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a taste of japan
By Jac Taylor
Published in the October-December 2011 issue.
Know your okonomiyaki from your takoyaki? Your soba from your shabu-shabu? Read on for tips on what to eat and where to eat it when you’re touring Japan.
I didn’t think I was going to have problems choosing healthy meal options while I was in Japan but here I am among local holidaymakers, strolling along the car-free, deer-filled streets of Miyajima Island just off the coast of Hiroshima, looking at an instant heart attack on a stick.
The island is famous for its momiji manju, or maple cakes: dainty buns perfectly shaped like maple leaves to reflect the beautiful autumnal colours displayed here. Traditionally, the buns are filled with red-bean paste, but to keep the younger crowd happy, bakers have started stuffing them with other deliciously gooey substances including cream cheese, chocolate and custard.
With so many shops competing for the tourist yen, producers started getting creative, outdoing each other. Forget single, perfectly formed maple cakes, individually gift-wrapped – put three or four on a stick instead. Then batter them and fry them. Create a machine that spits out these golden nuggets of evil every few seconds and put it on display in the front window of your shop, accompanied by plastic maple leaves on all sides to remind people of what initially inspired these treats.
Handing over my yen, I’m reminded uncomfortably of that Scottish delicacy, the deep-fried Mars Bar, infamous for its sheer excess. I promise myself that a little later, I’ll walk up the mountain at the centre of the island to atone – then I take a bite. And another. And another.
Japan may be home to some of the world’s longest-living people – Okinawans are renowned for their diet of rainbow-hued vegetables, fish and soya products, which in turn rewards them with long lifespans that frequently extend into triple figures – but that seems as unlikely now as the prospect of me being able to combat my sudden rapid heartbeat with anything other than a siesta.
Such experiences are as fundamental to the tourist experience in Japan as visiting famously sacred shrines or soaring Edo-period castles. In fact, it’s one of the best ways to discover the country – touring with your tastebuds.
In Kobe, of course, beef is king. But over on Shikoku, Japan’s fourth-largest island, it’s all about fish, prepared in huge sashimi platters or seasoned with spring onions and rice vinegar. On Kyushu, further south, they love their steamboats, pork belly and sushi made with sake rather than rice vinegar. And there are so many other specialties, from the divine to the bizarre: wild boar steamboat or horsemeat sashimi, perhaps? Or maybe fugu, the poisonous puffer fish that takes skilled preparation to make it palatable?
A stop pretty much anywhere in Japan will bring with it at least one culinary adventure. And if you don’t like it, jump on a train and within half an hour, you’ll be at a destination with a completely different cuisine and a distinct list of specialties.
Still, you need a starting point, and inexpensive flights from Australia are dropping thousands of us right into the belly of the beast, so to speak – in foodie hub Osaka, the capital of Kansai and the heart and soul of Japanese gourmandise.
Osaka is a city dedicated to living well, arguably setting the standard for food throughout the country. Restaurants are everywhere, serving Osakan specialties for every meal, with other regional dishes very much under-represented by comparison.
A flat spatula hanging outside one restaurant lets you know that it serves okonomiyaki, a dense pancake made from a grated yam-and-cabbage dough and smothered in every topping imaginable, from octopus legs to kimchi or cheese, and finished with Japanese mayonnaise and wafer-thin katsuobushi (bonito fish flakes) that dance for you in the heat haze rising off the entire concoction.
See a streetside bar with a giant goggle-eyed plastic ball outside and you’ll have found a place serving beer accompanied by takoyaki balls – gooey, fried-octopus-flavoured batter balls that are ridiculously moreish, and taste better with every beer you drink.
The kids of Osaka are so ensconced in the foodie culture that even their mobile phones sport plastic charms of okonomiyaki sitting on spatulas, ready to eat – I saw babies playing with soft toys in the shape of takoyaki balls replete with eyes and legs. But travel even a short distance out of Osaka and you’ll find those same Kansai delicacies taking on different forms.
Go even farther – say, into Hiroshima – and the okonomiyaki becomes a layered mound of the separate ingredients – an impressive heap of cabbage and batter with strata of yakisoba noodles and fried egg vying for airspace, criss-crossed with a dizzying amount of sauce. It’s a dish that belies the common conception that the Japanese are minimalist in every way.
And if that whets your appetite, you’re ready for Okonomi-mura, a food theme park in Hiroshima, voted the top destination of its kind for families in Japan and devoted to okonomiyaki. Here you’ll find around two dozen restaurants almost exclusively dedicated to the dish, each establishment using slightly different ingredients and taking the idea of serving a “niche market” to a whole new level.
