[0:01] welcome to taiga's kitchen today i'm
[0:03] going to explain you about different
[0:04] aspects of japanese food so in the last
[0:06] video of japanese geography i got a lot
[0:08] of good feedbacks so i decided to go
[0:10] further and make more of these videos
[0:11] and since this is a cooking channel i
[0:13] thought it was fair to make a video on
[0:15] japanese food because there are so many
[0:16] dishes and so many aspects and so many
[0:18] different types of japanese food and
[0:20] nowadays almost everybody knows sushi as
[0:22] a japanese food or like miso soup and
[0:24] perhaps ramen noodle or gyoza or onigiri
[0:28] or some sort but there are a lot more
[0:30] than that and also because in this
[0:31] channel i've been cooking a lot of
[0:32] chinese influence dishes korean style
[0:34] dishes and also a lot of western style
[0:36] dishes i even made japanese style pasta
[0:39] so you might be a bit confused what
[0:40] really is japanese food or like what
[0:42] really entitles japanese food and so in
[0:44] this video i'll be talking about three
[0:45] main topics first i'm going to talk
[0:47] about japanese food in general but also
[0:49] what makes a dish japanese food and
[0:51] secondly i'll be talking about different
[0:52] categories of japanese food primarily in
[0:54] accordance with the history of japan
[0:56] answered why is japanese food considered
[0:58] healthy or is it really healthy so i
[1:00] hope this video helps you to understand
[1:02] japanese food and maybe get more
[1:03] appreciation for the japanese food so
[1:06] without further ado
[1:07] let's get started
[1:09] [Music]
[1:14] so the first topic is what entitles a
[1:16] dish as a japanese food japanese food or
[1:18] in japanese washoku which is literally
[1:20] translated as japanese food was
[1:22] acknowledged by unesco in 2013 as an
[1:25] intangible cultural heritage of humanity
[1:28] and as the japanese government was
[1:29] applying for this they picked four
[1:30] aspects that makes up washoku one is a
[1:33] respect for variety and fresh
[1:35] ingredients
[1:36] two the nutritional balance three
[1:38] expression of the nature and the four
[1:39] seasons and four close tie with the
[1:41] seasonal celebrations so first aspect
[1:43] with respect to the variety of fresh
[1:45] ingredients so as you may have already
[1:47] saw in the last video of japanese
[1:48] geography japan holds a variety of
[1:51] geographical features as well as
[1:52] different climates this allows the
[1:54] country japan even though the soil is
[1:56] not as rich as many other countries in
[1:58] the world to hold a variety of different
[2:00] ingredients we also have a lot of
[2:01] mountains fields and also ocean so we
[2:04] are able to gather different ingredients
[2:06] from different parts of japan and
[2:08] because of the harsh geographical
[2:10] features we have a big respect towards
[2:11] nature and that's big respect for the
[2:14] food that we are able to receive from
[2:16] the nature and therefore within washoku
[2:18] or japanese food it's very very
[2:19] important that we do justice for the
[2:21] ingredients and this is also connected
[2:23] with the buddhist philosophy and seeing
[2:25] not only the animals but also plants as
[2:28] lives and therefore we try to bring out
[2:30] as much of the ingredients as possible
[2:32] and we also try to throw away as little
[2:34] ingredients as possible
[2:36] and therefore in comparative like french
[2:38] or chinese cuisine where they use a lot
[2:39] of spices or sauces japanese food try to
[2:42] keep it simple this is really to enjoy
[2:44] the fine flavor of each specific
[2:46] ingredients and within the japanese
[2:48] culture and japanese cuisine eating or
[2:50] cooking is considered one of the most
[2:52] important aspect of life because we see
[2:54] eating as an exchange of lives we are
[2:57] receiving a lives from the nature so
[2:59] that we can live further in order to
[3:00] make the world a little bit better place
[3:03] and that's also why we
[3:04] hold our hands like this and say
[3:06] itadakimasu in the beginning and also
[3:09] gotso samadeshta at the end as a small
[3:11] prayer to saying thank you for all the
[3:13] lives and all the work that is put into
