Kansai cuisine in Kansai

Kyoto's "Kyo cuisine", Osaka's skewers, Kobe sake and beef represent the style and taste of Japanese food: exquisite, delicate and natural. Kinki was once the most economically developed region in Japan and the place with the most developed consumer culture in Japan. To this day, Kyoto’s cuisine, Osaka’s snacks, and Kobe’s sake and beef are still famous throughout Japan.

Kyoto cuisine

The Japanese refer to Kyoto cuisine as "Kyoto cuisine" for short. Nowadays, there are many Kyoto cuisine, Kaiseki cuisine, and kaiseki cuisine restaurants scattered throughout Japan, and their origins can mostly be traced back to Kyoto. No matter how small a Kyoto cuisine restaurant is, it will always have a miniature courtyard, green bamboo and paper lanterns, and a proprietress with light makeup. I have eaten Kyoto cuisine many times, but not in Kyoto itself, but at banquets in hotels in other cities and tourist destinations. At a relatively high-end banquet, there was also a geisha performance. The geisha performed a long song and a shamisen. I didn't understand the lyrics at all, and the others didn't seem to be very interested. However, after the performance, when the geishas accompanied everyone to drink, talk and sing, the gentlemen were very happy. I yelled at the microphone, "It's up to us to brew new wine on September 9th..." which prompted two young geishas to say to me: "Brother, what song are you singing? Write down the lyrics. Teach us and sing with you next time. "In fact, "Kyoto cuisine" can be roughly understood as Japanese cuisine that inherits the traditions of previous generations. During the Heian period, the Japanese court formed the "Yingyingshan", that is, social banquets. By the Kamakura period, "Shojin ryori", that is, fasting meals, was born. During the Muromachi period, many schools emerged, and "Honzen ryori" was formally formed, which was a palace banquet-style dish. During the Azuchi-Momoyama period, Sen no Rikyu, the famous tea sage, invented the tea ceremony and also created the basic format of "kaiseki" before drinking tea. In order to fight against the cold and hunger, Zen monks would put hot stones in their arms, called "kaiseki". The simple meals provided in the teahouse functioned like "kaiseki", hence the name "kaiseki cuisine". "Kaiseki" is based on simplicity. It basically consists of three dishes and one soup. The three dishes are sashimi, hot mix, and cold mix. They are served in one serving per person. It is said that later generations of Japanese cuisine largely inherited the Kaiseki style.

The new generation of creative kaiseki continues the spirit of original cooking, but breaks the overly particular traditional kaiseki style. First of all, in the order of dishes, the seven appetizers (seven kinds) that must be included in traditional kaiseki Side dishes with complicated workmanship), bowls (hand-made dishes with soup), sashimi, fried food (fried), boiled food, grilled food and food (rice or soup). In the past, the dishes had to be served in order, but the new style Kaiseki cuisine adheres to the order of cold dishes first and then hot dishes, and does not insist on which dishes are served first, allowing the chef to be more flexible in preparing dishes.

In the Edo period, "Takubo cuisine" appeared in Nagasaki. Zhuofu means tablecloth, which means food placed on a table with a tablecloth. After the mid-Edo period, the development of industry and commerce brought prosperity to the catering industry. Restaurants organized dishes suitable for banquets from kaiseki and honzen cuisine into the form of "Kaiseki cuisine". Today's kaiseki dishes generally include three dishes of soup, sashimi, grilled products, and stew. There are also various combinations of five dishes, seven dishes, nine dishes, etc. Among them, Kyoto’s banquet cuisine is the most representative. Many Japanese-style banquets in Japanese hotels adopt the form of Kyoto’s banquet cuisine. Banquet cuisine not only pays attention to cooking, but also to containers, placement, and color matching. Not only bamboo, wood, pottery, porcelain, lacquer and other containers are used, but also flowers, leaves and other materials of plants are used to enhance the natural colors of the dishes. Coupled with soft lighting and elegant environment, it is really unique and interesting.

