British VS Japanese cuisine

What to do you think of British food? Heard they are not so tasty, or boring? Today, I am here to tell you that food in England is quite good. I can say so especially because I spent two weeks staying in England, tried various food there, and found they were much better than I expected; I even enjoyed eating them! We’re, therefore, quite stereotyped by what people say about British food: they say that the only thing we can enjoy is the English breakfast. To find out why British food came to be called in such a negative way, we have to trace a little bit of a historical background about the county. So, I’ll divide up into four aspects of British food.

1. Attitude towards eating: It is often said that British food is plain especially because Puritan religions restricted people from enjoying food, or eating luxurious cuisine. No wonder then they tend to be simple flavored, as the culture dominated people’s lives. It is also said that Victorian attitudes about health and style had very much influence on English people’s eating habits.

「Puritans eating habits」の画像検索結果

2.Influence of France: This goes back to middle ages, where the Norman Conquest brought French cultures into England. Because the English aristocracy ate French food, admired elegant French culture, they needed not to develop their own style of cuisine, and that is also why lots of menu in high-standard restaurants in England are written in French.

3. Industrial Revolution: IR is said to be one of the causes that more English people cared less about food.  As many workers in the city suffered by food shortages and time to spend on eating, they shortened the amount of time on cooking. They were under the severe environment where they spent most of time on working. The most well-known British food, Fish and Chips is developed during these times, being the city workers’ main food. It is also interesting to know the traduitions of British pubs. They are not just places for drink, but you can eat decent British food.  They are usually called “gastro-pubs”. Below are the photo of fish and chips that I ate in one of the oldest pubs in Oxford.

4. Sweets and Afternoon Tea: the culture of the afternoon tea has its roots in England, during the Restoration when Charles the second brought French style into England and enjoyed the custom of tea drinking. After many years tea and sugars became the main factors of imported goods from British Empire and East India Company.

The English traditional Afternoon Tea

If any of these aspects of British food interests you, I recommend that you give it a try and it might change your conventional images of British food!

 

Next, I am talking about the difference in eating habit seen between Britain and Japan from the perspective of both historical background. British mean is often seen as bad for its taste. In some ways, this is not true: if you choose a good restaurant or foodstuff, you will realize that idea is not correct. However, in a way, this is true when we look at British history.

The reason why British meal is not tasteful can be traced to the Industrial Revolution, started in 18th. As a result of the revolution, a huge amount of people moved from farm village to the city such as London, to labor. They spent almost whole day working, not taking much time cooking. In a very limited time, they ate a handy meal such a canned food which was easy to store. This way of eating habit had been established over time as a eating culture, and British consciousness for meal had shifted to the one that nutritious food will do.

Meanwhile Japanese seem to regard eating as important in their lives. In Edo era, ordinary citizens created their own culture which had thrived for a long time. People in Edo relatively could get a job whatever it was: dancing in front of the audience or selling flowers on the sideways could be a job. This way, they made spare time for cooking various types of food money. by earning money. In addition to this, hundreds of years later, Japan was met by rapid economic growth during 1955-74, which accelerated Japanese eating culture: more introduction of western food, diverse foodstuff in supermarkets, removal of traditional extreme labor force. These trends made meal a more and more important factor in life.

Works cited:

http://cravingboston.gbhh.org/article/20151027/learn-eat-puritan-settler

http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-french-cafe-greek-street-soho-district-central-london-england-britain-58041816.html

http://www.filicoriblog.com/usa/the-english-traditional-afternoon-tea/

http://www.projectfind.org/what_s_cooking_high_or_afternoon_tea_what_s_the_difference_and_when_did_it_all_start

 

 

 

Deepen our Love for Holidays!

We all love holidays, but have you ever thought about the meanings of each national holiday? They don’t just exist to celebrate random things; they each have a reason for that day to be a day off. In this post, we have picked up some National holidays inside and outside of Japan which might be interesting.

Japanese Holidays!

In Japan, there are 16 national holidays altogether, which is 6th in the world in number, which may sound surprising because everybody thinks that the Japanese work too much. We can see that the cause isn’t because Japan has no holidays; it’s just their nature!

