FOOD.
Japanese diet—Vegetables—Sea-weeds and flowers—Fish—Shell-fish—Crabs
and other molluscs—Fowl—Meat—Prepared food—Peculiarities
of food—Fruits—The bever—Baked potatoes and
cracknel—Confectionery—Reasons for its
abundance—Sponge-cake—Glutinous rice and red bean—Kinds of
confectionery—Sugar in Japanese confectionery.
It will be seen from the foregoing chapter that the Japanese diet
consists almost entirely of fish and vegetables. It is true that we
also eat domestic and other fowls, and in Tokyo and other large towns
a quantity of beef and pork, and horseflesh as well, is consumed; but
their consumption is insignificant compared with the part fish and
vegetables play in the Japanese culinary art.
We have a great variety of vegetables. The commonest and most useful
of them is the garden radish, which is pickled or salted, boiled
almost dry with _mirin_, sugar, and bonito shavings, put into soup, or
grated to flavour raw or fried fish. Carrots and turnips, the burdock
and the arrowhead are also boiled and served by themselves or together
on a plate. We boil or put into soup the potato, the yam, and the
taro, of which we have several varieties. Cucumbers are either pickled
or served raw with pepper and vinegar. The egg-plant and the melon are
also pickled or put into soup. We pickle or boil the onion, scallion,
spinach, and lettuce. The kidney, horse, and other beans are in great
favour and dressed in various ways. Mushrooms and several other fungi
growing on trees or on rocks are served with fish or vegetables. The
bulb of the tiger-lily and the rhizome of the lotus are boiled; the
former is very soft, but the latter is hard and indigestible. The
bamboo-shoots, when very young, become soft on boiling and are much
in demand in April; but they grow fast and soon become too hard. Rice
boiled with bits of bamboo-shoot is a favourite food in that
month. The water-shield is held by some people to be a delicacy,
while others esteem as highly the common bracken, snake-gourd, and
water-pepper.
Sea-weeds are also in great demand. Of these the principal are the
_konbu_ (_laminaria japonica_), which is largely exported into China,
and the laver, which is obtained in thin sheets and taken with
soy alone or with rice rolled in it. The cherry-flowers and the
chrysanthemums are also articles of food; the former are salted, put
into hot water, and served in place of tea, while the latter, always
the yellow variety, are either fried with a coating of _kuzu_
(_pueraria Thunbergiana_) or boiled in brine and pressed.
Japan is especially rich in fish, as is to be expected from her
extensive coast-line and great length from north to south. There
are said to be about six hundred varieties of fish in the waters
surrounding the country. Of these the one which is held in highest
esteem is the _tai_, a species of the sea-bream (_pagrus cardinalis_).
It is served in various ways; indeed, so numerous are these ways that
there is extant an old Japanese book entitled “The Hundred Excellent
Methods of dressing the _Tai_.” It may be boiled, roasted, basted,
salted, or taken raw. Most other fish may be similarly treated,
though they may not be considered so delicate. For being taken raw in
thin slices, the fishes esteemed next to the _tai_ are the plaice,
gilthead, tunny, and bonito. Others are mostly preferred boiled. Among
the commonest of these fishes are the gurnard, Prussian carp, common
carp, wels, flying-fish, mackerel, frigate mackerel, horse-mackerel,
mackerel pike, trout, rock-trout, white-bait, sand-fish, goby,
sting-ray, sword-fish, sardine, salmon, sole, hair-tail, goose-fish,
cod, half-beak, yellow-tail, grey mullet, shark, and sea-eel. The
salmon comes to Tokyo salted, while the herring is sun-dried. The
sardine and mackerel pike are usually roasted. The eel is treated only
in one way; it is split from gill to tail, the back-bone is extracted,
and the head cut off; the two sides are laid out flat and bamboo
skewers are passed through them, and they are roasted over a fire,
being from time to time dipped in a gravy of _mirin_ and soy. Tokyo is
especially noted for eels served in this way. The loach is also split
and the bones are extracted; it is served in a pan over a hot-water
bath, with eggs and chips of burdock.
[Illustration: RAW FISH, WHOLE AND SLICED.]
There are also many kinds of shell-fish in Japan. Of the univalves
the principal are the sea-ear and top-shell, while among the bivalves
are the oyster, clam, sea-mussel, razor-shell, cockle, swan-mussel,
otter-shell, and rapana. They are mostly boiled; the clam and
sea-mussel, and others with comparatively thin shells are served in
a bowl of slightly-flavoured hot water, which can hardly be called
soup. The oyster is always shelled and served by itself or with eggs.