Osaka snacks

Osaka snacks are one of the best in Japan. In addition to octopus balls, meat skewers and grilled chicken skewers are the most famous. There is an observation tower called Tsutenkaku near Tenkoji Temple in Osaka. There is an old street called "Sho Sho Yokocho" near the observation tower, and there are many beef skewers restaurants there. Many skewers restaurants are named "such and such hormone". When asked, what part of the "hormone" is? But no one can tell clearly. In short, it includes many parts, such as the waist, face, ear roots, tongue, trachea, chin, first stomach, second stomach, third stomach, fourth stomach, third stomach and fourth stomach. The joints, heart, lungs, cardiovascular vessels, diaphragm, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, cecum, liver, tendons, and tail all have their own special names and can be ordered individually, with different tastes and flavors. However, these names are only known to Osaka people who often eat them. Outsiders can only look at the recipes and make random mistakes. After eating them for a long time, they only know that the taste is different, but they don’t know what part they are eating.

As for grilled chicken skewers, there are basically two types, one is seasoned with a strong and sweet sauce, and the other is seasoned with salt and a little spice. Kanto people like the former, Osaka people like the latter. Because the latter has a bland taste, it has high requirements on chicken quality and grilling technology, and you can also taste the original flavor of the chicken.

Kobe Beef and Sake

The "Nada" area near Kobe is the home of Japanese sake. Here, together with Nishinomiya City next door, is known as Japan's number one wine town "Nada Gogo". The sake produced here accounts for about 30% of Japan's total production. Because here there are abundant raw materials - sake rice "Yamada Nishiki", the skills of Tamba craftsmen, the cold wind blowing from Mount Rokko, high-quality underground water - Miyamizu, plus convenient shipping conditions. Therefore, the brewing industry prospered here after the mid-Edo period. There are still more than 50 wineries, and most of the famous brand manufacturers are gathered in "Tan Wu Xiang". For example: Juzhengsong, Baihe, Nippon Sheng and other wineries. In addition, there are many alcohol museums and museums in Kobe. For example: in Dongtan District there are the "Kiku Masamune Sake Brewery Memorial Hall" and "Kobe Sake Center", etc. You can taste it for free when you visit the winery, and if you drink it in one round, the light drinker will get drunk. Japanese sake is made from blended liquor as the lower grade, pure natural brewing as the top grade, and the highest grade is called "Daiginjo". Japanese sake is exquisite and you won’t get drunk if you drink too much.

Kobe beef is Japan’s highest-grade beef brand. Its fame began when Kobe opened its port. Foreigners brought with them the habit of eating beef and their evaluation of beef. The best Kobe beef must not only select black Tajima cattle with pure bloodlines, but also undergo a special fattening process. Pay attention to drinking water, feed, additives, and growth environment. The best beef is called "Frost", which requires red meat and fat to be intertwined like frost, with patterns as beautiful as natural marble. It will neither clog your teeth nor feel greasy, and will melt in your mouth. A steak like this costs several thousand yen per serving.

Other delicacies

To see whether a person knows how to eat, it depends on their daily meals. Kansai's ramen, especially udon, is very delicious. In terms of daily ramen, Kanto noodle soup is generally dark in color and salty, while Kansai noodle soup is light in color and bland in taste. Kansai people pay more attention to the natural flavor of raw materials. The soup of Kansai ramen sometimes looks as light as water, but it tastes very delicious. Sushi made of fish fillets and rice balls originated in Tokyo during the Edo period. Kansai's "sushi" is much older. It is said to have a history of more than a thousand years, which is probably around the same time that humans cultivated rice. "鲲" means crucian carp in Chinese. The method is to remove the scales and internal organs of a kind of crucian carp from Lake Biwa in March, pickle it with salt until around late July, wash it and dry it in the shade. Then overlap it with the rice that has just been stewed, put it into a container, and eat it after fermentation. It is usually eaten within half a year, but there is also a kind of rice that is replaced with new rice every year and kept for two or three years before being eaten. This kind of sushi has a strong smell that many Japanese people can't stand, but those who love it are a treasure.