Kitchen Culture
Tasty tidbits from the old-fashioned Japanese kitchen
Tengusa (Heavenly Grass)
Making sweet and savory jellies and aspics from the sea begins with harvesting tengusa (天草 literally “heavenly grass”), a group of red marine algae that grow in fairly shallow waters. The most common variety is makusa (Gelidium amansii); in Japan most of the...
UCHIWA (flat fans)
In Japan, hand-held, flat fans called uchiwa have been creating cooling breezes for millennia. Uchiwa can be many things: In addition to being practical tools in the kitchen (for fanning rice when making sushi... for fanning cooking fires when broiling), uchiwa often...
BIWA (loquats)
This month I was inspired to choose biwa as the theme for my newsletter and web posts when I was gifted a box of luscious loquats from friends in Chiba. The southern Boso Peninsula is famous for Boshu Biwa, a premium variety cultivated there since 1751 and...
Osozai Side Dishes
Modern households everywhere are challenged with balancing a desire to eat healthfully with limited time to prepare meals. In Japan, the food industry’s response has been to offer a vast assortment of prepared foods for sale through various outlets: convenience...
Using Food Fully
Meals planned around a single ingredient prepared in many ways are referred to as tsukushi (or zukushi) 尽くし menus. The verb tsukusu means "to use, or consume, entirely." This no-waste approach is both a frugal and practical way to cook, making the most of what is...
