Seasonings

Another food-related post to whet your appetites for j-CATION!

From The Japanese Food Report, the magnificent blog by Harris Salat of our event Japanese Hot Pots to Warm Your Soul, comes another post that's too yummy not to discuss.

Salat discusses the techniques of creating Japanese flavors using staples such as soy sauce, salt, sugar, vinegar, and miso. And he beautifully compares the subtleties in western cooking and eastern cooking:

“Think about Western cuisine as a cuisine of impact. Butter, fats, herbs, spices are combined to create a flavor crescendo. Japanese cuisine, on the other hand, is concerned with balance. Sweet balancing salty, sweet balancing tart, seasonings balancing the natural flavors of ingredients. I read this difference described as a cuisine of addition (Western) versus a cuisine of subtraction (Japanese) — Japanese cuisine being focused on drilling down to the essence of an ingredient’s natural flavor. I also heard this difference, by the way, described as an oil cuisine (Western) versus a water cuisine (Japanese).”

Definitely read the rest of his post!