July, 2008

If you think "fusion" is a recent culinary development, think again. Yoshoku is a  branch of Japanese cuisine with western origins. The occidental influence came to Japan in the mid 19th century, when Japan began to shun previous isolationist policies. The Meiji constitution (since rewritten after WWII) was such an effort to fuse European governance onto Japan's feudal system, and in the same vein, Japanese chefs borrowed western cooking methods and styles and turned them distinctly Japanese.

There are specialist Yoshoku restaurants in Japan, ike the famous over 100 year old Mikawaya in Ginza, Tokyo, known for its rarerified atmosphere, white tablecloths, polished silverware and upstanding waiters in waistcoasts. These restaurants serve a range of "Yoshoku dishes" like Hayashi Rice (rich, sweet demiglace sauce on beef, see photo right) or Ebifurai and Kakifurai (crumbed prawns or oysters served with tartare sauce and requisite shredded cabbage, photo below), Omuraisu (thin omelette wrapped around rice stir fried with tomato sauce, a kiddies' favourite) and Hambagu Steak (round beef burger minus the bun, covered with a rich sauce). There are also Gratin dishes like scallop or chicken gratin. Of course, there's the Kareiraisu (curry made gluggy with roux) which is a strange concoction, part Indian, part French, all Japanese.

But you don't have to go to a Yoshoku restaurant to have such dishes, as they tend to appear on many menus, like Korokke (creamy chicken or crab croquettes) are often found at izakaya (in Sydney, Shimbashi/Jugemu have korokke on their menu) and tonkatsu, is on just about every Japanese eatery menu in Sydney, and one everyone loves. As far as we know, there are no strictly Yoshoku restaurants in Sydney, though The Sydney Morning Herald reviewed Shimizu in Wiloughby recently as a Yoshoku place, but it's more Japanese-French, which is, if you want to be a culinary pedant, not Yoshoku. (In fact, the SMH review is a genuine puff piece, and looks like the writer googled a New York Times article on yoshoku which she uses as a unsourced reference. We find most SMH reviews of Japanese eateries lacking...) 

The reason for being so pedantic about whether a restaurant serves Yoshoku (a proper noun) as opposed to food which is Japanese-western fusion is that Yoshoku might once have been fusion, but is no longer. It's now wholly Japanese. If nothing else, the Japanese are great making uniquely Japanese things that aren't, like tempura (borrowed from the Portuguese in 17th century) or ramen and gyoza (from the Chinese, 20th century). So Hayashi Rice for example, may have its roots in beef stew or demiglace sauce, but is now distinctly Japanese, for where else but in Japan can you find Hayashi Rice, or for that matter, Ebifurai, Omuraisu, Korokke? Fusion, on the other hand, can be found almost anywhere (like on Nobu or Tetsuya's menus), and is essentially a new creation with mixed culinary roots-like salted kombu seaweed encrusted on salmon confit.

A really good book of Yoshoku recipes is Jane Lawson's Yoshoku from Murdoch Books. It has all the main dishes we like, and easy to follow recipes.  (Jane came to our kaiseki class a long time ago).

Apart from Mikawaya in Ginza, here are a few other famous Yoshoku restaurants in Japan:

Taimeiken is most famous for Tonkatsu Sando, or tonkatsu sandwiches

Shiseido Parlor in Ginza is beautiful for its presentation, and has a nice art gallery too

Mantenboshi is where the pics above are from in Azabu, Tokyo, but there are many Mantenboshi branches

by Masako Fukui Copyright Kei's Kitchen (2008)

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