Of course, it’s not just geography that governs the breadth of Japanese food. While trendy urbanites in the West are rediscovering the ancient art of using seasonal produce, once again celebrating chefs who source the freshest, most appropriate food for the time of year, their foraging is nothing compared to the rock-solid marriage that exists between Japanese food and seasonality.
One of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had in Japan was a good kaiseki-ryori. This is as much a work of art as a meal: dish after simple dish, each presented in a different kind of bowl or on a plate hand-picked by the chef to complement the whole; as you kneel at a low table on the tatami-matted floor of your restaurant or ryokan (inn), you’ll see the collection of petite platters come together, almost like a puzzle, before you. A cube of tofu, freshly steamed in broth in a shiny blue ceramic bowl, may sit next to a portion of conger eel, marinated and stretched across a matte black platter, accompanied by a piping-hot broth in a lacquered container alongside pickled vegetables, creamy mini-salads, meticulously placed slices of sashimi and maybe even a hotpot.
But wherever you experience your kaiseki, you’ll find that what brings it all together is the array of flowers, herbs and leaves placed precisely among the dishes. Sometimes they’ll be edible, sometimes not, but always they will be chosen so as to clearly place the meal within the rhythm of the year.
An autumnal kaiseki might have a single red maple leaf – just like those cakes back on Miyajima Island – decorating an otherwise plain platter; spring could see tiny daisies or light green unfurling fern sprigs garnishing your fish; you might even find vegetables on your plate, carved and coloured to resemble animals that represent the season.
An interesting quirk of Japanese foodie culture is that generally, the more you pay for your kaiseki, the smaller your meal will be. I still remember my dinner at Kozue restaurant in the lofty Park Hyatt Tokyo hotel. Among the earthenware and lacquerware dishes put before us – the elaborately kimonoed service staff carefully placing each one on the table and turning it just so – the main dish arrived. The lid was removed with a flourish to reveal the tiniest morsel I’ve ever laid eyes on: the single liver of a filefish, presented simply on a leaf and measuring no more than seven centimetres in length. Served up to feed two people.
Happily, each nibble was an explosion of amazing flavour – a very tiny one.
If all that sounds too subtle, time your visit to Japan to coincide with cherry blossom season. Falling sometime in March or April, depending on where you are in Japan, the event sees the first cherry blossoms of the season burst forth in parks around the country – accompanied, of course, by an orgy of cherry- and blossom-flavoured dishes at every sweet shop and supermarket, and even in vending machines.
While the country’s ancestors reportedly celebrated the season back in the seventh century AD by drinking sake and writing poetry, Japanese revellers today tuck into seasonally available cherry-blossom Sakura Kit-Kats, cotton candy and chewing gum, plus éclairs, macarons and cake rolls filled with rich cream. Bakeries experiment with mountains of cherry-blossom-scented meringues, blossom-shaped buns and flavoured rice cakes…
The list goes on and on, from the traditional to the tacky. But there is no doubt that the exuberance and excess of all of these treats add another dimension to this most important of Japanese festivals. As the local saying goes, “Hana yori dango,” which means, “I would rather eat sweet dumplings than view cherry blossoms.” •
Photography by Jac Taylor and courtesy of the JNTO.
TRAVEL FACTS
getting there
Jetstar flies every day to Osaka and Tokyo from most Australian cities, via the Gold Coast or Cairns. 131-538; jetstar.com/au
JAL flies from Sydney to Tokyo, daily. 1800-802-228; au.jal.com
getting around
Japan’s rail system is among the best in the world, with bullet trains travelling between Tokyo and Osaka in around two-and-a-half hours and on to Hiroshima in another hour and a half. Ferries run regularly from Hiroshima to Miyajima Island. japantravel.com.au
All Japan Tours offer guided trips around the country.
61-2/9436-4891. alljapantours.com.au
when to go
Japan’s cherry-blossom season runs from January to May, depending on the location, but occurs in most parts of Japan over March and April; check the current year’s dates before you travel, as accommodation books out early around this period.
where to stay
Traditional Japanese inns, or ryokans, range from basic to luxurious and are the best way to experience a distinctly Japanese way of life. Many good ryokans offer multi-course kaiseki, served in your room. japaneseguesthouses.com
where to eat
Okonomi-mura Okonomiyaki Village food theme park is situated in Hiroshima city, a few minutes’ walk from the streetcar stop at Hatchoburi. okonomimura.jp
Or, for a splurge – and one of the best-regarded kaiseki in Tokyo – visit Kozue restaurant at the Park Hyatt Tokyo.
81-3/5322-1234; tokyo.park.hyatt.com
further information
For tips on travelling around Japan, contact the Japan National Tourism Organisation. 61-2/9279-2177; jnto.org.au
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