"Beijing cuisine" in Kyoto, kebabs in Osaka, sake and beef in Kobe represent the style and taste of Japanese food: exquisite, delicate and natural. Kinki was once the most developed area in Japan's economy and the most developed place in Japan's consumer culture. Until today, Kyoto cuisine, Osaka snacks, Kobe Japanese wine and beef are still famous all over Japan.
Beijing cuisine
The Japanese call Kyoto cuisine "Beijing cuisine" for short. Nowadays, there are many restaurants with Beijing cuisine, Huaishi cuisine and banquet cuisine all over Japan, and their origins can be traced back to Kyoto. No matter how small the restaurant in Beijing cuisine is, there will be miniature courtyards, bamboo and paper lanterns, and a proprietress with light makeup. I have eaten Beijing cuisine many times, but not in Kyoto, but at banquets in hotels in other cities and tourist destinations. At the high-end banquet, there was a geisha performance, and the geisha performed Long song and Sanweixian. I didn't understand the lyrics at all, and others didn't seem to be very interested. However, after the performance, when the geisha accompanied everyone to drink, talk and sing, the gentlemen were very happy. I yelled at Mike, "The new wine brewed on September 9th is in our hands ...", which provoked two young geisha to say to me, "Brother, what song are you singing? Write the lyrics, teach us and sing with you next time." In fact, "Beijing cuisine" can be roughly understood as inheriting the traditional Japanese cuisine of the previous generation. In heian period, the Japanese court formed a "catering", that is, a social banquet. In the Kamakura era, "intensive cuisine" came into being, that is, fasting meals. There were many schools in Muromachi era, which formally formed "local cuisine", that is, court banquet-style dishes. In the Antu Taoshan era, Sen no Rikyū, a well-known Cha Sheng, invented the tea ceremony and created the basic format of "Huaishi cuisine" before drinking tea. In order to compete with cold and hunger, Zen monks will put the roasted stone in their arms, which is called "Huaishi". The simple meal provided by the teahouse has the same function as "Huaishi", hence the name "Huaishi Cuisine". "Huaishi Cuisine" is based on simplicity, and basically consists of three dishes and one soup. The three dishes are sashimi, hot mixed and cold mixed, and they are served by one person. It is said that Japanese cuisine in later generations inherited the style of Huaishi cuisine.
The new generation of creative Huaishi continues the spirit of original cooking, but it breaks the traditional style of Huaishi. First of all, in the order of dishes, the traditional Huaishi must have seven dishes before seven o'clock (seven kinds of complicated side dishes), bowls (handmade dishes with soup), sashimi, yang (fried), boiled, burned and eaten (rice or soup).
in the edo period, there was "zhuofu cuisine" in Nagasaki. Zhuofu means tablecloth, that is, the dishes placed on the table with tablecloth. After the middle period of Edo, the development of industry and commerce brought prosperity to the catering industry. The restaurant arranged the dishes suitable for feasting in Huaishi cuisine and local cuisine into the form of "banquet cuisine". At present, the banquet dishes generally include soup, sashimi, baked goods and stew. There are also five dishes, seven dishes, nine dishes and other combinations. Among them, Kyoto's banquet dishes are the most representative, and many Japanese hotels' Japanese banquets are in the form of Kyoto's banquet dishes. Dinner cooking pays attention not only to cooking, but also to containers, placement and color matching. Not only containers such as bamboo, wood, pottery, porcelain and lacquer are used, but also materials such as flowers and leaves of plants are used to set off the natural color of cooking, coupled with soft lighting and elegant environment, which is really interesting.
Osaka snacks
Osaka snacks are a must in Japan. Besides octopus balls, kebabs and roast chicken kebabs are the most famous. There is a watchtower called Tsutenkaku near Tianwang Temple in Osaka, and there is an old street called "Jiang Jiang Heng Ding" near the watchtower, where there are many beef skewers. Many kebabs are labeled as "so-and-so hormone". What part is the "hormone"? But no one can tell. In short, it includes many parts, such as waist, face, ear root, tongue, trachea, chin, first stomach, second stomach, third stomach, fourth stomach, junction of third and fourth stomach, heart, lung, cardiovascular system, diaphragm, small intestine, large intestine, rectum, cecum, liver, tendons and tail. However, these names are only known to Osaka people who often eat them. Foreigners can only look at the menu in disorder. After eating for a long time, they only know the taste is different, but they don't know what part they are eating.
As for the roast chicken skewers, there are basically two kinds, one is seasoned with strong sweet sauce, and the other is seasoned with salt and a little spice. Kanto people like the former and Osaka people like the latter. Because the latter is light in taste, it requires high quality and baking technology of chicken, and it can also taste the original flavor of chicken.
Kobe beef and sake
The beach area near Kobe is the hometown of Japanese wine. Here, together with Nishimiya City next door, it is known as Japan's first wine town "Tanwu Township". Japanese sake produced here accounts for about 3% of Japan's total output. Because there are abundant raw materials here-rice "Shantian brocade", the skills of Danbo craftsmen, the cold wind blowing from Liujiashan, high-quality groundwater-palace water, plus convenient shipping conditions. Therefore, after the mid-Edo period, the brewing industry flourished here. Now there are still more than 5 wineries, and most of the famous brand manufacturers are gathered in the "Five Towns of the Beach". For example: Juzheng, Baihe, Japan Sheng and other wineries. In addition, there are many alcohol memorial halls and archives in Kobe. For example, in Dongtan District, there are "Chrysanthemum Authentic Wine Making Memorial Hall" and "Kobe Wine Center Hall". When you visit the winery, you can taste it for free. If you drink it in a circle, people who drink less will get drunk. Japanese wine takes blended wine as the inferior product, pure natural brewing as the top grade, and the highest grade is called "Da Yin Niang". Japanese wine is so exquisite that it won't go to the head if you drink too much.
Kobe beef is the top beef brand in Japan, and its fame began when Kobe opened its port. Foreigners have brought the habit of eating beef and the evaluation of beef. Good Kobe cattle should not only choose pure black but horse cattle, but also go through a special fattening process, and pay attention to drinking water, feed, additives and growth environment. Good beef is called "first frost", which requires red meat and fat to be interwoven like frost, and the pattern is as beautiful as natural marble. It will not be stuffed or greasy when eaten, and it will melt in the mouth. A steak like this costs several thousand yen per guest.
Other delicacies
Whether a person knows how to eat depends on their daily meals. Lamian Noodles in Kansai, especially in the east of Uzbekistan, is very delicious. In everyday Lamian Noodles, noodle soup in Kanto is generally dark in color and salty in taste, while noodle soup in Kansai is light in color and light in taste. Kansai people pay more attention to the natural fragrance of raw materials. The soup in Kansai Lamian Noodles sometimes looks as light as water, but it tastes delicious. Sushi made of fish slices and rice balls originated in Tokyo during the Edo period, but the "Su Sushi" in Kansai is much older. It is said that it has a history of more than 1, years, which is probably similar to the time when humans planted rice. "Fu" is the Chinese word for crucian carp. The practice is to remove the scales and internal organs of a crucian carp produced in Lake Biwa in March, marinate it with salt until the end of July, and then dry it in the shade. Then put it in a container overlapping with the just-stewed rice and eat it after fermentation. Generally, it is eaten up within half a year, and there is also a kind of rice that is replaced every year and eaten only after two or three years. This kind of sushi has a strong smell, which many Japanese people can't stand, but people who love to eat it are like treasures.