Each culture identifies each country. And culture has so many things involved. Food is one of them. For example, the country that I’m living in, Thailand, has a variety of food that attract people from all over the world. Its rich flavors – a mixture of sweetness, sourness, saltness, and spiciness – made people fall in love with their food.
But the country we will be talking about is not Thailand. It is Japan. Yes, we’re going to talk about is Japanese food. Which Japanese food do you like the most? Sushi? Ramen? Okonomiyaki?
As you may already know, Japan is well-known for its rich variety of food. And the secret lies in the way they are cooked. Unlike Thai dishes that simply add seasonings like sugar, vinegar, chilis, fish sauce or others to make the flavor rich (You create your original flavor by yourself!), Japanese people use the cooking methods that really bring out the full flavors of the ingredients. So what are their 5 techniques?
Nama (Cutting)
This method is quite important in Japanese cuisine as it distinguishes Japanese cuisine from other cuisine in the world. A good example is sashimi.. and there’s a lot of ingredients to be eaten raw. In order to cut sashimi beautifully, skillful knife control is required. The chef must also consider how to cut the ingredients so that the diners can eat easily, depending on what ingredients they are.
Niru (Simmering)
This “Niru” method involves submerging the ingredients into “Dashi”, water or liquid seasonings, and adding heat in order to make the ingredients softer and tastier. It helps the chef to cook food healthier too. This is one of the reasons why people often say that Japanese food is healthy and good for losing weight.
Yaku (Grilling)
Grilling involves ingredients being directly exposed to an open flame, or are indirectly heated with oil in a pot or frying pan. Have you ever eaten Yakiniku or Japanese barbeque? Oh I’m sure you will love it…
Musu (Steaming)
Ingredients are heated with steam inside a pot in this steaming process. It is used in a large number of Japanese dishes – An example I can think of at the moment is Chawanmushi, or savory steamed egg custard. I love eating it when I was a kid – it is often see when you go out to eat sushi 🙂
Ageru (Deep-frying)
This “Ageru”method involves using oil and fat to deep-fry ingredients, and high cooking temperatures of 140℃ to 210℃ allow for ingredients to be cooked in a short amount of time without any loss of flavor. You perhaps have eaten Karaage (Japanese styled fried chicken) or Tempura? Why many people get addicted to those food is because of that secret!
Now It’s Your Turn to Cook!
They aren’t that difficult, are they? After you look read this article, why don’t you go on YouTube to check out the Japanese cuisine that you can try cooking today? It’s fun guys. Let’s get the best out of this Pandemic 😀
