INTERNATIONAL CUISINE - WEEK 10 (JAPANESE CUISINE)

Introduction Japanese Cuisine

-       In week 10, we have covered the Japanese cuisine. The cuisine that we learn is bento that has Japanese rice with chicken karage, tempura, salad and teriyaki sauce. For the sushi we have do three type of sushi that is, California sushi, onigiri sushi and makizushi sushi.

History of Japanese Cuisine

-       Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of social and economic changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan (和食 washoku) is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes; there is an emphasis on seasonal ingredients. Side dishes often consist of fish, pickled vegetables, and vegetables cooked in broth. Seafood is common, often grilled, but also served raw as sashimi or in sushi. Seafood and vegetables are also deep-fried in a light batter, as tempura. Apart from rice, staples include noodles, such as soba and udon. Japan also has many simmered dishes such as fish products in broth called oden, or beef in sukiyaki and nikujaga.

Dishes inspired by foreign food—in particular Chinese food like ramen, fried dumplings, and gyōza—as well as foods like spaghetti, curry, and hamburgers have become adopted with variants for Japanese tastes and ingredients. Historically, the Japanese shunned meat, but with the modernization of Japan in the 1880s, meat-based dishes such as tonkatsu and yakiniku have become common. Japanese cuisine, particularly sushi, has become popular throughout the world. In 2011, Japan overtook France in number of Michelin-starred restaurants and has maintained the title since.

-       Bento (弁当 bentō) is a single-portion take-out or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento holds rice or noodles, fish or meat, with pickled and cooked vegetables, in a box. Containers range from disposable mass-produced to hand-crafted lacquer ware. Bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋 bentō-ya), railway stations, and department stores. However, Japanese homemakers often spend time and energy on a carefully prepared lunch box for their spouse, child, or themselves.

Bentos can be elaborately arranged in a style called "kyaraben" ("character bento"). Kyaraben are typically decorated to look like popular characters from Japanese animation (anime), comic books (manga), or video games. Another popular bento style is "oekakiben" or "picture bento". This is decorated to look like people, animals, buildings and monuments, or items such as flowers and plants. Contests are often held where bento arrangers compete for the most aesthetically pleasing arrangements.

There are similar forms of boxed lunches in Asian countries including the Philippines (baon), Korea (dosirak), Taiwan (bian tang in Mandarin and “bendong” in Taiwanese) and India (tiffin). Also, Hawaiian culture has adopted localized versions of bento featuring local tastes after over a century of Japanese influence in the islands.

-       The history of sushi began with paddy fields in Asia, where fish was fermented with salt and rice, after which the rice was discarded. The dish is today known as narezushi, and was introduced to Japan around the Yayoi period. In the Muromachi period, people began to eat the rice as well as the fish. During the Edo period, vinegar rather than fermented rice began to be used. In pre-modern times and modern times, it has become a form of fast food strongly associated with Japanese culture

The earliest form of sushi, a dish today known as narezushi, has its probable origin with paddy fields along the Mekong river in Southeast Asia. The prototypical narezushi is made by lacto-fermenting fish with salt and rice in order to control putrefaction. Spreading southwards down the Mekong, narezushi then entered Austronesia. In Japan the dish's distribution overlaps with the introduction of wet-field rice cultivation during the Yayoi period. Narezushi appears in the Chinese dictionary in the 2nd century CE as the character sa (鮓, pickled fish with salt and rice) which was during a period in which Han people were expanding south of the Yangtze river, adopting the food from the non-Han minority peoples

