Steamed sweet potatoes lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Sometimes a quick, inexpensive meal, most often an after-school snack for children. The children’s food is often prepared separately from the adults’ and made milder, less seasoned, and often sweeter.

Mushimono: General category of foods prepared by steaming.

Nasubi: Japanese eggplant.

Negi: Leeks.

Nimono: General category of foods prepared by boiling. Most often this refers to the boiling broth pot set on the table. Slivers of meat, fish, and vegetables are cooked separately and served over rice. The clear broth completes the home meal.

Okazu: Relishes or salads of fresh vegetables lightly dressed with Shoyu and sesame seeds or a mixture of egg yolk and vinegar.

0-Shinko: Japanese version of sauerkraut. Pickled shredded Hakusai (Chinese cabbage).

Owanrui: Soup stock.

Oyatsu: General name for snacks. Most recently these may be tea and pastries or carbonated drinks.

Sashimi: Sliced raw fish usually although sometimes may be raw breast of chicken, or seafood, and occasionally the raw slices may be dipped in boiling water before eating. Most commonly the term refers to thinly sliced fresh raw fish dipped in relish or sauce before eating.

Shabu-Shabu: Like Sukiyaki and Mizutaki (made with chicken), this is a winter dish. Named for the sound of the chopstick-held beef slivers as they are swished in a broth of Dashi and chicken stock. Morsels are dipped into various condiments; finally Tofu and Hakusai (Chinese cabbage) are cooked in the broth and eaten. The last step of the ritual occurs as noodles are added and the soup is enjoyed as a finale to the meal. Many restaurants specialize in this.

Shoyu: Japanese soy sauce, sweeter than the Chinese version.

Shumai: Steamed filled dumplings. Can he made with filled dough or with a thin flour batter poured over the mounded fillings before steaming to cook. A Chinese dish much enjoyed in Japan.

Soba: Buckwheat noodles, considered symbolic of luck and happiness, therefore eaten on festival clays and given as gift to people in new homes.

Suimono: Clear broth soups.

Sukiyaki (pronounced Skee-yah-kee): Suki means plow, yaki means roasted. But, in Japan, “roasted” really means grilled or broiled, and in the case of this famous dish, stir-fried. Thinly sliced meat, fish, or seafood plus vegetables are cooked in specified order in a nabe (frypan) at the table. The meal begins with clear broth, sake served throughout, and white rice eaten with or after the main dish.

Sunemono: Relishes or salads of cooked or raw vegetables, finely sliced, grated or shredded and prepared with vinegar.

Suribachi: A wooden bowl with finely grooved lines on the inside. When ingredients (especially herbs or seeds) are rubbed against the grooves with a wooden pestle, they are quickly reduced to a pulpy mass.

Sushi: The name for the general category of vinegared rice snacks or appetizers – classical Japanese foods – made in many forms – wrapped, sliced, cakes, halls. Their different names indicate their style and ingredients. Because they are picked up and can he eaten with the fingers, they are a favorite snack or picnic food.

Tai: Sea bream, a common fish, widely used.

Tamago: A rectangular pan with a handle, used to prepare rectangular omelets.

Tempura: Batter-fried shrimp. Both the batter and the frying oil in the Japanese cuisine are light and delicate in appearance and flavor. Sliced meats, fish, and vegetables are in turn batter-dipped and fried right at the table. Diners may dip the foods in sauces before eating. Originated from Portuguese traders.

Teppanyaki: Japanese cooking technique common in restaurants. Sliced foods are cooked by the stir-fry method in front of diners. The table center is actually a huge gas or charcoal-heated plate on which the food is cooked.

Teriyaki: Generally refers to morsels of foods marinated in Shoyu and Mirin then broiled on skewers. But it may also refer to the process of spit-roasting or barbecuing. In any case, it is the sauce used as marinade, cooking, and dipping sauce that gives the foods an appealing brown glaze.

Tofu: Soybean curd, used in soups and dishes, much loved. A staple in the Japanese diet.

Tsukemono: Vegetables that have been pickled with salt or a salt and bran mixture to hasten fermentation. Used as relishes or salads.

Udon: Japanese macaroni.

Unagi Domburi: Popular dish of split grilled eels served over rice and with dipping sauces.

Warihashi: Chopsticks used in restaurants. Sometimes paper-packed, they are made from one piece of wood and must be pulled apart – this ensures that no one else has used them. They are inexpensive and discarded after use.

Yakitori: Spit- or skewer-roasted pieces of marinated chicken.

Yuba: Dried soybean curd.

Yuzu: A lime like citrus fruit, the peel of which is often dried and powdered and used for flavoring and garnish.

Zensai: Appetizers.

JAPANESE MEALS AND CUSTOMS

Many factors intrude on the strict maintenance of the traditional meals and customs of the Japanese; nonetheless, there is an increasing Japanese pride together with the delight and curiosity of foreigners that is causing even nisei (second-generation Japanese) to turn to the traditions of their ancestors. Many Japanese have discarded all facets of their culture with the single exception of their food customs.

