Japan Reviewed – Manga, samurai, cooking and more

The College Textbook on Tea

I used to live about twenty minutes by train outside of Uji, the heart of Japan’s tea culture. Whenever I had out-of-country visitors, I would always take them to Uji, not only because it is one of the most beautiful and well-preserved of Japan’s old merchant towns, but the experience of walking down Byodo-in Omotesando street and stepping into century-old tea houses and getting a tea tasting from some of Japan’s highest ranked tea masters is something that can be had no where else.

So imagine my delight when I was flipping through “The Story of Tea,” and there was one of those places I used to visit, the 370-year old tea trader’s house of Furon Izumi-en! Seeing that picture assured me that “The Story of Tea” had got it right, and that Mary and Robert Heiss were people I could trust as tour guides through the various worlds and cultures of teas.

Considerably more than just a book on tea, “The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide” is like a college textbook on tea. It is a large and heavy and dense tome that starts in the farthest known or speculated past of tea’s history, from the initial chewing of wild-growing leaves as a stimulant, the modern and efficient factory farming of the plant people once fought wars over. There is almost no aspect of tea that is not touched in this book, including the often overlooked tea cultures of Vietnam, Korea and Africa. It feels like if there is a tea plant growing in someone’s backyard in some part of the world, the Heisses have been up there and had a taste.

Some of the information is general enough to be found in any tea book, but the details of manufacturing, of the region-specific elements known as terrior, and even a scientific look into levels of caffeine in various types of tea were new to me. There is some repetition to be found between chapters, which I appreciated because so many of the Chinese names were unfamiliar that I needed them to be explained again. Although I have experience and knowledge of Japan and Japanese tea, there was much of the tea world I did not know, and “The Story of Tea” provided that in spades. (I am especially obliged for introducing me to Lapsang Souchong, a new favorite that I had never tried before.)

Aside from the main chapters of A Brief History of Tea,” “Manufacturing: From Fresh Leaves to Distinctive Tea,” and “Journeying Along the Tea Trail,” there are several smaller chapters that work almost like an appendix, covering such topics as “Cooking with Tea,” “Brewing the Perfect Cup,” and “The Health Benefits of Tea.” I appreciated these smaller chapters as much as the large ones, and I especially appreciated how the Heisses were quick to point out that most of the perceived health benefits of tea are unproven. All we really know for sure is that tea is not bad for you.

Like many books of this type, however, “The Story of Tea” is definitely a book with an agenda and that was the only place I had a problem with it. The Heisses own an import tea business dealing in specialty teas, and they are definitely not without bias. They constantly promote the quality of “Orthodox tea” which has been prepared by traditional methods over “CTC (Cut-Tear-Curl) tea” which is machine processed for bulk production. There are even a few appeals giving cost break-downs of price per cup of tea when buying twenty dollar quarter pounds versus the price per cup of buying a twenty dollar bottle of wine.

And like many books of this type, by promoting more expensive teas they are also selling the romance of tea, of misty mountain tops with century-old tea trees picked by local villagers who have had no other life for generations. While these aspects of tea are fun and enjoyable, I find it does not paint a real picture of how tea is enjoyed worldwide.

Even with the delights of Uji just twenty minutes away, most of the Japanese people I know brewed their tea from a pack just like everyone else. The austere rituals of the tea ceremony may be fascinating, but they are practiced nowadays by only a few and then only on rare occasions. As much fun as it is to let words like Green Dragon Pearl Tea and Tie Guan Yin Oolong Tea slip through your mouth, the truth is they are completely outsold by Stash Premium Green Tea.

So “The Story of Tea” is really the story of expensive handmade teas, and not the story of the tea that 99% of tea drinkers imbibe daily. No Lipton’s here, nor Bigelow nor Tazo nor Snapple. Nothing that doesn’t carry that twinge of romance.

That aside, I don’t mind drifting into the romance of tea for awhile, and sipping thoughtfully from my Aritayaki tea set. Even though it is only a peephole into the worldwide tea industry, I would probably have gotten bored if the Heisses had taken me on a tour of a modern processing facility and doled out figures of profits and margins.

Treasures of the kitchen cabinet

After being so impressed with Kate Klippensteen and Yasuo Konishi’s Japanese Kitchen Knives: Essential Techniques and Recipes, I wanted to check out their previous kitchen collaboration “Cool Tools: Cooking Utensils from the Japanese Kitchen.”

This is quite a different book from “Japanese Kitchen Knives.” There, they were collaborating with chef Hiromitsu Nozaki and the book was about one-third knife history and information, one-third knife skills course, and one-third cook book with recipes. “Cool Tools,” on the other hand, is about Japanese cooking implements as works of art, filled with Konishi’s beautiful photographs and Klippensteen’s insightful and appreciative prose.

