Kitchen Culture
Tasty tidbits from the old-fashioned Japanese kitchen
Cutting Board
The unassuming cutting board – a dedicated surface on which to slice and chop food – is an ancient tool. Natural materials such as stone and wood offered smooth, stable surfaces on which to prepare food. In the modern kitchen synthetic materials such as silicone and...
Figs
Figs are one of the world’s oldest cultivated fruits. Images of figs appear in ancient Egyptian murals and are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament and the Qur'an (or Koran, the central religious text of Islam). Figs were known to be an important source of daily...
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...
