rice, but raising it to a fi ner and more
spiritual level. Mochi is consumed
during the New Year period while
sake plays a very important role in
religious festivals. Rice is the indisputable central staple
of Japan. Rice is even made into
noodles, using a technology that
was introduced from China in the 8th
century. Only later were noodles made
from fl our introduced, called udon,
which were popular in western Japan.
Ramen are a more recent invention.
Starch, usually rice or noodles, form
the substructure of Japanese cuisine.
In its long history, Japan has had many prohibitions on meat eating.
The fi rst, from 675, prohibited eating cattle, horses, dogs, monkeys,
and chickens. The Japanese seem to have taken the Buddhist
prohibition against killing more seriously than any other Buddhist
peoples, especially in the 8th and 9th centuries, when eating any and
all mammals was forbidden. Occasionally, some people hunted
birds or game, but as a rule, animals were not raised for meat as
elsewhere in the world.
The Japanese ate lots of fi sh. Only strict Buddhist monks avoided
fi sh. Japan is surrounded by water, so the ideal was fi sh as fresh as
could be found. Raw fi sh in thin slices (namasu) has always been
eaten in Japan, but the practice of dipping sashimi in soy sauce
with wasabi only became popular in the 17th century. Soy sauce
sometimes masks the pure fl avors, especially of more delicate fi sh.
Sushi, in its original form (nare-zushi), was very different from
what it is today. It started out as a way to preserve fi sh for several
years. A bite-sized piece would be salted and rolled in rice fl avored
with vinegar and then left to cure. After it was preserved, the
Mochi is a Japanese rice
cake that is pounded into a
paste and then shaped.© iStockphoto/Thinkstock.