3rd Monday of September : Respect for the Aged Day                       

This holiday gives us the chance to respect and celebrate elderly citizens who have long devoted to society. “Elderly” usually qualifies for people aged over 65, and organizations put up events where they can get free lunch and life necessities such as soap and toothpaste. It is a cultural event so it sometimes is difficult for foreigners to understand why Japan celebrates such day, firstly because there is no strong seniority system, and secondly because Japan is an aging society, and citizens tend to feel more of their presence than you will in other countries. Republic of Palau also celebrates the exact same holiday, while some other countries celebrate a similar event, for example, the United States has a National Grandparents Day.

5th May : Children’s Day

The Republic of Turkey was the first country to officially celebrate Children’s Day. Later, the United Nations enacted the Universal Children’s Day to promote mutual understanding and welfare of children. Each country has different days and different ways of celebrating this Children’s Day. In Japan people put up carps kites outside their houses so children can face any countercurrents just like them. Even though it is celebrated all around the world, it is only Japan where you can see fish swimming in the sky on that day!

Unique Holidays in the World!

Here are some holidays carried out outside of Japan. There maybe some names you’ve never heard of!

Arrested for Going Out!?

Bali, in Indonesia, has a unique holiday. It is called “The Nyepi Day”. This day is set on the middle or last of March. It is said that this is the day when the God of Hades appears aboveground. On this day, all people (including tourists) are prohibited from going out, using electricity and fire, and working. Every year some people are arrested for going out!

Be careful when you go to Bali in this season.

Animal Fortune-Telling

February 2nd is Groundhog Day. This is a holiday of Canada and the U.S. A groundhog is a kind of squirrels. In winter, groundhogs sleep in their nests, but they wake up in February. We expect the time when the spring comes according to their action after they come out of their nests. If they get surprised at their shadows and go back to their nests, we expect the spring is not coming. If they rush out from their nests without looking at their shadows, we expect the spring is coming soon! This day is not for celebration, but the result of this fortune-telling is broadcasted on TV and newspapers. What a wonderful fortune-telling it is!

Did you enjoy it? If you search for holidays more, you can find more and more unique holidays. It surely helps you understand different cultures!

 

References

http://www.officeholidays.com/countries/japan/respect_the_aged.php

https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/how-to-spend-respect-for-the-aged-day/

https://study.gaijinpot.com/lesson/holidays/childrens-day/

https://www.skyscanner.jp/news/%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E3%81%AE%E3%83%A6%E3%83%8B%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%81%AA%E7%A5%9D%E6%97%A5

http://tabippo.net/world-holidays/

 

 

No TV Drama, No Life!

How are you planning to spend this weekend? Hanging out with your friends? Going to the gym for workout? Playing games with your new Nintendo Switch? Or how about watching foreign shows all day? We will introduce you some of the best TV shows to make your life much more exciting. I swear this article will change your mind and make you stay home. You might as well want to buy some snacks home for your comfy weekend.

Breaking Bad
Breaking bad means to wander from the right path or go against what’s normal which describes perfectly about this show. A high school chemistry teacher who has a DEA agent as a brother got diagnosed in cancer. He wants to leave money for his family before he dies, so decides to sell crystal meth. The main character has a perfect knowledge in chemistry, the depiction of underworld is interesting. I recommend this for people who wants to watch something serious.

 

Mad Men
What makes this show attractive is the setting; America in 1960’s. Their fashion, music and the way they act are glamorous. It was also the time when the marketing industry was growing rapidly and advertising agent was the coolest job. The story is about the daily life of those ad men working in New York. Best acted and engrossing drama.

 

The Fosters
This show is about ‘the Fosters’, a family which has two lesbian mothers and children from different backgrounds. A protagonist of this show is a teenage girl who has been abused by the adopted family and tried to protect her younger brother. After that terrible fact was discovered by the police, she and her brother are sent to another family. That family is ‘the Fosters’. ‘The Fosters’ often face difficulties but overcome them by helping and sometimes fighting each other. This show focuses on LGBT, race, suicide and other serious issues appeared in modern society, but it does not always have a serious mood. There are also heartwarming and funny episodes in the series. I promise that you can find at least one character you can sympathize with!

                                                                                  Quantico
Quantico is a name of the FBI academy. FBI recruits learn plenty of things in the academy to be professional FBI agents. This show has two timelines. One is the past in which recruits struggle with the mission they are given in Quantico. Because every recruit has a complicated background which made him or her aspire to a FBI agent, there are always conflicts with each other. The other is the present in which there was a big explosion and the same recruits who have already graduated from Quantico try to find out the truth of the incident. If you want to spend a thrilling time, you should watch Quantico right away!