“Cool Tools” is split into four main sections; The Preparation (covering knives, mortar and pestle, nut toasters, graters, bonito planes, metal pots, strainers and other), The Cooking (covering rice cookers, ceramic pots and hot plates, copper oden pots, bronze tempura pots, oyakudon and tamagoyaki pans, stirrers, spatulas, skimmers, ladels, metal grills, drop lids, chopsticks, colanders and others), The Presentation (different graters and chopsticks, rice scoops, rice tubs, rolling mats and molds) and finally Cleaning Up (brushes, cleaning cloths, odds and ends and style),

Each section gives a description and history of the cooking tools, their various functions and how they are used. The focus is on typical items you would find in any Japanese household, rather than exotic implements with only a specialty function. Probably my favorite section of “Cool Tools” is when Konishi and Klippensteen delve into actual people’s cupboards, and show a series of photographs of the tools as they are in average households.

For example, with the yukihara-nabe, or hammered-metal pan, there is a series of six photographs, showing the yukihara-nabes of a songwriter, aged 23, a mother aged 40, a housewife aged 48, a Japanese language instructor aged 52, a cook aged 45ish, and a bank employee aged 40-something. These series put a human touch on the cooking tools, showing how they are loved and used in daily life in Japan.

“Cool Tools” is definitely more of a specialty book than “Japanese Kitchen Knives.” Whereas that book gave practical cooking tips and recipes, this is more about appreciation of design. If you are serious about your Japanese cooking, however, you will enjoy learning more about the tools that are essential to your art.

American Sushi

This is a book, I think, for lovers of the American-style sushi joint. This is for people who judge a hot new sushi place on the different and exciting kinds of rolls they serve, and for people who think a “Volcano Roll” or a “Mango Chutney Roll with Spicy Curry Sauce” sounds like a delectable treat.

On the other hand, if the words “Edo mae,” “Otoro” or “Omakase” have any meaning to you, if the yellow insides of a sea urchin start your mouth drooling instead of gagging, you are probably best off staying away.

Trevor Corson’s “The Story of Sushi” is not a pure history book, but instead flip-flops between sushi history in Japan and its development in the US and between telling the story of a class of students enrolled at the California Sushi Academy. The California Sushi Academy offers a 12-week course that circumvents the traditional multi-year apprenticeship system of Japan and delivers sushi-bar ready sushi chefs who are able to meet the current high demand at US restaurants.

From amongst the students Corson chose to follow Kate as his main character. A young woman of around twenty, Kate lacks confidence, has an unspecified eating disorder, is shy and inward, is terrified of her own sushi knives, has no cooking skills and is disgusted at the idea of touching a raw fish, much less cutting one. Directionless and unsure of herself, Kate borrowed money from her parents to attend the sushi school on somewhat of a whim, hoping for a career where she could socialize with customers as her main concern.

Kate is where the book starts, with chapter one, page one, and Kate is where the book fell apart for me. Obviously, Corson saw in Kate someone he hoped his audience could identify with, someone for whom sushi was still slightly “yucky” and who would be grossed out by the concept of eating octopus and squid. I was personally just annoyed by her, and found myself hoping she would drop-out instead of persevere. Her constant whining and self-doubt got to be too much, and she is the kind of character you wish your could somehow reach into the book and give a good smack on the face too.

It’s too bad, because the other students who are relegated to the side-lines seemed so much more interesting than Kate. But we don’t get to here their stories; like Takumi, the hard-working Japanese student who is secretly a pop star in Japan but escaped to the US where his anonymity allowed him to study his true love, cooking. Or even the Japanese-American girl who dropped out halfway through the course. Why? We’ll never know.

As far as the parts of the book that actually focus on sushi history, they are interesting but nothing new. A bit of time browsing wikipedia would bring you the same information, such as the invention of the California Roll by Ichiro Mashita at the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant in LA in the 1960s when he found himself out of fatty tuna and decided to slip in avocado as a quick substitute, or the ins and outs of the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo where the bounty of the seas is flash-frozen and auctioned to the highest bidder.

Perhaps the lack of any real new historical information or ground to cover is what gave Corson the idea of giving over half of the book to Kate and the California Sushi Academy. If you are a real sushi novice, then perhaps much of this will be new to you and the behind-the-scenes look at the sushi school will be valuable/entertaining. Personally I just didn’t find a lot here.

On one last note: When I bought this book, it was called “The Zen of Sushi” and I see that the name has since been changed to “The Story of Sushi” which makes me happy. For someone who has “resided in Buddhist temples in Tokyo” (as it says in his author’s bio) Corson should know better than to mis-use the term “Zen” in that way.

4.0 out of 5 stars The right container for the right beverage

A masu is an old system of measuring in ancient Japan, said to hold enough rice to feed an adult for one day (exactly 180 ml (6 oz.)). 365 masu made up one koku, which was used as a measure of a person’s salary, being enough to feed himself for a year. Of course, in the modern day of rice cookers and paper money the masu have lost their practical purpose, but they are still the vessel of choice for traditional sake drinking.

Normally, masu are only drunk from during special events like cherry-blossom viewing when one wants to lend a nostalgic atmosphere to the event. At a pub or restaurant, a tall shot glass is placed in the middle, and the sake is allowed to overflow into the masu showing the generous pour of the restaurant. They are not used for heated sake, in which case a tokkuri set is used.

