Hikari Dept's blog : Food Otaku

One Piece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Piece#Anime_series

Season 5 episode 133 "A Recipe Handed Down! Sanji, the Iron Man of Curry!"

海軍カレー　naval curry

Today, April 19, 2014, JMSDF (Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force) ships get together at Yokosuka JMSDF base.

In above photo you can see the Kongō class missile destroyers (Kongō, Chōkai) and the Atago class missile destroyers (Atago, Ashigara).All of them are ones of the most advanced naval ships in the world with the Aegis Combat System.

Why do those core ships of JMSDF gather at Yokosuka? Are they preparing for Obama's visit to Japan against some threat scenario? Is North Korea about to launch their missiles?

No. They are not preparing for military conflicts. Instead, they are preparing curry. 

JMSDF curry cooking competition will be held today.

http://www.mod.go.jp/msdf/yokosuka/

http://cocoyoko.net/event/goeikancurry.html

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/04/18/national/msdf-armada-masses-first-order-is-curry-contest/#.U1Fadvl_sRA

UPDATE  At 9:00 several thousand people are standing in line waiting to enter the base for curry. 

Every Friday curries are served in every JMSDF ship. Each cook in each ship has his own curry recipe and boasts it. The recipes are published on JMSDF web site.

And today, the cooks are going to face a moment of truth. 6000 curries will be served from 15 naval ships and No.1 curry of JMSDF will be selected by public voting.

You may wonder why Japanese Navy sticks to curry as such. The same question might arise when you watch One Piece Season 5 Episode 133 "A Recipe Handed Down! Sanji, the Iron Man of Curry!"

In the episode, a Marine cook named Tajio struggles to cook curry for the captains of Marine fleet but finds himself inexperienced for that.

Sanji happens to help him and finally Tajio's curry gets praised from the captains.

The curry Tajio made is totally Japanese style. They make curry using curry roux these days in Japan but originally curry powder was used just like Tajio did.

As I wrote in Yoshoku and Chuka: The Japanized Western and Chinese Dishes, Japanese style curry has its root in British curry, not in India. The curry powder of C&B, a British company was used as a beginning of Japanese curry.

The Imperial Japanese Navy was established in 1872 being modeled after Britain's Royal Navy. Both curry and Navy system were brought from the British Empire at almost same time, so to speak. And both of them have closely been tied together since then. Curry became the typical menu in the Imperial Japanese Navy ships.

Mushishi Zoku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushishi

Episode 1 Banquet at the Forest's Edge

花酵母の酒　sake made with flower yeasts

Rokusuke took after his father's business as a chief sake brewer. He struggled to catch up the quality of sake his father had brewed but always failed.

One day, he came up an idea to brew sake with yeast from flower honey.

The golden sake made with the yeast has splendid taste he has never experienced.

But the sake is not actually made with flower yeast. It is mushi, a supernatural creature living in flowers that brews the sake-like golden liquid.

About 100 years ago, sake was brewed with the yeast living in the sake storehouses as Rokusuke mentions in the story.

Nowadays, sake brewers use pure cultured yeasts and there is no regulation about which yeast should be used for sake. That means, sake could be brewed with any yeasts you like. For instance, you can use flower yeasts for sake.

Some kinds of flowers have yeasts in them. Tokyo University of Agriculture has been searching for flower yeasts that are adequate for sake brewing and they have found more than 20 including those of sunflower, strawberry, cosmos and carnation so far. Yuki Urushibara, the author of Mushishi might get the idea of sake made with flower yeasts from the research of the university

Uchōten Kazoku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 5 The Friday Fellows Club

Episode 6 Autumn Leaf Viewing

おにぎりの続き　Onigiri (continued from the previous post)

In April of the year when children turn 3 years old, they are enrolled in Youchien (kindergarten) in Japan. That's the beginning of their bento lunch.

Moms (and dads) prepare elaborate, cute bento as you can see here, the google search images of “幼稚園　弁当　（kindergarten bento)”.

As you can find in the images of bento above, in many cases bento for kindergarten kids contains onigiri in it. There are reasons for that.

Youchien is the first place where children should stay for long time apart from their parents. The parents prepare such an elaborate bento so that their children won't feel lonely when apart from them. The bento is the letter from parents, that will comfort kindergarten kids.

