Tastes: Beyond Sushi

A culinary tour of Japan must begin in Tokyo, reports resident foodie DANIELLE DEMETRIOU; but don’t stop there – life- extending Okinawan seaweed, Hokkaido’s sea urchin, and lotus root tempura from Kyoto are just some of the treats that await


A beautifully
presented kaiseki
spreadSUSHI – IF THERE’S ONE WORD SYNONYMOUS with Japan’s cuisine today it is the ubiquitous “S” word. But there is more to Japan’s repertoire of culinary delights than raw fish and rice. From lightly fried tempura to a-million-and-one styles of tofu, sweet unagi eel to yakitori grilled chicken, melt-in-the-mouth tonkatsu breaded pork cutlets to shabu shabu hotpots, a dizzying melting pot of dishes await the open-minded visitor.

Delicate, seasonal and fresh, the nation’s cuisine is often as pretty as a painting as well as one of the healthiest in the world. “Japanese cuisine is pure, with a singular focus on one flavour at a time, as well as light, with a heavy focus on seafood,” says James Viney, the executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi. “It also has a sophisticated simplicity, with its zen-like presentation and attention to fine details.”

There is only one starting point in Japan for a whistle-stop culinary tour: Tokyo. The capital’s status as nirvana for food lovers was confirmed last year when it was sprinkled with a record number of Michelin stars at the Asian launch of the guide – effortlessly outshining cities from Paris to New York. While the capital heaves with more than 160,000 restaurants, among the best are low-key local establishments known as izakaya, where the food is as delicious as the prices are low.

Many popular local dishes in Tokyo date back to the Edo period, which spanned four centuries until the late 1800s and firmly shaped the city’s culinary landscape. There is chanko-nabe, a healthy hotpot of vegetables, meat and seafood, traditionally consumed in industrial quantities by sumo wrestlers. Another classic dish is fukagawa-don – a miso stew topped with green onions and asari clams – once the convenience food of choice among busy Edo-era fishermen and still a popular dish today.

But the country’s culinary highlights are not confined to the capital. The necklace-like trail of tropical islands in southern Okinawa is home to an array of delights such as the delicately mouth-popping seaweed ume budo, a bitter gourd vegetable stir-fry known as goya champuru, and succulent ashi-tibichi (stewed pig’s trotters). And they must be doing something right, for Okinawan food is also celebrated for its health-giving properties – its sparkly-eyed elderly residents boast the longest life expectancy in the world.


The art of dining – a bento
box from Marunouchi’s Ekki
Bar & Grill at the Four
Seasons Hotel TokyoAt the opposite tip of Japan, the northern island of Hokkaido is a cool green mountainous haven with its own very different specialities, including delicious cheeses, buckwheat soba noodles and raw sea urchin uni. Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, boasts its own culinary heritage with famous dishes ranging from yuba – delicate layers of soya milk skin – to lotus root tempura. Viney adds: “From region to region, food varies considerably. A typical egg omelette roll is served sweet in Osaka and savoury in Tokyo. Many fried items are from the Osaka region, whereas Tokyo has many braised or stewed dishes.”

Japan’s four distinct seasons, as well as geography, have shaped the nation’s cuisine. Chefs across the country share a healthy reverence for nature with a preference for seasonal ingredients. Springtime brings cherry blossom-infused rice, bamboo shoots and herring. With summer comes bonito fish flakes, while autumn goes hand in hand with matsutake mushrooms and chestnuts.

Another common culinary denominator is the nation’s love affair with rice. The basis for almost every meal, the staple emerges in every shape and form – from gohan rice bowls to mochi rice cakes via rice-distilled sake.

Unlike the sizzling Sichuan cuisine of China and the spine-tingling hot curries of India, Japanese food is among the most delicately flavoured in the world, due to a philosophy of retaining the natural flavours of ingredients with the minimum intervention of artificial processes.


Sushi and much,
much moreWhile meat is consumed widely today across the country, seafood and fish remain most prominent – an enduring legacy of Japan’s Buddhist history of banning meat consumption. Buddhist cuisine – known as shojin ryori – is still served today in temples as well as numerous increasingly fashionable restaurants across the country. Based on a strict fundamental principle of not killing any living beings, meals are intricately presented and use fresh, seasonal produce traditionally featuring five flavours – sweet, spicy, salty, bitter and sour – and five colours: yellow, black, white, green and red.

Another cherry on Japan’s culinary cake is kaiseki cuisine, which also has its roots in Zen Buddhism. Frequently served today in traditional ryokan inns, it consists of an elegant banquet of more than a dozen beautifully presented courses incorporating a seasonal representative from the sea, the fields, the mountains and the rivers.

From local izakaya to high-end kaiseki restaurants, the nation’s enduring reverence for all things food-related remains intact regardless of the setting. As the Japanese say when they bless their food before lifting their chopsticks: itadakimase.

GLOSSARY
SUSHI Vinegar rice with raw fish
KAISEKI Traditional banquet of numerous small seasonal dishes
IZAKAYA Red lanterns hang outside the door of these local Japanese-style pubs serving tapas-sized dishes
OKONOMIYAKI AND MONJAYAKI Omelette-like mix cooked on hot plates on customers’ tables
YAKITORI Grilled chicken skewers
UNAGIYA Specialists in unagi – fresh water eel – and other eel delicacies
TONKATSU Deep-fried breaded pork cutlet
SHABU SHABU Japanese hot pot, traditionally made with thinly sliced beef and seasonal vegetables
SHOJIN RYORI Strict vegetarian Buddhist cuisine