like his explanation of making the traditional Japanese sweet wasanbon sugar, is engaging.
A Dictionary of Japanese Food, Ingredients & Culture packs a powerful, but compact punch. In the hands of a different author, the volume and quality of information would require triple the amount of space—and likely also the price. Interspersed with the facts are Hosking’s personal opinions and philosophy of food and culture, obtainable only by one who has become intimate with daily life in Japan after living and working there for 25 years.
Ever the purist, Hosking avoids including some Japanese comfort food staples like kare rice (curry rice), a Japanese adaptation of a British adaptation of Indian cuisine that is uniquely Japanese and enjoyed by everyone in Japan. But, as he explains, his book is not about food that is eaten in Japan, it is about Japanese food.
This dictionary is a treasure trove of information for serious home cooks, professional chefs, travelers, restaurant goers, and dabblers in Japanese culture generally. It takes you to places you didn’t know you wanted to go—but will be very glad to have visited, including the whys and the science of Japanese food.
For example, I learned long ago how to make dashi, the smoky Japanese bonito fish stock that is the underpinning for most soups and sauces in Japanese cuisine, from scratch. I was taught how to soak the konbu, and scatter the katsuboshi flakes in the just boiled water. But I didn’t know why this combination was so important. Hosking explains that the chemical reaction which occurs between the ingredients are what creates the desired result. I love learning something new, and it happens every time I open this book.
The appendices contain supplementary explanations on topics or ingredients in need of greater detail like the tea ceremony and the family meal. His entry on umami, the savory fifth taste—discovered in Japan and another element of Japanese cuisine that has seeped into food talk far from Japan’s shores—is priceless.
The list of Japanese ingredient names that no longer need translation is much longer today than when Hosking compiled his original list. Words like edamame, wasabi, udon and nori no longer need translation these days as they have become a part of our culinary vocabulary.
This is no simple dictionary. In describing fish for sashimi or for grilling, Hosking tells you everything about it from the waters of its origin to its proper dimensions. But he does not merely pair words with descriptions. In his discussion of wasabi, for example, you learn not only about how and where it grows (in the shade and water of mountains)—but also how to process it and with what kind of grater as well as how it is used, mixed with soy sauce for dipping; he also alerts us to the contents of cans of wasabi powder and tubes of wasabi paste, so readily available and widely used both inside and outside of Japan.
Hosking’s pedagogy takes many forms, including entries that appear as romanized Japanese words as well as in kanji and one of the two Japanese syllabaries, hiragana or katakana. There is also a section that takes the reader from English to Japanese, so you can quickly learn that abalone is awabi in Japanese. He reaches beyond food to explain table settings, to unpack the constitution of a meal, what is obento, and even to introduce quirky eating establishments such as Japan’s ubiquitous akachochin, the tiny informal drinking establishments signified by a red lantern hanging at the entrance.
The presentation and appearance of Japanese food is of supreme importance. Indeed, one often hears the Japanese say that “we eat with our eyes” (me de taberu). Hosking explains that the way the Japanese meal looks—its careful arrangement on plates according to colors and seasons—is as important as the way it tastes. The reader learns along the way that cooking Japanese is more than simply a matter of following a recipe but is a method of carefully crafting a presentation.
There are no recipes in this book. But once you start cooking Japanese cuisine at home, you will reach for it again and again. In closing, a phrase used by the Japanese at the beginning of a meal, seems most appropriate here—“Itadakimasu!”
—Debra Samuels
Boston, Massachusetts
July 2014
Preface
I was ordered to write a book on Japanese food by Dr. Max Lake, the great Australian authority on wine and food. But it wasn’t until Nicholas Ingleton, president of Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Company, invited me to write this dictionary that I had the possibility of obeying the order. It has given me enormous pleasure and stimulation to do so.
Several people have helped me greatly and I wish to give them my sincerest thanks.
Caroline Davidson, my agent, got the project started by introducing me to Nicholas Ingleton and has kept me going with valuable advice ever since. Yokichi and Hiroko Okamoto have constantly helped and stimulated me with their invaluable friendship and their remarkable knowledge of Japanese food. Richard C. Parker produced his delightful, extremely appropriate line drawings at short notice. Richard B. Parker and Patricia have sustained me with their constant encouragement and enthusiasm for the project. Above all, my old friend and mentor, Professor Naomichi Ishige of the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, has kept a watchful eye on this effort and has made many valuable corrections and suggestions, for which I am deeply grateful.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Hiroshima Shudo University, which has employed me for the last twenty-two years. Not only has the university encouraged me by putting me in charge of graduate-school teaching in food anthropology, but also I was given six months’ leave to work on this book at the National Museum of Ethnology. Former dean Masayuki Ishiguro has been especially helpful.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge the immense value of the Chōri yōgo jiten, a most remarkable dictionary of cookery terms, with its eight hundred contributors and 1,275 pages. Published by the Zenkoku Chōrishi Yōsei Shisetsu Kyōkai, it is a mine of useful and interesting information, which the Japanese are indeed fortunate to have. I have not hesitated to seek in it an authoritative source of the information I needed.
Hiroshima
Introduction
This is a dictionary of Japanese food, not a dictionary of food eaten in Japan. That is an important distinction that highlights the way the Japanese observe a strict distinction between Japanese style and Western or other style. Green tea is Japanese and is drunk out of Japanese-style handleless cups. Coffee is Western and is always drunk out of Western-style cups. Green tea appears in this book, coffee does not (except in passing). Curry rice, one of the most popular dishes in Japan, is not considered Japanese and therefore does not warrant an entry.
The approach of this book is that of a non-Japanese living in Japan, and the book is intended to be a help to other such people, as well as to any other speakers of English wishing to know about Japanese food. There is a great need for accurate information on this subject in English. In Japanese, a large number of excellent books is readily available, so the Japanese and those who can read Japanese are already well catered for.
There are some excellent books in English that give the background and context of Japanese food and eating. Donald Richie’s A Taste of Japan is first-rate. My favorite book on Japanese food is Mitsukuni Yoshida’s Naorai: Communion of the Table. Details of these and other useful books in English can be found in the list of Recommended Reading on pages 221. There is also a list of the Japanese books that have been valuable sources of reference on page