Is there any TV show you are attracted to? I hope there is at least one. Be a TV-drama fanatic and spend the best weekend ever!

Japanese Food

Speaking of Japanese food, what do you think of? Some of you may think of sushi, tempura, soba noodles or eel. In fact, these four foods are known as the Big Four of Edo Dining.

They are considered as the Big Four of Edo Dining because the way of eating them today was developed during the Edo period. However, they have been enjoyed since before the Edo period.

Sushi has been eaten since 1000 years ago. The first form of sushi was “narezushi”, which was a kind of fermented food. Narezushi spread from South-East Asia to China and was introduced to Japan with rice cultivation around the Jomon period. Nigirizushi, which is the most famous form of sushi today appeared in the Edo period. It is quite different from narezushi. While narezushi is fermented with salt and rice, nigirizushi uses vinegar whose production began during the Edo period. Nigirizushi won the Edo people’s heart and spread throughout the Edo city.

Tempura was imported to Japan along with Christian missionaries during the Azuchi-Momoyama period. In the sixteenth century, “Nagasaki-tempura” which based on European food was born. Using sugar, salt and alcohol when deep-frying, it had a strong taste. Then, it was brought to the Kansai region in seventeenth century. Finally, it underwent a remarkable change and became popular in the Edo city in the eighteenth century. During the Edo period, tempura developed into almost the same form of modern tempura.

Soba has been grown since the Jomon period. People have eaten soba much longer than rice in Japan. For a long time, soba had been steamed and eaten as a cake. We don’t know when soba was eaten as noodles, but it is sure that soba already existed as noodles in the Muromachi period. In the middle of Edo period, soba noodles came to be boiled and became the same form today.

Eels also have a long history. Its born was discovered in the shell mound of the Jomon period. A boiled eel first appeared in the document written in the fourteenth century. The form of today’s boiled eel called kabayaki was established in the eighteenth century following the appearance of heavy, dark-colored soy sauce. It was born thanks to the combination of high quality cutlery culture, sweet and salty sauce based on soy sauce and mirin and high-grade charcoal.

These foods are loved by not only Japanese people but also foreign people. They are developing now blending foreign culture. For example, California roll was invented in Los Angeles and became famous in the world. We have been enthusiastic about food and enjoyed it. Now, don’t you think you would like introduce more and more wonderful Japanese food to the world?

How about Japanese sweets? Yokan(羊羹), kompeito(金平糖), and nerigashi(練り菓子): many of Japanese sweets are photogenic. However, these sweets would not have existed if there were no trade with Portuguese in seventeenth century. Let’s have a look at the history of Japanese sweets.

Before the arrival of sugar, anko(餡子), sweet bean paste was used as the main sweet ingredient for a long time. Though it is made by red beans now, it was originally made by starch of rice or wheat. When tea ceremony began in fourteenth century, sweets developed well as chagashi(茶菓子), sweets served with tea. However, these chagashi were not sweet at all. Some of them were made by wheat touched with miso, seaweed, lavar, and manju(饅頭) with vegetables in it. Can you believe it?

When Aduchimomoyama Period began in the late sixteenth century, the Portuguese merchant imported many sweets to Japan, such as kasutera, kompeito and biscuit. At the same time, sugar arrived from Portugal. This was the great trigger of the development of Japanese sweets. Japanese people were attracted by those new sweets and the amount of sugar imported to Japan had increased. As the battles come to the end in the early seventeenth century, people had got enough peaceful time to enjoy making sweets. The two main sweets production area were Kyoto and Edo, and people there tried to express Japanese old flavor or seasonal flavor in the sweets.

Japanese sweets keep developing these days. For example, there are some sweets arranged for Western events such as Christmas. Though the photogenic trend of sweets is mainly focused on Western sweets, why don’t you have a look at Japanese sweets? You will feel the artisan skill of Japanese confectionery makers.

http://www.kitchoan.co.jp/site/topics/wagashi.html

http://www.ndl.go.jp/kaleido/entry/25/1.html

http://www.wagashi.or.jp/monogatari/shiru/

http://nihombashi-tokyo.com/jp/history/266.html

http://www.sushiwalking.com/history/

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A9%E3%81%B7%E3%82%89

http://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/29463

http://www.10soba.net/index.php?%E5%8F%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B%E3%81%9D%E3%81%B0%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2

https://unagistar.jp/info/article01.html