Japanese cuisine

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Japanese cuisine - 日本 料理
Japanese breakfast.JPG
Above: Ordinary Japanese breakfast with rice, fish, miso soup , tsukemono - pickled vegetables, nori , tofu , fish and raw egg (from top left in the IP ).
Breakfast Japan.jpg
Below: Upscale Japanese breakfast in a ryokan .

The staple food in Japanese cuisine ( Japanese 和 食 washoku 日本 料理 nihon ryōri ) is Japanese rice z. B. Koshihikari , which is the basis of almost every meal in Japan . The side dishes are called okazu ( Japanese お 数 ). In the Japanese language , the rice plant is called ine ( 稲 or 禾 ) and the uncooked rice is called kome ( 米 ). The cooked rice is called han , ii or meshi ( 飯 ), which also means meal . - Usually one says gohan ( ご 飯 ), the honorary prefix go forms a unit with the word han , so that this combination can be seen as a fixed idiom. Small children say manma ( ま ん ま ) or older people say mama ( ま ま ).

Because Japan is an archipelago , fish and seafood play an important role in the diet. During the American occupation after World War II , bread was introduced as food.

Japanese cuisine bears some resemblance to the cuisine of other East Asian countries; the most significant difference is the much more economical use of oil and spices. Rather, the natural taste of the fresh products should be preserved as clearly as possible.

The foods used in Japanese cuisine and the way they are prepared are often viewed as additional reasons for the strikingly high life expectancy of the Japanese population. In December 2013, UNESCO declared Japanese cuisine an intangible world cultural heritage . This great honor was previously only bestowed on French cuisine .

General

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Since the Edo period (1603–1868), the Japanese have eaten three to five meals a day: rice has been grown in Japan for around 2000 years, and the short-grain form has always been preferred. It is a highly prestigious food and has national symbol status . Imported rice is considered to be inferior to domestic rice. Today rice is the most important food for the entire population, but it used to be supplemented by millet and sweet potatoes ( katemeshi ) and was not an everyday food for the simple rural population, but a feast.

Most soups consist mainly of three basic ingredients, dried tuna (Maguro) or dried bonito ( Katsuobushi ), edible seaweed ( Kombu ) and shiitake mushrooms. This is used to prepare clear soups with an insert, which are called suimono . There are also soups made from miso , a paste made from soy , of which there are different types, sweet and salty. Miso soups often contain vegetables or tofu . Noodle soups based on ramen , soba and udon are also very popular .

Pickled vegetables ( tsukemono ), which used to be eaten mainly during winter, play an important role . The most common pickles are Chinese cabbage , cucumbers , aubergines and beets (e.g. daikon ), as well as green, unripe ume - "plums", not in vinegar but in brine, miso or rice broth. The green ume are pickled as a delicacy and are called umeboshi . They are considered an appetizer and are often eaten for breakfast.

The basis of a full meal - i.e. not a snack - is always rice today . For example, grilled fish or fried pork are served. Fish and seafood are very common in Japan, and fresh fish is best eaten raw. Since the Edo period, raw fish has been prepared as sashimi with a sauce and wasabi . Often it is a simple soy sauce, in restaurants it is refined with sake . Sushi was originally a method of preservation ; raw fish was salted and packed in fermented rice. Rice has been eaten since around 1400 AD. Today, edible seaweed is often used as a shell , especially nori . The current form of sushi has been known since the Edo period.

As a drink, green tea in its various variants can be served with almost all dishes . Sake is considered the equivalent of rice and is not consumed with rice-based dishes. Beer has been brewed in Japan for about 150 years. Together with the beer-like “Happo-shu” and other beer varieties, a market share of well over 50% of alcoholic beverages is achieved. Imported beer does not play a major role. Wine has established itself as a drink in the last few decades; its share of consumption is in the low single-digit percentage range. Wine is grown on a very small scale in Japan, the majority of which is imported.

Cooking or Japanese cuisine is also a theme in Japanese pop culture. In the 2012 published Gourmet - Manga or Anime Shokugeki no Soma is the protagonist in an academy for cooking with food and cooking in Japan apart.

Meat consumption

General

In Japan, eating meat has been largely taboo since the Asuka period . The official bans were based on the rules of Buddhism , which was declared the state religion in 552 after power struggles between different families. In 675, the ruler Temmu explicitly forbade the consumption of cattle, horses, dogs, monkeys and chickens. Game, fish and whales , which were considered fish, were not mentioned.

The meat bans were repeated several times in the following centuries, in 721 by Empress Genshō , in 725 and 736 by Shōmu , who forbade the slaughter of cattle and horses, again in 752 by Kōken , another three times by Kammu between 781 and 806, then again in 1127 Sutoku and 1188 by Gotoba .

