With the Summer Olympics shining an international spotlight on Japan, you might just be starting to make some far-off travel plans of your own. Sure, international travel isn’t a possibility right now, what with so many of us still in lockdown, but today you can delight your mind and your senses with this extract from Eat Japan by Lonely Planet Food — the complete companion to Japanese culinary culture. Read on …
Fusion
In a sense, all Japanese cuisine is ‘fusion cuisine’. Almost everything was imported at one time from neighbours China or Korea, or from South-east Asia, India, or even Europe and the US. Yet most has changed so profoundly as to be barely recognisable. Udon wheat noodles are a case in point. Wheat was imported from China via Korea as long ago as AD239, as were noodle-making techniques, but the Chinese don’t eat udon, and the Korean version ‘udong’ tastes markedly different. Ramen noodles came from China, but have been so thoroughly adopted by the Japanese that the word ‘ramen’ is as often written in the hiragana script, used for native Japanese words, as it is in katakana, the script reserved for words of foreign origin.
Katsudon (deep fried pork cutlets served on a bowl of rice) is one of Japan’s most common day-today ‘fusion’ dishes. The katsu part, the cutlet, was introduced from Europe in the 16th century, but it really became popular during the Meiji era when Japan reopened to the West, when it was served atop a donburi dish of boiled rice, accompanied with sliced negi (spring onion), a well-beaten egg and dashi. Pan (bread) is another borrowing from the Portuguese, and Japanese pan-ya (bakeries) stock unexpected sandwiches such as an-pan (bread stuffed with sweet red beans), kare-pan (bread containing curry) and the legendary ichigo-sando (a sandwich of strawberries and cream).
Yoshoku / Western Food
The Japanese adaptation of Western food, known as yōshoku, is not merely a side note to Japanese cuisine but an integral part. These dishes are as much a part of culinary culture in Japan as traditional dishes, such as soba noodles, tempura and sushi. Essentially, it is Western food that has been reinvented for the Japanese palate, and its origins date back to the Meiji period (1868–1912), when a century-long ban on eating meat was lifted and Japanese ports were opened. Travellers to Europe and the USA discovered different cuisines and adopted them back home. Yōshoku cuisine is typically found served at kissaten (casual chain diners), famiresu (family restaurants), some hotel restaurants and cafes.
KARE RAISU
Curry rice. Although curry originated in India, this dish was first brought to Japan by officers of the British Royal Navy in the late 1800s. It’s usually made with carrots, potatoes and onions with a blend of spices and includes meat or chicken. The curry is then poured over white rice for a simple, fast food.
OMU-RAISU
Taking its name from ‘omelette’ and ‘rice’, this comfort food dish is an omelette wrapped around fried rice and usually drizzled with tomato sauce. The rice is usually flavoured with beef stock and fried with meat.
HAMBAAGU
As you might’ve guessed from the name, this is a beef burger with a Japanese twist. The hambaagu is a patty made with minced beef, breadcrumbs, onion and egg, cooked in a frying pan. It’s not served in a bread bun with cheese, lettuce and tomato, but instead on a plate with rice, salad and a choice of sauce.
DORIA
This dish looks similar to a gratin. It’s a baked casserole topped with creamy white sauce, cheese and various other ingredients, including chicken or seafood. It was created in Japan by a Swiss chef in the 1930s.
The Social History of Curry Rice
It is the cheap and cheery, can’t-be-bothered-to-cook standby, a staple of winter school refectories, cut-price truckstops and shokudō (all-round, inexpensive restaurants). Kare-raisu (‘curry rice’) prepared in seconds by adding hot water to an instant sweet, spicy roux, with vegetables or beef, added to rice, is ubiquitous. It is the choice of flu-ridden children, and anyone in need of homely, junk-food sustenance. It is barely recognisable to visiting Indians or Pakistanis as ‘curry’ at all.
The first time Japanese citizens encountered curry is carefully documented, in the diaries of a late-19th century Japanese sailor. In 1863, British warships were pounding Kagoshima into submission in retaliation for the murder of British citizen Charles Richardson by the Satsuma-han clan near Yokohama. Thirty-four Satsuma military officials were dispatched to France to lobby Napoleon lll for support. They left aboard the French warship Monsieur, and later changed to a postal vessel, where they witnessed Indian passengers cooking up what they described as ‘aromatic mud’.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t catch on, until Japan opened to the West, during the Meiji period, when it was added to the local staple, to form rice-curry. Its first creator may have been the Indian-born maid of a British trader. Others credit its invention, in 1876, to none other than US educator, scientist and entrepreneur, William Smith Clark, founder of the forerunner to Hokkaido University.
By 1906, it was being advertised as the perfect addition to miso soup, or as an accompaniment to ‘Westernise’ seaweed. A decade later, the 95th edition of the popular women’s magazine Nyokan called it ‘curry rice’, and the name has stuck ever since. And in the 1930s, the modern, domestic curry rice industry was founded, aided and abetted by a new source of demand – the troops being shipped to fight wars in China. Over the next decade and a half it became used exclusively for military rations. After WWII, the instant curry rice, made by Hausu Shokuhin, became a nationwide success, and its popularity remains huge today.
—Eat Japan by Lonely Planet Food (Lonely Planet) is out now.
Eat Japan
The complete companion to Japanese culinary culture
Whether it's rubbing your chopsticks together, handing money to a sushi chef or setting your foot directly on the floor when removing your shoes, we'll tell you exactly what not to do to avoid looking like an ignorant tourist. Brush up on restaurant etiquette, local customs and what ingredients to expect in Lonely Planet's Eat Japan...
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