Crabs, squills, lobsters, shrimps, and prawns are abundant. The
cuttle-fish and octopus are very common articles of food, and the
pond-snail is appreciated by some people. Sun-dried cuttle-fish are
also very common; they are flat and hard, and are cut into slices
which are roasted and dipped in soy.
Of fowls the variety is somewhat limited. We have of course the
domestic fowl. The most esteemed of all fowls is the crane, after
which come Bewick’s swan, the heron, wild goose, wild duck, common
duck, pheasant, quail, pigeon, woodcock, and water-rail, while
among the smaller birds are the sparrow, lark, and siskin. As we do
not use a knife and fork at table, all fowls have to be cut up before
they are served. A favourite way is to serve them in small slices in
soup; but they may also be brought in with vegetables on a plate. The
commonest method with the domestic fowl and duck is to boil them in
small slices in a shallow pan with bits of onion in a gravy of soy,
_mirin_, and sugar. The pan has a small hollow at a side, into which
the gravy runs so as not to saturate the meat too much. The small
birds are served whole, and when chopsticks fail, the hands and teeth
are brought into requisition.
It is only of recent years that we have begun to eat beef and pork;
but we have in Tokyo a large number of shops where they are sold.
There are two kinds of such shops; one is the regular butcher’s, while
the other is a sort of restaurant where beef is served in the same
manner as the domestic fowl and duck above mentioned. Here _sake_ and
rice are also obtainable. There are many restaurants in European
style; but the cuisine in most of them is non-descript and the dishes
are confined to the simplest kind. The absence of mutton, moreover,
sadly limits, the range of plats.
Though cooking is mostly done at home, no small quantity of prepared
food is bought for the meals. The most important of such food is the
bean-curd. For this the soy bean is soaked in water, ground, steamed,
and strained; and the liquid is allowed to coagulate by the addition
of brine and then pressed in a square box with a cotton-cloth bottom
until the water has been drawn off, leaving behind a soft white curd.
This curd is cut into small slices and put into soup in the morning;
it is sometimes thrown into hot water, and as soon as it is warmed,
dipped into a mixture of soy and _mirin_ and eaten. It is also fried.
Indeed, the bean-curd shares with the _tai_ the distinction of having
a special treatise dealing with a hundred ways of dressing it. Another
favourite breakfast food is the steamed peas, which are eaten with
mustard. Plums which have softened and reddened by being preserved in
perilla leaves are often, after extracting the stones, boiled with
sugar until they become gelatinous. Boiled beans, the egg-plant
preserved in mustard, and ginger in perilla leaves are common
breakfast condiments. Fish and vegetables coated with flour and fried
in rape-oil are favourite articles of diet. Commonest among fried
vegetables are sweet potatoes, leek, and lotus rhizomes, while
lobsters similarly served are highly esteemed. Another favourite is
the flesh of sturgeon minced very fine, seasoned with _sake_ and salt,
and baked. It is made into a roll with a hole through the centre or is
semi-cylindrical with a flat side.
It will thus be seen how completely our diet differs from the
European; and it is no matter for wonder that the other conditions of
life should be as dissimilar. Many Europeans in Japan find our meals
unsatisfying; but at the same time there are not a few Japanese who
do not feel that they have had a full meal unless they finish up a
European dinner with rice and-pickled vegetables. There is certainly
far greater sustaining power in European food, and our medical
authorities urge a more extensive use of animal food besides fish.
Rice and vegetables, it is true, fill the stomach; indeed, one may
even feel surfeited, and yet in a short time the strain disappears and
hunger returns. For this reason coolies and others engaged in severe
physical labour take four or more meals a day. Pickled vegetables are
indigestible; but as they are indispensable at every meal, the natural
result is that dyspepsia is one of the commonest ailments that a
Japanese is subject to. It should, however, be added that it is not
pickled vegetables alone that are responsible for this prevalence of
dyspepsia; for the Japanese, and more especially the citizens of
Tokyo, probably take more food between meals than any other people,
and that too at irregular intervals.
