Tag - the-way-of-washoku

 
Menu
Search
 
April 29, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

THE WAY OF WASHOKU

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.
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.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 22, 2001
Gently add mom's miso, while stirring in humility
Last week while the kami-san was ringing up a customer's bill, I happened to glance down at the scrawled notepad where she keeps track of a table's order — a list of all the food and drink consumed.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 15, 2001
A journey back to old 'new Japanese cuisine'
This week I saw a program on television that showcased shin-washoku, or "new Japanese cuisine," as the latest restaurant trend. The show visited several eateries where the chef/owners had gone abroad, mostly to America, to work in Japanese restaurants and since come back to Japan with a new twist on their native cuisine. Interestingly, what really makes these new places stand out from their traditional Japanese restaurant competitors is not the food. Sure, there are an avocado or two thrown into the mix for color, but the real difference is in the presentation, the service and the price.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 8, 2001
The buckwheat starts here
Some of the most enjoyable, satisfying and memorable meals I have had in Japan involve soba (buckwheat). I can still smell the broth of a hot bowl of kake soba I had the winter after the Olympics in Nagano.
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE WAY OF WASHOKU
Jul 1, 2001
I love you, I knead you
Lounging in a cool tatami room with a gentle breeze carrying the billows of mosquito incense and dreaming of downing several plates of freshly handmade udon noodles, one could easily waste away the sixth and seventh moons of summer. The Japanese east of Nagoya have their soba (buckwheat noodles), but those of us in western Japan enjoy nothing better than our plump, energy-giving udon (and the udon variation from Nagoya, kishi-men).
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Ukraine is far from doomed
When comparing Ukraine’s military situation in 2024 to Europe’s in 1941, Russia’s defeat seems entirely possible.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

A young restaurant leads the way in Karuizawa
A young restaurant leads the way in Karuizawa

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER