something about japanese food

I just finished Micheal Pollan's new book, Cooked; a natural history of trasnsformation. I thought it was boring at the beginning, but as usual with his books i found myself quite satisfied by the book at the end.

The final chapter is about fermentation. It reminded me of a famous japanese prof specializing in fermentation. I think he still has a column in Nikkei. He always talks about funny cooking stories including his experimental dishes. His name is Takeo Koizumi, and i used to read his books with much passion.



I remember Pollan is not fond of natto which is all time favorite for japanese people

I think many non- japanese people think it is revolting food is that .sticky like this.

 I think to like something like natto one also needs to like the smell of freshly cooked (boiled or steamed) japanese rice. Koizumi writes in a book that the smell of cooking rice contains kind of sulfureous smell which goes well with a certain type of fermented foods like natto, miso soup and soy source. for instance, i think western people cant handle the taste or smell of japanese pickled radish called takuan because of its sulfur rich smell!

On the other hand, he continues, people in the west prefer smoky smell since they eat baked stuff like bread or grilled meat. So i think the smell of cheese is  good much for baked stuff, i mean bread. it is interesting how our perception towards good smell or bad smell depends on cultures in which we live.

And Koizumi also said japanese people like slimy food including natto, raw yum potato, seaweed, raw egg and so on. they all go well with short grain rice cooked simply in a pot. I think it is related to the content of starch in a grain. As many japanese, eating hot rice with slimy food is such a confortable moment especially after drinking!(i think this is my personal opinion?!) I remember when my father made a special yum potato liquid which had soy source and some doshi for lunch after schoon on a Saturday. He then said " as long as we have this, we can eat rice forever!"

In the course of reading Pollan's new book, i was much inspired and I tried to make own yogurt. It was a pleasant taste although I don't like dairy products in general. Fermentation is just like a magic. How fascinating microbes are! Our food or food culture owes much to the invisible guys. wish we can have actual conversation with them.

And I am also interested in home brewing. Here in Japan, home brewing is strictly prohibited by law. I think it is just out of date and absurd to sustain such an old law from the Meiji period. We are deprived of brewing homemade beers no matter how we love beer. Industrially made beers tastes so general and I miss the taste of beers I had outside of Japan.

After having some shochu (it is also a gift from microbes), I am bit tipsy so I should finish my meal with a cup of rice with some natto (product of fermentation) with say source (you know, fermented product!).

it's just heavenly......