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A contemporary home meal.
(Chikuzenni), rice curry, tōfu and minced meat in spicy sauce (mabōdōfu),
Japanese apricot pickle (umeboshi), sugar-simmered black beans (kuromame),
home-style sushi (chirashizushi) and, as number one, soy-simmered
beef, potatoes and onions (nikujaga). 2 Half of the dishes in this selection
are of foreign origin and began to enter Japanese cuisine after the turn of
the twentieth century. Other foreign-inspired mainstays in Japanese home
dinners include breaded deep-fried fish ( furai), breaded deep-fried pork
cutlets (tonkatsu) and stir-fried vegetables. 3
Despite the foreign origins of these side dishes, the Japanese character
of the entire meal is secured by its ‘rice, soup and side dishes’ structure.
Moreover, the side dishes are often ‘Japanized’ by the addition of soy
sauce (shōyu), the most important flavouring in contemporary Japanese
cooking. 4 Soy sauce is considered such a vital condiment that manufacturers
have produced conveniently packaged travel-size bottles and sachets,
so that Japanese travellers can venture forth into the world ‘armed with
slippers and soy sauce’. 5
Some scholars seek the explanation for the strongly multicultural
character of modern Japanese diet in the Japanese tendency to borrow
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