Читать книгу YO Sushi: The Japanese Cookbook - Kimiko Barber - Страница 6

Some years ago I was fortunate enough to dine with a high-ranking Japanese official. As we traded views about world affairs, he suddenly confessed to me the secret of Japanese diplomacy. “This piece of sushi,” he admitted somewhat ruefully, “has done more for Japan’s reputation than all my official diplomatic efforts.” He was perhaps too modest, I replied, but somehow I felt he had uttered a profound truth about the global influence of Japanese cuisine.

When I first came to England as a teen in the early 1970’s, there were no more than a dozen Japanese restaurants in the entire country. Now there are more than a hundred in London alone, helped wildly by the popularity of YO! Sushi. In the ten years since the first YO! Sushi opened on Poland Street, Soho, there has been a Japanese food revolution. Today you’ll find packs of sushi available next to sandwiches on supermarket shelves, there are takeaway sushi chains, I can order sushi deliveries direct to my door and my laptop no longer tries to spell-check ‘sushi’ into a girl’s name. All this is beyond my wildest imaginings.

These days, I no longer have to make long treks to find the Japanese ingredients I grew up with – so many are now easily available in even remote towns and villages, and those that aren’t I can order online. This is what helps make the writing of YO! Sushi The Japanese Cookbook so exciting for me – I know that if I am asking you to find a certain ingredient, you’re more than likely going to be able to source it fairly easily. I want to help demystify Japanese cooking at home, the way YO! Sushi has done for the restaurant diner.

To the uninitiated, Japanese food may seem intimidating or overly complicated to prepare. While it is true that some dishes require an attention to detail, there are so many dishes, including the sometimes mysterious sushi, that even the most inexperienced home cook can prepare. The main point to understand is that the basic principle of Japanese cuisine is to enhance, not to change what nature offers. This means that food is prepared and eaten, whenever possible, in its natural form. In Japan, we say ‘less is more’ and this applies to our ways of cooking.

The philosophy of Japanese cuisine is encapsulated by the ‘five principles’: five colours, five tastes, five ways of cooking, five senses and five attitudes. The first three cover the practical sides of cooking so that a meal is balanced and nutritious. The last two are more esoteric and philosophical.

 The five colours preach the virtue of having five coloured ingredients – white, red, yellow, green and black (which includes dark brown and purple), to provide a balanced and nutritious menu.

 The five tastes means a meal should combine a harmonious balance of saltiness, sourness, sweetness, bitterness and umami – the fifth sense of taste that was first formulated in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda at the Tokyo Imperial University. Although there is no direct translation in English, umami describes a subtle savoury flavour which is found in many foods such as meat, fish, seaweeds, vegetables and cheeses.

 The third principle urges cooks to use five different cooking methods – boiling, grilling steaming, frying and combining flavours.

 The fourth deals with the sensual elements of food. Eating Japanese food engages all five senses, not just taste, which is in fact the last element after scent, vision, sound and feel.

 The final principle, five attitudes, is more spiritual and is based on Buddhist teachings: a man should respect and appreciate all human efforts and be grateful and humble of nature.

 If all of this sounds too profound, you need not worry. Most young Japanese people today would be unable to recite, let alone explain, the big philosophical fives of our cuisine. What we do have is an innate, almost instinctive sense of composing a meal or choosing from a restaurant menu to eat a well-balanced harmonious meal – it is in our culture, it is in our blood!

So, how should you apply these principles in your own kitchen? The answer is to keep it simple. Choose the freshest and the best seasonal ingredients you can possibly buy from your local shops and markets and you are set for a winning start. Remember, the idea is not to change your ingredients but to bring out their best by doing less, not more. Let nature’s offerings speak for themselves.

My aim for this book is to encourage you to take the fun and inclusive YO! Sushi dining experience into your home kitchen. The book is organised so that you can start with the basics and expand your repertoire from chapter to chapter as you gain experience. I invite you to join me in the pleasures of cooking Japanese food and to share it with your family and friends.

Kimiko