For such a bento, onigiri is the best choice to put in it. You can shape the onigiri into Hello Kitty, panda, and rabbits etc... anything your child likes. The message that makes children smile, that's the reason why onigiri is the best choice for kindergarten bento.

Another reason is chopsticks. The children are still too young to handle chopsticks in a skillful manner. But onigiri can be picked up with folks or spoons, even by their hands.

The year the children turn 6, they go on to elemental schools and bento lunch is replaced by school lunch.

But there are some occasions where children can bring their parent's bento with them as their lunch. Ensoku (school excursion) and undoukai (school athletic festival) are the typical ones.

Again, onigiri could be the choice for these occasions because you can eat onigiri with one hand, anytime and anywhere. In the field at the school excursion, on the school ground the athletic festival is held, you can eat onigiri without both hands occupied by your bento box and chopsticks.

Prof Yodogawa “I love onigiri. It tastes good even when gets cold. You can have it anytime and anywhere. “

If you bring a bento box at a school excursion, the box could be shaken and the foods inside would be messed up in your rucksack while walking and running. But you don't have to care about it when you bring onigiri wrapped in foil.

Furthermore, disposable items like foil could not be your burden in the bag like a bento box. Onigiri is suitable for out door lunch, such as school excursions and family picnics.

Thus, fond memories like kindergarten lunch, school excursions, athletic festivals and family picnics are folded in the tiny rice ball, onigiri. That's the reason why I said onigiri is not just a rice ball and has a special meaning for the Japanese, and the reason why Chihiro, reluctant to eat the onigiri at first, burst into tears when she once took a bite of it.

Miscellaneous: sukiyaki battle and the cocktails

I have de ja vu when watching Yodogawa and Yasaburo fighting against the beef over sukiyaki.

Oh, the previous post reminds me! Hayao Miyazaki once depicted exactly the same battle in Albatross: Wings of Death. (Or should I say it was portrayed by Yasuo Ōtsuka?)

Benten and Yasaburo have cocktails at the secret bar on the top of the roof.

The cocktails are Akawari, which I mentioned in the post regarding Ep1.

Uchōten Kazoku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 5 The Friday Fellows Club

Episode 6 Autumn Leaf Viewing

おにぎり　Onigiri (rice ball)

Onigiri is not just a rice ball. It's a comfort food that builds a tie between you and someone who has prepared it.

Prof. Yodogawa serves onigiri for mom-tanuki, Yasaburo and papa-tanuki (Souichirou). That means, Yodogawa builds a special tie with the Shimogamo family. Onigiri plays an important role in Uchōten Kazoku.

There is another well-known anime where onigiri plays the roll: Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki.

In Spirited Away, Haku saved Chihiro from drowing in the past. After he gave her onigiri, he helps her to save her parents. This is the same structure Uchōten Kazoku has; Prof. Yodogawa once saved mom-tanuki, gave her onigiri, and will save her again in the future.

In both anime, onigiri has a special meaning. Onigiri is not just a rice ball.

If you still don't get it, please ask any Japanese friends the question regarding Spirited Away.

“The food Haku gave Chihiro could be something else?”

He or she will answer, “No way, it should be onigiri”

Why does onigiri have such a meaning and evoke a certain feeling in the Japanese's mind? To answer this, I have to mention about school lives and bento in Japan.

Uchōten Kazoku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 5 The Friday Fellows Club

すき焼き　Sukiyaki

Daikoku ”An author said, 'Cattle eats rice straw. So this is not a beef hot pot but a straw hot pot'”

Prof. Yodogawa “Nowadays cattle doesn't eat rice straw, I guess”

There are 46 prefectures in Japan and Kyoto is one of them. Among them, Kyoto ranks in top 10 regarding beef consuming.

Sukiyaki the beef hot pot is the typical home delicacy in Kyoto.

“From end of Showa 20s to 35th (about 1950s), families in Kyoto enjoyed sukiyaki every Saturday evening”, says Prof. Miyazaki, the former president of Kyoto University Faculty of Agriculture.

