Japanese foods-- Shun no mono

torakris · April 22, 2003

Shun no mono (seasonal foods) for haru (spring)

what are some Jpanese foods that remind you of spring?

smallworld · April 23, 2003

Bamboo shoots, of course. And fuki (butterbur), rapini, asparagus, and anything flavoured with kinome (young leaves of sansho).

I also love all the 'new' veggies, like new cabbage, new carrots, new potatoes (always thought of new potatoes as a summer thing though) etc.

torakris · April 23, 2003

I definitely think takenoko (bamboo shoots) are the most popular and really signify spring here.

Then there are the sansai ( mountain vegetables):

taranome: angelica tree shoots

urui: hosta shoots

fukinoto: unopened buds of butterbur (fuki)

kogomi: fiddleheads

warabi: bracken

koshiabura: not sure of the English name

udo: not sure of English name

then there are the "spring" fish:

Tai (sea bream)

sawara (Spanish mackeral)

and we can't forget the soramame (fava beans)

and very soon we will be smelling the roasting of the new green tea leaves! :biggrin:

Edited April 23, 2003 by torakris (log)

torakris · March 22, 2004

it is that time of the year again...... :biggrin:

helenjp · March 22, 2004

Definitely seeing more sansai in supermarkets this year...especially tara-no-me. I recall when getting a gift of fiddleheads involved rubbing them in ashes and what not!

Shungiku -- the garden-grown ones I got from the shoe-shop owner the other day were tiny little shoots, not the big commercial leaves. We had some with pumpkin in harumaki (spring rolls).

How about hamaguri and asari - clams?

And strawberries -- once Valentine's Day is past, the house-grown ones start coming right down in price. I've never eaten as many strawberries as I do in Japan.

I always think of this as a good time for imports, as the new season crops are not abundant yet -- cheapest time of year to buy grapefruit!

torakris · March 22, 2004

Definitely seeing more sansai in supermarkets this year...especially tara-no-me. I recall when getting a gift of fiddleheads involved rubbing them in ashes and what not!

Me too! They started appearing close to a month ago and most of them I ahd never seen in the supermarkets before.

Norio · March 23, 2004

I'm pretty oblivious to the whole kisetsu thing. Uhhh... does harumaki count?

smallworld · March 23, 2004

I'm pretty oblivious to the whole kisetsu thing. Uhhh... does harumaki count?

Nope!

But really, Norio, the seasonal foods are what I love most about Japanese cusine. This is a great season to learn to appreciate shun-no-mono- the supermarkets are full of 'new' vegetables and all sorts of spring delights. Read this thread first, and then head out to your local supa and check it out for yourself.

meguroman · March 23, 2004

And strawberries -- once Valentine's Day is past, the house-grown ones start coming right down in price. I've never eaten as many strawberries as I do in Japan.

Oh, the strawberries! For White Day, I did bouquets of 1/2 dozen strawberries dipped in melted Valhronna chocolate, (now being carried at National Azabu), for the members of the gentler sex in my office. I was never a fan of hot-house strawberries until I tasted what is produced here. Unbelievably sweet, with glistening droplets of juice slowly travelling down the dark coating of chocolate...oh yeah.

MM

torakris · March 23, 2004

The strawberries here really are incredible, the absolute best way to eat them is to take a trip to a strawberry farm and pick them yourself and eat them right there, the warmth makes them seem incredibly juicy and I doubt I have ever tasted any better.

We take the kids to ichigo-gari "strawberry picking" at least once a year, near the end of the season the price drops to about 1000 to 1500yen per adult for 30 minutes of tabehoudai "all you can eat".

smallworld · March 24, 2004

That's strange, I really think the strawberries here pale in comparison to the ones back home (southern Ontario).

Sure they're sweet, or at least the super-expensive ones are, but they tend to lack actual strawberry flavour and tartness. (I feel the same way about many Japanese fruits that have counterparts back in Canada- the peaches, apples, strawberries etc all have their characteristic flavours bred out of them and are merely sweet.)