As there is no dessert at a Japanese meal, fruits are commonly eaten
at odd hours, especially by children. In the early months of the year
we have the apple and the orange. The former is mostly cultivated in
Yezo, the most northerly of the larger islands, while the latter comes
mainly from the southern section of the main island. Oranges are
all mandarins with or almost without pips; of these there are many
varieties, and some of them are very sweet. The shaddock is also very
common. There are different kinds of citrons; but they are seldom
eaten by themselves, being like the lemon mostly used to flavour
dishes. Strawberries there are in plenty; but they are mostly watery
and lack sweetness owing to the great humidity of the Japanese
climate, which spoils both fruit and flower, depriving one of taste
and the other of fragrance. Cherries have recently been introduced and
cultivated in many localities; for the Japanese cherry-tree is grown
solely for its beautiful flowers and its fruit is too small to be
eaten. The Japanese plum-tree is also reared for its flowers, but
produces fruit in large quantity; it is hard, and is eaten raw with
a little salt to counteract indigestion, pickled in vinegar, or
preserved in perilla leaves. The Japanese apricot is inferior to the
English apricot and nectarine; and so is the peach which is pointed at
the top and hard-druped. Figs are always eaten raw. The loquat tastes
fairly good, but its large stones leave but little to eat; and the
pomegranate is open to a similar objection that it is too full of
seed for enjoyment. The Japanese pear is different to the European
species; it has not the peculiar shape of the latter, but looks like
a large pippin in shape and colour, only that it is speckled all over
with minute greenish-white spots; it is juicy but comparatively
hard. Acorns of different kinds of oak are parched and shelled. Our
chestnuts do not differ from the European. They are roasted or boiled
unshelled; but when they are shelled and boiled soft, they form part
of an important dish at Japanese dinners. Grapes, too, are plentiful;
they are fair, though of course inferior to European hot-house grapes.
Bananas we get from the Bonin Islands and pine-apples from Formosa.
But the best of all Japanese fruits is the persimmon; it is a
peculiarly Japanese fruit. There are many varieties, some of which are
delicious. Some of the larger sort are thrown into empty _sake_-casks
and left to mellow, while others are peeled, dried, and preserved in
sugar.
As the second meal of the day is taken at noon and the last at
sundown, it is not unusual, especially in summer, to have something at
three or four o’clock. When there are artisans or labourers at work in
the house, they are always given tea with some food about that hour;
and if there is a visitor, a lady or a friend of the family, its
women folk generally manage to have this bever. It may be no more than
confectionery; but the most common food taken on such an occasion is
_sushi_, which is a lump of rice which has been pressed with the hand
into a roundish form with a slight mixture of vinegar and covered on
the top with a slice of fish or lobster, or a strip of fried egg, or
rolled in a piece of laver. As the lumps are small, being seldom more
than two or three inches long, several of them are set before each
person. The favourite fish for the purpose is the tunny, though others
are also largely used. Another common dish for the bever is the soba,
which is a sort of macaroni made of buckwheat; in its simplest form
it is brought on a small bamboo screen laid on a wooden stand; it is
dipped, before eating, in an infusion of bonito shavings flavoured
with a little soy and _mirin_, to which small bits of onion and
Cayenne pepper have been added. The macaroni is also boiled with fried
lobsters, fowl, or eggs and served in bowls. Wheaten macaroni is also
dressed in the same manner; it is much thicker than that of buckwheat.
[Illustration: _SUSHI_ AND _SOBA_.]
But it is in winter evenings that there is a great deal of eating
to while away the dreary hours after the early supper. Children,
students, and others to whom inexpensiveness is a consideration, take
to sweet potatoes which are boiled in slices or baked whole or in
pieces. Another article, equally in favour for its cheapness, is a
kind of cracknel made by baking and dipping small disks of rice or
wheaten flour in soy. Parched peas rolled in salt or sugar and roasted
acorns and chestnuts are also much in demand.
The variety of confectionery is very great. This is due to two causes.
First, it is the custom to take a present with us when we go to visit
a friend whom we have not seen for some time or to pay our respects to
a superior. It may be some fruit in season, or a box of eggs, a brace
of wild ducks or geese, or a case of beer, handkerchiefs, or, indeed,
any article conceivable; but the commonest is confectionery. If one
goes to ask a favour or express thanks for a service rendered, or to
keep oneself in the other’s good books if he is a superior, where, in
short, some personal advantage is sought immediately or prospectively
or has been gained, one naturally makes presents of some value; but if
it is only to pay the compliments of the season and merely to remind
the other of one’s existence, articles of slighter value, such as
confectionery, are given. In the latter case the recipient makes to
the other a similar present when he returns the call. This exchange
of presents takes place among friends, especially at the end of the
year. So general is the custom that on a man with a wide circle of
acquaintances these gifts about the New Year’s tide entail serious
expenses. He may of course send to a friend a present he has received
from another; but he has to be very circumspect how he disposes of
such presents, for it sometimes happens that this repeated passing on
of a gift from one person to another ends in its reverting to the
original donor in a condition by no means improved by its frequent
journeys. Similar presents are made in midsummer, though the custom is
not so general as at the other season.
