Difference between revisions of "Food"

Revision as of 18:56, 6 September 2016

Japanese cuisine is highly seasonal, with many dishes using ingredients only available at the right time. Modern technology has eased this burden, but it is still traditional to eat certain foods at certain times of year.

Special thanks to Kuniko Saito's player for contributing the Winter entry of this guide!

Autumn

Some in Japan call autumn the 'season for eating.' Coming off the heat of summer, there's a trend towards savory dishes that celebrate the bountiful harvest, and nice warm comfort food to eat as the weather turns colder.

Sanma (literal translation 'autumn knife fish'), or Pacific Saury, are sleekly silver fish that rise fat and juicy for fishermen in the fall, considered an iconic centerpiece of autumn cuisine. They are typically served whole (even as sushi!), and when cooked, sanma are seasoned with salt and grilled over a charcoal fire. The crispy skin is a much-beloved part of the experience, often garnished with soy sauce. In early September, Tokyo's Meguro district holds a festival where many thousands of charcoal-grilled sanma are given away for free tasting!

Satsumaimo, or Japanese sweet potatoes, are purple on the outside, bright yellow on the inside, and are drier in texture, but sweeter and creamier in taste, than yams. Traditionally, they are roasted whole, on hot stones outside (lending themselves well to the centerpiece of a scene where characters tend, then consume, their roasting sweet potatoes while raking leaves or otherwise enjoying the season; they are also sold, steaming hot, out of the open backs of minivans, by men who attract their customers by singing an iconic lamenting song). Satsumaimo are also popular fried, mashed, or boiled. The stereotypical consequence of overeating satsumaimo is a popular source of fart jokes among the young (and sometimes the old).

Kabocha are essentially Japanese pumpkins. On the outside they're green rather than orange, and on the inside they're somewhat sweeter than the Western squash, with a rich, butternut flavor. In the fall, they're made into soups, barbecued, battered and fried as tempura (alongside maple leaves, Momiji Tempura, an unusual autumn treat!), and, yes, even used in Western-style pies.

• The most classic comfort food preparation of kabocha, however, is as a filling for breaded and fried croquettes, locally called korokke -- kabocha (also, satsumaimo) korokke are an often-homemade autumn snack. Watch out for the hot oil when it pops! Independent of season, korokke made with regular potatoes, or sometimes with ground meat, are popular throughout the year, and are sold at delightfully hot temperatures for pocket change prices at the konbini.

Matsutake pine mushrooms are the most prominent of the fungi that, nurtured by summer's high humidity, pop up for harvesting in the fall. Impossible to cultivate, they're highly prized and very expensive, starting at a hundred thousand yen per pound for the premium grade, and occupy a similar position of honor in Japanese cuisine as truffles do to the French. To make a few matsutake mushrooms stretch a long way, they are popularly featured in a seafood broth soup called Matsutake Dobin Mushi, which is served in a clay teapot. When eaten whole, their delicate, smoky flavor is best preserved by grilling them on an open flame, and they are sometimes sprinkled over rice. Cheaper mushrooms are also popular in autumn, with hearty mushroom broth sometimes replacing the standard cup of miso soup served alongside a meal.

Kaki, or Japanese persimmons, are ubiquitous in the fall, a sweet and tangy fruit found ripening on trees all over the country. Making a day out of a kaki picking trip is a common weekend treat. Besides eating them straight off the tree, they are often served chilled, or dusted with sugar and dried (a treat called hoshigaki).

Kuri, also commonly called by their French name maron, are Japanese chestnuts (with a similar omnipresence to kaki, seen on trees everywhere, but an entirely different taste -- creamy, sweet and rich). They're usually sold uncooked so that they can be prepared at home, but you can get bags of roasted kuri at your supermarket or konbini for a good sidewalk snack. Roasting your own at the end of a trip to a kuri picking farm makes for a good finale to a September day!

• Shinmai, or "new rice," comprises the first harvests of rice in autumn. Shinmai is said to be moister, sweeter, and more beautiful than ordinary rice, and starting in late September one of the best ways to prepare it is with kuri boiled alongside rice in the pot, creating a hearty sticky rice dish (kuri-gohan) with a tiny dose of sweetness. Gingko nuts are also a popular shinmai topping, because of their subtle flavor, which allows the rice's unique qualities to shine through.
• Boxes of kuri-kinton, or candied chestnuts, are popular gifts for friends and family in autumn -- in this treat, kuri are steamed, mashed, combined with sugar, then twisted into a bun shape. The snack is popularly enjoyed with a cup of hot tea. Kuri are also used in many other Japanese sweets, including kuri-manju cakes.

