On a crisp autumn morning in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, Sachiko Hoshizawa was meticulously setting out bowls and plates. Immaculately styled in a cheery yellow apron, she ensured that the long tables in front of her had the right selection of crockery, chopsticks and mixing bowls. She then turned to prepare the ingredients, carefully placing pieces of salmon, kelp, potato, carrots and spring onions on the counter of the small kitchen. Finally, she surveyed the scene and stood back behind the counter, perfectly poised with a TV-ready smile on her face, ready for the eager queue of people to swarm into the room.
Hoshizawa – a hugely popular TV cooking show host in Japan – was preparing for a highly anticipated cooking class and I was there to participate. While Japanese cuisine offers a wealth of gastronomic delights, with an endless variety of regional dishes, today she was cooking Ainu cuisine, the food of the indigenous people of Japan. That’s because, long before Japanese food became so emblematic, with sushi and shabu shabu, ramen and yakitori prized the world over, there was another cuisine here that has almost been forgotten.
Most of the world will not have heard of Japan’s indigenous people, let alone their food. The Ainu are the original inhabitants of Hokkaido, who have called this island and parts of the surrounding region their home for many thousands of years, living on and with the land. Unlike the Japanese, who practiced rice farming, the Ainu traditionally hunted, foraged and fished. Their food culture was rich and vibrant – and had a distinct and lasting impact on Japanese cuisine.
“Without Japan’s indigenous people, you wouldn’t have that Japanese taste that’s so famous,” said Remi Ie, Director of Japan at Slow Food International. “They created and fostered the food culture of Japan.”
She’s referring to umami, the savoury “fifth taste” that is often associated with Japanese dishes. It’s found in soy, miso and other fermented foods that give the cuisine its unique flavour. But Japan’s umami in fact has its roots in Ainu culture, in the kombu (a type of edible kelp) that grows in lush underwater forests around Hokkaido’s coastlines and has always been used in traditional Ainu cuisine. (...)
Kombu is a main ingredient in dashi (stock), a simple broth that forms one of the culinary cornerstones of Japanese cooking. It’s also used in a slew of other Japanese dishes, from kombu tsukudani (kombu simmered in soy sauce and mirin) to kombu kamaboko (kombu-wrapped fish cakes). Its umami flavour comes from an abundance of amino acids such as glutamic and aspartic acid, and its taste is almost synonymous with Japanese cuisine.
“Hokkaido kelp has very much influenced Japanese cuisine,” agrees food historian Takashi Morieda. “It [used to be] prohibited to kill animals more than 1,000 years ago [in Japan] due to the influence of Buddhism. That meant we didn’t have fat and oil, so we needed something else to make vegetables delicious. That’s why we use dashi; it brings the umami flavour.”
The Ainu did have fat and oil from the animals they hunted, but also used kombu as a savoury seasoning. They would harvest and dry the kombu, deep fry it and grind it into a powder to be sprinkled on deer meat; or mix the powder with water to form a paste or sauce. And by the 14th Century, they were trading kombu and other goods with the Japanese, thus introducing this umami flavour into Japanese food. Today more than 95% of Japan’s kombu comes from Hokkaido.
“This trade shaped the food culture of Japan. Kelp is the umami we all talk about in the world as the food of Japan,” said Ie.
Hoshizawa agrees, telling me: “We think kombu is the secret of long life. I eat it every day.” (...)
With much of their culture eradicated after the Japanese government formally colonised Hokkaido in the late 1800s and banned their traditional hunting and fishing, there is now a movement to showcase Ainu cuisine and culture to outsiders, as well as a resurgence of interest in their traditions and ingredients. Our cooking class group eagerly followed Hoshizawa’s precise instructions to make salmon ohau (soup) and inakibi (millet) dumplings, boiling the salmon pieces, rolling the starchy dumplings in ground walnuts and stirring a kelp sauce. It was a fascinating insight into a little-known culinary culture, but beyond these dishes, there is a wealth of other ingredients and techniques that make up Ainu cuisine.
by Ellie Cobb, BBC | Read more:
Image: MJ Photography/Alamy
Hoshizawa – a hugely popular TV cooking show host in Japan – was preparing for a highly anticipated cooking class and I was there to participate. While Japanese cuisine offers a wealth of gastronomic delights, with an endless variety of regional dishes, today she was cooking Ainu cuisine, the food of the indigenous people of Japan. That’s because, long before Japanese food became so emblematic, with sushi and shabu shabu, ramen and yakitori prized the world over, there was another cuisine here that has almost been forgotten.
Most of the world will not have heard of Japan’s indigenous people, let alone their food. The Ainu are the original inhabitants of Hokkaido, who have called this island and parts of the surrounding region their home for many thousands of years, living on and with the land. Unlike the Japanese, who practiced rice farming, the Ainu traditionally hunted, foraged and fished. Their food culture was rich and vibrant – and had a distinct and lasting impact on Japanese cuisine.“Without Japan’s indigenous people, you wouldn’t have that Japanese taste that’s so famous,” said Remi Ie, Director of Japan at Slow Food International. “They created and fostered the food culture of Japan.”
She’s referring to umami, the savoury “fifth taste” that is often associated with Japanese dishes. It’s found in soy, miso and other fermented foods that give the cuisine its unique flavour. But Japan’s umami in fact has its roots in Ainu culture, in the kombu (a type of edible kelp) that grows in lush underwater forests around Hokkaido’s coastlines and has always been used in traditional Ainu cuisine. (...)
Kombu is a main ingredient in dashi (stock), a simple broth that forms one of the culinary cornerstones of Japanese cooking. It’s also used in a slew of other Japanese dishes, from kombu tsukudani (kombu simmered in soy sauce and mirin) to kombu kamaboko (kombu-wrapped fish cakes). Its umami flavour comes from an abundance of amino acids such as glutamic and aspartic acid, and its taste is almost synonymous with Japanese cuisine.
“Hokkaido kelp has very much influenced Japanese cuisine,” agrees food historian Takashi Morieda. “It [used to be] prohibited to kill animals more than 1,000 years ago [in Japan] due to the influence of Buddhism. That meant we didn’t have fat and oil, so we needed something else to make vegetables delicious. That’s why we use dashi; it brings the umami flavour.”
The Ainu did have fat and oil from the animals they hunted, but also used kombu as a savoury seasoning. They would harvest and dry the kombu, deep fry it and grind it into a powder to be sprinkled on deer meat; or mix the powder with water to form a paste or sauce. And by the 14th Century, they were trading kombu and other goods with the Japanese, thus introducing this umami flavour into Japanese food. Today more than 95% of Japan’s kombu comes from Hokkaido.
“This trade shaped the food culture of Japan. Kelp is the umami we all talk about in the world as the food of Japan,” said Ie.
Hoshizawa agrees, telling me: “We think kombu is the secret of long life. I eat it every day.” (...)
With much of their culture eradicated after the Japanese government formally colonised Hokkaido in the late 1800s and banned their traditional hunting and fishing, there is now a movement to showcase Ainu cuisine and culture to outsiders, as well as a resurgence of interest in their traditions and ingredients. Our cooking class group eagerly followed Hoshizawa’s precise instructions to make salmon ohau (soup) and inakibi (millet) dumplings, boiling the salmon pieces, rolling the starchy dumplings in ground walnuts and stirring a kelp sauce. It was a fascinating insight into a little-known culinary culture, but beyond these dishes, there is a wealth of other ingredients and techniques that make up Ainu cuisine.
by Ellie Cobb, BBC | Read more:
Image: MJ Photography/Alamy