The second reason for the variety of confectionery lies in the custom
of setting some cake before a visitor. When any one calls and is shown
in, tea is brought before him together with a plate of confections.
The tea is of course drunk, but the cake is more frequently left
untouched; it ought in that case to be wrapped in paper and given to
the visitor to take home, but the rule is not always observed and
the cake is often left to do duty before successive callers until it
becomes too stale for presentation. In a family with children, they
generally manage to make away with it as soon as the visitor is gone.
When, however, a doctor is called in, the cake is always wrapped in
paper and given to him; and the doctor takes it as a matter of course.
These two customs, then, naturally create a large demand for
confectionery of all kinds. The most common cake for making a present
of is a sort of sponge-cake. It is not of Japanese origin, but appears
to have been introduced by the Spaniards in the early days of foreign
intercourse more than three centuries ago. It is put in a cardboard
or wooden box; and, in view of the custom above referred to of passing
a present on from one to another until it grows stale, the best
confectioners in Tokyo now put on the box the date of its sale so that
their reputation may not suffer through the deterioration of their
confection by its repeated travels. The precaution, however, is hardly
necessary as the custom is too widely known for any one who receives
musty sweetmeats to accuse their maker of dishonesty.
[Illustration: A BOX OF SPONGE-CAKE.]
The bulk of confectionery is made of rice, red beans, millet, or
sugar. Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded in a wooden mortar into a
pasty consistency, and left to cool. This is made into little cakes,
which are boiled and eaten with greens in soup at the beginning of the
year and are at other times baked and dipped in soy and sugar. But for
making confectionery, the pounded rice is not allowed to cool as it
is, while hot, soft enough to take any shape. It usually forms the
outer cover of dumplings filled with a sugary mixture. The red bean is
boiled, pounded, and strained through a coarse cotton bag to get rid
of the skin, though the latter is sometimes retained, in which case
the straining is unnecessary, and finally mixed with sugar. This red
bean jam is the most important ingredient of Japanese sweetmeats as
there is in our confectionery no other equivalent of the fruit jam.
Sometimes, however, other beans are substituted for it, especially
when a white jam is needed. The red-bean jam is also used in making
red soup into which small rice dumplings are thrown; this soup is much
in demand, especially in winter, to while away the tedium of long
evenings. The red bean is also boiled with rice to give it a colour;
the red-bean rice is eaten in old-fashioned families three times a
month, on the first, fifteenth, and twenty-eighth. A kind of white
candy is made from a mixture of glutinous rice and rice-yeast.
Agar-agar, or the Bengal isinglass, which is obtained from a seaweed,
is used for making jellies. Starch extracted from the root of the
_kuzu_ (_pueraria Thunbergiana_) is also much employed in confectionery.
Numerous as are the confections made, the more common among them are
the following, which may of course be varied by the addition of other
ingredients. A kind of Turkish delight is made from a mixture of
glutinous rice, syrup, and white candy, boiled and brought into
proper consistency by throwing in a little _kuzu_ starch. By steaming
a mixture of red beans, sugar, wheat, and _kuzu_, we get a
sweet dark-red cake, which is almost as popular as the sponge-cake.
A mixture of glutinous rice steeped in water and rice-yeast left
overnight in a hot-water bath is, after being strained and steamed
with a small quantity of wheat, made into little balls around a lump
of red-bean jam. This is also a very common confection. Caramels are
made with long beans or peanuts inside. By boiling a mixture of
agar-agar and sugar for some time over a slow fire, we get a soft,
translucent jelly which is put into a mould and afterwards cut up.
There are many others of a similar composition, often coloured,
flavoured, or peculiarly shaped; but their principal ingredients are
the articles already mentioned. Japanese confectionery is noticeable
for the large quantity of saccharine matter it contains, which
varies, except in rare cases, from one to three fourths of the whole
composition. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that indigestion
is a frequent result of a too free indulgence in Japanese confections.