Washoku, Japanese citrus and yuzu-cha (yuzu 'tea')

I’m catching up on a few things! First of all, I have a new article in a special Japan Times supplement. It tries to answer the question, “What is washoku?”, or traditional Japanese cuisine. Back in December (previously) washoku was designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and this is more about the subject.

Also (and I am a bit late posting this…) from this month my regular Japan Times column will have a recipe with the article. First up is an article about the different kinds of winter citrus fruit that you can get in Japan, plus a recipe for yuzu marmalade. Marmalade made with yuzu fruit is truly outstanding - so fragrant, with just a right amount of bitterness - so I hope you’ll give it a try!

If you want to do something even simpler, try making yuzu-cha or yuzu tea. All you do is to freeze some roughly cut up yuzu, then add it to a sterilized jar. Add half its weight (or as much as you like) in sugar, and leave it somewhere where you will see it every day. You should use granulated or castor sugar (superfine sugar). The yuzu is frozen to break down its structure so that it releases more juice and oils, but you can just it fresh if you like.

Give it a good shake at least 2-3 times a day until the sugar has melted. You can use the whole fruit, as shown in the photo below (the container on the left), or use the peel only and the juice for something else. Store the jar in the refrigerator once the sugar has melted.

The yuzu-cha is added to hot water or tea to make a sweet ‘tea’, which is really refreshing. Try a tablespoon or so in a mug with boiling water.

You can use honey instead of sugar, but I think in this case sugar works best since it doesn’t interfere with the yuzu fragrance. (The jar on the right has kumquats in syrup. If there is interest I’ll post that almost-not-a-recipe too.)

An even easier way to enjoy yuzu year-round (especially if you are trying to stay away from sugar…) is to peel off the yellow part or the zest thinly, and to just freeze it. You can julienne or chop it up if you like before freezing, or cut it up as you like when you use it. It adds that wonderful yuzu fragrance to soups and vegetable side dishes, to grilled or simmered fish, or anything you like. A bit of the peel floated on a cup of hot tea is really nice. We can get very expensive fresh yuzu here in France…it costs the earth, but I buy a few just because that fragrance is so irresistable.

And finally: just for people who have been kind enough to send me words of encouragement — I just have two more seeks to go of this latest round of radiation therapy. It is making me kind of sick again but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully by spring I’ll be out and about again!

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Washoku (traditional Japanese cuisine) designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

(Photo credit: The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan)

Yesterday, UNESCO put washoku or traditional Japanese cuisine on ther list of Intangible Cultural Heritage Of Humanity. The details are here. It’s only the second national cuisine to be put on this list, after French cuisine in 2010, but it’s by no means the only food-related one to be there, not even the only one for 2013 (more on that later).

This has been in the news in Japan for some time, and it is regarded as quite a big deal there. There has been a lot of concern amongst some purists that washoku is slowly being eclipsed by the popularity of food imported from elsewhere, especially the west. And, I have to say this about my countrymen: Japanese people just love it when they as a collective or a Japanese person gets official recognition overseas. To be a bit sarcastic, it’s like one has not really and truly ‘made it’ until they get some kind of award from a non-Japanese entity. It’s a bit weird.

In any case, as someone who is deeply interested in the history and sociology of food, I think that recognizing food as a crucial part of our heritage is a great idea. Food is as noble a cultural heritage as dance or art or crafts, is it not? And I don’t understand the snark and negativity that I have seen around it either, both about the designation of French cuisine when it happened and Japanese cuisine now. Food gets little respect amongst some people, I tell you.

However, I’m not too sure what that Intangible Cultural Heritage designation does. Does it help to boost tourism? I don’t know, and haven’t really been able to find out, if it did anything for French cuisine in any way. Don’t people travel to France for the cuisine anyway, and to Japan too? It is a hook to hang some promotions on.

Or, maybe it’s most important in raising awareness of the value of the cuisine within the country itself. In Japan as in many other developed nations, many people are increasingly going for convenient pre-processed foods and taking shortcuts. At the same time there’s also an interest in going back to natural ingredients and traditional ways of doing things anyway. Perhaps this UNESCO recognition will boost such efforts.