Umeboshi, a powerfully tart little red plum that so many Japanese pop into their mouths first thing in the morning, is one food that defies artful and delicate descriptions. It is not artful or delicate. It is potently sour, and the punch it packs is intended to waken all but the dead. It clears heads and freshens mouths. Breakfast is either a hot rice bowl garnished with a raw beaten egg which cooks as it touches the hot rice, or nori (dried laver), but most often a steaming howl of misoshiru, a thick nourishing soup made with fermented bean paste. Tea may be included.

Lunch is usually taken in restaurants, snack bars, or eaten from little lacquer boxes in the form of a picnic if the weather permits. The mother who is at home is most often alone for lunch and will frugally make her meal from leftover rice topped with tidbits from last evening’s meal.

Dinner may frequently be enjoyed in a general or specialty restaurant in the company of relatives or special guests. If it is an evening when the husband is out with his friends, or if it is to be a family dinner at home, most likely the meal will be a boiled or steamed dish, accompanied with sake or beer, preceded by hot clear soup. After the main course, rice and pickles will be eaten. A dessert of fresh fruits will complete the meal.

Street vendors, snack bars, and the temptation of delicious aromas from many types of restaurants make snacking a way of life. Almost anything cooked in any form can be purchased in small amounts for hasty nibbling.

Good manners have a special place in Japanese life and there are probably more words in Japanese to indicate etiquette, humility, and honor than in any other language. While men could enjoy themselves in a more uninhibited way, women were traditionally taught to he gracious, obedient, and humble. They were also taught to make the household skills the center of their life. Japanese women were never expected to be all things: the Japanese wife should be an able homemaker and mother — scintillating conversation, musical ability and graceful dancing belonged to the realm of the geisha. But these traditions too are changing with women increasingly taking on professions and moving into the workforce.

Whether in Japan or abroad, many Japanese cherish the time-honored etiquette that surrounds hospitality and meals. Guests remove shoes and slip into tiny slippers before entering the home. Hot towels to refresh the hands and a cup of hot green tea are presented almost immediately. A traditional meal begins with the guest saying, “Itadakamasu” (“Now I will eat”) and the host replies, with a small bow, “Dozo,” (“Please go ahead”). Meals conclude with the gracious, “Gochiso-sama-deshita” (“This has been a delicious dinner”). To which the host again ceremoniously replies, “Arigato-Gozaimashita” (“Many thanks”).

Rice accompanies every traditional meal and it has specific rituals based on the deep reverence for it as a food together with the awareness of the hard work that went into producing it. The rice bowl is always received or removed with both hands, and children are taught this very early. Since the rice bowl is placed at the left of the table setting, its cover should be removed also with the left hand and placed to the left of the howl. Rice is never eaten all at once, but in separate mouthfuls between other foods and usually after the main course or dishes. Since after-dinner tea is often served in the same bowl as the rice, one must never leave even one grain. However, if you wish more rice, a spoonful left in the bottom indicates this desire.

There are traditions surrounding the use of chopsticks too. They must be picked up with the right hand, using the left to arrange them comfortably. To take foods from a platter, the chopsticks are reversed, and when not in use they are to be laid one inch apart in parallel position on your own tray or place mat.

Since great skill is needed in making soups and broths, it is considered polite to praise the soup. To eat the tidbits from the soup bowl, the dish is lifted near the mouth and the pieces eaten with chopsticks. Finally the broth is sipped. Hot foods are eaten first, then room-temperature foods, and finally chilled foods. As in most societies, it is considered thoughtful to wait for older persons to begin their meal before partaking.

Since sake usually flows generously in almost any social situation, but especially during meals and in gourmet sake bars, it is wise to understand the rituals honed over thousands of years. The wine is traditionally poured for you (“you must never fill your own cup”) from an individual flask called a tokkuri into a tiny cup called a sakazuki. The cup is held in the right hand between the thumb and two fingers and steadied on the bottom with the first two fingers of the left hand. With an average alcohol content of 20 percent, and usually served warm, sake packs a punch and what some describe as an “awesome” hangover. Hold your hand over your cup to decline refills.

But of all the Japanese traditions associated with food, Chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony, is the most profoundly significant. Although it was developed in the late 1400s by Murata Juko, it has been handed down through generations almost unchanged. Most of the masters of this ceremony are men, but women are often taught the ritual as much for its beauty as for its profound effect on grace and poise, dignity and discipline.

Every step of the ceremony itself, each movement and each utensil as well as ones clothes (which should be of quiet colors) and the little teahouse, the garden and the details of the room are all part of the experience. Chanoyu is strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism, “the aim of which is, in simplified terms, to purify one’s soul by becoming one with nature.”