[3:15] for the food so the second aspect of
[3:17] washoku
[3:18] is the nutrition balance now with a
[3:20] scientifical advancement we know that
[3:22] our body needs different nutrients
[3:24] vitamins proteins fats and carbohydrates
[3:26] and whatnot and for a longest time
[3:28] people didn't know that consciously
[3:30] about the nutrients but probably through
[3:32] the experience people kind of knew that
[3:34] eating different types of food helps you
[3:36] stay healthy and also because in japan
[3:38] there are a lot of different ingredients
[3:40] it was very important in japanese
[3:42] cuisine that you have a variety of
[3:43] ingredients so in japanese cuisine you
[3:45] try to have inside one meal some from
[3:47] the mountains something from the sea
[3:49] some leaves some root vegetable fruit
[3:51] vegetable and of course always rice
[3:53] maybe some kind of pickles and so even
[3:55] without the science difficult
[3:57] backgrounds japanese people somehow knew
[3:59] that it's very important for your body
[4:01] to stay healthy that you pick up
[4:02] different nutrients and thus for the
[4:04] different ingredients and in japanese
[4:06] cuisine there's a phrase called ichiju
[4:08] sansai meaning one soup and three dishes
[4:11] so if you go to restaurant in japan and
[4:13] when you order a meal you always have a
[4:15] rice and then to that you almost always
[4:17] have some kind of soup and then the main
[4:19] dish and to that at least two kind of
[4:21] side dishes mostly vegetable side dishes
[4:23] so in washoku it is very important to
[4:25] have variety of ingredients and does
[4:27] several dishes on one meal so the third
[4:30] aspect is expression of nature and the
[4:32] four seasons so in japanese culture
[4:34] cooking was considered as art form and
[4:36] chef was considered as an artist where
[4:38] in many cultures shepherd consider as
[4:40] merely a servant so in washoku it is
[4:43] very important that the dishes are
[4:44] presented with aesthetic not just any
[4:46] pretty beautiful way but instead it
[4:48] should be a representative of the nature
[4:50] and also the season as you may have saw
[4:52] in the video of japanese geography japan
[4:54] has four distinct seasons and each of
[4:56] these seasons are divided into six small
[4:58] seasons and so through one year you have
[5:00] 24 seasons actually in japan and
[5:02] therefore when you go to more of the
[5:04] high-end restaurants which i'll explain
[5:06] later you have a really beautiful
[5:07] presentation of the nature of the season
[5:09] of that time and that's also another
[5:10] reason why we have different kind of
[5:12] plates in western restaurants the plates
[5:14] are usually quite simple just white and
[5:16] round but in japan we have different
[5:18] shapes different form and also often
[5:20] with different material you have
[5:22] porcelain you have glass you may use
[5:24] some wood or bamboo or sometimes even
[5:26] just some kind of leaf as a plate and we
[5:29] also do a lot of foraging like i show in
[5:31] the video of horsetail on the firm we
[5:33] also have a lot of ingredients that is
[5:35] only available in certain seasons and so
[5:37] if you go to japanese supermarket
[5:39] there's always a section where they sell
[5:41] some season of food yes of course with
[5:43] technology you can grow pretty much
[5:44] everything throughout the whole year but
[5:46] the japanese people prefer more seasonal
[5:48] ingredients because ingredients that is
[5:50] in the season tastes the best and also
[5:52] has the most nutrients and so a lot of
[5:54] japanese people are keen on what
[5:56] vegetable and more fish are in season so
[5:58] the fourth and the last aspect of
[6:00] washoku is the strong connection with
[6:02] seasonal festivals in japanese culture
[6:04] pretty much every month we have some
[6:06] kind of seasonal festival and most of
[6:07] those festivals would have some special
[6:09] dish that we pretty much only eat in
[6:11] that festival starting with the new
[6:13] years which is one of the most important
[6:14] festival in japan i made a vlog on that
[6:16] so you should check that out there i'm
[6:18] showing different cultural things that
[6:20] we do in the new year and also as a
