Nikkei Chronicles #1—ITADAKIMASU! A Taste of Nikkei Culture
For many Nikkei around the world, food is often the strongest and most lasting connection they have with their culture. Across generations, language and traditions are often lost, but their connections to food remain.
Discover Nikkei collected stories from around the world related to the topic of Nikkei food culture and its impact on Nikkei identity and communities. This series introduces these stories.
Our Editorial Committee selected their favorite stories in each language. Here are their favorites:
- ENGLISH:
Authentic
By Barbara Nishimoto - JAPANESE:
Grandma’s Pickles Story: Sharing Grandma’s Rakkyo with the World
By Asami Goto - SPANISH:
Japanese Stoicism By Ariel Takeda - PORTUGUESE:
Ofukuro no aji: Mrs. Shizuka’s cassava misoshiru
By Rosa Tomeno Takada
Stories from this series
Spam: It’s What’s For Dinner. No, Really.
Oct. 26, 2012 • Marsha Takeda-Morrison
Today I’m going to talk about Spam. I’m not talking about the kind in your online mailbox, I’m talking about the canned meat.Hey, where’d everybody go? Now that everyone, save for a few adventurous souls and the Asians, have left the room let me tell you about one of my favorite family traditions, Spam musubi, (pronounced moo-soo-bee), a kind of sushi concoction made out of Spam, rice, and seaweed. Hey look—now only the Asians are still here. Sure, being Japanese-American, …
Looking for Kandabar Juicy
Oct. 25, 2012 • Yuriko Yamaki
-- "Kandaba juicy" is a dialect of the Okinawan word for potato vine, or "kuzura leaf." I like rice porridge with this in it, and the juicy (zousui) made with the stock of grilled sea bass bones and shredded flesh is especially delicious. I discovered this taste only two or three years ago. Kiyo, who lives in Kochi's house, said, "The cost of water is so high, it's foolish to just throw it away," and dug up all the diacondras …
Gohan o Kudasai – Immersed in Japanese Food
Oct. 24, 2012 • Yukari Sakamoto
In the Northern woods of Minnesota the call of a loon echoes on the lake. The wind rustles through a forest of birch trees. And at a summer camp in the dining hall, an enthusiastic group of kids call out “itadakimasu,” before digging into dinner. The sign on the building says shokudo in English, hiragana, and kanji. Mori no Ike is the Japanese language and culture immersion summer program of the Concordia Language Villages. From the moment that the campers …
Homemade Miso Soup
Oct. 23, 2012 • Ben Arikawa
If you have been to a Japanese restaurant in the United States, you probably have been served a warm, salty, light brown miso soup. Sometimes it will have thinly sliced scallions floating in the broth. Sometimes there will be miniature cubes of tofu hidden in the depths below the particles of miso suspended in the broth. It is offered more as an afterthought, usually before a meal of overly large portions of protein or sushi. My daughter, Elizabeth, came back …
Grandma’s Pickles Story: Sharing Grandma’s Rakkyo with the World
Oct. 19, 2012 • Asami Goto
1) The Homemade flavor of grandma’s tsukemono Currently, a wide variety of Japanese food items can be found at Japanese super markets in America. Amongst them are tsukemono (Japanese pickled vegetables) which can be found in multiple styles, from asazuke (lightly pickled vegetables) to nukazuke (vegetables pickled in brine and fermented rice bran), using various vegetables such as ginger, cucumber, Chinese cabbage, and Japanese leeks. In addition to the goods exported from Japan, nowadays we are starting to see local …
Terroir…
Oct. 18, 2012 • Bill Tierney
… in French, literally means “soil”. Today it is nuanced to refer to products of a soil and more specifically those that are unique to a particular regional terroir. This essay began simply enough but nearly spiraled out of control the more I learned about the person you are about to meet. As a writer sometimes the story finds you. So, in August of 2012 I visited the annual Paso Robles Olive Festival. If you can get past the craft …
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November 12
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Graciela Nakachi
Guest Host:
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