PlanetAbroad

Find Your Destination

Home

Oct 14 2009

Japan Food Culture

Perhaps one part destiny and two parts luck; your resolve has finally brought you to the Japanese mainland. While marveling at the sights and inviting smiles of the locals, your appetite awakens prompting you to seek a meal. Or you unfortunately did not make it to Japan yet but still want to indulge in some Japanese culture. What will you eat? Where will you dine?

As chance and centuries of tradition yield, Japanese Food Culture embodies wonderment, zest, and sumptuous styled multiple-course meals.

During the Edo and Sakoku (locked country) eras (1600 – 1868), the character of Japanese cuisine reached consummate levels of sophistication. Through profound religious influences of Buddhism and the Shinto faith, meals are symbolic; featuring five distinct flavors and colors. The tastes of sweet, spicy, sour, salty, and bitter, and visions of red, green, yellow, black, and white, fuse skillfully into three main cooking styles – that of Honzen Ryori (Formal/Elaborate Banquet), Chakaiseki Ryori (Tea Ceremony), and Kaiseki Ryori (Artistic Presentation). A fourth style, Shojin Ryori (Vegetarian) developed by Buddhist monks, has come to include some non-vegetarian elements.

Typical Japanese cuisine couples the staple foods of gohan (white Japanese rice) and noodles, with soup, tsukemono (pickled vegetables), and an array of savory okazu (side dishes); with a standard meal being ichiju-sansai (one soup with three side dishes).

As an island nation, many dishes incorporate the abundance of various types of freshwater seafood including finned fish, shellfish, crab, roe, sea mammals, and seaweed. Cooking techniques may vary from raw (sashimi), to simmered, grilled, steamed, deep-fried, or dressed. Various green teas are ubiquitous to Japan and are sipped as the perfect after mealtime beverage.

Ambiance, presentation, and table etiquette all play prominent roles in Japanese cuisine. Together, each converges to define a particular harmony; pleasing to the palate, and enjoyed visually as a work of art. Arrangement, placement, color, the influence of the seasons, and choice of receptacles are all strategic. How one holds his bowl or chopsticks, partakes from a communal receptacle, or receives a tablemate’s kind gesture of keeping his cup full, create a relaxed and pleasing dining experience. As a grateful guest, you will impart itadakimasu “I humbly receive,” before consuming the meal, and gochisosama deshita “This was a feast,” in praise of the host, before leaving.

Experience the elite of Japanese Food Culture, while dining abroad in some of the world’s most favored Japanese restaurants.

Daidaiya Shinjukuten Restaurants of Tokyo