GwenMOores japanesefoodandculture

Japanese Food and Culture


The Island of Japan


The Meal (gohan)
•

Two Kinds of Food:

– ‘Staple’ and ‘Other dishes’
– Staple (gohan) is rice
– Other dishes (okazu) are fish, meat,
vegetables


Traditional Concept of Meal
•

Neutral flavor of rice considered complement to meal

•

Fill up on gohan, okazu stimulate appetite

•

Traditional meal has no Western counterpart

•

Sake = rice, so the two are not consumed simultaneously

•

Most basic meal: rice, soup, side dish


Courses of a typical Japanese meal
today


Side dishes with rice and with sake
•


The Table
•

Zen

– Traditional, personal table
– Box with tray, individual sets of bowls,
chopsticks, spoons
– 20-30 cm per side 15-20 cm high
– Cleaned 3x a month
– Location from kitchen indicated status
– Men > Women, Elderly > Junior

The Table
•

Chabudai

– Low dining table
– Adapted from Western dining tables
– 30 cm high
– More convenient than zen
●Fewer plates set
●Cleaner
– Indicative of culture change


The Table
•

Table and Chairs

– Today Western dining table and chairs are
adopted
– Began with farmers (to avoid mud on tatami
floor)
– Gradually spread in popularity
– As Japanese economy grew and democracy
expanded, expensive Western furniture was in
vogue


Zen and Chabudai

Chopsticks and Manners
•

Japanese differ from Chinese

•

Made of lacquered wood

•

Women and children have smaller chopsticks


Chopstick etiquette
•

Breaches of etiquette:

•

Clutched, Piercing, Scooping, Cramming, Licked, Crying, Racking,
Chewed, Dragging, Hesitating, Roving, Probing, etc.

•

No sharing of chopsticks!

– Spiritual contamination
•

Chopstick rest


Etiquette-As You Like It
•
•
•

Traditionally: alternate rice and side dish
Acceptable to hold bowl of rice/soup to eat
Sake served warm

However: Japanese table manners developed on the
premise of eating from tiny individualized tables
(zen), while using Japanese tableware for
Japanese cuisine consisting mainly of rice.
Today Japanese, Western, or Chinese-style utensils
may be used, foreign foods are part of the cuisine,
etc.
Traditional etiquette has not made the transition


SOUP
•

Soup

– Present at all meals (“one soup, one side
dish, and rice” for the minimum complete
meal)
– Two kinds:
• Sumashi-jiru—clear stock/salt broth
• Miso-shiru—miso dissolved into thick solution
Includes vegetables, meat, etc. to be eaten with
chopsticks
Broth is typically drunk from bowl, which is held in
the left hand (chopsticks right)


Umami aka “Deliciousness”
• Dashi—soup stock made chiefly from kelp but
also dried bonito, dried sardines, and shitake
mushrooms
• Acts as a multiplier and enhances flavor of other
foods
• Called the 5th taste (not present in Western
cuisine)
• Prof Ikeda Kiknae of Tokyo University isolated
umami and produced crystal form known as
monosodium glutamate (MSG) in 1908


Sashimi—Cuisine not cooked
•

Japanese philosophy: “Food should be enjoyed as close as possible
to natural state”

•

Sashimi—raw fish

•

Raw -> Grill -> Simmer, depending on freshness of fish

•

Prefer sea fish over freshwater because of the odor


Sushi—Fast Food
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

19th century popular snack food
Men majority of sushi chefs
Dip fish side in sauce
Pickled ginger between pieces to “extinguish taste”
Nigari-zushi—rice with raw fish on top
Maki-zushi—seaweed rolls
Inari-zushi—bean curd pouch w/ rice

Sushi


How to roll maki-zushi


Japanese Cuisine
•

Suyaki—beef

•

Fugu—puffer fish, delicacy

•

Tofu and Natto--soybeans

•

Tempura

•

Noodles

•

Pickles and Preserved Seafood

– Daikon


Dessert?
•

Mochi—rice cakes

•

Sugar historically rare

•

Green tea taken after meals to “quench thirst and change the mood”

•

Sweets taken with tea between meals

•

Dessert stems from Western influence


Sake v. Green Tea
• Sake wine and tea are opposites

• Sweet-tooth type or drinking type

• Ceramic cups, bowls, pots used for green tea
• Cups with handles used for coffee
• Milk and soda are served in glasses


Culture Change
•
•
•

•

Isolated for 2.5 centuries
This period is known as the Edo period
Allowed Japanese culture/cuisine
to distinctly develop

1958 Japan forced to trade with US, Britain, France, Netherlands,
and Russia
• Raw silk and tea
• Contact with Western culture  adoption of meat into cuisine


Western Influence
•

Meat—started with army, sick soldiers developed liking for beef, and
spread the Western custom throughout country (Sukiyaki)

– Pigs, chicken, horse meat cheap alternative
•

Milk—influence of Dutch

– Began for nursing mother, the young, the
weak
– “stinking of butter”


Western Influence
-As foreign foods are adopted, intake of rice decreases
-Though adopt foreign foods, still keep traditional principles
-Food modified for chopsticks
-Soy sauce replaces special sauces
-“reorder and reorganize” foreign
Japanese form

elements to fit