ごちそうさま - Eating Well

ごちそうさま - Eating Well

Signs advertising shirasu, tiny fish famous in Kamakura

Today I would like to discuss a topic that is near and dear to my heart...food culture. It`s well known among my friends and family--and heck, probably anyone that I`ve had a substantial conversation with--I absolutely LOVE food. I love cooking, I love eating, I love talking about food, and I love talking about food WHILE eating food...It`s a subject that I never tire of!

So naturally, it makes sense that I would hold interest in Japan`s food culture. When I came back in August, I brought with me a desire to taste and learn. Not only did I hope to sample a wide variety of Japanese cuisine, but also to try my own hand at preparing a variety of dishes. Part of the requirements for my visa is some sort of cultural learning. For this reason, American interns are expected to select an aspect of Japanese culture to study. Naturally, I had selected food. In order to fulfill this requirement, I enrolled in private cooking lessons with Nancy, the intern from Taiwan. Through that experience I have learned how to prepare a wide range of foods, from keema curry, naan and cakes made in a rice cooker, to sesame dumplings and biscotti.  

Grilled food available for purchase at a festival--
the Japanese equivalent of county fair food

Variety in food isn`t limited to home-cooked fare. Tokyo offers a vast assortment of cuisines and eateries: Indian curry, Italian pasta,  kebabs, burgers and waffles...Chinese, Malaysian, Thai...all-you-can-eat pizza buffets, crepes stuffed with fruit and ice cream, croissants and soup dumplings...You could practically eat your way around the world in this city. One of Tokyo`s taglines is that its restaurants have more Michelin stars than Paris. While those sort of ranking systems shouldn`t necessarily be used to determine whether one city is better than the other, it certainly carries an indication of widespread quality.

A chocolate-almond cake
we baked at one of my cooking classes

Not only is a lot of the food delicious, there are usually healthy options available (okay, maybe not at the ramen shop or bakery, but still...). Train stations are often connected to department stores with delis, bakeries and restaurants, and you can hardly go a block without hitting a 7-11, Family Mart, or one of the other convenience store chains. Convenience stores offer plenty of unhealthy options: cookies, candy, corn dogs, instant noodles, chips, beer, sugary drinks...but you can also get fresh veggies, edamame, yogurts, onigiri (rice balls), low cal. jellies, green tea, etc. Usually the portions are on the reasonable side, and everything has a calorie count. Compare that with some of the gas stations I`ve been to in America (cinnamon rolls the size of a child`s head, XXXL soda cups, foot long hot dogs and doughnuts). Now I`m not saying that all Japanese food is healthy--ramen, while delicious, is horrible for you. Many foods, like tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet), ebi fry (breaded shrimp), menchi katsu (breaded minced meat), and kaarage (fried chicken), are fried. And of course, there`s plenty of pastries, ice cream, and burgers to go around! White bread is almost as much as a staple as rice (seriously, I never ate this much bread in the US!), and kids and teens still love their Mickey D`s. 

Some homemade osechi ryouri (special New Year`s food)

Just like in the US, home cooking is quite different from eating out. Let it be known that I have only lived with one host family so far, and cannot make any sort of widespread judgement of what all Japanese people eat at home. Let me instead give you a view into what I`ve experienced. 

My day typically starts with breakfast around 8:20 AM, before I head to work at 8:45. I usually prepare and eat it by myself (my older sister has already headed to her job as an occupational therapist, and everyone else is just getting up or is already conducting their daily business). Typically I make toast with peanut butter or jelly (I`m lucky to have a host mom that regularly bakes her own bread), which I may eat with yogurt or fruit. Finally, wash it all down with a big cup of green tea (there is always hot water in a big tabletop dispenser). All in all, this is hardly any different than what I ate back in the States! No cereal or oatmeal, but I am quite satisfied by the options I have here. Sometimes my host mom is around and she will offer to make me miso soup, which I gladly accept. 

My friend and co-worker Nancy showing off
the cute obento her host mom made for her

Lunch is also a pretty laid back meal. Sometimes I swing by the nearby convenience store and grab a salmon onigiri (rice ball) and an instant soup, or I may get a wrap or sandwich at a take-out joint. Occasionally I eat at a restaurant with a co-worker. There are a lot of great spots nearby. So far I`ve had Malaysian, Korean, Indian, Turkish and Italian. Kindly, my host mom will sometimes make me an obento, or lunchbox, filled with a variety of goodies.

I really enjoy coming home to eat dinner everyday with the rest of my host family. My host mom, a wonderful chef, typically prepares the meal. If I were to summarize her cooking style...I would say, healthy, varied, and flavorful. In the past, my host mom was very interested in macrobiotic cooking (a diet based on the balancing principles of ying and yang, with an emphasis of whole foods, grains, veggies, soy, and fermented items like miso. Added sugars and animal products are discouraged). Indeed, six years ago, when I stayed with them, both my host parents were pescatarians. Now they`ve relaxed their diets, and consume other animal products, as well as sweets. Nevertheless, balance remains key influence in how they eat. 

A matcha parfait in Kyoto--yum!

They have some meal practices which I plan on bringing back to me in the States. A fresh veggie salad is always served (as well as daikon roshi, grated fresh daikon radish--full of enzymes, as my host dad always says). They usually eat food on multiple small plates, instead of one big one (smaller plates=you are inclined to take less food, therefore, eat less). After the meal we drink green tea, and maybe have a dessert. The dessert might be something like a few pastries, or some chocolate. Instead of each of us eating a whole pastry, however, we slice it up-and share it between us. What a smart way to satisfy a sweet craving without overdoing it! I`m not sure how well this will work when I live alone though...

While I`m afraid this blog post has no thesis statement, nothing really to prove or conclude upon, I think I can satisfactorily say that Japan is filled with many foods and cuisines that you should certainly try if you have the chance! While I have nothing against American-style Japanese restaurants (heck, putting avocado into maki sushi is a bit of delicious genius!), I recommend holding off too many judgments or generalizations of Japan`s food culture until you`ve had a chance to check it out at the source. It`s a scrumptious adventure waiting to happen!