Samurai have fired our imagination with their fighting spirit and heroic deeds ever since Europeans set foot on Japanese shores during the middle of the 16th century. But what was the fuel on which these men ran? What was in their stomachs as they rode into battle? More widely, what kind of ingredients and dishes did the medieval Japanese eat and cherish? What were their tastes and culinary traditions? These questions point to the wellsprings of Japanese cuisine, widely considered one of the most sophisticated in the world.
To answer these questions,
Samurai Dishes
delves into the long history of Japanese cooking. It traces the origins and use of typically Japanese ingredients. It shows the importance of food (or lack of it) in times of trouble and its ceremonial role in battle, both on the eve of victory and in the wake of defeat. And it reveals the deep symbolism of food to the warrior as a source of nourishment and revival. What emerges is the important role of food in a society obsessed with prestige and pride.
Moving toward the present,
highlights the innate Japanese attention to quality, freshness, and seasonality of ingredients, the tools with which to prepare them, and the various traditions according to which they are served. To top it all, it presents thirty easy-to-make and mouthwatering historical Japanese dishes, each with photographs and step-by-step explanations.
is a fascinating window into Japan's martial culinary tradition and a source of some really tasty recipes for which a samurai would have killed in an instant.