[6:22] preparation for the new year and the
[6:23] special dish of osechidori which over 99
[6:26] of japanese people eat as we come in in
[6:28] the new years and most of these dishes
[6:30] are only served in the new year's and in
[6:32] march we have girls day in may we have
[6:35] boys day in july we have so-called
[6:37] tanabata in september we have otsukimi
[6:39] this is also connected with the third
[6:40] aspect but washoku is also very
[6:42] important for the seasonal celebrations
[6:45] so these four aspects are the reason why
[6:47] japanese food is special and why
[6:49] japanese food is considered as a
[6:51] intangible heritage of humanity and not
[6:53] just collection of dishes
[6:55] now let's go into the second topic which
[6:57] is a different category of japanese food
[6:59] so three categories are the traditional
[7:01] japanese food semi-modern japanese food
[7:03] and the modern japanese food so this is
[7:05] a categorization that i made up
[7:07] according to the history of japan but i
[7:08] think this just really represents how
[7:10] japanese food was developed and also
[7:12] evolved throughout i think it helps you
[7:14] to understand the japanese food more so
[7:16] the first category of traditional
[7:18] japanese food includes all the food
[7:20] before the year 1868 when the japanese
[7:22] government opened the country to outside
[7:24] world so until that point japan was
[7:26] under a policy of so-called sakoku which
[7:28] means locking in the country restricting
[7:30] all the imports and exports with the
[7:32] outside world except for china portugal
[7:34] and holland and only in one port in
[7:36] nagasaki which is all the way south west
[7:38] of japan during this time of sakoku
[7:40] japan were able to appreciate over 250
[7:42] years of peace where there were no wars
[7:45] no conflicts which is known as pax
[7:47] tokugawana because during that time the
[7:49] government was called tokugawa bakufu
[7:52] and during this time with very little
[7:53] contact with outside world happened very
[7:55] similar to the galapagos effect where a
[7:57] lot of japanese culture boomed so a lot
[7:59] of japanese culture you may know were
[8:01] actually developed in this period of
[8:02] pakistan so like kimono kabuki no
[8:05] theater sumo ukiyoe sado or tea ceremony
[8:09] ikebana or flower arrangement and also a
[8:12] lot of japanese dishes were invented for
[8:14] example the sushi that you know in the
[8:15] form like nigirizushi or makizushi was
[8:17] invented during this period in edo or
[8:19] tokyo because it was very close to the
[8:21] sea and was where the government was was
[8:23] the capital of japan at the time was a
[8:24] lot of wealth were also there so people
[8:26] were able to get the fresh fish and also
[8:28] another category tempura it was actually
[8:30] originally came from portugal the name
[8:32] tempura comes from temperature it means
[8:34] like to mix or to cook until that point
[8:35] japanese people didn't know about deep
[8:37] frying but the people saw the portuguese
[8:38] people we took that culture and invented
[8:41] tempura out of that also key aspect of
[8:43] this traditional food is the lack of
[8:45] animal meat except for chicken because
[8:47] the buddhist tradition prohibited people
[8:48] to eat four-legged animals and so until
[8:51] that point uh japanese people didn't eat
[8:52] any pork and beef and so if it has pork
[8:55] or beef then it's not traditional
[8:56] japanese food so all the food that are
[8:58] included in this category are like udon
[9:00] or soba noodles natto a lot of pickles
[9:03] sushi and tempura of course yakitori
[9:05] because chicken was two-legged animal so
[9:07] it was okay to eat that una don and a
[9:09] lot of the fish dishes and also within
[9:11] this traditional japanese food there are
[9:13] also some subcategories one is called
[9:15] shojin yori which was actually invented
[9:17] by the buddhist monks buddhist monks
[9:18] were following the strict rules of
[9:20] buddhism so they were not allowed to eat
[9:22] animals or fish and so shojin yodi is a
[9:24] strict vegan diet and so if you're vegan
[9:26] then you should go try to find some
[9:28] troji restaurants if you go to japan
[9:30] because finding vegan dishes in japan is