The special powdered green tea called matcha is prepared and served in an atmosphere of serene simplicity with specially made foods called kaiseki. This food too came under the Zen influence of simplicity, lightness, and harmony with nature. Kaiseki is thought to represent Japans highest aesthetic form of food.

Chanoyu is far from being a disappearing art: factories, many schools, and clubs all have special classes in Chanoyu, for its significance as one of Japan’s most beautiful traditions is well appreciated.

Although nisei (second-generation Japanese) in Canada, Hawaii, and the United States retain many traditions, for the most part they comprise three groups: traditionalists who have retained the Japanese eating customs but have added a few western foods, for example, breads, hamburgers, and hot dogs (prepared with shoyu); the relatively acculturated group who prepare and eat traditional foods in decreasing frequency – this is the largest group; and those who have completely westernized themselves, even changing their names, rejecting their heritage, and intermarrying.

Gradual increase in the consumption of protein, fats, sugars, and the switch to a western-style breakfast are the most notable changes. While the gradual dietary changes have led to increased stature and life expectancy, they have also unfortunately increased the Japanese incidence of cardiovascular disease and dental caries.

JAPANESE COMMONLY USED FOODS

The staples of the traditional Japanese diet are rice, fish and seafood, vegetables and tea. Although some meats were taken occasionally as medicine, and records show that the people often hunted and ate wild animals, it was not until the American diplomat Townsend Harris’s visit to Japan in 1856 that beef was considered a food. After Emperor Meiji’s enjoyment of beef became widely known, its popularity, together with that of pork and chicken, rose steadily. Today most main dishes are combinations of vegetables with meat or seafood. Fruits in season are the usual desserts.

While the Japanese have borrowed from the foods and cookery techniques of Korea and China, there is no other cuisine in the world that can match the delicate artistry of the Japanese table. The Japanese cook is the artist, food the medium, and the table its frame. The subtle influence of both Buddhism and Shintoism are felt and expressed in the simplicity and oneness with nature so evident not only in the food and its arrangement, but also in the garnishes, eye-appealing combinations, and unmasked natural flavors all served in small appealing portions.

JAPANESE COOKING METHODS

There are abundant opportunities for creativity in Japanese cooking. There is great joy in tasting something for the first time and a concentration of skills in producing an original dish or garnish. It is considered commonplace to repeat what was a successful dish — one must always strive to improve. It is for this reason that Japanese cookbooks stress cooking methods rather than recipes, techniques rather than ingredients.

The following are some of the basic methods:

Tempura or Tendon: In 1550, batter-dipped and fried shrimp was introduced to the Japanese by Portuguese traders. The Portuguese did not eat meat on Catholic Ember Days (four times annually); these days came to be known as Quatuor Tempora and the fried shrimp that became the specialty was called Tempura. Tempura now refers to the Japanese cooking method of coating cleaned cut or sliced foods in a light batter and frying quickly in a light vegetable oil. Tendon refers specifically to fried crustaceans. These foods so prepared are served with a base of rice or noodles, accompanied by sauces for dipping.

SAUCES: Aside from those sauces providing obviously contrasting flavors – for instance, shoyu, hot mustard or grated horse radish – most sauces are made from the boiled stock of trimmings and entrails. Sauce is well reduced then finished with a small amount of dashi, shoyu, grated fresh ginger-root, or horse radish.

Sushi: Refer Breads and Grains in Japanese Foods section.

Sashimi: a method of preparing thinly sliced raw fish or chicken and sometimes raw lobster, shrimp, or clams garnished with paper-thin slices of raw vegetables. They are eaten by dipping into a light sauce seasoned with shoyu or horse radish. Sometimes sashimi is prepared by dipping the raw slices of fish or vegetables very briefly in boiling water before eating. Fresh ocean fish is best for this method.

Fugu Sashimi: the highly skilled preparation of raw blowfish. Since the liver and ovaries contain a lethal poison, incorrect handling or preparation could contaminate the meal. More than 100 dead each year are mute testimony that eating this delicacy is fraught with danger.

SOUPS: There are basically three types of soups:

Suimono: clear broths made from bits of meat, fish, bones, trimmings, entrails, skins, etc. These are strained and flavored lightly with salt, shoyu, and dashi.

Misoshiru: thicker and heavier soups made with the addition of miso, fermented bean paste. Substantial soups that are more like chowders or thin stews and make a meal in themselves, these may be made from fish or chicken.

Zoni: this is a special soup made for New Year’s, comprising a rich chicken broth with slivers of chicken meat but flavored with Japanese herbs (nanakusa) and fish paste (kamaboko). Threads of lemon and spinach and sprinkles of shoyu and dashi complete the soup. To serve, Zoni is poured over specially made cakes called o-mochi.

