Monday, August 04, 2008
Nihon-koku: the food
Here I am with one of the most important aspects of every culture: the food.As in Italy and in many other countries, the food in Japan is not only something you eat to survive, but has a social and cultural meaning. This is expressed in two main aspects: the efford and the skill to prepare the food, and the way it is consumed. Exactly as we are used to, also for them cooking needs preparation and skills, and is for certain aspect a real art. The art of cooking is particularly difficult because it involves several human senses, like smell, taste and view. As in other countries, also in Japan they try to satisfy all these senses.
Indeed, also the Japanese food was for me matter of prejudice, before leaving. I thought that they only eat raw fish and similar simple stuff. It is absolutely not true. They have a various and elaborated kitchen, that includes not only fish but also meat and vegetables, although meat is a sort of "new entry", because in the past was a really expensive good.
One aspect that I think is very important in japanese cuisine is the freshness of the food and the neatness of the kitchen area. This is often very visible, due to the fact that many dishes can be prepared directly on the table by the diners or the cooker is actually working in the main room of the restaurant, so everybody can see what he's doing and how. This is very useful also because facilitate very much the personal interactions among fellow diners and cooker. This also make it clear that eating is a social moment and may take quite a long period of time.
I had the feeling (but who's more expert then me can surely correct me) that fish is the simplest dish for them, is more like a "snack" or something you eat for a fast lunch or break. Fancy restaurants often serve meat.
Mainly, you can have nice meals composed with rice, or with various quality of noodles, that can be served dry or in a sort of buillon. Then there are fried dishes, the most famous one called tempura, that is a mixture of deep fried stuff, like fish, meat and vegetables. There is also an entire category of food cooked in the griddle, that usually have the suffix "yaki". Also, they have few dishes with a direct chinese origin, like the gyōza or the ramen (noodle soup, but made generally with chinese noodles instead of the japanese ones).
In general the composition of the meal is quite similar to what we have in Italy. There is a sort of main dish, based on rice or noodles (soba or udon), some soup ("brodo di cottura") and some side dishes, generally two or three, based on meat, fish, vegetables and tofu.
I'm describing some very general aspects, because it's really easy to write books about japanese cuisine! Also, every region has its specialities, and food habits can differ quite a lot from one place to the other.
Desserts are more rare and less elaborated then in our culture, maybe because they lacked of some ingredients (like chocolate....). Nevertheless, they managed to make some very nice sweet from what they have, mainly based on rice and sweet beans. Of course on this matter they have been quite open to the western experience, and now is very easy to find very nice french bakery or patisserie. Apparently they have been very fast and good learners, and they produce quite good products.
The cerimony of eating is different from ours, starting by the fact that they use always chopsticks and "normal" cutlery doesn't exist. In general, though, most of the etiquette rules are quite basic and don't differ to much from our habits. For example, it is common to do a toast before drinking and nobody should pour his own drink, but be ready to pour someone else drink when the glass in empty.
From social point of view, going out eating together is the easiest way to entratain a relation, and very often collegues go for dinner together and friends meet up at dinner time. Going eating out it is very common, probably more then what it is in our society, so it can happen to see people eating alone. For this reason, it is common to eat seating next to the cooking area, so it is possible to chat with the cooker or the barmen.
The eating aspect of the society was surely the one that made me feel more at home, and I really enjoy their wanderful menus!
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5 comments:
Bello! Vedo la foto del cogo! mi pare di aver letto in un romanzo giapponese ..qualcosa tipo "sukiyaki": è uno stile di cottura o un piatto particolare?
è un piatto, il mio piatto preferito!!! é una specie di bourguignon, in cui hai delle fettine di carne di vario tipo al fianco e in mezzo al tavolo un calderone con un sugo fatto a base di salsa di soya, sake e altri odori, e tu ci intingi la carne e/o la verdura e poi la passi nell'uovo crudo, prima di mangiarla. Molto molto buono!
comunque come si fa a dire che i giapponippi non hanno dolci quando hai passato le vacanze a mangiar gelato al the verde e ai fagioli?
Per non parlar delle palle di riso pressate (Mochi) con caramello o marmellata di fagioli...
le granite de gias e sciroppo le vè sagiade?
mz
"purtroppo" no...
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