[9:33] quite difficult and the second
[9:34] subcategory is called kaisekiriori so
[9:37] kaisekiyo is a high-end course meal and
[9:39] so it starts with an appetizer and they
[9:41] have first dish second dish third dish
[9:43] they usually have like five to ten
[9:44] dishes they usually cost about fifty
[9:46] dollars or fifty euro for lunch and for
[9:48] dinner it's usually above 100 to to go
[9:51] up to like 500
[9:52] or euro per person so it is very pricey
[9:54] but if you happen to go to japan i think
[9:56] you should definitely try this because
[9:58] the experience is definitely worth it
[10:00] and then another topic category is
[10:01] wagashi which later means japanese snack
[10:04] or japanese sweets these are like
[10:05] daifuku mochi dango oshiruko senbei or
[10:08] rice crackers manju and a variety of
[10:11] so-called neriki which is primarily made
[10:13] with uncle but representing different
[10:15] aspects of nature or like fruits and
[10:18] it's quite very beautiful and these are
[10:20] usually served on the side of a tea
[10:21] ceremony now let's go into the second
[10:23] category of semi-modern japanese suit so
[10:25] these are the dishes that were invented
[10:27] after the opening of country to before
[10:29] the end of the world war ii so after
[10:31] opening the country all the western
[10:33] culture came in the main thing that
[10:35] influenced japanese food was the habit
[10:36] of eating meat so the dish of sukiyaki
[10:39] or shabu-shabu was invented this time
[10:41] and also a lot of nabe or hot pot dishes
[10:43] and within this semi-traditional
[10:44] japanese food there's a subcategory of
[10:46] so called yoshoku which means western
[10:48] style japanese food so these are
[10:50] invented by the chefs who are working at
[10:51] the western style restaurants so those
[10:53] includes like tonkatsu from cutlet
[10:55] koroque or the original name is crockett
[10:57] omoraisu so combining rice in the omelet
[11:00] a japanese style hamburg or like the
[11:02] curry rice so even though curry is
[11:05] originally from india because at that
[11:06] time curry were introduced to japan
[11:08] through the british people so we kind of
[11:10] consider curry as a more western food
[11:12] and therefore is in the category of
[11:14] western japanese food and the last
[11:16] category is the modern japanese food and
[11:18] this is all the food that were invented
[11:20] after the world war ii as world war ii
[11:22] happened and we were in war with primary
[11:24] against america china and britain so a
[11:26] lot of the outside ingredients were
[11:28] banned but after we lost the war at the
[11:30] year 1945 the united states came in and
[11:33] occupied japan for actually seven years
[11:35] and during that time japan was very very
[11:37] poor and america at that time helped us
[11:40] redevelop our country the united states
[11:42] brought us a lot of wheat and also milk
[11:44] products half of that was trying to help
[11:46] us about half of that is probably so
[11:48] that america has more export and through
[11:50] this importer wheat flour we invented a
[11:52] subcategory of this
[11:54] which means powder or flour products so
[11:57] this includes okonomiyaki takoyaki
[11:59] yakisoba which is all primarily made
[12:01] from flour and there's also another
[12:03] subcategory called chuca which means
[12:05] chinese food because before the war we
[12:07] occupy quite a large part of china and
[12:10] as we lost the war a lot of people came
[12:12] back from there and brought the culture
[12:14] from there and that's why we have ramen
[12:15] noodle and gyoza as a japanese food even
[12:18] though they were originally from china
[12:19] this culture of chinese food evolved in
[12:21] japan further and came out to ramen
[12:24] noodle so hopefully this categorization
[12:26] of japanese food helps you understand
[12:27] different aspects the different
[12:28] historical backgrounds of japanese food
[12:30] and maybe next time you cook japanese
[12:32] food or when you go to japanese
[12:33] restaurant you can kind of think of from
[12:35] which era or which category these dishes
[12:37] are from and then you may be able to
[12:39] have a little trivial conversation with