Judging from the written sources from Japan, the food taboos meant that, apart from whale meat and fish, hardly any meat was eaten for around 1000 years. Cattle were only used as draft animals for rice cultivation, and the milk was not drunk either. " Lack of meat and dairy products in the Japanese diet produced an aversion to oily tastes, so that even vegetable oil was not commonly used for cooking. “(Eng: The lack of meat and dairy products in the Japanese diet led to such an aversion to the taste of fat that not even vegetable oil was usually used in cooking.)

The common claim that before the 19th century, almost no meat was eaten in Japan is refuted , among other things, by archaeological finds from the Edo period . Trash pits have been excavated in and outside of what is now Tokyo , containing large numbers of animal bones from this period, including those of wild boars, bears, horses, monkeys, and dogs. Small animals such as foxes and otters have also been found occasionally . The animals came from different regions of Japan and were apparently sold in markets.

It is relatively well known that the consumption of some types of meat for “medicinal purposes” was common in Japan even before the Edo period; they were sold in special stores. The strictest prohibitions on the killing of animals date from the period after 1680. Uchiyama Junzo assumes that meat was not eaten again until the Edo period, but that the prohibitions were not strictly observed before. This is evidenced by a cookbook from the period between 1624 and 1644 with recipes for red deer, wild boar, bear, otter and hare. During this period, the consumption of whale meat also increased.

" The aversion to meat-eating may have applied not so much to meat in general as to certain types of meat. (...) The real change in eating habits (...) may have been not so much the introduction of meat-eating in general but beef-eating in particular. “(German: The aversion to meat consumption was less likely to apply to meat in general than to individual types of meat. (…) The real change in eating habits (in the 19th century, add.) Was possibly less the introduction of meat consumption in general, but the introduction of beef consumption .)

Due to Portuguese influence, baked fish ( tempura ) became popular after 1700 . With the increasing opening of Japan to Western influences from around 1850, the official attitude to meat consumption also changed, and the first slaughterhouses were set up in the 1860s . In 1873 the emperor approved the consumption of beef . As a result, sukiyaki based on braised beef was created as a new dish . Pork didn't become popular until the 1930s.

Whale meat

Different types of whale meat in the Takashimaya department store in Osaka .

Whale meat has long been an important source of protein in Japanese cuisine. Targeted whaling did not begin until the 16th century, but injured or stranded whales were caught and eaten long before that. Harpoons have been used for whaling since the end of the 16th century and nets from around 1675. During the Edo period , numerous recipes for whale meat were published and a special cookbook was published, in which almost all parts of the whale appear. Not only the meat, but also the innards, the fat and the oil were used. "The whale meat is prepared as sashimi , boiled, fried, grilled, deep-fried, as soup, smoked and dried."

Whale meat has been a common dish since the Edo period. After the Second World War ( Pacific War ) until the mid-1960s, this meat was the most important source of protein for the Japanese and ensured an adequate supply for the population. In 1964 the share of meat consumption was 23 percent. Until the mid-1970s, whale was an integral part of school meals . Whale meat therefore has some significance as a national symbol.

Few Japanese people now want to eat whale meat. Since 1987 whaling has officially only been pursued for scientific reasons, but the meat is freely traded. As a result of the sharp drop in demand, around 4,000 tonnes were frozen in the warehouses in 2005. Statistically, the Japanese eat only 40 grams of whale meat per capita every year, although prices have fallen sharply. There are advertising campaigns to encourage consumption, such as free school deliveries and leaflets. The Hana no mai fast food chain offered hamburgers with whale meat, but without much success. It is now also being made into dog food to reduce inventory. The reasons given for the declining popularity of whale meat are its taste and the rather dry consistency, and it reminds older Japanese of the time of need after the war .

Bentō

Ekiben as it was sold at Asahikawa Railway Station in 2008

The Japanese term Bentō describes a meal made up of different components, served in a special small box, historically made of lacquered wood or modern plastic or metal . Today, some “bento boxes” also have an insulating warming function - comparable to a Dewar flask . Usually rice, pickled vegetables, cooked vegetables and fish or meat are served in separate compartments. This container came into use in the Edo period (1603–1868) and was intended to make it easier to take a meal with you, which would then be consumed during the break in a kabuki performance. It was the Japanese shape of a lunch box . In Osaka , the simple boxes were developed into the artful serving method known today, in which the meal is not intended to be taken away. The name for this is shokado bentō ( 松花 堂 弁 当 ). A kind of picnic meal is called hoka-ben ( ホ カ 弁 , kana ほ か べ ん ), from the Japanese name hokahoka-bentō ( ホ カ ホ カ 弁 当 , also ほ か ほ か 弁 当 English hot bento ).

