Ethnic Cuisine: Japan
Introduction
The cuisine of Japan is shaped by its four distinct seasons and by regions. It is a cuisine that first and foremost delights the senses -- in Japan, the eyes, nose, and palate feast along with the stomach. The essence of Japanese cuisine is based on various elements of taste, cooking techniques, and the use of the freshest seasonal ingredients.
Geography
Japan (the land of the rising sun) is composed of four main islands, stretching north to south: Hokkaiko, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. It also includes the islands of Okinawa and around 4,000 smaller islands. The whole of Japan would fit inside the state of California. The capital is Tokyo.
Japanese Cookbooks: The Top Ten in English
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
by Shizuo Tsuji
This book is considered the bible of Japanese cuisine. It has gone through several reprints. Recipes are easy to follow, as well as very tasty. The black and white drawings guide the reader through difficult Japanese culinary techniques. This book is available for purchase through Amazon.com!
Rice Paddy Gourmet
By Joan Itoh
Based on newspaper cooking columns that Itoh wrote about life as a foreign wife in Japan in the late sixties. This book features both traditional Japanese and East-West recipes as well as delightful stories of life in rural Northern Japan.
Illustrated Eating in Japan (#3)
By Japan Travel Bureau (JTB)
This little paperback is part of an exceptional series called "Japan in Your Pocket!" -- all published by the Japan Travel Bureau. If you could only have one book with you in Japan to guide you through the basics of Japanese cuisine, this is it.
The Book of Miso: Food For Mankind
By William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi
This is the definitive book on miso. It is jam-packed with four hundred recipes and over one hundred illustrations and includes a history on miso in Japan.
The Book of Tofu
By William Shurtleff & Akiko Aoyagi
Written by the same dynamic duo, The Book of Tofu is a must if you love any type of tofu -- fresh, freeze-dried, fried, Japanese, or Chinese. This book has five hundred recipes and even tells you how to make traditional Japanese tofu. This book is available for purchase through Amazon.com!
Cooking with Japanese Foods: A Guide to the Traditional Foods of Japan
By John & Jan Belleme
This is a reference book-cum-recipe (200 in all) book on fifty traditional foods of Japan, including sake, mirin (sweet sake), vegetables, various condiments, grains, umeboshi (pickled plums), and so on.
The Book of Soba
By James Udesky
If you are a noodle lover, you must have this book in your culinary library. An expansive discussion on buckwheat (soba) noodles: everything from how to make your own, the history, where to eat soba in Japan, and lots of recipes.
Sake
By Hiroshi Kondo
This book remains the ultimate guide to sake. Everything is covered, and the color photographs are superb.
Step-by-Step Sushi
By Katsuji Yamamoto and Roger W. Hicks.
There are a lot of books published on making sushi, but this one remains one of the best. The step-by-step photographs and detailed explanations help to unravel one of the hardest dishes to make in the Japanese culinary repertoire.
Bruce Cost's Asian Ingredients: Buying and Cooking the Staple Foods of China, Japan and Southeast Asia
By Bruce Cost
With a lay-out like a mini-encyclopedia, pictures, Latin names of ingredients, regions of use and recipes, all help you to decipher the myriad exotic foods found in Asia.
A Mini-Glossary of Japanese Dishes
Korokke
Deep-fried and breaded croquettes, often consisting of mashed potatoes and minced meats.
Nigirizushi
Often called finger sushi because of its shape; seasoned cold Japanese rice shaped like a finger is topped with a variety of ingredients, including slices of raw fish. The hotness comes from wasabi, Japanese green horseradish.
Okonomiyaki
A giant savory pancake cooked right in front of you on a hot plate. You choose the ingredients and make it yourself.
Sashimi
Slices of raw fish.
Shabu-shabu
Thinly sliced beef and a variety of vegetables are dipped into a bubbling broth and quickly cooked. A selection of special dipping sauces are used.
Tempura
A delectable variety of seafood and vegetables are deep-fried in a crispy, light batter.
Tonkatsu
Fried breaded pork cutlets served with a sauce.
Yakitori
Various parts of chicken and vegetables threaded on bamboo skewers and grilled over charcoal. During cooking, it is flavored with either salt or brushed with a mildly sweet soy sauce.
Japanese Products by Mail Order
Nancy's Specialty Market
PO Box 530
Newmarket, NH 03857
To order a catalog: (800) 688-2433, Orders only: (800) 462-6291
Nancy's offers an international selection of dried foods, spices, books, and utensils. Their Oriental (Thailand, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese) selection is expansive. Japanese items include everything from wakame, kuzu powder to make silky sauces, noodles such as udon, soba and somen, a large variety of soy sauces, tea, miso
(fermented soybean paste), Japanese Cooking A Simple Art for the low price of $29.95, and even some tableware, such as multi-colored bowls. Nancy, herself, is currently recommending Myron's #1 Yakitori Sauce, an all natural, low-sodium sauce made by a small Massachusetts company.
Well-Known Japanese Product Lines
Most of these products can be found at local supermarkets or gourmet specialty stores.
Kikkoman
Kikkoman is most well known for its soy sauces. They even offer a lite (low-sodium) version. Many sauces, such as Tonkatsu (for deep-fried pork cutlets) and stir-fry sauces are also made by Kikkoman, as well as instant clear broth and miso soups.
Marukan & Nakano
Marukan and Nakano are both known for vinegars, mainly rice vinegar and seasoned rice vinegar for making sushi.
S & P
S & P is number one for seasonings and spices. Look for their authentic Japanese curry powder.
House
Offers a great variety of instant foods and soups.
Nisshin
Nisshin sells a wide selection of instant ramen.
Sho Chiku Bai, Gekkeikan & Hakutsuru
All famous makers of sake (rice wine).
Aji no Moto
One of the many makers who sell instant dashi (Japanese fish stock) granules.
One Famous Japanese Dish: Sukiyaki
Nobody really seems to know the origins of sukiyaki. One theory is that in the old days farmers slipped a little flesh into the vegetarian diet imposed by Buddhist strictures by grilling (yaki) meat on a plowshare (suki.) In 1873, Emperor Meiji declared that beef was acceptable for consumption, and from that time on it became part of the Japanese diet, although traditional dishes continue to use small quantities of meat.
Sukiyaki, called gyunabe during the Meiji era (1868-1912), is beef and vegetables lightly simmered in a sweetened sauce, served with a raw egg as dipping sauce. It is eaten year-round.
As with many traditional Japanese dishes, the method of making sukiyaki differs from area to area. Kanto (the Tokyo area) sukiyaki is made by simmering the beef and vegetables in a prepared sauce, while in Kansai (Kyoto-Osaka area), the sauce is made in the pot as you cook.
All you really need with sukiyaki, which is quite filling, is a bowl of freshly cooked Japanese rice, some Japanese pickles, and green tea and fresh fruit to finish the feast.
Lucy Seligman (lucys_kitchen@yahoo.com) is a graduate of Boston University's Culinary Arts program and former proprietor of her own cooking school in Japan. She currently teaching cooking classes at Lucy's Kitchen, her cooking school in Richmond, California.