[12:40] your friends
[12:41] and now let's go to the last topic of
[12:43] why japanese food is healthy or is it
[12:45] really healthy so compared to many
[12:47] western countries and especially the us
[12:49] the obesity rate in japan is very very
[12:52] low so you may have seen like a street
[12:53] of japan in like video and some tv or
[12:55] something most people you see are very
[12:57] slim and japan still holds the high life
[13:00] expectancy of 84 years old here i'm
[13:02] going to talk about different aspects
[13:03] and different arguments of why japanese
[13:05] food is healthy and i'll let you be the
[13:07] judge of it the first aspect is very
[13:09] little or no fat in japanese food so
[13:11] there are actually three ways to make
[13:13] something savory one is using fat oil
[13:15] two is using sugar and the third is use
[13:17] of umami in japanese food we try to
[13:19] avoid the first one so think of some
[13:21] dish that you really crave for maybe
[13:22] that is hamburger or like fries or
[13:24] potato chips pizza or like donuts and
[13:27] you realize a lot of them contain a lot
[13:29] of fat and they are very delicious and
[13:31] savory and it's not to say that you
[13:32] shouldn't eat any of those but in
[13:34] traditional japanese food except for
[13:36] tempura we use barely any fat and
[13:38] instead we are conscious about umami
[13:40] which was acknowledged recently as a
[13:42] fifth flavor we incorporate this umami
[13:45] aspect in our cooking to do that in
[13:47] japanese cooking we use a lot of dashi
[13:49] which is a combination of seaweed and
[13:50] fish broth if you want to know more in
[13:52] detail of mommy or dashi please go watch
[13:54] this i'm explaining in detail of what is
[13:56] really umami and how these are
[13:58] incorporated in japanese food so the
[13:59] second aspect is rice over wheat so in
[14:02] japan a lot of people eat rice pretty
[14:04] much every day there are also even a lot
[14:05] of people who eats rice pretty much
[14:07] every meal i love rice and i eat more
[14:09] rice than wheat products there are some
[14:11] studies that shows that rice is easier
[14:13] to be digested but also raise the blood
[14:15] sugar not as much in compared to wheat
[14:18] products and i don't think rice or wheat
[14:20] is not necessarily the rice and wheat
[14:22] themselves but rather what you eat them
[14:24] with so the wheat product like bread or
[14:27] pasta you almost always have some fat
[14:30] content in them and you will also never
[14:32] ever eat wheat product as it is without
[14:34] any sauce or additive to it but rice
[14:37] like a really good rice you could really
[14:39] eat it without any added without any
[14:41] topping to it and a lot of the side dish
[14:43] for the rice they don't necessarily have
[14:45] to be that fatty a lot of them are quite
[14:47] very simple like pickles natto like miso
[14:50] soup none of them have fat in them think
[14:52] of eating bread or pasta just with
[14:54] pickles or like some vegetable somehow
[14:56] it doesn't work and the third aspect is
[14:58] fish over meat a lot of people may know
[15:00] that fish is more healthy than meat and
[15:02] the main reason why is because of the
[15:03] melting temperature of the meat fat and
[15:05] the fish fat b-fat has the melting point
[15:07] above 40 degrees pork fat between 30 and
[15:10] 40 and chicken fat between 30 and 35 so
[15:13] that means b-fat is always as a solid
[15:15] form in your body and therefore this can
[15:17] be cause of your blood system to be
[15:20] clotted whereas the melting point of the
[15:21] fish fat is between 10 to 20 degrees and
[15:24] also the animal fat is high in saturated
[15:26] fatty acid high consumption of the
[15:28] saturated fatty acid raise the risk of
[15:30] high cholesterol and cardiovascular
[15:32] diseases and the fish acid is
[15:34] unsaturated fat and therefore fish fat
[15:37] do not have any of these risks and also
[15:39] a lot of fish is also high in dha blue
[15:42] black fish like sardines mackerel
[15:44] herring and tuna are also very high in
[15:46] this and this dha is said to help to
[15:49] make your brain more active and the
[15:50] seafood is also high in taurine and epa
[15:53] which actually decrease the cholesterol
