Slow Food in Japan

[helenjp]

A couple of times I've trolled around for information on the Slow Food movement in Japan. I used to find mostly European dishes, but now there are almost too many groups out there cooking up traditional Japanese food.

Here's one of the best -- this link takes you right to their database of traditional Yamagata foods. In Japanese -- sorry about that, because some of it looks great!

[helenjp]

Well, gobble my gumboots, I'm sure I haven't got that right...

http://www.slowfood-yamagata.jp/

hit the button at left which says "Katei-ryouri DB" to get to the recipe search page

[torakris]

I have noticed slow food restaurants popping up all over Tokyo, they do tend to be European in focus, it is nice to see some traditional Japanese foods too.

Thanks for the link.

[Hiroyuki]

I know what slow food is, but I've always wondered if it is something to fight for.

I guess we usually eat slow food, except when we actually eat fast food.

I'd rather go for simple food, and I have to take the cost of food into consideration. Slow food is OK, but doesn't interest me very much, expecially if it is costly.

[helenjp]

I think there seem to be two streams of "slow food" thinking in Japan at present -- the "plenty of time, plenty of money" market which is always targeted by purveyors of fine foods, whatever catchphrase they are using, and those who think that slow food or slow living are a guideline rather than a socioeconomic grouping. As Hiroyuki says, slow food is how we always eat...but I think it's with an extra commitment to local, seasonal food.

Interesting definition on this blog site:

Watch out - it's all in Japanese!

His "three principles" are - ingredients or dishes grown or prepared locally; good quality ingredients or dishes; and manufactured or prepared according to traditional methods

スローフードの３原則

　　1. 　地元でつくられた食材や料理であること。

　　2. 　質のよい食材や料理であること。

　　3. 　その土地の伝統の方法で製造されたり、調理されていること。

A couple of new books (in Japanese) which seem to concentrate more on preparation of ordinary Japanese food, and less on Italian food or local rarities:

本物を伝える　 日本のスローフード

金丸　弘美

http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4...2869974-9762706

スローライフ、スローフード

「食」から考える明日のライフスタイル

大谷ゆみこ　編

http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4...2869974-9762706

And back to my original interest in regional cooking as Japan's slow food -- a few recipes in rather surprising English from Hokkaido. Hokkaido being what it is, these recipes do not deal with "wajin" food and techniques that have been around since Izanami and Izanagi, but instead show local ingredients and powerful influences on local history.

http://www1.tcue.ac.jp/home1/english/stude...s22/a2/dosanko/

I plan to hunt around for some local recipes in English for other areas of Japan, heaading south from Hokkaido, and will post as I encounter interesting items.

[torakris]

Great articles Helen!

I am looking forward to more of the recipes you find!!

[Hiroyuki]

As Hiroyuki says, slow food is how we always eat...but I think it's with an extra commitment to local, seasonal food.

You are absolutely right. I'm all for slow food. It's just that I don't want to pay extra money for what is touted as slow food. The commitment you mentioned is really compatible with jisan jisho, or local production for local consumption, which I consider fantastic.

[helenjp]

Getting back to business...

I dropped by my in-laws' today, and found that my mother in law had proudly made us dinner. She didn't serve any Yamagata dishes, which require a lot of chopping that she is no longer up to, but I borrowed her book, published 20 years ago by the "Life Improvement Action Group" in Yamagata.

Leafing through it, I find a recipe for rice cakes (but really more dumplings, as these are not dried or grilled) made from glutinous rice and wheat steamed together, pounded, and dipped in kinako (toasted soybean flour). This is traditionally eaten around now, when all the rice seedlings have been transplanted into the flooded paddies. Eat to the accompaniment of the "Sanaburi-mochi" song!

We've just missed the first showing of the "kukina" - a kind of purple/white-flowered rape. My mother-in-law was quite at a loss to describe it - "It's just...kukina!" - a good witness to its pervasiveness. In Spring, the unopened budding stems are eaten as a green, much like nanohana. One recipe mixes tender-crisp boiled kukina buds with shredded carrot and squashed soybeans, which have been briefly fried in sesame oil, then simmered in soy sauce and sugar, and allowed to cool before the greens are added. Later in the year, kukina goes into miso soup - here prepared by an elementary school class, and is pickled for use in the winter.

In the autumn, after harvest, neighbors used to gather, each bringing a little of their crops, to party and drink imo-ni soup. Sometimes this is like buta-jiru, and sometimes it has small taro potatoes, shreds of beef, mushrooms of many kinds, and long onion or negi, and is seasoned with soy sauce and sugar.

Here's another description.

Later in the winter, the barrels of pickled vegetables and the salted, dried, and smoked fish and squid are used at almost every meal. When you finally get sick of pickled greens, you can simmer them till tender, drain, toss in a handful of squashed soybeans, re-season with soy sauce and sugar, and serve up for a change of pace.

About those squashed soybeans...Steamed (or at a pinch, boiled) soybeans are hit with a wooden mallet, one by one, to flatten, but not pulverize them. These are then dried and stored for use in soups and stews. This area of Japan is known for heavy snows, and the people who live there know to Be Prepared. They use the dried vegetables used in rural cooking throughout Japan, and they also dry things like mitsuba, that nobody else would even consider using dried!

