The food - Part 2

Mmmh, food. In our last food post (The food - Part 1), we stereotyped our way through Latin American cuisines. Since Japanese food is totally different from what we are used to (and so much more than sushi), we thought this would be worth a separate post as well.

Japanese culture (and with it Japanese cuisine) developed relatively independently for centuries, which is why people there eat things Judith & I didn't even know existed. But, except for some really strange stuff, we both rank it as one of the most tasty and certainly most healthy cuisines we know. I'm not aware of any country where food is considered that important (sorry, France), where the degree of freshness is that high, and where you find so few bad restaurants.

Being an island, seafood (literally) tops the table in Japan. It comes raw (as in the 'world food' sushi or sashimi), grilled, or fried (as in tempura). So far, so good. However, the sheer variety of seafood available is mind-boggling and beats everything you'd get in the West. For example, we ate sea urchin sushi (in retrospect, I'd consider this to be an example of the strange stuff), different types of seaweed, octopus, mussels, and shellfish*. In the world of sushi, o-toro (fatty belly tuna) is the best in that it literally melts in your mouth – in Europe, you would get o-toro only in a few upper-class sushi places. Unfortunately, bluefin tuna (your friendly supplier of o-toro) tastes so good that mankind (including me) has managed to eat up almost all of its global population. Fortunately, there is some of its cousin yellowfin tuna left, so we all can enjoy more sushi before we manage to let the yellowfins go extinct, too.

Seafood in Japan typically is accompanied by, of course, white rice and sour or savoury pickles on the side. Some of the pickles take some time to get used to, but generally, they go well with the rest of the dish. By German (not to mention American) standards, the servings are not particularly huge, but somehow the rice suffices to fill you up.

If you're on the go, the very handy bento boxes can be bought everywhere. They usually have some seafood, rice, pickles and some other, unidentifiable things inside – ideal for travellers like the one depicted on below.

There's more to Japanese food than rice and seafood, though. When going out to a pub-restaurant (izakaya) at night, food like yakitori (chicken (heart or liver or wing) skewers) is a perfect companion for the lovely Japanese beer like Sapporo & Suntory and sake.

On the more expensive side, Japanese wagyu beef is very delicious as it has a very high fat and therefore taste content**. Ayako, a friend of Jan-Hendrik, even had to take us to the same teppanyaki place (where the food is prepared at your table) in Tokyo twice because the wagyu was that good. The most famous region for raising wagyu is around Kobe, but actually almost all Japanese wagyu is excellent, so you can save on the Kobe-premium and order more of the stuff instead. 

Japanese are big fans of noodles. Udon, soba, and ramen (ramen actually are of Chinese origin) are a relatively quick, cheap, healthy, and tasty dish and saved Judith, me, and our wallets from starvation several times.  

You might be shocked to hear that tea is an integral part of Japanese culture & cuisine. Everywhere you go, you get served hot or cold green tea, often for free. On more special occasions, you can order matcha, a relatively thick green tea with a thin foam layer on top, or more exotic teas like bean tea (thanks again, Toshiki).

If you see what looks like ping-pong balls in Japanese sweets shops, don't be surprised. Mochi are rice-starch-based balls with a very strange texture, and come with different fillings like blueberry, chocolate, or matcha (see above). Lovely.

The are many more types of Japanese dishes which we have tried, but again, it's just not possible to list them all in great detail. Here's an excerpt of our list for the letter 'O':

• Okinawan food from the remote tropical islands belonging to Japan features fatty pork and bitter, strangely shaped cucumbers (see below).
• Okonomiyaki, Japanese pancakes, come with cabbage, egg, various sauces, and other ingredients and are often prepared in a teppanyaki-style right in front of you. Comes with noodles (Hiroshima style) or without (Kansai style).
• O-toro: eat until there's nothing left.

Shopping in a supermarket in Japan is great fun. People looked as us with amusement as we got out our camera and took pictures of the colourful shelves with the unknown food. The variety is great, and it seemed like again the produce there was really fresh. 

Oh, and in case you are wondering: Judith's favourite Japanese food is Mochi, and I still haven't made up my mind on whether to go for wagyu or grilled freshwater eel (unagi). As mentioned before, we are in Mongolia now, a country with a cuisine reputed to be as stellar as in Iceland. Quite a difference to Japan, but interesting nevertheless. We're leaving the civilised world tomorrow, so it might be several weeks until you hear from us again. Conversely, the progress of the internet seems unstoppable, so we might get back to you earlier than expected.  

___________________________________________________________________________
* Don't you think it's selfish to eat defenceless shellfish? Think about it.
** Why is fat content and taste so highly correlated? Why can't veggies be unhealthy instead? It's a tough life.