The Japanese preferred to eat fish with rice, known as namanare or namanari (生成, なまなれ, なまなり, semi-fermented). During the Muromachi period namanare was the most popular type of sushi. Namanare was partly raw fish wrapped in rice, consumed fresh, before it changed flavor. This new way of consuming fish was no longer a form of preservation but rather a new dish in Japanese cuisine. During the Edo period, a third type of sushi was introduced, haya-zushi (早寿司, 早ずし, fast sushi). Haya-zushi was assembled so that both rice and fish could be consumed at the same time, and the dish became unique to Japanese culture. It was the first time that rice was not being used for fermentation. Rice was now mixed with vinegar, with fish, vegetables and dried food stuff added. This type of sushi is still very popular today. Each region utilizes local flavors to produce a variety of sushi that has been passed down for many generations. Today's style of nigirizushi (握り寿司), consisting of an oblong mound of rice with a slice of fish draped over it, became popular in Edo (contemporary Tokyo) in the 1820s or 1830s. One common story of nigirizushi's origins is of the chef Hanaya Yohei (1799–1858), who invented or perfected the technique in 1824 at his shop in Ryōgoku. After the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923, nigirizushi chefs were displaced from Edo throughout Japan, popularizing the dish throughout the country.

CONTENT

Recipe: Bento, Rice with Chicken Karage, Tempura, Salad & Teriyaki Sauce

Karage Chicken Batter  

·         All purpose flour (100gm)

·         Corn Starch (1 tbsp)

·         Salt (1 tsp)

·         Cold Water

Tempura Batter

·         Corn Starch (1 tbsp)

·         All purpose flour (100g)

·         Egg yolk (1 nos)

·         Cold Water

Chicken Karage Marinating

·         Ginger (2 tbsp)

·         Soy Sauce (1 tbsp)

·         Lemon (1 tbsp)

·         Vinegar (1 tbsp)

·         Garlic (10 gm)

Teriyaki Sauce

·         Soy Sauce (1/4 cup)

·         Orange Juice (1btsp)

·         Ginger (1tbsp)

·         Corn Starch (1btsp)

·         Butter (1 ½ cup)

·         Onion (10gm)

Method

1.    Firstly, do the chicken karage and tempura batter and set aside. After that, can do the teriyaki sauce, the ingredient that was used to do teriyaki sauce is soy sauce, orange juice, ginger, corn starch, butter and onion. Cook until cooked and set aside.

2.    Cook the Japanese rice for the rice of bento, 2 cup rice of Japanese rice and the 1 cup of water and cook.

3.    Marinate the chicken karage used the ingredient ginger, soy sauce, lemon, vinegar and garlic and set aside

4.    Cook the shrimp used the tempura batter, before cook the shrimp make sure remove the skin of the shrimp and cook in deep fry pan, cook until it golden colour or until the shrimp cooked.

5.    Cook the marinate chicken karage used karage batter in the deep fry pan, make sure the fire in the low to make sure the chicken was cooking.

6.    For the salad used the asparagus, carrot, cabbage, tomato and radish. The asparagus, carrot and radish cook used the batter. For the tomato just cut in slice same as the cabbage. After finish all, set aside

7.    Do the omelette for the side dish for the bento, the ingredient for the omelette is egg, milk and salt, cook in the right way to make sure that is omelette.

8.    After finish all, can make the bento used your creative and your own style. Finish and can serve.

Recipe: Sushi 

·         Japanese rice (1 cup)

·         Japanese cucumber (1 stick)

·         Carrot (1 stick)

·         Crabmeat (1 stick)

·         Seaweed (1 pieces)

·         Wasabi (1tsp)

·         Soy Sauce (1 tbsp)

·         Salt (1 tsp)

Method

1.    Firstly cook the Japanese rice, 1 cup of Japanese rice and half of water.

2.    Cut the carrot and Japanese cucumber into batonnet cut.

3.    The crabmeat blanches and put in the ice.

4.    After that, take the seaweed and put the Japanese rice, put the carrot, Japanese cucumber and crabmeat and then roll that.

5.    Cut the sushi into small roll and can serve.

CONCLUSION

-       In the end of the class, we have learnt the student must prepare their self before entire the class. Other than that, the communication is so important for the student to communicate to other student. More than that, the important is the well preparation before class because the well preparation is the started for the success of the work. Other than that, in the end of class, we have learnt how to become the SOD in that week, the important part was SOD do is they must good that to attract and find the customer and they must deliver the order to the right customer.