Rick Lapointe - The Japan Times

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Dec 2, 2001

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 clocking back in. I have worked in these hotels; I have slept in such restaurants.

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 latest creations.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Nov 11, 2001

The days of eating dangerously

Whatever caused the first guy to figure out how to eat a blowfish and live — an attempt to impress a girl or perhaps a wealthy patron — we may never know, but we can be grateful that he did.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Nov 4, 2001

When everyone gets in on the act

The father of a good friend told me a story about coming to Japan for the first time in the mid-'80s to attend a large conference. On their last day in Tokyo, he and several colleagues decided to splurge at a traditional fine-dining restaurant and experience true Japanese fare.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Oct 28, 2001

We're talking real tofu

It is said that one of the key differences between the East and the West is the way things are perceived and subsequently named. Without denying the importance of appearances in the West, in Japan, the way that something looks is often more important than what it actually comprises — and this is often reflected in its name.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Oct 21, 2001

The satisifying taste of less is more

At its finest hour, the Japanese food served at the old inns and tea houses of Kyoto is so elegant and delicate that it almost becomes homeopathic. Like the doctor who follows the homeopathic principle — the less medicine prescribed, the better the results — chefs in the well-worn kitchens of the old imperial city use as little seasoning as possible to achieve results unmatched by the common stalls and stand-up eateries.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Oct 14, 2001

Fresh every day of the week

Last year, well-known New York chef Anthony Bourdain published "Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly," a scathing yet passionate book on the inner workings of a professional restaurant kitchen. In the tome he tells tales and anecdotes drawn from the personal lives and kitchen habits of New York's chefs and cooks.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Oct 7, 2001

Salted mackerel will reel 'em in every time

Probably the biggest challenge I faced as a young apprentice in a traditional Japanese restaurant was cooking two meals a day — lunch and dinner — for the 60-year-old chef and his wife. The challenge was twofold: I had to make something that would please the finicky palate of a man who had eaten hardcore good food everyday since he left junior high to become a cook and do the whole thing on a budget that would make a housewife cringe.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Sep 30, 2001

Holy mackerel! That's quite a fish!

Above the counter of the small kappo-style restaurant where I apprenticed hung a small scroll inscribed with a seasonal poem that was changed at the beginning of every month. In October, the simple verse read, "Aki no saba, Wakasa umare, Kyo sodachi. (The autumn mackerel, born in Wakasa, raised in Kyoto)." This short phrase was a reminder of the life of the food we prepare — its season, its origins, its destination.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Sep 23, 2001

A new kama meshi treat every season

Kama meshi is rice (meshi) cooked in individual little pots (kama) and often served table side directly from the cooking vessel. Seen since the late 1800s in Tokyo, this dish appears as a popular train station bento boxed lunch. The home-style version, takikomi gohan, is often prepared in an electric rice cooker for similar results. Whether you cook this delightful dish on the stove, in an electric cooker or over a flame in a traditional kama, you will certainly bring to the table a clear message of the changing seasons.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Sep 16, 2001

Help heal the spirit with comfort food

After watching live the two towers of the World Trade Center come down — the blessing and the curse of modern technology and communications — and spending a very sleepless night filling my head with the horrific images of the aftermath, I slipped away to the otherworldliness of a quiet Zen temple in Hyogo Prefecture.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Sep 9, 2001

Grater expectations

Oroshigane, traditional Japanese graters, come in all shapes and sizes. From orosu (to grate or cut) and kane (metal or metal tool), this kitchen essential was originally made exclusively of copper or steel. Now stainless steel, aluminum and plastic predominate, but one can still find graters made of copper (or tinned copper) as well as ceramic, bamboo and even wood. A small, specialty grater made of sharkskin stretched over a wooden paddle is used in top-end restaurants and by sushi chefs to finely grate fresh wasabi root.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Sep 2, 2001

Kitchen tools that you can trust

In kitchens around the world, there are dozens of gadgets cluttering the walls and drawers, not to mention the precious counter space. Some people simply must have the latest lemon-juicer to add to their collection of 12, while others are on a never-ending quest for the perfect garlic press.

COMMUNITY

Sep 2, 2001

Reflections on Buddhist soul food

I have always believed cooking is more religion than art. We expect our artists to entertain us and elicit emotion. What we ask most of all of our chefs and our spiritual leaders, however, is that they soothe us.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Aug 26, 2001

Cuts above appliance-aided cuisine

During my first days of apprenticeship in a traditional Japanese restaurant, I was surprised by the noticeable lack of electrical outlets on the walls of the small Osaka kappo eatery. This scarcity soon proved not to be a problem given the dearth of small electric appliances that dominate professional kitchens in the West. In fact there was not a single electric appliance, save the refrigerator. No Cuisinart, no Braun mixer, no Buffalo chopper, no Robocoup mixer . . .

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Aug 19, 2001

May we live long on beans and rice

On the first of every month, I get out the glutinous rice and soak the adzuki beans. Though New Year's Day is the only first of the month that is a formal holiday, thus mandating the celebratory sekihan (red beans and rice), there is a certain pleasure to welcoming each one with this favorite dish and having customers ask what the special occasion is.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Aug 12, 2001

Kakigori: a close shave doused in sweet syrup

This week my local shrine, Ishikiri Jinja (a destination for pilgrims seeking the healing of various unwanted growths), hosted its annual fireworks-filled summer festival. The pilgrim road was lined for several kilometers with stalls selling the usual summer-fair wares and, of course, the traditional seasonal foods and sweets.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Aug 5, 2001

The king of mushrooms rules in fall

During these soggiest dog days of high summer it seems as if fall is a dream that might never come. But as the fresh foods that appear on the market shelves remind us, the seasons roll on, and soon we will enjoy the crisp fall air and colorful maple and ginkgo trees. The first sign of impending autumn, the noble matsutake (called mattake in some parts of Japan) mushroom, returned to greengrocers this past week, and other fruits of fall will soon follow.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU

Jul 29, 2001

Hit the sweet spot with eel on the grill

Hunting up and down side-street stalls during the annual Gion Festival, I was looking for one thing. Okonomiyaki pancakes, griddle-fried yakisoba noodles and even little charred yakitori chicken skewers are fine for your average summer festival, but wasting your time on such trivialities at this Kyoto event would be a shame. What I was looking for, smelling for, was the delicate emperor of all things grilled, the rich city cousin of the unagi eel, the pike conger, hamo.

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