A Taste of Japan: Sacred Staple and Grain of the Gods

© Kyoto Tourism Council

Rice is Japan’s staple food and more …. when you think about it, this humble grain is actually quite amazing and literally permeates Japanese culture. Japanese rice (which is known by the scientific name japonica) forms the basis for cuisine, it is brewed into sake, made into sweets and crackers and even given as an offering at shrines to kami (神/かみ).

Now I confess, my relationship with rice is mixed. I find it rather bland and when I do have rice with a Chinese, I love it with sweet and sour sauce. When it comes to Japanese rice, teriyaki sauce is the order of the day! But there is something beautiful about a bowl of Japanese rice and that way it sticks together which you pick it up with chopsticks.

Rice is insanely filling which makes it common sense for it to play such a huge roll in Japanese cuisine, indeed the word for mealtimes – gohandeki (御飯時/ごはんどき) – includes the word for rice – gohan  (御飯/ごはん) - at its heart while breakfast is asagohan (朝御飯/あさごはん - literally ‘morning rice’).

I do love the perfect simplicity and eloquence of the Japanese language.

Anyway, rice is at the heart of Japanese food but it’s not limited to white grains in a bowl. Like wheat, the staple of western culture, it’s a grain. This means rice can be pounded into flour, fermented into alcohol, used to cultivate mold to make sake, cooked, you name it; its versatility amazes me. 

I find it weird how, when I’m researching topics like this, that I seem to come across information that’s relevant, from the second episode of Delicious Nippon which explained how to cook the perfect bowl of rice to an episode of Begin Japanology on sake. Indeed partly due to the amout of pre-prepared food, I had no idea how much effort can go into preparing a simple bowl of rice. You have to wash it in water, then rub it together to remove any dust or impurities. Of course most rice is pre-cleaned (musenmai, むせんまい) and the convenience of modern rice cookers make it a real fast food but thinking back to days of yore, you really have to appreciate the effort involved.

As befitting its presence in Japanese culture, you only have to look into the myths and legends to see rice’s importance. Just look at the rabbit in the moon; this smart bunny pounds rice into mochi (rice paste moulded into balls). This legend is insanely popular and has found it’s way into anime (the name of Sailor Moon’s titular heroine Tsukino Usagi literally means ‘rabbit of the moon’) and computer games (Okami). There’s even a deity associated with rice: Inari, the fox god/dess.

Perhaps rice’s most famous transformation is into sake (酒/さけ),  an incredibly strong alcoholic beverage it’s around 14-16%, a huge amount compared to a glass of wine or a pint of cider, this might also explain the small cups it’s served in! Sake is just as sacred as the grain from which it was fermented. Sake is delicious hot and gorgeous cold but I didn’t know very much about how it was made until I caught an episode of Peter Barakan’s Begin Japanology a couple of weeks ago on NHK World which focused on sake. The process itself is fascinating and one of the best written guides I’ve come across is actually from the Japan Airlines website! They have their own little mini site devoted to sake, partly to promote the brands that they use inflight but there’s a great PDF which explains the whole process. And, in a similar fashion to win, different types of rice make different types of sake but it remains one of the only alcoholic beverages which is suited to being drunk both hot and cold.

The folks in this picture above are in the middle of making sake, it looks like the beginning of the process where they’ve just steamed it. Sake itself isn’t just a drink, it’s a really important part of Japanese cooking. Take my favourite sauce teriyaki: it’s made from sake, sweet cooking sake known as mirin (味醂/みりん) , soy sauce and a little sugar. Two of it’s ingredients wouldn’t be possible without rice.

The last time I went to Japan Centre, I really became aware of the food being sold and the numerous sizes and types of rice. While the taste is definitely acquired, it’s so very healthy and there’s something so simple and beautiful about a fresh bowl of steamed rice, the distinct smell of it and the taste. It’s very much the bread and butter of Japanese cuisine, the most important element which remains just as important today as it did centuries ago.

EDIT: While surfing the net, I found two amazing cooking sites – Just Bento and Just Hungry – and the later has an excellent walkthrough of how to cook rice.