Winter

The prototypical dish for winter cuisine in Japan is the hot pot, also known as nabemono. Ingredients are combined in a pot and boiled, forming a rich broth; it is typically shared, with individual diners plucking out their favored morsels, and the broth typically mixed with rice at the end and consumed as a final course. Eating nabemono with your friends would be an excellent reason for a social scene; gather together, stick your legs underneath the kotatsu, and enjoy the warmth of friendship and flavor.

Nabemono is very versatile. Indeed, the name can be translated as "cooking pot stuff." Here are some common styles of nabemono; all of them can be considered to have vegetables such as bok choy and daikon involved, as well as varieties of mushroom.

• Sukiyaki: Thinly sliced beef (sometimes pork) simmered with vegetables and a soy sauce/sugar/sweet rice wine sauce. Before eating, the hot ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw beaten egg. Common at year-end parties and suitable for all ages.
• Shabu-shabu: Thin sliced beef is boiled in water or broth and eaten with dipping sauces. This dish may be considered similar to the "fondue" style meals available in America. It is quite suitable for service with fine ingredients, particularly wagyu beef and other marks of conspicuous consumption.
• Yosenabe: A combination style of nabemono which combines all sorts of things and cooks them well together: meat, seafood, tofu, egg, and vegetables. A common "homestyle" meal, often with a thicker sauce than is typical for nabemono.
• Yudofu: Nabemono prepared in a kombu stock and featuring tofu as the primary protein, with citrus and spicy sauces. Socially considered as vegetarian, though small amounts of fish are typically involved.
• Chankonabe: A nabemono dish that is a common restaurant meal, it was originally a heavy dish eaten by sumo wrestlers to put on weight efficiently. Very high in protein, often with chicken, fish, beef and various vegetables, chankonabe is a good meal for growing young'ns when served in less heroic proportions.
• Ishikari-nabe: A Hokkaido specialty, this hot pot features salmon and potato as well as butter.

Oden is another characteristic winter dish, prepared in a manner similar to hot pot but made available as its own individual dish in many venues. Featuring boiled eggs, daikon, fishcakes and a soy/dashi broth, most convenience stores have a bubbling pot of oden to sell by the cup during the winter months.

Tori zosui is another winter favorite; a thick rice soup with chicken, often prepared with leftover rice and served with sliced scallions on top. It's an excellent and popular way to warm up after a bitterly cold day.

Winter Holidays

There are also some specifically traditional holiday dishes, associated with an individual day or days. Your character is likely to eat them, and may well help prepare them!

• Christmas Cake: These cakes are typically a simple sponge cake, frosted with whipped cream and decorated with strawberries plus a chocolate plate that says "Merry Christmas!" Something of a more structured strawberry shortcake. It is eaten on Christmas Eve, which is, in Japan, typically celebrated as a romantic holiday a la Western Valentine's Day, and is thus perhaps the hardest night of the year to get a table at a nice restaurant. Yule Log cakes are also popular.
• KFC: There is a tradition of obtaining Kentucky Fried Chicken meals as a Christmas dish, in part because turkey is an absolute unknown in Japan. A 1974 advertising campaign started a tradition, and now a bucket of KFC "Christmas Chicken" (with salad and a cake) is typical fare on Christmas, often ordered months in advance to beat the lines.
• Osechi ryori: An umbrella term for food prepared specially for the New Year's period, these dishes come in a huge range of ingredients that are meant to encourage good luck and fortune for the upcoming year. They are typically sweet, sour, dried or otherwise preserved, as they come from a time before refrigeration was common, and when many markets would be closed for some time. Traditionally, nothing should be cooked on New Year's Day, so the preparation of osechi is finished before New Year's Eve. Osechi ryori is arguably the most important meal of the year, with each dish serving as a symbol or wish for the coming year. The food is even eaten in a special way by using chopsticks that are rounded on both ends; one side for the humans to use, one side for the gods. There are so many varieties that space would prohibit easy discussion. A more detailed discussion is present at Wikipedia including a plan for a three-tiered "jubako" box.
• Toshikoshi soba: This is eaten at night on New Year's Eve. A simple meal with buckwheat soba with toppings such as seaweed, fried tofu, or vegetables. The long noodles are said to symbolize a long life, their consumption representing "crossing over from one year to the next," the meaning of toshi-koshi. Another theory is that it is very simple to make - a relief after preparing several days' worth of osechi for the upcoming celebrations! It is often considered bad luck to leave any of your toshikoshi soba uneaten.
• O-zoni: A soup eaten during on the morning of New Year's Day, considered very lucky, featuring local ingredients and lots of mochi. While many areas have their own specialties, the typical Kanto-area meal uses a soy sauce/dashi broth, squared and grilled mochi, and meat and vegetables to preference.
• Nanakusu gayu: Eaten on January 7th, this is a collection of seven wild edible herbs eaten with rice in order to ease the stomach after all of the things listed above, which have been eaten over the course of several weeks.

For more information, please see: Holidays and Events, Culture