I have found what looks like a wonderful resource for regional food and cooking in Japan - Rural Net. That is, if I wanted to pay 24,000 yen per year to access their files...

[Hiroyuki]

Squashed soybeans!! They must be uchi-mame 打ち豆 right? I live them. Niigata people use them, too.

Edit: not live them but love them.

Edited May 15, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[matsutakekichigai]

About those squashed soybeans...

Are the squashed soybeans called Petanko mame? What color are they? There is a black squashed soybean eaten in Miyagi Ken close to the Yamagata boarder. They dry fry the mame until it pops. It's very good.

[helenjp]

Squashed soybeans, yes, uchimame.

Color...Definitely black soybeans are used as well as the ordinary kind in Yamagata, so the ones you describe from Miyagi should be the same. Sometimes they are fried a little and added to dishes, sometimes popped as you describe and eaten as a snack. Haven't had them that way myself...and haven't heard the term petanko mame, but it sounds exactly right!

[torakris]

Here is a picture of one kind of uchi-mame, these are green ones, I have seen them in a couple different colors.....

matsutakekichigai, welcome to the Japan Forum! and I love your screen name!

Helen,

your posts here are fabulous!

[Hiroyuki]

She didn't serve any Yamagata dishes, which require a lot of chopping that she is no longer up to,

I guess that one of the dishes she serves is dashi, which really requires a lot of chopping.

http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/cookingabc/c...704a/index2.htm

[helenjp]

Oddly enough, she's never made dashi when I've been there - maybe because my father in law dislikes most vegetables with a strong taste - myouga, for a start, most mountain vegetables, and most raw veg too!

"Dashi", not the soup stock type, is a kind of chopped mixed salad, very refreshing in summer, and a great time-saver for farm wives in their busiest season.

The recipe I have calls for a couple of eggplants to be sliced and soaked in water while cucumbers, myouga, shiso leaves, and fresh ginger are diced fairly finely. Then the eggplant is squeezed dry, chopped, and added to the salad, which is seasoned with katsuo flakes and soy sauce. You can add quite a range of other vegetables too, but the Big Four are basic to the dish.

[Hiroyuki]

And here is a photo of the regular type of uchi-mame.

[matsutakekichigai]

Here is a picture of one kind of uchi-mame, these are green ones, I have seen them in a couple different colors.....

Sorry I wasn't able to see your photo but I was able to see the photo Hiroyuki displayed. Thank you. I'd forgotten about uchimame. Petanko mame are not actually squashed. They are a rounder in shape and a flat soybean that's not physically squashed. Petanko are a great source of protein as all soybeans. I've been told they are used as an otsumame and a snack in the Shibata area of Miyagi Ken, to get more specific the Kawasaki area. They are addictive. Smile. I would liken them to potato chips if you had a good Yamagata sake or a good tea to wash them down. Wish I could take a photo, sorry I'm computer disabled and I've eaten all the beans!

[Hiroyuki]

Sorry I wasn't able to see your photo but I was able to see the photo Hiroyuki displayed. Thank you. I'd forgotten about uchimame. Petanko mame are not actually squashed. They are a rounder in shape and a flat soybean that's not physically squashed. Petanko are a great source of protein as all soybeans. I've been told they are used as an otsumame and a snack in the Shibata area of Miyagi Ken, to get more specific the Kawasaki area.  They are addictive. Smile. I would liken them to potato chips if you had a good Yamagata sake or a good tea to wash them down. Wish I could take a photo, sorry I'm computer disabled and I've eaten all the beans!

I think that you can solve many of your technical problems with your computer by reading this thread and other ones in the eGulette Site Tips and Techniques:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=35075

[helenjp]

Noticed the other day that there are several volumes on regional dishes in the well-known Oishinbo comics published by Shougakkan

The volume I saw, on Shikoku, was around #82, so I expect others in the series will have similar volume numbers.

The Japanese in these manga is moderately difficult.

Hiroyuki, perhaps you could comment on Tohoku cooking on the Japan Sea coast - what little I know is from the north-eastern areas of the Tohoku region.

I will get started on a new region soon...very soon...

[Hiroyuki]

Hiroyuki, perhaps you could comment on Tohoku cooking on the Japan Sea coast

?? Tohoku cooking?

You mean Akita and Yamagata? I know little about their regional foods. All I can think of are

Akita:

Kiritanpo きりたんぽ

Inaniwa udon 稲庭うどん (I used to like it, but now I'm a huge fan of sanuki udon.)

Tonburi (also known as hatake no (field) caviar!) とんぶり

Yamagata:

Tama konnyaku 玉こんにゃく

Imo ni 芋煮

Dashi だし

What more specific information do you need? I know little, but I can search!!

EDIT:

And shio natto from Yamagata, which I learned from the Natto thread this morning

Edited June 13, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[Hiroyuki]

The commitment you mentioned is really compatible with jisan jisho, or local production for local consumption, which I consider fantastic.

←

Sorry, I made a silly mistake. Not jisan jisho but chisan chisho.