JAPANESE MEAL

The Meal

Meals vary according to the needs of the occasion, and appropriate styles develop. The main styles of meal in Japan are the family meal, the packed meal, and the formal meal.

The Family Meal

Ordinary people in Japan started using tables only in the second half of last century. Until then, individual settings of food were served on trays (oshiki) or trays with legs (zen) in front of each person on the floor. This custom has by no means died out and has at any rate ensured, in contrast to the Chinese custom, that food is normally served in individual portions. The main exceptions to this are communal one-pot dishes such as sukiyaki, cooked at table, and the special New Year o-sechi ryōri, which is packed in one set of boxes for all. At a family meal, all the dishes except those that really need to be eaten hot (rice and soup) are placed on the table beforehand, normally in individual portions.

The main exception might be pickles. Since some people like to eat a lot of them and others don’t like them at all, it is more practical to have pickles on a communal plate. Few housewives spend the day considering the aesthetics of arranging three sardines on a plate as a professional chef might do, so the appearance of the food on the table is attractive rather than aesthetically captivating.

The menu is normally the basic ichijū sansai (a soup and three dishes), followed by (or with) rice, pickles, and tea. The three dishes are usually namasu (sashimi or vinegared raw fish), nimono (a gently simmered dish), and yakimono (a grilled dish). These three could be replaced by nabemono (a one-pot dish). Fresh fruit is often served right at the end of the meal with the tea.

The Packed Meal

The boxed meal (bentō) is an excellent and highly adaptable institution. Anything from a simple school lunch or a picnic or a lunch on the train to the haute cuisine of the shōkadō bentō or the somewhat less grand makunouchi bentō (originally designed for eating during the interval of a Kabuki performance) can be packed in a box and taken wherever it is needed. It doesn’t necessarily have to be taken anywhere. There are restaurants, especially in Kyoto, which specialize in bentō meals. In this case, all the food may not be contained in the box, which is but the centerpiece of an exquisite still life. Only hunger could prompt one to disturb the tastefully arranged morsels.

The overriding consideration in making a bentō is to have a variety of different-colored foods and to arrange them in an aesthetically pleasing way. There should be at least ten different items, though the shōjin ryōri vegetarian bentō sold on Kyoto Station Shinkansen platforms contains over twenty items. The rice can be served in a separate box that forms a nest of two boxes. Traditionally the rice is cold, but nowadays many bentō takeaway shops put piping-hot rice in at the last moment.

Formal Meals

Formal meals offer the area above all for intricate rules governing appearance, since it is here that appearance is the most important thing. Ka’ichi Tsuji, one of the great masters of high-class Japanese cuisine writes, “There is nothing more important in Japanese food than arranging it well, with special regard to the color, on plates chosen to suit the food” (辻嘉一 『四季の盛りつけ料理の色と 形』). The absence of any reference to flavor is revealing. Donald Richie, in his highly recommended book "A Taste of Japan", writes, “The food is to be looked at as well as eaten. The admiration to be elicited is more, or other, than gustatory. The appeal has its own satisfactions, and it may truly be said that in Japan the eyes are at least as large as the stomachs. Certainly the number of rules involving modes and methods of presentation indicate the importance of eye appeal.”

There are two main types of formal meal. Firstly, there is the meal that you would typically get at a wedding reception. Here, as much of the food as possible is laid on the table beforehand. Things like soup and hot savory custard are served during the meal. Sushi or sekihan (glutinous rice steamed with adzuki beans, a celebratory and most delicious dish) might be served at the end of the meal, not so much with the intention that the guests should eat it then and there, but that they should take it home.

The menu would be composed on the following basis: zensai (appetizers); suimono (clear soup); sashimi (raw fish); yakimono (grilled food); mushimono (steamed food); nimono (simmered food); age-mono (deep-fried food); sunomono (vinegared foods) or aemono (cooked salad).

The end of the meal is more variable, but as mentioned above, sekihan is likely to be served. Fresh fruit and tea will very likely also be served.

The second type of formal meal is known as kaiseki ryōri. (Ryōri means cookery, food, cuisine.) Actually there are two kinds of kaiseki, indicated by two different ways of writing the expression.

The formal kind is designed to be served at a full tea ceremony and hence is called cha kaiseki. The other kaiseki tends to be a rather jovial drinking party.

In all the formal meals the diner is given no choice. The chef decides the menu, which he does according to strict and elaborate rules, the first of which is that the menu must highlight the season. Then plates and vessels must be chosen to suit the food. The basic rule is that round pieces of food should be placed on a square dish and square or long-shaped pieces of food must be put on a round dish. One needs a lot of dishes, since the pattern and color of the dish should also suit the season. The food is arranged on the dish according to the Japanese rules of moritsuke.

Of course, there are many other kinds of meal to suit different occasions. A traditional Japanese breakfast follows the basic pattern of rice, miso soup, pickles, and side dishes. Picnics, often with a widely varied menu, are also popular.

By Richard Hosking in " A Dicionary of Japanese Food", Tuttle Publishing (an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., 1995, excerpts pp.166-169. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

Share this post