This is the video that presented the case of washoku to UNESCO. (They seriously need to get another narrator the next time…but the video itself is nice.)

As I mentioned above, Japanese cuisine is not the only food and drink related tradition to be recognized this year. Here are the other ones:

Also, if you want to know exactly what an Intangible Cultural Heritage is, there’s a definition here on the UNESCO site. I think this is the part that is most important:

The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing States as for developed ones.

If you want to learn some of the basics of washoku and you missed my Japanese Cooking 101: The Fundamentals of Washoku a few months ago, just start here and follow the links at the bottom.

And last by not least, English Cookpad is showing a link to a washoku recipe on the site in Advent-calendar style until December 25th. I have a little essay on the page where I talk a little bit about how Japanese expats feel about the ‘cuisine from home’. I hope you enjoy it. ^_^

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Announcing Japanese Cooking 101: The Fundamentals of Washoku

The response to Bento 101, my introductory course to the basics of bento lunch making, has been overwhelmingly positive. So I’ve decided to follow it up with another structured online course titled Japanese Cooking 101: The Fundamentals of Washoku. We’ll be conducting it here on Just Hungry since it’s about general cooking methodology rather than specific to bentos.

As you may already know, the cooking that goes on in Japan is roughly divided into 4 cuisine types: Washoku, yohshoku (or yoshoku), chuuka, and everything else. The first three, washoku (which means “Japanese food”), yohshoku (meaning “western food” see a description of yohshoku) and chuuka (Chinese food) comprise most of what Japanese people cook for themselves every day. And of these washoku, which comprises what’s considered traditional Japanese food, is the most important to learn if you want to master Japanese cooking, since it forms the foundation for everything else that goes on in the Japanese kitchen.

In this course you’ll about the fundamental building blocks of washoku and Japanese cooking. After completion you should be able to tackle Japanese recipes with a lot more understanding and ease. It may even help you to recognize the difference between good and not-so-good Japanese food when you eat out.

During this 5 part course, we’ll be making 5 dishes: rice, soup, and three okazu - the foods that go with rice. Each dish will teach you specific skills and flavor combinations that are used all the time in Japanese cooking. And as a bonus, at the end you’ll have a “full course” Japanese meal that you can serve proudly to anyone, even your Japanese friends, with the knowledge that it’s pretty authentic.

Nope. Just like Bento 101, it will be free.

Because I want to teach you what “real, authentic” Japanese food should taste like, you will be required to purchase some ingredients that are fundamental to the cuisine. While I usually offer ideas for substitutions and so on in my recipes, for this course we won’t be doing that. This does require you to make an initial investment in some foods that may be rather expensive or hard to get, depending on where you live. If that is an issue for budgetary or other reasons, then this course may not be for you. Unlike Bento 101, the focus of Japanese Cooking 101 will be entirely on cooking and cooking techniques. You should take this course only if you’re seriously interested in Japanese food, and in cooking in general. You should know your way around the kitchen. You don’t have to be an expert, but you should know how to wield a kitchen knife, cook something simple on the stove, and so on. However, I am going to assume that participants have no prior knowledge of how to cook Japanese food. I’ll be explaining what each ingredient is, and how it’s used, in detail. So it may be a bit too basic and tedious for people who have been making Japanese food for a while. You’ll need access to a computer or some way of getting online of course. If you want to share your results visually, you should have a camera or camera phone etc. The meal we’ll be creating will contain meat and fish products, so it may not suit you if you’re a vegetarian, although you may find some techniques useful. Since two alcoholic products, sake and mirin, are fundamental to washoku, if you have any reasons for avoiding alcohol in cooking this course may not be for you. Last but not least, you’ll get the very most out of this course if you follow every lesson in sequence and do each assignment. I estimate that it will require about 2 hours of your time per week. We’ll start the week of March 4th (right after Bento 101 wraps up) The course will go on for 4 to 5 weeks, and consist of 6 lessons with at least 5 cooking assignments.

There’s no formal sign up process. Just follow along when we start in March!

So there you have it. Interested? Questions? Let me know! I’ll post the required materials and so on later this week.

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