Melamine Scare Hits Japan

Weeks after the initial fracas about the tainted milk products from China hit the world, things have died down a bit. I still see milk and other dairy products on sale in supermarkets today. Though they most probably do NOT contain melamine, it is imperative for the sellers to lower their prices in order to attract people who might otherwise stay away from these products due to the scare.

In Japan, however, a recent discovery has reawakened the fears of a lot of people. A popular pizza chain, Saizeriya, discovered that the dough they have been using contained traces of melamine. This was because they used milk powder to make the dough. Apparently, the milk powder was imported from China.

If you remember, melamine is known to have made countless babies sick in China. Melamine is a chemical that is used to manufacture various industrial products, most of which is plastic. You can just imagine what this kind of chemical can do to one’ health.

In any case, the pizza chain is reported to have stated that the tainted ingredient was imported way before the Japanese government put high restrictions on goods imported from China. If there is a good side to this story, it is that the amount of powdered milk used in the pizza dough is not enough to make the melamine amounts toxic. In fact, not a single person has been reported to be affected by the contaminated pizza dough.

Michelin: Tokyo Beats Paris

If you are not convinced that Japan is one of the places that you simply have to visit, then this just might help you get off your bum and hop on a plane to Tokyo. You have probably heard of the Michelin guide, a series of books published yearly which is oldest and best known guide when it comes to hotels and restaurants. They award Michelin stars, which measures the quality of the establishments.

This year’s Michelin guide is focused on Tokyo, one of the most popular cities in the world. The research that went into the making of this guide is quite impressive. They hired Japanese experts to work with the Europeans in order to give the finished product a Japanese context. And the results?

Michelin found Tokyo to be even better than Paris, which has always been touted as the food capital of the world. The Herald Tribune reports:

It found much to like, even love, and showered the city’s restaurants with more of its coveted stars than those in New York and Paris combined. Michelin, based in France, made the splash it had hoped for and has sold more than 290,000 copies of its familiar red-colored guides since November.

Some Japanese chefs, however, do not seem to appreciate the attention lavished on them. In fact, some have been heard to say that they do not need an outsider’s approval for their work. As for me, I just want to experience the best that Tokyo can offer in terms of food, don’t you?

If you want to buy this guide, check out Amazon.

It’s All About Food Technology

Those who love Japanese food, raise your hand! I am sure that a lot of people would agree with me when I say that Japanese food is one of the best cuisines in the world. Light and yet tasty at the same time, Japan’s cuisine is known all over the world.

I suppose that is why a lot of attention has been placed on how the Japanese go about cooking and manufacturing food. Recently, a report was released by Research and Markets. Titled “Japan’s Innovative Food Manufacturing & Processing Technology 2008,” this report highlights the juxtaposition of world class cuisine and technology. Perhaps this report would be of interest to those in the culinary sector or even to the average curious person.

What is contained in the report? Marketwatch provides some info:

1. Food Technologies
Production/processing, freezing, sterilization, inspection, quality control/freshness control, cooking, mixing, heating, separation, analysis, taste recognition, measurement, washing, detection technologies, etc.
Some specific examples of articles featured:
- Shirako Kamaboko-ten explores potential of nano-bubble water
- Kumamoto University develops a revolutionary ultra-fast freezing technology
- K Pack uses electricity to sterilize salad dressing
All articles feature excellent examples of advanced technology.

2. Food Ingredients & Additives
This section introduces excellent new food ingredients and additives, such as:
- SPM-rich milk ceramide developed by Snow Brand Milk Products
- Functional food material with anti-allergy effect developed by Nippon Meat Packers
- Pine fiber from Matsutani Chemical Industry with fat lowering function

3. Food Processing Equipment
An introduction to food processing equipment including dough sheet cutters, peeling equipment, sushi makers, machines for making Chinese-style dumplings, wrapping machines, noodle/pasta making equipment, milling devices, flour milling machines, heat sterilizing systems and pulverizers.

It seems like a lot of the information leans towards the manufacturing industry, doesn’t it? Still, the fact that this aspect has been studied so thoroughly speaks well of both the food and technology of The Land of the Rising Sun.

“Profound Truths” About The Japanese Culture (Part 3)

Here is the last installment of this mini-series. I found a couple more interesting points in the Russian Bear’s post and here they are.

Sushi in Kyoto on Shijo street, next to the river are to die for. That is the sushi heaven. Whatever you do, don’t eat the sea urchin roe in the raw; it will make you puke. However, the rest of the food is delicious, not spicy, and looks quite healthy.