[15:54] in your bloodstream so eating fish is
[15:56] actually much more healthy than meat
[15:58] but this information will never go into
[16:00] the mainstream media especially in the
[16:02] western cultures because those media are
[16:04] usually funded by the meat industries
[16:06] and they don't want people to know that
[16:08] the fish is healthier than meat which
[16:10] will decrease the consumption of meat so
[16:12] fourth aspect is a fermented food so
[16:14] japanese food contain a lot of the
[16:16] fermented food of course that doesn't
[16:17] mean that other countries don't have
[16:19] fermented food like a lot of cheese or
[16:21] pickle or also fermented food but
[16:23] japanese cuisine contain a lot more of
[16:25] those fermented ingredients especially
[16:27] if you look at the seasoning so soy
[16:28] sauce miso meating sake pretty much all
[16:32] the japanese seasonings are made through
[16:34] fermentation nowadays these fermented
[16:36] foods are considered healthy because
[16:37] they contain a lot of probiotics small
[16:39] microorganisms to keep your digestive
[16:41] system healthy and to help you digest as
[16:43] well and also this process of
[16:45] fermentation helps the ingredients
[16:47] enrich the flavor and also this helps
[16:49] also use less fat in your food and the
[16:51] fifth aspect is drinking tea over soda
[16:54] and juice so in japanese household we
[16:56] would pretty much always have some kind
[16:58] of tea in the fridge nowadays it may be
[17:00] a bit changing most families will never
[17:03] drink soda or juice during a meal
[17:05] there's sometimes green tea or roasted
[17:06] green tea but often is a roasted barley
[17:08] tea this contains no sugar no caffeine
[17:11] this also doesn't kill the flavor of the
[17:13] food and as we know from many studies
[17:15] that a lot of sugar intake is unhealthy
[17:18] so in japan it's quite uncommon to drink
[17:20] juice or soda with your meal and instead
[17:22] we pretty much drink a lot of tea and
[17:24] the last aspect is a balanced meal when
[17:27] you see a japanese meal you would see
[17:28] that you don't have just like one or two
[17:30] dish but instead you have a main dish
[17:32] rice and soup and then to that you have
[17:35] at least like two or three more
[17:36] vegetable side dishes and i don't know
[17:38] how it is in other countries but in
[17:40] japan every school would have a subject
[17:42] called kateka which means household
[17:44] subject inside koteca we learned to sew
[17:47] or like use the sewing machine we
[17:49] learned how to clean the house or like
[17:50] how to clean a toilet sometimes how we
[17:53] manage the money but a lot of times
[17:54] spent for learning about cooking and
[17:56] also for this each school to have like a
[17:58] cooking room and then we learn different
[18:00] basic japanese dishes and to that we
[18:02] also learn the nutritional values of
[18:03] different ingredients how it is
[18:05] important to take in different variation
[18:07] of ingredients and this idea kind of
[18:09] comes back to the first aspect of
[18:11] washoku there's also another reason why
[18:13] japanese food is considered healthy
[18:17] so this is the end of this video hope
[18:18] you enjoyed it i hope this kind of
[18:20] helped you understand the japanese food
[18:22] different aspects of japanese food and
[18:24] historical background to that and also
[18:26] help you to appreciate japanese food a
[18:27] little bit more if you enjoyed this
[18:29] video i'd love it if you could hit the
[18:31] like button for me so that this video
[18:32] can be spread out to more people and if
[18:34] you have any feedbacks or if you have
[18:36] any questions or any requests for this
[18:37] kind of information video please feel
[18:39] free to write anything in the comments
[18:40] below and in the next presidential video
[18:43] i'm thinking of seasonal festivals in
[18:45] japan and food connecting to that so
[18:47] please subscribe so that when that comes
[18:49] out it gets notified to you and also i
[18:51] really appreciate it if you could share
[18:52] my channel and my videos with your
[18:54] friends and families otherwise i look
[18:56] forward to you in the next video
[18:58] bye