Dear friends, colleagues and those who have expressed an interest in the FOOD & CULTURE of Japan:
屋台 YATAI Summer Festival Foods
Throughout Japan summertime is a time for matsuri festivals and that means hanabi 花火 (fireworks), mikoshi 神輿 (portable Shinto shrines paraded through the streets during festivals), bon odori 盆おどり(dancing), and yatai 屋台(food stalls at festivals).
Typically sponsored by neighborhood or rural community merchant associations, natsu (summertime) matsuri are most often held on local shrine or temple grounds or in the district’s school yard.
Bon odori folk dancing is often the main attraction at natsu matsuriI. Dancers gather around a raised stage on which drummers stand, pounding out rhythmic tunes that blare from loud speakers. Locals enthusiastically offer on-the-spot tutorials in dance steps and hand-waving motions to passers-by.
Grown-ups and children alike don cotton yukata robes and geta clogs – the matsuri’s first aid station dispenses lots of bandaids for blisters between the toes! Toddlers run about in jacket-and-shorts outfits called jimbei and many babies sport festive happi coats worn over diapers. Children’s geta are rigged with bells that jingle – loudly. In theory this alerts parents to their kids whereabouts but lost-child announcements frequently interrupt folk melodies emanating from the loudspeaker.
Dancing builds thirst and an appetite. Nearby, short-order cooks working yatai food stalls lure matsuri-goers with an enthusiastic chorus: irasshai, irasshai… oishii desu yo!” (come on… try this, its delicious!). There’s old-fashioned, lemonade-like lamuné and cotton candy for the kids; cold beer and ika yaki, griddle-seared squid, for the grown-ups.
A Taste of CulturePROGRAMS
A Taste of Culture offers custom workshops for visitors and residents who wish to learn about Japanese home-style cooking and prepare it for themselves. Details here.
For inspiration and instruction in preparing Japanese food for yourself and others, visit KITCHEN CULTURE. To explore and practice Japan’s washoku wisdom in your own kitchen, visit Kitchen PROJECTS.
Regardless of where you reside, I hope you remain interested in Japan and its food culture.
OBON お盆
Spirits of the departed return to this world for a short, mid-summer visit: OBON. In ritual displays, cucumber horses swiftly transport returning ancestors for their annual visit while the slower eggplant oxen reluctantly carry them back to the after world at the end of Obon.
BIG BOWLS 丼
Colorful domburi big bowls can be assembled quickly with make-ahead soboro(ground meat), eggs and vegetables. Ideas and recipes in the post.
In keeping with the summer festival yatai theme, this month’s kitchen PROJECT is making gingery, griddle-seared squid: IKA YAKI イカ焼き.
Instructions for buying and cleaning fresh whole squid are included in the post and can be downloaded for reference later.
WASHOKU ESSENTIALSbi-monthly column in the Japan Times.
Most recently about Dashi Yakko cool tofu
WASHOKU KITCHEN WISDOM
essays & recipes are posted to The Japanese Pantry, an online store dedicated to making quality artisanal Japanese ingredients available to cooks in the United States. My latest contribution is Turnips with Crumbly Chicken Sauce Enjoy!
Episode 341 (Sept 10, 2024) is about the language used to describe food textures … mouthfeel is often the most challenging element when trying new foods.
Prefer video-based learning? Join me on CRAFTSY
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