I have never been to these places but I do know for a fact that sushi abounds in Japan. You can even go to 711 and buy great sushi and sashimi for a good price – can you believe that? Of course, I would probably be under fire for saying that 711 sushi and sashimi is great but I just had to say that. It is really amazing!

The Japanese don’t only drive, but also walk on the left. It is hard, but important to remember, or else you will run into people all the time.

The reason I picked this point is more because I wanted to emphasize the fact that the Japanese will not drive unless they need to. Even company CEOs would take the public transportation to work on a daily basis. The reasoning is that they do not want to spend money when there is a perfectly reasonable option. I guess that is why they are successful in general.

We sure could learn a lot from the Japanese culture, couldn’t we?

Photo courtesy of jad_23

Sushi Safety: Parasites?

Alright, mercury I can take, but parasites? I have heard stories of people getting sick because of parasites but I have always thought that they were merely urban legends. When I ran across Ross Christensen’s series of posts on “How Safe Is Your Sushi?”, I realized just how serious this issue can be. In the course of my research, I also ran across other articles with opposing views.

Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, encourages others to go ahead and eat sushi. She states:

• Order sushi from reputable restaurants, where the restaurant and fish provider follow food safety standards. You can ask if the fish has been previously frozen.
• Completely cooked is always the safest way to eat fish
• The FDA recommends that you don’t risk eating raw fish if you’re pregnant or have a compromised immune system.
• Don’t make your own sushi with raw fish unless you can freeze the fish for more than 72 hours at 4 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the other hand, Michael Vaughn is strongly opposed to eating raw fish himself:

It’s not that I’m opposed to it; I’ve just been working in the seafood industry for too long that the thought of eating sashimi and raw-form sushi gives me the willies.

That’s not to say that he discourages others from doing it. He has some nice tips in his article as well.

So it’s up to you. Should you eat raw fish? I personally think that if you like it, go ahead. You should just follow the suggestions provided by experts. The Japanese have been eating sushi all their lives – how many people do you know have had cases of parasite infection because of it?

Photo courtesy of Giant Gingko

Sushi Safety: On Mercury

As you can probably surmise by now, my craving for sushi has not abated. This is due to the fact that I haven’t had the chance to get me some! In any case, I thought that it would be apt to talk more about sushi in the next few posts.

Did you know that there have been safety concerns regarding sushi? I suppose this issue is inevitable – raw fish, hello? If you do a search on Google or any other search engine using the term “sushi mercury” you will get a lot of results. This is because early this year, a lot of fuss was made over the levels of mercury that can be found in raw tuna, which is one of the most commonly used ingredients for sushi.

As recent as January of this year, MSNBC published an article detailing the potential dangers of this wonderful food:

Lab tests commissioned by the New York Times found so much mercury in tuna in 20 Manhattan restaurants and stores that eating six pieces a week would exceed acceptable levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency, the newspaper reported.

So should we be concerned? I don’t think so:

Sushi tuna is most often linked to high levels of mercury, but don’t panic if you’ve eaten a lot recently. According to the Food and Drug Administration, one week’s consumption doesn’t change the level of methylmercury in the body much at all. If you eat a lot one week, you can cut back the next week or two and you’ll be fine.

So there! The media sometimes makes too much of a fuss over a simple thing that shouldn’t really cause concern. The Japanese eat sushi A LOT and are they being poisoned by mercury? I think not!

Photo courtesy of Giant Gingko

Craving For Sushi

What can I say? I love sushi and tonight, I am craving for some. Unfortunately, it is a bit too late to go out as the restaurants are already probably closed. This prompted me to go online and take a closer look at sushi and its origins instead. I know, reading about sushi is a very poor substitute to actually enjoying it as a meal but oh well, there is always tomorrow.

So where did sushi come from?

It seems that the art of sushi goes a long way back – all the way to the 7th century. According to Eatsushi.com, the Japanese adopted this form of pickling from the Southeast Asians. They put their own twist to it by wrapping raw fish in rice. The fermenting fish would then induce lactic acid production in the rice, which would then pickle the wrapped fish. Clever, isn’t it?

This practice, however, took too long. That is perhaps why, in the 17th century, vinegar became part of the recipe for sushi. This addition is attributed to Matsumoto Yoshiichi. Still, this version of sushi is not what we are used to today.

Perhaps the closest version of sushi that is quite popular around the world today is the one that emerged in the 1820s. This sushi version is attributed to Hanaya Yohei, who made use of sashimi and other seafood combined with vinegar rice. He served his delectable morsels straight from his sushi stall – much like what we order in Japanese restaurants today.

