Mmmmm… Food?

Don’t get me wrong; while I love a lot of Japanese food (Sushi: amazing, Sashimi: yum, Teriaki, Soba noodles etc), fully traditional Japanese food is on the most part, not very nice. For the majority of nights I was over there, I had only traditional meals (using great quality ingredients) cooked at some of the highest standards yet although I forced myself to eat every plate clean to fully immerse myself, I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a gag reflex to a couple of dishes..


So many things are boiled and pickled to within an inch of their life, sucking all the flavour out of it leaving it a useless foodstuff and allowing the fish broth it is usually served in be the only flavour you can taste. And the radishes! There is a type of radish they love serving with various courses that smells like wet dog and tastes even worse. The first time I was served it, I proceeded to wolf down a large “spludge” of it in front of the General Manager of one of the hotels, whom I was dining with (The mixture of shock and awe on his face was priceless after which he told me that it was meant for mixing with your soy sauce, bit late now Ken). Even now it gives me shivers just thinking about it.


OH, AND TOFU!! What is the bloody point in Tofu??? They love it over here and yet it is a flavourless sponge that gets in the way and is extremely hard to pick up with chopsticks when you first start out. Then there is rice tofu, which has all the same quality yet is so chewy that you end up having to swallow it in one half choking yourself.


Having said all that, what I do really respect is the appreciation of the seasons that every chef has when preparing meals. They all try and source food locally and only use fish, veg and herbs that are in season. It is definitely something we could all learn from but it did throw up some curveballs:

The “in season” fish is Eel.

The right word to describe it is ‘interesting’, and falling right into the cliché as its tastes kinda like chicken.

The “in season” vegetable is what they call ‘Mugwort’ – Need I say more? Thought so.

xx

P.S. Jozin and Bazin = Lads