SUKIYAKI: suki means a plow and yaki means roasted. This dish is cooked at the table in front of the diners, with the ingredients artfully sliced and arranged on a platter. Sukiyaki is usually made with prime quality tender beef and an array of vegetables which may include onions, leeks, types of seaweed, carrots, radishes, squares of tofu, shirataki (Japanese noodles), spinach, bean or bamboo shoots or sprouts, konnyaku (devil’s loot squares), and mitsuba (marsh parsley). The liquids to be added are water, sake, and shoyu. Nabe is the frying pan which is placed over a hibach or hibachi, an earthenware cooking pot heated with charcoal embers.

The cooking ritual of Sukiyaki begins with the sauces heating in the pan, then the meat slices are browned, and finally the vegetables, pushed each to one side as they are cooked.

The meal is begun with a clear soup, sake or beer served throughout, rice served before or after the Sukiyaki. Foreigners like to eat the rice with the sauces; to the Japanese this is unthinkable. Rice is revered and is savored usually by itself. The meal concludes with fresh fruit and then tea.

Beef is the classic meat, but any other fish, meat, or seafood and any vegetable variety may be used.

YAKITORI: Spit-roasted meats or foods grilled on tiny wooden skewers are prepared by this process. Often the meats are marinated first, basted with the marinade while roasting (miso or dashi-shoyu marinade), and dipped in sauces while eating. Finely minced ginger or horseradish may enhance the flavors. Teriyaki is one version using shoyu and mirin as marinade.

NIMONO: This refers to boiled foods. This is also called one-pot cooking and may be done at the table or in the kitchen. Meats or seafood (in appropriate pieces) are boiled in the broth then removed and kept hot. Vegetables are then added and boiled until done, then removed. The cooked, slivered vegetables and sliced meats are well drained, placed on a plate, and served with a little broth as sauce.

MUSHIMONO: This is the classification that includes all steamed foods. There are three main methods:

1. Various ingredients are steamed in individual bowls and served in the same dishes.
2. Foods are steamed in one large platter or in layers of platters in a large steamer and then portioned out individually.
3. Prepared foods are arranged over hot coarse salt in a special earthenware (unglazed) dish called a horoku. The fresh foods placed on the scalding-hot salt release their own moisture to steam-cook the foods. The dish is covered during cooking time.

Dobin: a small teapot used for steaming single dishes.

Chawan-Mushi: Classic dish of sliced chicken, shrimp, mushrooms with chestnuts or ginkgo nuts layered in individual dishes with an egg custard poured over. After steaming till set, the dishes are garnished with a sprinkle of lemon juice and lemon slivers.

Odamaki-Mushi: Similar to Chawan-Mushi except that on the bottom is a layer of noodles that are topped with ham, sliced fish paste, vegetable slices, and finally the egg custard. A sprinkle of lemon juice sharpens the taste before eating.

AGEMONO OR KARAAGE style: Kara means empty and age to fry. Tendon and tempura are part of this style, although generally the term refers to foods pre-dipped in cornstarch and lightly fried in a little oil.

SALADS: Japanese “salads” are made from pre-cooked vegetables, meats, fish or seafood, cooled and dressed and served as zensai (appetizers), side dishes, or small separate courses. Each of the ingredients may be arranged in little mounds and sliced, chopped, grated, or shredded. The dressing is called aemono (or mixture). Tsukemono refers to pickled vegetables while sunemono means vinegared dishes. These are usually eaten accompanied with many rounds of sake. Pickling is done with salt or salt and rice bran to aid fermentation.

JAPAN’S SPECIAL OCCASIONS

The Japanese constitution of 1946 guarantees religious freedom to all as well as separation of religion and state. Virtually all Japanese, except those converted to Christianity (numbering more than one million), are Shintoists. But Shintoism, indigenous to Japan, is regarded as a cult rather than a religion, and includes aspects of ancestor worship, faith healing, belief in spirits, and purification rites. Confucianism is regarded as a moral code rather than a religion. Thus, it is possible for a Japanese to inter-twine not only Shintoism and Confucianism, but also Buddhism. The latter is the predominant religion of Japan’s more than 125 million people and has more than 200 sects and denominations. It is not unusual for a Japanese person to follow Shinto rites for marriage and Buddhist rites for a funeral.

Although modern in many ways, the Japanese mother takes great care to have the special symbolic foods that are traditional for each of the many festivities of the year: weddings, funerals, birthdays, visits to the shrines, Children’s Day (May 5), and Girls’ Day (March 3). November 23 is the memorial day for Kobo Daishi, the great Japanese teacher who united Shintoism and Buddhism in the late 700s under one doctrine called Ryobu Shinto. The biggest festival, often lasting three or four days, is New Year’s when families gather and meals comprising many courses of symbolic foods are enjoyed together with visits to the shrines.

Red is considered a joyous and lucky color so it is found in abundance on festivals, whether in clothing, ribbons, decorations, or foods. But most symbolic of all is rice. Most typical Japanese feast foods are mochi (rice cakes) and dango (dumplings made from rice flour, steamed or boiled then finished by broiling and eating with bean-jam, a sprinkling of soybean flour or sauce.) Shitogi is another ceremonial food made from powdered rice that is steamed or boiled. It is usually prepared as an offering rather than a food.