Also, they aren't very juicy. I guess they are bred for firmness so they don't spoil easily during shipping.

I would much rather have a handful of Ontario strawberries, just picked and still hot from the July sun, than a bowl of properly chilled perfectly-shaped Japanese strawberries.

gus_tatory · March 24, 2004

The strawberries here really are incredible, the absolute best way to eat them is to take a trip to a strawberry farm and pick them yourself...

so interesting that, literally, halfway around the world from you, in Nova Scotia, there are also huge spring strawberry pickings (well, more like June :smile: ...)

are there varieties of wild garlic/onions, mushrooms, or asparagus found in Japan in the spring?

MiguelCardoso · March 24, 2004

Great thread - thanks!

I'm just chiming in to say I wish other food cultures were as conscious of the seasons as the Japanese. Here in Portugal, the first fruits and vegetables of the year are highly prized and rushed to the greengrocers (at exorbitant prices) but, unfortunately, the ubiquity of imports and the growing dominance of greenhouse-grown produce is blinding the younger generations to the natural cycles of the year.

I'm ashamed to say I deeply rely on my faithful itamae, Master Yoshitake at the superb Aya 2 restaurant in Lisbon, to tell me what's appropriate for every week, although he shuns novelty-for-novelty's-sake. "Too expensive is just as bad as rotten" he says (making a samurai gesture of violent rejection) and indeed what's best is always cheapest and most plentiful in the markets. Spring is very exciting, especially after the cold, cold Winter we had.

Only last week I gave in and bought a kilo of brand-new garden peas and (after eating a significant portion raw, while shelling them) boiled them very briefly and had them with butter, "fleur du sel", pepper and two sprigs of mint.

Yet I still believe the Japanese have, of all people, the right attitude. Everyone else is more or less lost and, even in the short-term, doomed to be "out of time", as in the old Chris Farley song.

Thanks again, torakris (and all contributors) for this most inspiring and appetite-provoking thread.

*cue Rodgers and Hart's "Spring is Here"*

helenjp · March 24, 2004

are there varieties of wild garlic/onions, mushrooms, or asparagus found in Japan in the spring?

Spring mushrooms??? Not that I know of, but wild garlic, yes, yes, yes! It's called "hermit's garlic", and is ironically prolific even in quite built-up areas. Asparagus...not native to Japan, but many other kinds of shoots.

Sadly, this is the first year that I have not been able to find wild yomogi (a kind of artemisia) shoots for making green dumplings filled with bean jam. Ever since my children were tiny, we have made them every spring, but year by year, the wild areas have decreased. The new pork-barrel provincial road that will fell a 400-year cherry blossom tree in a month or two, has encouraged housing on the last of the wild yomogi plots.

But, even if you have to buy wild food in supermarkets nowadays, I fully appreciate the way Japan worships the vegetable world!

You have a good itamae there!

what's best is always cheapest and most plentiful

itch22 · March 26, 2004

That's strange, I really think the strawberries here pale in comparison to the ones back home (southern Ontario).

:biggrin: You tell'em!

According to some cookbooks I've read, originally Japanese strawberries were small and bitter, but western (Ontario?) strawberry plants were imported and planted in Japan.

smallworld · March 30, 2004

That's strange, I really think the strawberries here pale in comparison to the ones back home (southern Ontario).
You tell'em!
According to some cookbooks I've read, originally Japanese strawberries were small and bitter, but western (Ontario?) strawberry plants were imported and planted in Japan.

Probably not Ontario! That just happens to be where I'm from, I don't think we're particularly famous for our strawberries.

But that's interesting about western strawberries being brought to Japan. Actually, we do have wild strawberries where I'm from, and they are not nearly as nice as the farmed ones- tiny and sour.

(But that never stopped me from hunting them down anyway...)

I wonder where those big sweet berries were originally developed?

