Digest Number 97

[Guest guest]

This info from this site

http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~chrkaji/yasuko/index_e.html

 

I recomend looking there for a regional map and more specific regional info

 

she also goes through the instruments she uses and how

 

2 recipies from there in next letter

 

Sushi, Tempura, and Sukiyaki are popular Japanese food. However, the

Japanese people do not eat

these types of dishes everyday.

 

 

We say " eat rice " to have a meal in Japan. Rice is a main food in a

Japanese and it is eaten with miso

soup, some side dishes, and picles. Japanese cooking is rarely very spicy

and food is seasoned lightly.

Dashi (soup stock) is used a lot in Japanese cooking. Vegetables and so on

are then boiled in the

dashi and other seasonings add.

 

Japanese Table manners

 

 

 

We have a custom to say " itadakimasu " before a meal and " gochisousama

deshita " after a meal by

joining our palms together with thanks for food in Japan.

 

 

Bowl [chawan]: It is acceptable to hold either a rice bowl or other bowl in

your hand and eat directly

from that in Japan. Put the bowl on your left hand (in the case of being

right-handed) and keep it from

moving with your thumb. For bowls with soup in them, drink directly from

the bowl. You can also pick

the little bowls up to eat from. - refer to " Living in Japan (ALC Press) "

Chopsticks [hashi]: Hold the chopsticks about 1/3 of the way down from the

top with relax and

take a gentle hold. Lay the bottom chopstick against your ring finger and

place the other one between

thumb, index finger, and middle finger. Try to move the top chopstick. -

refer to " Living in Japan

(ALC Press) "

 

Taboos

 

1 using one's chopsticks to take some food from someone else's chopsticks.

 

2 Sticking chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice.

 

 

Drink tea after meals

 

 

We are in the habit of drinking houji-cha (roasted green tea) after meals

in Japan. We generally use

one's rice bowl for drinking tea. As tea remove glutinous rice which cling

to bowl, we easy to wash

bowl. Tea also remove some bits of food stuck to one's teeth. As compared

with other tea, green tea

is known to include a lot of vitamin C and is considered to be very good

for the health.

 

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Season taste - Winter

 

 

Hibachi (Japanese brazier) are ancient Japanese heating

devices, made of

ceramic, wood or metal. Ashes are laid in, a charcoal

fire is kindled, hands

held out to it are warmed, and it warms the room. It can

also be used to boil

water, by putting a brass kettle on a ring-shaped

support with a tripod in the

ashes. However, as lifestyles change, this apparatus has

almost completely

disappeared from the average contemporary familiy

household. - Traditional

Japanese Culture & Modern Japan, 1993, Sugiura, Y. &

Gillespie, J. K.

 

In cold season, iron kettle on the hibachi has boiling

all day in

Yasuko-san's parents' home, becauce her parents

workplace is in the

house. Her father, Masao-san, has sit in front of hibachi during recess and

drinking tea and smoking.

When I visited, he always set net on the hibachi and roast rice cakes for

me. I remenber fragrance

of charcoal from rice cake vividly. Yasuko-san used to roast gingko nut and

chestnut in the ashes

which was maked crack on its nutshell.

 

Now, gas and electricity have replace charcoal. Although gas and

electricity warm better than

charcoal fire do, charcoal fire give relaxed feel.

 

There is a leaden sky and it is snowing everyday in Toyama winter. It is

different to say that

comfortable to live in. However, Seafood comes to good, especially

yellowtail and pacific cod.

 

One-pot dishes is also good at dinner in cold season. It is happy time that

family have dinner around

Yose-nabe. I wonder why feel warmer for snowing.

[Guest guest]

http://www.orientalfood.com/culture/etiquette/

 

 

for oriental etiquette and restraunt manners...both Chinese and Japanese