Until 1950s, the beef in Japan meant that of working cattle. They pulled ploughs and vehicles for farmers and ate ''rice straw” as a part of their fodder. Some topnotch beef was that of retired working cattle, gaining more fat by eating barley and soy beans during some period after their retirements.

As I wrote in Yoshoku and Chuka, the nature of the working cattle's stiff meat has affected the beef dishes in Japan, such as hambāgu and thin sliced meat dishes like sukiyaki.

According to Prof. Miyazaki, working cattle was gradually replaced by agricultural machinery and the replaced cattle rushed into meat market since 1952. That's why families in Kyoto were able to enjoy sukiyaki every week at an affordable cost.

But this sukiyaki paradise has lost. In mid 1960s, the supply of reasonable beef ended because almost all the working cattle was replaced. Since then, beef means that of unworking cattle eating high-calorie fodder. They don't eat rice straw any more. Some of them sometimes drink beer to get more appetite and listen to Mozart music to relax. The meat is marbled with fat. That's wagyu meat, the most exclusive beef in the world.

Ebisu “Nowadays cattle drinks beer and listens to Mozart”

Daikoku ”Then, we are eating the beer hot pot while drinking beer'”

The restaurant has peculiar octagon-shaped tables and pots. The name of the restaurant is Mishimatei三嶋亭, one of the oldest and the most expensive sukiyaki restaurants in Kyoto.

Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 5 The Friday Fellows Club

ちりめんじゃことほうじ茶 Chirimenjako and Hojicha

While escaping from Benten, Yasaburo has his lunch on the second floor of a thrift shop in Kyoto.

Although you cannot really see what he is eating on the picture, the original novel describes that he bought chirimenjako at Nishiki Ichiba 錦市場 (Nishiki Market) and put it on his rice before eating.

Chirimenjako (or shirasuboshi) is boiled and dried baby sardines. You can find it at every supermarket in Japan.

Chirimenjako (boiled and dried baby sardines)

But chirimenjako in Kyoto is somewhat different.

Chirimenjako as a Kyoto specialty, called chirimenzansho, is the one cooked with sansho山椒 (the Japanese pepper), soy sauce and mirin味醂 (sweet sake). It goes well with hot rice and is a popular souvenir or a home-coming gift for tourists.

Chirimenzansho on the rice

Nishiki Ichiba, where Yasaburo bought chirimenjako, is the market  famous for tourists. You can get many kinds of Kyoto specialty foods like chirimenzansho, pickles, dashimaki (dashi omelette) hamo no kabayaki, confectioneries like fumanjhu etc etc..

Nishiki Market

Hamo no kabayaki鱧の蒲焼き　Grilled hamo (conger pike) 

Fumanjhu麸饅頭　Sweet bean paste wrapped with wheat protein

Now, Yasaburo is drinking hojicha from his bottle.

Hojicha is roasted Japanese green tea. It tastes milder than green tea because the leaves have lose their bitterness while being roasted and a roast flavor is added to.

Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 4 Daimonji Leisure Cruiser Battle

Episode 5 The Friday Fellows Club

たぬき鍋orたぬき汁 Tanukinabe (tanuki hot pot) or Tanikijiru (tanuki soup)

In one sense, the 'main dish' of this anime is this: tanukinabe

Tanukinabe is usually called tanukijiru. According to a recipe in a book entitled Ryori Monogatari, tanukijiru is a miso soup with tanujki meat, daikon radish, burdock root etc.. in it and with a little bit of garlic on it.

Ryori Monogatari was published in 1643, so tanukijiru is the dish with a tradition of 400 years or more, much older than nigirizushi or tempura. But most of the Japanese today including me have never tried it.

A game meat restaurant named Momonjiya, established in 1718, once served tanukijiru but took it off their menu few years ago. You can see the images of Momonjiya tanukijiru in blogs and restaurant review sites. The example is here.

Why did such a traditional dish go downhill? Why did Momonjiya pull tanukijiru from their menu? The answer might be found in those blogs and reviews.

They say tanuki meat is SO STINK, SO DISTASTEFUL.

Thus, thanks to their meat's odor and taste, tanuki in Kyoto can live long as long as they are not captured by The Friday Fellows Club.

A ryokan in Niigata prefecture serves real tanukinabe, if you want to try...

Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 3 Yakushibo no Oku-Zashiki

ミスド　Mister Donut

When Yasaburou and Yasirou visit Benten, she offers Yasirou a half-finished pink donut.

The unique shape appeared left is a box of Mister Donut, a donut shop chain.

Mister Donut, established in the U.S in 1956, once was the second biggest donut shop chain after Dunkin' Donuts. Having been acquired by the rival, it has almost disappeared in the home country.

On the other hand, Japan's Mister Donut, often abbreviated as ミスド Misudo, acquired and run by Duskin Co., Ltd., a cleaning equipment leasing company, is still thriving in Japan and other Asian countries.

After splitting from the original company, Misudo has offered unique menus and achieved popularity in Japan where donut-eating culture had scarcely existed. Their original offerings include chuka dishes, i.e. Japanized Chinese fares, such as tantanmen, nikuman and chāhan.

As to those chuka menus, please refer to my book, Yoshoku and Chuka.

    Off course, it does not mean that Misudo has shifted their business into Chinese restaurants. Its flagship offering is still a variety of donuts, which sometimes include odd flavors like soy sauce or okonomiyaki.

Among those original donuts, Pon de Ring made a big hit and has become a hallmark of Misudo donut. More than 700 million Pon de Ring donuts have been sold since its launching in 2003.

Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 3 Yakushibo no Oku-Zashiki

ラムネ Ramune

The bottle Yasauro is holding in his hand is ramune, a carbonated drink with an artificial flavor.

Although ramune has its origin in lemonade. it doesn't have a lemon flavor. Its distinctive flavor can only be called a Ramune Flavor, so to speak, because there is no such a flavor in any other drinks or foods.

The flavor is applied to many candies and refreshments. Garigari-kun, one of the most popular ice pop in Japan, features ramune as its typical flavor. Its blue color represents the color of a ramune bottle.

Ramune chūhai is a canned alcohoric drink with a ramune flavor.

There is a tablet candy called ramune made from starch and sugar. Its name might come from ramune drink but basically it has nothing to do with it.

Ramune bottles have distinctive shapes.

It's a Codd-neck bottle invented by an English man Hiram Codd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Codd

Codd-neck bottles were replaced with bottles with caps and disappeared but survived only in Japan as bottles for ramune.

(From manga Thermae Romae by Mari Yamazaki: An Ancient Romanian Lucius, who travelled through time and has got to modern Japan, is surprised to see a ramune bottle at a sento. A Codd-neck bottle has a marble in it to seal a liquid in. To drink ramune, the marble should be pushed down from the head of the bottle.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermae_Romae

Codd-neck bottles don't have disposable parts like caps and can be washed and re-used. This feature adapted successfully to the Imperial Japanese naval ships in WWII where supplies were poorly allocated.

Thus, all the naval ships bigger than destroyers had ramune refilling facilities in them. Yamato, the world heaviest battleship in history, had a ramune facility with capability of refilling 5000 bottles per day.

Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 2 Mother and Raijin, God of Thunder

牛丼 Gyudon (beaf bowl)

The second-eldest brother, Yaziro now lives in the bottom of the water well at Rokudochinouzi temple, transforming himself into a frog. Yasaburo eats gyudon牛丼 sitting on the casing of the well while talking to his brother.

Gyudon, soy sauce seasoned beef over rice, was derived from a cheap fast food named 牛飯 gyumeshi sold at stalls, and still is the typical fast food in Japan.

Yasaburo is putting a red topping on his take out gyudon. The topping is benisyoga (red ginger), shiredded ginger pickled in umezu (plum vinegar). Strictly speaking, umezu is not vinegar. It's a by-product of umeboshi (pickled plum). The sour taste came from citric acid of plum and red color from leaves of red perilla.

There is an odd folklore about the water well.

The well leads to the hell under the ground, and Ono no Takamura, an aristocrat and a high-level government official of 1200 years ago, went down through the well every night and worked as a vice judgement in the hell court.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ono_no_Takamura

Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 1 Goddess of the Noryo-Yuka

松花堂弁当 Shōkadō bento

The bento Yasaburo brought in for Akadama-sensei has a peculiar form with a square shape and four partitions. This type of bento is called shōkadō bento. The design of ThinkPad was originally inspired by this shōkadō bento.