Foods for holidays are always deliberately different in color and flavor from those eaten the rest of the year. Red beans are popular and a sweet rice wine called amazake is served often. For the Girls’ Day, also called Doll Festival, mochi is made in diamond shapes colored pink, pale green, and white. The Boys’ Festival Day (May 5) is celebrated with mochi wrapped in oak or bamboo leaves.

But perhaps most interesting is the individual symbolism given to certain other foods. For example, lobsters are considered an indispensable part of the birthday celebration, the hump of the lobster suggesting the bent back of old age. By partaking of this food, it is hoped the person celebrating the birthday may also live to old age.

The New Year’s customs and foods are so varied that often they differ from one family to another and certainly from region to region. A whole fish broiled in salt (tail, sweet sake, red beans, mochi, and many other dishes add to the merriment.

JAPANESE DOMESTIC LIFE

Present-day mass production of everything from electrical appliances to instant and frozen foods has made the urban Japanese kitchen similar to any in the West. The main difference is size. In Japan, refrigeration and storage space are minimal for several reasons: the prevalence of small-size homes, the preference for foods purchased fresh daily, and the custom of entertaining guests outside the home.

But Japanese women are well trained in the arts of the kitchen, in decoration, flower arranging, poise and good manners. Many are graduates in home economics, belong to cooking clubs, and love to watch food shows on television. But since most entertaining is done outside the home, and since very often the Japanese wife is not even sure if her husband will be home for the evening meal, most home cooking is of a much simpler nature than that found in restaurants. Yet the great care taken in the appearance and arrangement of both the table decor and the food itself is never neglected.

Harmony and identity with nature is a constant theme. Metal is used in cooking and cutting utensils out of necessity. But when it comes to wrapping foods – meats are often wrapped in large bamboo leaves – serving or eating foods, the elements of nature are preferred. Dishes and chopsticks are made of bamboo, ivory, or lacquered woods. Soup spoons are not used: larger pieces are picked out with chopsticks and then the broth is sipped from the bowl.

Japanese homes have a serene simplicity and so does the cooking. Hidden behind sliding shutters are folding furnishings and decorations that can transform the atmosphere and even the use of one room. In the same way one basic cooking method can make flavor differences in many different foods. Or reversed: one type of food cooked by many different methods will seem like a totally different dish. Again, a Japanese dining room with low table and soft cushions can be pushed to one side as mats, blankets, and pillows transform the room into a bedroom.

In the same way the tokonomo, which is a small alcove in the main room, is completely transformed by changing the wall hanging and the flower arrangement to give one a sense of another time or season. All of this is part of the complex artistry and creativity entwined with a oneness with nature that in Japanese hands comes out looking so naturally simple.

Every Japanese kitchen has a colorful collection of teacups, soup and rice bowls, handled teacups and saucers (for western coffee and tea), china plates, platters and tiny dishes of different shapes to be used for special clipping sauces. Chopstick rests made in a variety of materials and shapes complete the table collection. For decoration, many styles and colors of mats, cloths, and vases for arrangements of blossoms, twigs, and leaves add that special Japanese touch.

Kitchen utensils include a variety of sharp, strong knives and cleavers. Many have specific uses such as vegetable-cutting knives, fish knives, etc. The mortar and pestle is probably one of the oldest utensils and is used for grinding herbal medicines, tea leaves, and pounding rice for New Year’s cakes. Other basics include a wooden spatula (rice paddle) to ladle rice, bamboo lattice mats for molding sushi, sieves made of wood and horsehair, bamboo baskets for steaming, draining, and straining, a tub for cooking rice, graters, ladles, pots and pans.

JAPANESE FOODS

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Although dairy products have been known in Japan since ancient times, they have never been an important part of the diet. More recently (since the American occupation after World War II) more milk is consumed but still not significantly. Perhaps in its place, the many products derived from soybeans are used. Broths made from simmering bones, and the eating of tender fish bones all add calcium and phosphorus to the diet.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Japan’s variable climate and the careful cultivation of the soil is responsible for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables enjoyed both in season and later when dried, salted, pickled, and more recently, frozen.

Fruits familiar to other temperate and subtropical areas are common. Many varieties of oranges form the staple fruit. Loquats, berries, persimmons, summer mandarins (natsumikan), and pear apples (nijusiki) are among the favorites for simple refreshing desserts.

Japanese enjoy all available vegetables, seed, and bean sprouts, and they enjoy them not only cooked by many methods (stir-fried, steamed, boiled in soup) but also as salads. Japanese salads are actually lightly cooked vegetables chilled, thinly sliced, slivered or grated and dressed with seasonings. Vegetables may also he salted or pickled and used as appetizers or separate courses like the salads to be served after the main course.

