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July 28, 2024
 

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THE WAY OF WASHOKU

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Apr 7, 2002
Savoring sweet memories of fallen blossoms
The magnificent cherry blossoms came and went much earlier than usual this year in many parts of Japan. Spring-term opening ceremonies at elementary schools across the country will be without their usual bloom. Here on the mountainside east of Osaka, however, many trees are still at their peak and this...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 31, 2002
Fancy a bowl of baby eels?
...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 24, 2002
What squids shine in yonder bay
Squid, octopus and cuttlefish belong to a large group of marine invertebrates called cephalopods. The word means foot-headed, and it is an appropriate name for these creatures because their tentacle feet sprout from above their eyes and brain. They are found all over, and sometimes in the stomachs of...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 17, 2002
In search of the hidden children of bamboo
While I was growing up, bamboo shoots were an exotic vegetable that came from a can bearing foreign characters — foreign to my American eyes, that is. Despite the slight preservative and tin-can flavor, the tender shoots remained one of the delicacies that deepened my interest in the cuisine of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Mar 3, 2002
A simple, elegant mix to celebrate girl power
I first encountered the Hina Matsuri (Girls' Day, or Doll Festival) as a youngster in Washington, D.C., when my father and I attended an event hosted by future Prime Minister Yoshio Mori at the then new Japanese Embassy. As we entered the grand foyer of the modern concrete building, we saw a stadium...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Feb 24, 2002
Sansai-gayu : a porridge found further afield
There is perhaps nothing more rewarding for a chef than to get out into the field and secure the best ingredients possible: vegetables, dry goods, fish and seasonings. The early spring is especially exciting because the season for foraging wild plants officially begins.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Feb 17, 2002
Mmmm . . . tastes like crab
In virtually every cuisine on the planet, there are attempts to dress food up and make it look like something it isn't. Whether it's a classical Chinese cook carving vegetables to make them look like a phoenix, or a French chef twisting his bread dough to resemble a lobster, food often appears in costume....
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Feb 10, 2002
Taste of a new season springs eternal in nanohana
There are several children's songs that herald the coming of spring by declaring that the nanohana has blossomed. Brilliant yellow fields of these first flowers of warm weather dot the countryside, and nanohana — young shoots of the aburana — are one of the first vegetables to appear on the...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Feb 3, 2002
Are you ready to roll with the change on 'setsubun no hi'?
Today is arguably one of the strangest holidays to be observed in Japan: setsubun no hi, the turning of the seasons. Parents around the country strap on plastic ogre-masks and hop around the house while their young children pelt them with dried beans, yelling, "Demons out, good luck in." Beans are scattered...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jan 27, 2002
Harnessing the preservative power of the sun
Culinary standards are often determined by prosperity. In Japan's past, food was not always as abundant as it is now. In lean harvest years, there was no rice to import from foreign nations and no cheap vegetable stocks to rely on when the local crop failed. Polished white rice was scarce among peasants...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jan 20, 2002
It's not just tsukemono — it's a responsibility
Pickling is one of the oldest methods of preserving the flavor and nutrients of fresh vegetables. In Japan, pickles (tsukemono) are classified by the main ingredient, the pickling medium and the length of pickling. Most pickles are vegetables but sometimes meats and fish are used. The pickling medium...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jan 13, 2002
Daikon breathes life into dead of winter
The current watchwords for trends in Western cooking are fresh and local. The chef's ideal is to use ingredients harvested as close as possible to the site where they will be transformed into a meal. While modern greenhouse-farming techniques have certainly extended the growing season of many vegetables,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jan 6, 2002
Starting at the root of Japanese cooking
A samurai party — pungent as daikon radish their conversation! — Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 30, 2001
This will be the last slurp of the rest of your year
Even if preparing other Japanese New Year's dishes seems beyond your ability, you can't go wrong with toshikoshi ("year-crossing") soba, the noodles eaten just before midnight on o-misoka, New Year's Eve.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 23, 2001
Kazu no ko — an eggcellent winter delicacy
Salted herring roe, kazu no ko, has been a staple of northern climate native fishing populations for as long as man has been casting a net into the ocean. Tribal groups in Alaska, aboriginal Scandinavians and the indigenous groups of Northern Japan have long considered this preserved food a delicacy,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 16, 2001
Tazukuri: an acquired taste worth acquiring
The o-sechi foods of the New Year exemplify traditional Japanese cuisine, utilizing the fruits of the mountains and the bounty of the ocean to celebrate all of the gifts that nature provides. Nowhere is this land-and-sea pairing more evident than in the classic sanshu-zakana triumvirate of black beans...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 9, 2001
Black beans for a fruitful new year
I have cooked dried beans in the past — lots and lots of dried beans — but have never taken as much care as I now do when I prepare kuromame, the elegant sweetened black beans eaten during o-shogatsu, the New Year celebration. The first year I was allowed to watch (for the first several years...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Dec 2, 2001
Gearing up for the New Year
During the busy season, it is not uncommon for a chef to set up a cot in the backroom and take his or her precious few hours of sleep right in the restaurant. In many hotels, it is common policy as well to give rooms to the chefs when there are less than eight-hour turnarounds between clocking out and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 25, 2001
A hodgepodge that really hits the spot
It's a cold evening and the salarymen are stopping off on their home from a long day of work at open-air stalls to down a cup or two of warm sake and a few pieces of oden — slowly simmered daikon, hard-boiled eggs and tofu, among other things.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Nov 18, 2001
Kawatare : a fleeting taste of twilight
What's in a name? Often, for a restaurant, a lot rides on the naming of dishes. There is a science — and a whole consulting industry — devoted to food-item names and their placement on menus. Cooks everywhere, even before it became a science, have labored to find names suitable for their...
Japan's population continues to fall even as foreign resident count rises
The number of residents in Tokyo as of Jan. 1 rose by 0.03% from a year before, data shows, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time in three years, while the country's other 46 prefectures saw their populations continue to decline.
Ahead of the Olympics, Japan is still talking about the gymnast who won't be there
Japan's Shoko Miyata withdrew from the gymnastics team herself over her drinking and smoking, although it had already appeared as though the association was prepared to send her home from the team’s training camp in Monaco.
Yen melt-up nudges Japanese stocks into correction territory
Japanese stocks are down 10% from their July peak as the yen strengthens.
‘Crazy’ yen rally is at risk of shattering as soon as Wednesday
Some investors are warning that a yen rally is fragile, as was on show this week when the yen rapidly retraced an advance after Thursday’s stronger-than-expected U.S. economic growth figures.
Japan's average life expectancy rises for first time in three years
A decline in COVID-19-caused deaths likely helped boost the average life expectancy for Japanese men and women to rise for the first time in three years in 2023.
The Japanese Olympians looking to shine in Paris
Rim Nakamura, who is attempting to win Japan's first Olympic gold medal in cycling, will be one of the top Japanese athletes to watch at the Paris Games.
Japan’s minimum wage set for record ¥50 hike in major boost
Demonstrators rally to demand a big hike in minimum wages in Tokyo last week.
Japan loses top spot on strongest passport list to Singapore
Japan had the strongest passport for six years running from 2018, before being dethroned by Singapore on the 2024 list.
Why Japan's mysterious stash of classified funds escapes scrutiny
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (right) during a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan eyes gold — and the future — as Olympic men's soccer campaign begins
Japan midfielder Yu Hirakawa controls the ball during a match against the United States in Kansas City, Kansas, on June 11.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals
By Alex K.T. Martin

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