Hiroyuki · May 19, 2004

anything flavoured with kinome (young leaves of sansho).

In Niigata and other prefectures including Yamagata, the word "kinome" 木の芽 refers to young leaves of akebi, not those of sansho.

Young leaves of akebi:

http://www.sansaiya.com/sansai/akebi.html

Sansho:

http://www.ja-aizu.jp/foods/sansho/

Years ago, I talked about kinome with my father, who was born in Shinshu (Nagano). I said, "Have you ever eaten kinome?" He said bluntly, "What are talking about? You can't eat them!"

I later learned that the kinome grown in snowy regions have less aku (harshness) and are good to eat. In Shinshu, they have snow in winter, but not as much as we have here in Shiozawa.

gus_tatory · May 19, 2004

is the Japanese harumaki (spring roll) usually served uncooked, like the Vietnamese ones, or cooked?

what would harumaki typically contain?

thanks in advance. :smile:

torakris · May 19, 2004

is the Japanese harumaki (spring roll) usually served uncooked, like the Vietnamese ones, or cooked?
what would harumaki typically contain?
thanks in advance.

Though harumaki are eaten in Japan it is not actually a Japanese food.

If it is jsut called harumaki it is the Chinese version as is deep fried, a typical version will contain some or most of the following: pork, some kind of cabbage, shiitake, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, scallions, carrots, peppers, etc. These are all cooked together before being rolled up in the thin skins.

if it is nama harumaki it is the raw Vietnamese version, these have become popular in Japan in recent years and can be filled with some of the following: pork, shrimp, chicken, sashimi style fish, harusame, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, nira (garlic chives), bean sprouts, various herbs including the Japanese shiso.

Hiroyuki · June 12, 2004

I guess many of you living in Japan have heard of Naeba 苗場, famous for its ski resort. For those living in this region, however, Naeba is famous for its bamboo shoots. In fact, the name of one of the mountains there is Takenoko Yama (Mt. Bamboo). An acquiantance gave me some of the bamboo shoots she collected from that mountain.

These are of the type called hime-take (princess bamboo) or nemagari-take (root-bending bamboo), not a much larger type called mousou-chiku.

What do I do with them? I just grill them without removing their skins, and when they are done, I remove the skins, and eat them with mayo. I love them. :wub:

I grilled them and ate them with mayo and ponzu. Yum! The edible part is probably only 1/3 to 1/5 of each shoot, though. :sad:

Edited June 12, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

torakris · June 13, 2004

Hiroyuki,

Those look incredible!

are those the same as the ones you often see sold water packed in the supermarket?

I am sure they taste completely different fresh.

Do you know how many types of bamboo shoots there are? anything else besides those long thin ones (hime-take) and the regular fat ones?

I have been to Naeba twice for skiing (if you can actually call what I do skiing... :shock: ), I am going to have to go in the spring time next time....

Hiroyuki · June 13, 2004

are those the same as the ones you often see sold water packed in the supermarket?

Yes, they are. But I can't comment on how good fresh ones are because I've never bought packed ones before; I just can't bring myself to buy them. I can only say I was totally amazed when I first tasted them here in Shiozawa.

And I don't know exactly how many types.

This site says there are about 600 types:

http://ww3.tiki.ne.jp/~kondou/take/take.htm

But this one says there are about 70:

http://www.o-e-c.net/syokuzai/takenoko.htm#syurui

This site provides some photos of shoots of several kinds:

http://www.minc.ne.jp/~hotei/takenoko.html

The first photo shows kanzanchiku カンザンチク (寒山竹 in Kanji), which is said to taste better than mousouchiku.

This one says that the three most useful bamboos are mouchouchiku, madake, and hachiku.

http://www.sase.jp/migita/kusaki/4winter/1ta.htm

But I have to admit that I have never seen any of them sold at stores (except mousouchiku and himetake, of course).

Naeba is about forty minutes or so from my condo by car, but I've never been there for skiing, because there are other ski resorts in my town.