RAW FISH, WHOLE AND SLICED.
There are also many kinds of shell-fish in Japan. Of the univalves the principal are the sea-ear and top-shell, while among the bivalves are the oyster, clam, sea-mussel, razor-shell, cockle, swan-mussel, otter-shell, and rapana. They are mostly boiled; the clam and sea-mussel, and others with comparatively thin shells are served in a bowl of slightly-flavoured hot water, which can hardly be called soup. The oyster is always shelled and served by itself or with eggs.
Crabs, squills, lobsters, shrimps, and prawns are abundant. The cuttle-fish and octopus are very common articles of food, and the pond-snail is appreciated by some people. Sun-dried cuttle-fish are also very common; they are flat and hard, and are cut into slices which are roasted and dipped in soy.
Of fowls the variety is somewhat limited. We have of course the domestic fowl. The most esteemed of all fowls is the crane, after which come Bewick’s swan, the heron, wild goose, wild duck, common duck, pheasant, quail, pigeon, woodcock, and water-rail, while among the smaller birds are the sparrow, lark, and siskin. As we do not use a knife and fork at table, all fowls have to be cut up before they are served. A favourite way is to serve them in small slices in soup; but they may also be brought in with vegetables on a plate. The commonest method with the domestic fowl and duck is to boil them in small slices in a shallow pan with bits of onion in a gravy of soy, mirin, and sugar. The pan has a small hollow at a side, into which the gravy runs so as not to saturate the meat too much. The small birds are served whole, and when chopsticks fail, the hands and teeth are brought into requisition.
It is only of recent years that we have begun to eat beef and pork; but we have in Tokyo a large number of shops where they are sold. There are two kinds of such shops; one is the regular butcher’s, while the other is a sort of restaurant where beef is served in the same manner as the domestic fowl and duck above mentioned. Here sake and rice are also obtainable. There are many restaurants in European style; but the cuisine in most of them is non-descript and the dishes are confined to the simplest kind. The absence of mutton, moreover, sadly limits, the range of plats.
Though cooking is mostly done at home, no small quantity of prepared food is bought for the meals. The most important of such food is the bean-curd. For this the soy bean is soaked in water, ground, steamed, and strained; and the liquid is allowed to coagulate by the addition of brine and then pressed in a square box with a cotton-cloth bottom until the water has been drawn off, leaving behind a soft white curd. This curd is cut into small slices and put into soup in the morning; it is sometimes thrown into hot water, and as soon as it is warmed, dipped into a mixture of soy and mirin and eaten. It is also fried. Indeed, the bean-curd shares with the tai the distinction of having a special treatise dealing with a hundred ways of dressing it. Another favourite breakfast food is the steamed peas, which are eaten with mustard. Plums which have softened and reddened by being preserved in perilla leaves are often, after extracting the stones, boiled with sugar until they become gelatinous. Boiled beans, the egg-plant preserved in mustard, and ginger in perilla leaves are common breakfast condiments. Fish and vegetables coated with flour and fried in rape-oil are favourite articles of diet. Commonest among fried vegetables are sweet potatoes, leek, and lotus rhizomes, while lobsters similarly served are highly esteemed. Another favourite is the flesh of sturgeon minced very fine, seasoned with sake and salt, and baked. It is made into a roll with a hole through the centre or is semi-cylindrical with a flat side.
It will thus be seen how completely our diet differs from the European; and it is no matter for wonder that the other conditions of life should be as dissimilar. Many Europeans in Japan find our meals unsatisfying; but at the same time there are not a few Japanese who do not feel that they have had a full meal unless they finish up a European dinner with rice and-pickled vegetables. There is certainly far greater sustaining power in European food, and our medical authorities urge a more extensive use of animal food besides fish. Rice and vegetables, it is true, fill the stomach; indeed, one may even feel surfeited, and yet in a short time the strain disappears and hunger returns. For this reason coolies and others engaged in severe physical labour take four or more meals a day. Pickled vegetables are indigestible; but as they are indispensable at every meal, the natural result is that dyspepsia is one of the commonest ailments that a Japanese is subject to. It should, however, be added that it is not pickled vegetables alone that are responsible for this prevalence of dyspepsia; for the Japanese, and more especially the citizens of Tokyo, probably take more food between meals than any other people, and that too at irregular intervals.
As there is no dessert at a Japanese meal, fruits are commonly eaten at odd hours, especially by children. In the early months of the year we have the apple and the orange. The former is mostly cultivated in Yezo, the most northerly of the larger islands, while the latter comes mainly from the southern section of the main island. Oranges are all mandarins with or almost without pips; of these there are many varieties, and some of them are very sweet. The shaddock is also very common. There are different kinds of citrons; but they are seldom eaten by themselves, being like the lemon mostly used to flavour dishes. Strawberries there are in plenty; but they are mostly watery and lack sweetness owing to the great humidity of the Japanese climate, which spoils both fruit and flower, depriving one of taste and the other of fragrance. Cherries have recently been introduced and cultivated in many localities; for the Japanese cherry-tree is grown solely for its beautiful flowers and its fruit is too small to be eaten. The Japanese plum-tree is also reared for its flowers, but produces fruit in large quantity; it is hard, and is eaten raw with a little salt to counteract indigestion, pickled in vinegar, or preserved in perilla leaves. The Japanese apricot is inferior to the English apricot and nectarine; and so is the peach which is pointed at the top and hard-druped. Figs are always eaten raw. The loquat tastes fairly good, but its large stones leave but little to eat; and the pomegranate is open to a similar objection that it is too full of seed for enjoyment. The Japanese pear is different to the European species; it has not the peculiar shape of the latter, but looks like a large pippin in shape and colour, only that it is speckled all over with minute greenish-white spots; it is juicy but comparatively hard. Acorns of different kinds of oak are parched and shelled. Our chestnuts do not differ from the European. They are roasted or boiled unshelled; but when they are shelled and boiled soft, they form part of an important dish at Japanese dinners. Grapes, too, are plentiful; they are fair, though of course inferior to European hot-house grapes. Bananas we get from the Bonin Islands and pine-apples from Formosa. But the best of all Japanese fruits is the persimmon; it is a peculiarly Japanese fruit. There are many varieties, some of which are delicious. Some of the larger sort are thrown into empty sake-casks and left to mellow, while others are peeled, dried, and preserved in sugar.
As the second meal of the day is taken at noon and the last at sundown, it is not unusual, especially in summer, to have something at three or four o’clock. When there are artisans or labourers at work in the house, they are always given tea with some food about that hour; and if there is a visitor, a lady or a friend of the family, its women folk generally manage to have this bever. It may be no more than confectionery; but the most common food taken on such an occasion is sushi, which is a lump of rice which has been pressed with the hand into a roundish form with a slight mixture of vinegar and covered on the top with a slice of fish or lobster, or a strip of fried egg, or rolled in a piece of laver. As the lumps are small, being seldom more than two or three inches long, several of them are set before each person. The favourite fish for the purpose is the tunny, though others are also largely used. Another common dish for the bever is the soba, which is a sort of macaroni made of buckwheat; in its simplest form it is brought on a small bamboo screen laid on a wooden stand; it is dipped, before eating, in an infusion of bonito shavings flavoured with a little soy and mirin, to which small bits of onion and Cayenne pepper have been added. The macaroni is also boiled with fried lobsters, fowl, or eggs and served in bowls. Wheaten macaroni is also dressed in the same manner; it is much thicker than that of buckwheat.