This hasn’t really helped my craving but I hope that the post was as informative for you as it was for me.

Cosplay Restaurants

Establishments that have themes are quite popular around the world but trust the Japanese to go all out when it comes to theme restaurants! Have you ever heard of Cosplay restaurants or maid cafes? These are theme restaurants which feature maids or butlers (the latter is dubbed butler café, obviously) – elegantly dressed.

Cosplay restaurants started in the Akihabara section of Tokyo around the year 2000. The idea behind these theme restaurants is for the maids or butlers to provide personalized service to the patrons – service that one would get from a personal maid or butler at home. Though the Cosplay restaurants started in Tokyo, they have spread out to other Japanese cities and even other countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Mexico, and Canada!

A visitor to Japan should not miss the chance to have his or her own personal maid or butler at one of the Cosplay cafes – especially if you cannot afford to have your own at home! Just to clear things up, though, there are definitely NO sexual overtones to the maids and butlers at these cafes. They are there to bring the most relaxing experience to their patrons and to provide them pampering and care while dining and drinking. That’s it.

In certain cases, a customer can actually pay extra to have the maid or butler play cards and similar games with them or to have a picture taken. The time allowed for such activities are limited, though, and one would have to pay more for extra time – marks of the good Japanese business sense!

Japanese Tonkatsu Recipe

Japanese food is one of the best cuisines in the world. Who has not experienced that craving for Japanese food at least once in their lives? For me, it is more like once a week – at least!

One of my favorite dishes is pork tonkatsu. It is one of the most basic dishes in Japanese cuisine. I am sure that most people have tasted tonkatsu or at least know about it. It is basically lean pork slices cut to about 2 centimeters thick. This thickness could vary, of course. The meat is dredged in a breading of some sort and then fried. The result is a crisp outside covering steamy and tender meat. Tonkatsu is usally served with bowls of steaming rice, dipping sauce, and shredded cabbage (or bean sprouts in some cases).

How to make tonkatsu? Here’s a simple recipe that I found over at Tokyo Cube.

Ingredients – Serves 4 people
• Pork loin steak – 4 slices
• Plain flour – 3 tablespoons
• Bread crumbs – 50g *
• Egg – 1
• Salt and pepper – a little
• Vegetable & Fruit sauce – suitable amount *

Step 1 – Prepare
In preparation, cut small incisions into the surface of the Pork just to tenderise the meat, particularly in the muscle and fat areas, to help make the meat a little softer. Once the meat is tenderised, sprinkle salt and pepper onto both sides.

Step 2 – Add Ingredients
Add the plain flour to both sides of the meat and place directly into the bowl containing mixed raw egg. After thoroughly soaking the meat with the raw egg, put the bread crumbs all over the meat.

Tip: After adding flour, shake off meat to avoid the breadcrumb coating coming off after cooking.

Step 3 – Heat and serve
Carefully submerge the meat in a saucepan of oil, first heating each side for 2 minutes at 150 degrees. Then, increase the heat to 180 degrees and continue heating for a further 1 minute. Once the meat is cooked through, slice into suitably sized pieces and serve with vegetables. Finally, drizzle vegetable & fruit sauce over meat and enjoy

Try it this weekend!

Gordon Ramsay at the Conrad Tokyo

I like Japanese food a lot – who doesn’t? Now I haven’t had much experience with British food but I do believe they have some quite interesting dishes. So what better fusion than British and Japanese food?

For those who are interested in this kind of fusion, you are in luck. On the 19th of this month, world renowned chef Gordon Ramsay is going to hold a gala dinner at a restaurant in Tokyo. Named Gordon Ramsay at the Conrad Tokyo, the restaurant is actually co-owned by the chef himself. It opened in 2005 and is Ramsay’s first Japanese restaurant.

The gala dinner is going to be served from 7 pm to 10 pm on the 19th and is purported to have a total of 7 courses. The whole meal is going to be prepared personally by Ramsay and will cost 35,000 yen per person!

Aside from the special gala dinner, the people of Tokyo are set for a treat with Sunday Lunch – a new menu which is based on Ramsay’s famous book “Gordon Ramsay Sunday Lunch.” The offerings will be held on the 19th of April from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm and on the 20th of April from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm. Prices for these two events are at 8,800 yen per person.

Where to go? The restaurant is conveniently located on the 28th floor of the Conrad Hotel in Tokyo, which is housed in the Shiodome Building.