Most masu nowadays are made of Japanese cedar, and add a complementary flavor to certain sakes. Choose your sake carefully when drinking from them, as they can easily overwhelm something too delicate and subtle. This set is made from hinoki, which is a type of cypress tree and is the most prized wood in Japan. I can’t speak of the claims of “natural antibiotic” properties of the material, which is something I have never heard of before, but it is really nice wood with a nice smell and flavor. Many restaurants have their own masu with a design burned into the wood, but these are plain with no marks.

The only drawback to this set is the price. Masu normally sell in Japan for about a dollar a piece, and while one can normally expect a higher mark-up for imported products, this seems a bit much. However, if you are a serious sake lover and don’t have access to a less pricey set of masu, then this could be just what you are looking for.

Level-up your Japanese Cooking

“Practical Japanese Cooking” is a sequel of sorts to Shizuo Tsuji’s phenomenal cooking bible Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art. Assembled from his notes by an assistant after Tsuji’s death, unlike “Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art” this is mainly a recipe book, packed with beautiful photos and all in Tsuji’s authentic style. The recipes are in several categories, like “Appetizers,” “Fish,” “Soup,” “Beef and Pork,” “Tofu,” “Rice” and “Noodles,” There are fourteen categories in all, and each category has between three to twenty recipes.

I loved this book, although I feel the name is somewhat misleading. Far from being “Easy and Elegant” most of the recipes in here are very complex, requiring considerable preparation and a variety of techniques. These are the kind of Japanese dishes that look so simple on the plate, but that simplicity is backed by hours of manipulation of ingredients and subtle infusions of flavor. Most of the dishes are small-plate style, like one would find in an upscale Japanese restaurant featuring several servings of a variety of dishes rather than a “main course.”

These are authentic recipes, which means that the ingredients are probably not going to be available at your local supermarket. If you don’t have mirin, dashi and a few varieties of soy sauce and miso already in your pantry you might want to consider doing some shopping before picking up this book. Many recipes call for “ginger juice,” which was a first for me, but Tsuji doesn’t leave you stranded and has a short recipe on how to juice ginger. I definitely recommend that you you pick up a few basic Japanese cook books, like Tsuji’s first triumph or Japanese Kitchen Knives: Essential Techniques and Recipes before you try these recipes.

If recipes like “Sake-Simmered Lobster” and “Deep Fried and Simmered Acorn Squash” get your mouth drooling, and you don’t mind cooking that requires a lot of prep work, than “Practical Japanese Cooking” is going to be a treasure trove for you. Many of the recipe titles are so deceptively simple, like “Sauteed Duck Breast with Sauce,” and look so plain on the plate, you will almost feel compelled to explain how much work went into the dish when you are serving it!

On a personal note, “Practical Japanese Cooking” gave me one of my greatest kitchen triumphs. My wife, who is Japanese, was convinced that no American could properly prepare on of her favorite dishes “Simmered Mackerel in Miso” (again, don’t be deceived by the simple name of the dish) and challenged me to make it. I have cooked professionally in an izakaya in Japan, but never was faced with those kind of multiple-technique preparation dishes. After working through the recipe a few times, I have proved her wrong and she is still amazed that I can create something that tastes so authentically Japanese. Thanks Shizuo Tsuji!

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my tofu life!

Although I have always considered myself a tofu fan, my use of it had been limited to fairly typical stir fries or eating it uncooked on its own. I’d never really considered crumbling it up to use in crab cakes, or marinating it and cooking teriyaki style for tofu steaks.

“A Taste of Tofu: Mastering the Art of Tofu Cooking” has opened up a new world of uses for this delicious and nutritious soybean product. The book has recipes for Appetizers, Soups, Just Tofu, Seafood, Poultry, Meats, Vegetables, Salads, Eggs and Cheese, Rice and Noodles and even Desserts. (You know you want to make a tofu cheese cake!) The selection is varied enough that both vegetarians and meat eaters will find value. There is also a good mix of “ethnic” (mainly Japanese) and American-style recipes, some traditional and some original creations.

I was surprised at how authentic the ethnic recipes were, and not “Americanized” The Japanese recipes freely use notorious ingredients like natto and konnyaku and other interesting items. I do wish the author had used the Japanese names for the dishes, as some of the new names she gives them, such as calling Oden “Tofu Casserole” are a bit of a stretch.

There are easy-to-follow instructions on handling and cooking the tofu, which does take some practice. I have had a difficult time draining the tofu properly, but am getting the hang of it more and more with each attempt. There are also some basic instructions on Japanese cooking, such as how to make your own dashi stock and other tips. There is also a glossary of ingredients in the back for some of the more unfamiliar Asian foodstuffs.

So far, I have really enjoyed the “Crabmeat and Tofu Patties,” “Spicy Grilled Tofu,” “Natto-jiro,” “Tofu with Oyster Sauce,” “Homemade Tofu Burgers,” (Yum!) “Sauteed Shrimp with Hoisen Sauce” and oh…everything I have tried. I haven’t hit a bad recipe yet!