Monthly Memo From Doi's Culinary Philosophy
Original text by Doi Yoshiharu
Translated by Yoshiko Fukuda
June-Minazuki
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●"Hatsunari" Vegetables
Finally a time to incorporate Summer vegetable like 'hatsunari' eggplants, tomatoes and cucumbers in the meals has come. "Hatsunari" means the first crop of the year that was harvested from a certain sapling planted in Spring. Just the other day I was talking to a friend who is especially picky about taste, but who stresses that he is not actually a gourmet, about the special savor of hatsunari vegetables. We concluded the argument by saying that in hatsunari vegetables some sort of different sustenance is contained. Or maybe we react susceptibly to the taste which we have not encountered for a year. Of course, those are just our guesses, but we do come upon those kind of 'unexpected tastes' during the beginning of this season. My uncle in Takamatsu who did not think twice when it came to food, used to buy and store loads of hatsunari watermelons.●'Water' Eggplant of Senshu
Sennshu is located in the east of Osaka in the Kishiwada region. It became more widely known just recently that this region produces an original kinchaku (a cloth bag) shaped eggplants. The name 'water' egg plant originated because the eggplants contained so much juice in it that when it was squeezed by the hand, liquid would start trickling out of the vegetable. Those eggplants can be eaten raw, by seasoning them with a little salt after tearing them in to smaller pieces. Then they are cooled by ice cubes. The cold eggplants can be eaten by itself or with dips like spicy shoyu or even olive oil. Water eggplants have a very mild taste and are fresh with a juicy savor. Water eggplants are also ideal for nuka-zuke (pickles from rice bran paste), stewed and fried dishes. I usually order the water eggplants exclusively from Senshu because the vegetable's freshness is vital when I eat the water eggplant since I only season it with a little bit of salt.●Doteyaki
*Doteyaki- similar to dotenabe or casserole. Dotenabe are often made in earthenware. Usually the main ingredients are miso paste, cut spring onions, edible chrysanthemum leaves, tofu and some seafood or meat. First, the diagonally cut spring onions are placed along the pot's interior and miso is spread on top of them in such a way to make a circular embankment in the earthenware leaving a bare spot in the center. Then a little bit of stock is added in the middle and then is simmered. Gradually other ingredients like vegetables and tofu get added as the miso slowly seep into the boiling stock. In the process the miso paste is scorched alongside the pot but the stock will eventually deglaze most of the paste and give the stewed ingredients a tasty flavor.
Because of the spread of Italian and Korean cuisine, more people eat garlicky meals and menus that include intestines. Dishes like stewed tripe(which is actually quite delicious) has recently become popular in Italian restaurants. The Japanese in the past have avoided cooking intestine, since it was generally accepted that intestine was a waste, something useless. Therefore intestines were called "suterumono-something to throw away" which in the Kansai dialect would be "horumono" so eventually meals that contained intestines were called 'hormone cooking". Today, the hromone cooking is actually liked by many, bringing another trend in yakiniku. At Ajiichii, one of the restaurants which I consult, a Kansai style doteyaki of beef is newly added on the menu. The meat is stewed for more than four hours, flavored with miso and zarame (sugar shaped in small crystals), and then is simmered again longer. Then the meat is placed in an iron pan with additional miso. The meat is seared together with almost scorching miso paste. Afterwards,an abundant chopped spring onion is added to on to the pan. The meal is serve with seven-flavored seasoning.●Home Cooking of Today
I have always said that "Good cooking gives energy to people". It may be a given, since eating in the first place is the origin to power of survival. We instinctively desire to eat food that contains seasonal ingredients because our bodies know that those ingredients are made up mostly of nutrients and proteins that are most needed. When one is placed a Japanese environment, he will intuitively get perceptive to the deliciousness of Japanese seasonal tastes. Our taste and olfactory senses are our deciding factor in what we eat and sense what is the most luscious.
At different lectures, I often say in front of mothers with small children, that "we are what we eat. If we eat instant noodles then that is what the body will be made up of", and that " good food is an investment to insure a family member's future health".
That is why we chefs, as long as we make food for people, need to think it our responsibility to make delicious foods which make people healthy. If a delicious meals make us lose energy and make our body function wrongly, then the food is obviously not good even if it appeals to our taste.
I have done a research by giving a questionnaire which asked for people's impression of home cooking. Without a doubt I had expected such answers like "home cooking is the best food of all" but disappointing responses like "home cooking is the worst foodl" filled most of the comments. For what was the most delicious, the answer was "eating out". (Really?????)
I also asked for photos of the contents of refrigerators covering Japan from East to West. Here I was expecting the regions characteristic to definitely show up, like for Hokkaido, there would be crabs and dairy foods, and around Setouchi there would be small fishes, and in Kagoshima and Okinawa there would be meat from black swine. However, all over the country in most of the family's fridge, there were no big differences. In most of the refrigerator popular products advertised in TV commercials would fill the racks. Unexpectedly, regional home cooking was not passed down from previous generations.
Nowadays resulting from these situations, the role of nutritionists for school lunches have become more important. On top of their advising work, they are busy presenting themselves to teach others as a food educator.[ Although the story will get side tracked, recent school lunches are much better compared to the lunches from our own childhood. From a period when lunches were made in mass amounts at a distant culinary facility, now each schools make their own lunches at individual facilities.] In addition, the nutritionists who also play the role of mothers, only let their children eat proper foods. Certain cooking methods are thought very crucial to home cooking by them, like; stock is taken only from katsuobushi(bonito flakes) and konbu(sea kelp), for soup, chicken broth is always used and for cutting vegetables into fine strips, it must be done by the hand and not by some machine. They are doing many things so that the children will eat the food with more enthusiasm and interest. I think these efforts by the local nutritionists deserve great acclamation. I was actually surprised by the size of the community that these female nutritionists had. In fact, many children get most of their protein and nutrients from school lunches that these nutritionists advise at, rather than at home.
Like in this way daily foods and our health are closely related. Meals that can be eaten everyday that makes us healthy is the number one criteria for food that we eat. That is where Japanese 'home cooking' becomes so significant. Because home cooking is the core of what people eat everyday. Furthermore, Japanese restaurants should preserve the ways of Japanese cooking in which the meals portray different seasons and even delight the eyes with their appearance and coordination with the setting. In this day and age, restaurants should be able to serve those kind of meals at a reasonable price so anyone can enjoy them.As I consult different restaurants, the number one goal that I try to achieve and encourage others to maintain is that; every cooking should give energy to the people who eat them. I try to remind myself of this obvious fact, every once in a while.
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