Mountains, plains, rivers and the\nsea… Nature has given the Japanese archipelago a tremendous variety of fine\ningredients, and the country is a culinary delight. Recipes play up freshness,\nwhile seasonings and stocks bring out the flavor of the ingredients. Decorated\ntableware plays a role in the presentation, and food is arranged with an eye to\nbeauty. Traditional preservation methods take advantage of the climate and\nnatural preserving agents, and foreign recipes are absorbed with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From a keen awareness of the\npleasures of dining came culinary knowledge and expertise, and these have\ncrystallized into a distinct food culture. So what is Japanese cuisine, anyway?\nThese pages offer a taste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When vegetables are pickled they\nkeep longer than when raw, and they have extra nutritional value because of the\nlactic acid bacteria that grow as part of the fermentation process. Each part\nof Japan favors its own combination of vegetables and seasonings to make tsukemono.\nThe photo to the left shows three types: clockwise from left, daikon radish\npickled in vinegar, beets pickled in sweet vinegar, and cucumber pickled in soy\nsauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Above middle: Vegetables pickled\nin a salted rice bran paste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Above right top: Eggplant,\ncucumber, and turnip pickled in miso paste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Above right bottom: If the\nvegetables are pickled for too long, you can remove some of the salt by\nchopping them up fine and soaking them in water before eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
French croquettes became a\nJapanese \u201cWestern\u201d dish. In Japan croquettes are generally served with rice and\ncome with a shredded raw cabbage salad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mashed potato with ground meat\nand minced onion added. The mixture is patted into easy-to-handle oval shapes,\ncoated with breadcrumbs then deep-fried. The Japanese word korokke comes from\nthe French, croquette.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would be hard to imagine\nJapanese cuisine without shoyu (soy sauce). It is such an easy-to-use\nseasoning, ideal for soups and broths, simmered foods and a full range of other\ndishes. It sits on the table until someone grabs it to sprinkle directly on\nfood. To make it, first of all soybeans, wheat and salt are added to water.\nBrine and a fermenting agent (a koji mold cultivated on soybeans and wheat) are\nthen mixed in. After the resulting mash, known as moromi, ferments for several\nmonths, it is squeezed through a cloth to obtain as much of the liquid as\npossible. The liquid is heated to kill bacteria, and the final result is soy\nsauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are three main types of soy\nsauce:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* koi-kuchi, with a dark color\nand a rich taste<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* usu-kuchi, with a lighter color\nand taste<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* tamari, with a higher\nconcentration of soybean and less salt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most people buy the first type,\nso that today the word koi-kuchi is practically synonymous with soy sauce.\nUsu-kuchi sauce is given a lighter color so that it will not discolor simmered\nfoods and other ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tradition says that a Zen priest\nwent to China in the 13th century and brought back the technique for making\nkinzanji miso. A liquid seeping out of vegetables pickled in this miso was a\nkind of soy sauce, and this, it is said, was the beginning of tamari, the third\nvariety of soy sauce. Beginning in the 1500s, it was produced mainly in the\nKyoto and Osaka region, but after the mid-1600s the population of Edo\n(present-day Tokyo) mushroomed and the main center of production shifted to an\narea just east of Edo, in what is now Chiba Prefecture. The older tamari\nmanufacturing process, which produces a milder sauce, evolved to yield\nkoi-kuchi, the dark-colored, salty sauce preferred by the people of Edo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chiba Prefecture remains Japan’s\nmost important production center for soy sauce, even today. Miya Shoyu-ten is\nthe only maker in Chiba that follows the old brewing process. Its soy sauce is\nsold under the trade name, Tamasa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Miya Keiichiro, the company’s\nmanaging director, says, \u201cWhen we make soy sauce, we aim for an excellent\nbalance of fine fragrance and mild taste. When it comes out just right I feel\nglad I’m continuing my family’s manufacturing traditions. I still have years to\ngo before I can be proud of my record, though.\u201d He has been managing his\nancestors’ business, which goes back 170 years, for 12 years so far. Miya’s\ngoal is to achieve the best possible taste, so he uses traditional brewing\nmethods that take advantage of natural changes in temperature. His company\ncould change over to mass production, but that is not his ambition\u2014he is after\na superior taste. That means, of course, starting with the best ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur soybeans and wheat come from\nthis prefecture. The water is ideal, from our own spring-fed well. We get the\nsalt from Mexico, because of its higher amino acid content.\u201d Miya is on to\nsomething, because many chefs prefer his variety of soy sauce. Miya Shoyu-ten’s\nJapanese-language website: http:\/\/www.miyashoyu.co.jp\/3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mountains, plains, rivers and the sea… Nature has given the Japanese archipelago a tremendous variety of fine ingredients, and the country is a culinary delight. Recipes play up freshness, while seasonings and stocks bring out the flavor of the ingredients. Decorated tableware plays a role in the presentation, and food is arranged with an eye […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biz.golamfaruque.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}