Yams and taro were introduced to Japan in ancient times and often form the staple food in mountainous areas, as well as in times of famine when rice and grain crops have failed. Burdock, lotus roots, leeks, onions, and white radish (daikon) are great favorites, but it would be difficult to find a vegetable not enjoyed. Several types of seaweed and many varieties of local mushrooms such as shitake (tree mushrooms), shoro, kotake. shimeji, and hatsudake are also used. Tsukemono is the name given to pickled vegetables, while sunemono refers to vinegared vegetable dishes.

MEATS AND ALTERNATES

Meats are available and used according to means. These include all varieties of cuts – including offal – of beef, pork, veal, and lamb. Some poultry is used, as well as game meats, as available. Japanese kobe beef has gained a great reputation; it is beef fattened on beer shipped from the port of Kobe. Also famed and even more expensive is wadakin or matsuzaka beef raised in special dark sheds, fed on hot mash and even massaged regularly.

Although the precepts of Buddhism have been gently bent to permit meat-eating, the Japanese still eat only small quantities; their fish intake is reputedly five times that of North Americans. Unquestionably the abundant supply and the great variety of seafood from nearby waters makes the harvest from the sea the Japanese staple. Edible seaweeds, abalone, clams, squid, shrimp, prawns, oysters, cuttlefish, blowfish, as well as salmon, cod, sardines, trout, herring and shark, tuna, flounder, sea bream (tai), and bonito all find their way into delectable dishes.

In areas distant from the sea, fish is most often prepared from dried or salted varieties. In fact, it forms such an important part of all festive occasions that where marine food could not be obtained or afforded, seaweed or even salt was then substituted.

Sashimi is a dish of sliced varieties of raw fish, arranged in a pattern on a plate and eaten by dipping into a sauce. Sometimes slices of raw chicken are also called sashimi and eaten in the same manner. But most dramatic of all is the daring Japanese custom of eating raw blowfish called fugu. Fugu-eating is dramatic because each year many people die from consuming raw portions of this fish (the liver and ovaries are poisonous, so the fugu chef must be especially skilled).

Eggs are consumed in quantity often as appetizers in the form of fried egg yolk squares, boiled or pickled quail, duck or pigeon eggs, garnishes and rectangular-shaped omelets.

Bean pastes are used as seasoning and as ingredients in desserts. For instance, red bean cake is a type of candy made from agar-agar and red bean paste. But most widely used are the products made from soybeans, which include shoyu, a sweetish soy sauce made from wheat and barley, soybeans, salt and water; and miso, mostly used for flavoring thick soups and made from fermented bean paste.

Tofu or soybean curd is so widely used in Japanese cuisine that it can safely be considered a staple. Its smooth, white custard-like texture and bland taste make it an ideal ingredient. So versatile is it – it happily absorbs any other flavors – that restaurants in Japan take great pride in their tofu dishes.

Chestnuts and ginkgo nuts are enjoyed by themselves but more frequently in desserts and main dishes.

BREADS AND GRAINS

Rice is the staple grain in Japan. But rice is more than food, it is also an indispensable symbol in Shinto religious ceremonies. It has always had a place of reverence and has sometimes been considered medicinal. However, contrary to wide belief, rice is not the only important grain in the Japanese diet. Noodles made from wheat or buckwheat flour are so popular that they often form not only a main dish, but also a snack food. Rice may be eaten as a base for other foods or it may be eaten from its own separate bowl. Red rice is rice that has been cooked with the juice of red beans, then served cold garnished with salt and black sesame seeds.

Perhaps most popular is sushi, the rice sandwich. Basically, sushi is vinegared or sweet and sour cooked rice wrapped around colorful and flavorful food tidbits. Sushi is eaten with the fingers, often as a snack, picnic food, or appetizer with swallows of tea in between. It is sold in shops and by street vendors. Many types exist, each with a specific name indicating the ingredients. There are three main types of sushi:

Nigiri-Zushi: vinegared rice with raw or cooked fish, seafood, or eggs garnished with Wasabi (grated horseradish).

Norimaki-Zushi: vinegared cooked rice and tiny tidbits of fish, seafood, or meat and edible seaweed or laver rolled up like a jellyroll then sliced into bite-sized pieces.

Chirashi-Zushi: the most artful and complex sushi of all, made from nine ingredients prepared in nine special steps.

Japanese noodle dishes are very popular and may  be served hot or cold. Noodles are served in one of two ways: kake, which means the cooked noodles are placed in a bowl and hot soup poured over; and mori, which means the cold or hot cooked noodles are served on a bamboo plate and mouthfuls picked up with chopsticks and dipped into sauce before eating. Soba means fat noodles, while udon refers to thin noodles. Usually the name preceding either soba or udon indicates the garnish. Buckwheat noodles (toshikoshisoba) are believed to be good luck, are eaten on New Year’s Eve, and are considered an appropriate house gift, especially when wrapped in red paper and ribbon. In eastern Japan buckwheat noodles are favored, while wheat noodles are most popular in the western part of the country.