Very simple food containers for traveling by train appeared in the Meiji period (1868–1912); they are called eki-ben - "Station Bentō ". Simple meals that are sold in such boxes at train stations are still called that.

Regional specialities

dishes

Yakitori

Pasta

fish and seafood

various

Fast food on offer in a supermarket
  • Dashi 出 汁 , fish stock made primarily from seaweed
  • Gobō ご ぼ う , also Gonbō ご ん ぼ or 牛蒡 , burdock root (Arctium lappa), vegetable similar to black salsify
  • Kabosu カ ボ ス , a green citrus fruit
  • Kombu 昆布 , seaweed
  • Konnyaku こ ん に ゃ く , 蒟 蒻 or 菎 蒻 , jelly-like food made from the konjac root ( Amorphophallus konjac , Syn . : A. rivieri )
  • Miso 味噌 , paste made from fermented soy
  • Mioga 茗 荷 , Mioga ginger bud ( Zingiber mioga )
  • Panko パ ン 粉 , bread flakes for breading
  • Komesu 米 酢 , rice vinegar
  • Fu 麩 , vegetarian food (dough) made from wheat gluten; see seitan
  • Goma abura ご ま 油 or 胡 麻油 , sesame oil
  • Shiitake 椎 茸 , edible mushroom
  • Shungiku 春菊 or シ ュ ン ギ ク , leaves of the lettuce chrysanthemum
  • Soba 蕎麦 , buckwheat
  • Sudachi す だ ち or 酢 橘 , small, yellow Japanese citrus fruit ( Citrus sudachi )
  • Suimono 吸 い 物 , clear broth with various deposits
  • Tofu 豆腐 , "soy bean cheese"
  • Udo う ど or 独 活 , a Japanese vegetable
  • Umeboshi 梅干 , salty pickled fruit of the Japanese apricot ( Prunus mume )
  • Wagyū - beef 和 牛 , a special breed of cattle in Japan for particularly exquisite meat, see Kobe beef , Matsusaka beef, or the like.
  • Wakegi わ け ぎ or 分 葱 , a bulbous plant ( Allium × wakegi )
  • Yuba 湯 葉 , dried skin that forms on heated soybean milk
  • Yuzu ゆ ず or 柚 , Japanese citrus fruit (Citrus × junos)

Side dishes, sweets ( okashi ), desserts and omiyage

Seasoning ingredients

beverages

The most important drinks in Japan are tea and sake . Tea was first imported from China around 800 AD in the form of pressed tea bricks. Drinking tea was initially reserved for the nobility. It did not gain greater popularity until around 1200 when powdered green tea appeared. At this time, the Japanese tea ceremony developed . Today, green tea is the main drink in Japan, although black tea temporarily became fashionable in the 1920s.

Sake, like rice, has an important symbolic meaning in Japan. The drink is offered to deities on the house altars and public shrines, and it seals the marriage ceremony at a traditional Shinto wedding ceremony. There are special glasses and serving vessels for sake and a special drinking label. Meanwhile, are beer and whiskey very popular.

Types of Japanese restaurants

literature

alphabetically ascending

Web links

Commons : Japanese Cuisine  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Japanese food prolongs life aerzteblatt.de, March 24, 2016
  2. ↑ Hannah Janz: Japanese cuisine as a world cultural heritage. In: www.japandigest.de. September 8, 2016, accessed August 4, 2020 .
  3. ↑ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2007/04/13/food/what-the-japanese-are-drinking/#.WY30dbakI1I
  4. ^ A b The Cambridge World History of Food, Article Japan
  5. ↑ a b c d History of the traditional Diet: Japanese and the Whale
  6. ↑ a b c d Uchiyama Junzo: San'chei-cho and Meat-eating in Buddhist Edo ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ; PDF ; 218 kB). In: www.nanzan-u.ac.jp, accessed October 14, 2019. (English)
  7. ↑ Article Traditional Japanese Cuisine in the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
  8. ↑ a b Michael Baumgartner: Whaling in Japan in a comparative perspective ( pdf ). Term paper for the advanced seminar Klaus Vollmer (Japanologist) .
  9. ↑ ARD contribution: whale meat for Japanese dogs (tagesschau.de archive)
  10. ↑ Japan promotes whale meat burgers (2006)
  11. ↑ Term "ホ カ 弁 - hokaben". In: www.tangorin.com. Retrieved March 3, 2020 (English, Japanese).
  12. ↑ Term “ホ カ ホ カ 弁 / ほ か ほ か 弁 当 - hokahoka bento”. In: www.tangorin.com. Retrieved March 3, 2020 (English, Japanese).