The prices of bento sold in convenience stores and bento shops are not expensive, around 500 yen or so. But shōkadō bento is exclusive one with 1500 yen or more. Kitcho吉兆, who claims they invented it, serves shōkadō bento for the price from 3900 to 7500 yen.

(Kitcho's shōkadō bento)

Shōkadō bento is usually served at posh Japanese restaurants like Kitcho with kaiseki懐石 cuisine in it. It's provided as a downgrade version of authentic and expensive kaiseki cuisine dishes. That's the reason why it is so expensive compared to normal bento.

Another reason is the container. Shōkadō bento container is a lacquerware with small potteries within its partitions. All of them are beautifully designed, and of course, expensive. They are the essential parts of kaiseki cuisine.

Food and drink in anime

Uchōten Kazoku 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode 9 Daughter of the Ebisugawas: Kaisei

クリスマスにはフライドチキンFried chicken on Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, the tanuki (raccoon dog) family get together at Shimogamo shrine and enjoy Kentucky fried chickens.

The custom of eating fried chickens on Christmas Eve might sound peculiar. But it would have sounded rather odd too for the Japanese before 1974, the time when KFC Japan started the campaign “Fried chicken for Christmas”.

(Note; Christmas is not a holiday in Japan, so the only occasion to have a special meal is dinner on Christmas Eve)

Well then, what was the feast on Christmas Eve until 1974? As for me, It was a teriyaki chicken thigh with bone and skin, definitely.

Even today, fried chickens are not the sole option. Around Christmas day, you can see many teriyaki chicken thighs sold in supermarkets and meat shops.

Anyway, fried or teriyaki, chicken has been the choice for Christmas in Japan. But since when and why? It remains unclear.

I examined books including recipes for Christmas before WWII (listed below) but found no roast chicken recipe, let alone that of teriyaki chicken. There are some chicken recipes among many but they are not roast chickens.

1919　家庭で出来る即席珍料理の拵へ方 服部茂一著  1919　家庭で出来る食通の喜ぶ拾二ケ月珍料理　宝の巻　服部茂一著  1920　手軽で美味い拾弐ケ月珍料理 図書 服部茂一著  1922　手軽でうまい和洋料理十二ケ月 服部七郎著  1936　食物調理指導書続　佐保会編  1937　素人に出来る珍らしい料理十二ケ月　東京料理献立研究会著

In 19th and early 20th Century, Japan was under the influence of British cuisine like curry powder and Worcestershire sauce, as I stated in my book, Yoshoku and Chuka.

British Christmas dinner is roast Turkey, and once was Goose before Turkey spread. They knew the custom of roasting them on Christmas via translated literature such as Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” and “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” by Conan Doyle.

But Japanese traditional chicken called 地鶏zidori's meat is stiff and not adequate for roasting. After WWII, soft and juicy chicken, broilers were brought from U.S.. Broiler chikens became widely used in late 1950's and in 1960's, that is, when I was a child and ate teriyaki chickens on Christmas.

Uchōten Kazoku 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eccentric_Family

Episode1 納涼床の女神　Goddess of the Noryo-Yuka 1

赤玉ポートワイン　Akadama portwine

The episode starts with the scene Yasaburo (disguising as a highschool girl) walking down the shopping street named Demachi Masugata shotengai.

What he (she?) brings in his plastic bag are the bottles of Akadama portwine, Akadama-sensei's favorite.

Akadama portwine, whose current name is Akadama sweetwine, came to the market at 1907.

At the time, the Japanese weren't accustomed to the sour taste of wine. A trading company came up with the idea that they would welcome wine if it was sweetened with sweetener.

The sweetened wine, Akadama portwine, made a big hit and became standard wine in Japan about 100 years ago. This success led the company to the brewing and distilling giant, Suntory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suntory

Currently the Japanese enjoy the taste of wine as it is, and Akadama sweetwine is regarded as out of fashioned. And this outdated drink suits the situation that Akadama-sensei has been in these days in the anime.

The cocktail Benten drinks is Akawari, Akadama portwine mixed with kōrui shōchū, the purely distilled alcohol.