Besides rice and noodles made from wheat or buckwheat flour, barley and millet are also grown and used in Japan. Barley is also used to make a mild refreshing tea. Roasted barley grains are brewed in a pot and served either hot or cold.

FATS

Little fat is used in food preparation as many dishes are eaten raw, pickled, steamed or boiled, barbecued, or as soup. Few dishes are fried and this is mostly done in seed oil.

SWEETS AND SNACKS

Japanese do not eat many sweets in the sense of consuming candies, cakes, pastries. However, much sugar is used in the seasoning of dishes rather than in actual sweet desserts. Sugar came into use in Japan in the late 1500s and has been an indispensable ingredient ever since. Even the Japanese soy sauce called shoyu is considerably sweeter than the Chinese version. Japanese snacks are not sweets. Most often they are snacks of skewered broiled meats, sushi, or noodle dishes.

SEASONINGS

Since the goal of Japanese cuisine is to present foods with artful simplicity and natural beauty, seasonings are always subtle. Any flavor that is pronounced, such as horse radish or scallions, is most often added by the diner at the table so the powerful tastes do not override the delicate ones. It is also interesting to note that in Japanese cookery seasonings are added only one at a time and in a strictly specified order, never all at once.

Shoyu, miso, dashi, and ajinomoto are the most popular seasonings. Shoyu is slightly sweetened soy sauce. Made from fermented bean paste, miso is mostly used to flavor thick soups called misoshiru. Dashi is clear base made from a broth of dried fish and dried seaweed. It can be purchased commercially prepared but is usually made at home. A small square of kombu (dried kelp) is placed in water and brought to a boil then removed. Shavings of katsuobushi (dried piece of bonito with green mildew on it) are then added and removed as soon as the broth returns to a full boil. The resulting liquid, seasoned with a dash of ajinomoto (Japanese monosodium glutamate) is dashi.

Vinegar and sugar are widely used. Sansho, a native pepper, and yuzu, citrus flavoring from peel, as well as sesame seeds (black and white), red peppers, hot mustard, horse radish, shiso leaves and berries, fresh ginger root, and occasionally peanuts, ground walnuts, and ginkgo nuts round out the seasoning “shelf” of the Japanese kitchen.

Rice wine called sake and fortified rice wine called mirin or toso are often used to enhance flavors as well.

BEVERAGES

Tea is the number one drink in Japan. Tea accompanies meals, is taken as a refreshment, and is the indispensable ingredient and symbol in the exquisite Chanoyu (tea ceremony). Green teas are favored and there are many different types. Matcha is the fine powdered green tea reserved especially for the Chanoyu, while gyokuru (literally, “gem-dew”) is considered next to matcha. Other green teas include aoyagi or aoyanagi, sen-cha and ban-cha, which are coarser, and habu-cha. Kombu-cha is a tea made from seaweed, while mugi-cha is a tea brewed from toasted wheat or barley grains and taken cold, especially in hot humid weather.

Sake is made from fermented rice in a process similar to beer making. This mild yeasty-flavored wine is served warm in tiny cups called sakazuki and poured from an individual porcelain or pottery flask called tokkuri to accompany meals. Mirin is the type used in cooking. Toso is used for special occasions. Sake contains about 20 percent alcohol – most wines are about 10 percent – so despite its gentleness on the tongue, it is potent. Beer is also enjoyed, usually brewed from inferior rice or sweet potatoes, called sochu. There is also a growing demand for Scotch whiskey.

Coffee enjoys some popularity in Japan. Water is never drunk as such, milk very seldom.

FOOD AND CULTURE IN JAPAN

The Japanese call their homeland Dai Nihon or Nippon, meaning “origin of the sun.” It is from this name that Japan has also been called “Land of the Rising Sun.” It is an apt name. For in the short span of about a hundred years, Japan has shaken off the shackles of an ancient feudal system and hundreds of years of isolation from the rest of the world, united her people, elevated her standard of living, and today proudly stands prominently as a world class industrial nation.

The four main islands that make up Japan – Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu – are 80 percent mountainous. Picturesque lakes dot the mountain areas and small rivers water the rolling plains. Only 15 percent of the land is arable but it is from this that diligent Japanese farmers coax rice and other grains, vegetables, and a wide variety of fruits. From the surrounding seas come cold and warm currents and air masses that give Japan a climate that varies from short summers and severe winters in the North to torrential rains and whipping winds, hot days and humid nights in the South. But from the seas also come Japan’s great harvest of fish, seafood, and edible seaweed.

Japan’s first outside contact was with Korea in the early 300s C.E. Chinese industrial arts, crafts, and learning found their way through Korea to Japan. Shintoism, Japan’s indigenous cult of imperial and ancestor worship, existed side by side” with Buddhism since the latter was introduced from India (through Korea and China) in 538 C.E. Gradually the cult of ancestor worship blended with Buddhism and deeply affected many aspects of Japanese life. Appreciation of nature and a cultivation of simplicity and grace in everyday life influenced not only food and dress, but also literature and the arts.

One of the most exquisite examples of the infusion of the blend of Buddhism and Shintoism into art and thence into everyday life is found in the Japanese art of tsutsumu. This is the art of packaging, and includes everything from a farmer’s quantity of eggs delicately laced in rice stray, to a gratuity that is not placed directly in the hand, but is wrapped in folds of delicate paper to resemble a flower. Tsutsumu represents utility as well as beauty and simplicity. Materials and colors for wrapping, as well as the completed shapes, delight the eye and symbolize the spiritual essence of nature.

In this same way, although Japan adopted crafts, arts, language, industries, and even religion from other lands, she has given each an indelible Japanese stamp. From the Chinese
and Koreans the Japanese learned how to write by using Chinese ideograms, but soon simplified and refined the complex characters (in the 700s during the Heian Period) into two native kana syllabaries: katagana and hiragana. The Japanese word Kana means a symbol representing a syllable. This resulted in a flourishing of Japanese literature and learning previously unsurpassed.

It was in the Meiji Period (1867-1912) that the next great advances occurred. With the government centered in the emperor, Japan became unified for the first time and boldly stepped into expanding school systems and new industrial techniques based on western patterns. The western influence in music and art, in transportation (steam engines and electric trolleys), lighting, household appliances, telephones, and even western-style skyscrapers was mostly apparent in the cities. Rural areas continued their traditional ways, but not for long.

After a taste of territorial expansion – Japan for a time during the Second World War gained control of Okinawa, Formosa, Korea, Inner Mongolia, Southern Manchuria, and several Pacific Islands – the country laid down her arms in unconditional surrender on August 11, 1945. So began the American occupation. Once again Japan was to accept outside ideas, this time those of democratic government, land reforms, franchise for women, and the demotion of Shintoism from state cult to minor sect. This latter meant that with the government no longer sponsoring Shintoism, the emperor of Japan was no longer considered to be divine and no longer could the government impose religious education or activity on the Japanese people.

By 1952. Japan had taken her place as one of the great industrialized societies of the world – and also shared in many of the ensuing problems. Yet it is surprising that although living and working conditions in Japan seem to parallel those of the western world, differences remain. For although outward circumstances undergo rapid change, “the traditional aspects of the society are retained.”

This is worthy of closer examination because it reveals differences of thought and custom that are often incomprehensible to the western mind. In Japanese tradition, it is the group as a whole that matters: individuals are as important as the group they belong to. Further, traditional views maintain that only diligent hard work leads to success: if one does not succeed in life it is simply because one has not worked hard enough. These factors lead to intense familial and company loyalties as well as fierce competition. It often also leads to a lack of communication between occupations because workers may belong to rival companies.

Japanese social life, too, differs from that of the West. There is a sharp distinction and division between social pleasures – enjoyment of friends, meals, and entertainment – and the world of business, education, and politics. Logical, philosophical, religious, business, or even political discussions have no place when friends gather for a meal or a few drinks. The ability to seek pleasure in a world that has no logic may appear as a kind of art in the eyes of foreigners. But the ability to relax completely both mentally and physically in congenial sociability may explain, more than anything else, the traditional Japanese resistance to stress-related illnesses.

For Japanese who emigrated, the story is only slightly different. Wherever they went – to Hawaii, the United States, or Canada – the first emigrants left Japan for financial reasons. Their dream was to work hard, live frugally, and then one day return to retire in their native Japan. But conditions frustrated their dreams. It was these enclaves of frugal, hardworking Japanese quietly retaining their language, dress, foods, and traditions that aroused the unwarranted indignation of their western neighbors. Differences are seldom tolerated. But when it became evident that the dream of returning to their homeland was not going to be realized, their resistance to social change broke down.

Issei (first generation Japanese in North America) sadly watched as western education changed traditional family patterns. Schools emphasized individuality and the nisei and the sansei (second and third generations) wanted nothing more than to belong. Western dress and manners were readily adopted, and the Japanese language was lost by many.

For most, assimilation was the rule and Japanese tradition was evident only at mealtime. The simplicity and symbolic qualities of Japanese foods and cookery could not he supplanted by western ones. The separately savored flavors of Japanese foods are as artistically presented as the colorful and different dishes upon which they are served. Japanese still eat sparsely and with appreciation.

The traditional aspects so deeply a part of the people of Japan have not deterred her from becoming a hustling industrialized nation. They only somewhat deterred western and Japanese mutual understanding and communication. But the rituals and beauty inherent in simplicity and restraint — so much a part of Japanese life and food customs — may prove a valuable lesson to be viewed in a new light by westerners, just as the notion of separating daily work from daily leisure.