Interesting Facts About Number 5 In Japanese Cuisine
Interesting Facts About Number 5 In Japanese Cuisine
Cuisine is one of the unique and long-standing traditional cultures of Japan. Have you ever wondered about the number that also represents the culinary culture of the Japanese? Come on, let's discover interesting things about the number 5 in the cuisine of Japan with Mainichi Nihongo!
1. Go shiki - 5 colors
Each dish and every meal of the Japanese must converge 5 basic colors, creating a harmonious and nutritious meal. The 5 basic colors in Japanese dishes are:
White: From rice. fish meat, radishes, snow mushrooms…
Red: From red meats such as beef, salmon, caviar…
Green: From green leafy vegetables, green tubers…
Yellow: From yellow-orange vegetables, precious mushrooms, eggs, sea urchins...
Black: Including dark colors such as purple, brown... from grilled meat, mushrooms, eggplant, seaweed, soy sauce...
An example of a color scheme in Japanese cooking: "Dissect" a piece of sushi and you'll see it right away!
Not only making the meal more beautiful with rich and harmonious colors, these 5 color groups also represent essential nutritional groups. In addition, it also symbolizes the 5 basic natural elements: Metal - Wood - Water - Fire - Earth. It would not be an exaggeration to say that, in each of those beautiful dishes, contains the quintessence of heaven and earth.
2.Go mi – 5 flavors
Although they like to be beautiful, the Japanese also like to eat delicious food, so taste is still the top factor, reflected in the principle of combining 5 extremely harmonious flavors: salty - sweet - sour - bitter - umami.
Salty, sweet, sour, bitter are all too familiar, but what about umami? In a nutshell, this is the sweetness of meat, discovered by the Japanese people for a long time and turned it into a characteristic, helping to distinguish their country's cuisine from the world's cuisine. Unlike the sweetness of sugar, umami is described as sweet but long, lingering on the tip of the tongue and throat, you can find it in broths, baked goods and stews. It can also be broadly interpreted as "taste" - food without umami cannot be considered delicious.
If you wonder why Japanese food is always strangely light, the secret lies in umami. The Japanese always try to keep the sweet taste in fish meat by minimalist cooking, keeping the meat fresh and naturally sweet without having to season it too much. This light taste is not only good for health, but deeply in it also shows the Japanese attitude of respect for nature: What nature gives them, they eat it, do not want to change too complicated.
A delicious dish must have all these 5 flavors, in which the salty, sweet, sour, and bitter flavors are complementary to help the umami stand out. Natural flavor is the unique feature that helps Japanese cuisine stand firm and be on par with other major cuisines – for example, French cuisine likes to cook and taste sophisticated dishes.
3. Go hoo – 5 ways to cook
Having beautiful colors and delicious spices is not enough, you also have to know how to cook food to make Japanese food delicious. In general, Japanese cuisine seems ethereal and simple, but actually the Japanese have applied enough sophisticated cooking methods, to the point that chef David Chang had to exclaim.
"Preliminary", when processing food, Japanese people often use up to 5 cooking methods: stewing, baking, steaming, frying, and boiling. They are very familiar, but for the Japanese, the technique is much more demanding than we imagine. No matter how it is cooked, the dish must not lose its natural sweetness and moisture, adhering to the rule that must have Umami taste above.
Cuisine is one of the unique and long-standing traditional cultures of Japan. Have you ever wondered about the number that also represents the culinary culture of the Japanese? Come on, let's discover interesting things about the number 5 in the cuisine of Japan with Mainichi Nihongo!
1. Go shiki - 5 colors
Each dish and every meal of the Japanese must converge 5 basic colors, creating a harmonious and nutritious meal. The 5 basic colors in Japanese dishes are:
White: From rice. fish meat, radishes, snow mushrooms…
Red: From red meats such as beef, salmon, caviar…
Green: From green leafy vegetables, green tubers…
Yellow: From yellow-orange vegetables, precious mushrooms, eggs, sea urchins...
Black: Including dark colors such as purple, brown... from grilled meat, mushrooms, eggplant, seaweed, soy sauce...
An example of a color scheme in Japanese cooking: "Dissect" a piece of sushi and you'll see it right away!
Not only making the meal more beautiful with rich and harmonious colors, these 5 color groups also represent essential nutritional groups. In addition, it also symbolizes the 5 basic natural elements: Metal - Wood - Water - Fire - Earth. It would not be an exaggeration to say that, in each of those beautiful dishes, contains the quintessence of heaven and earth.
2.Go mi – 5 flavors
Although they like to be beautiful, the Japanese also like to eat delicious food, so taste is still the top factor, reflected in the principle of combining 5 extremely harmonious flavors: salty - sweet - sour - bitter - umami.
Salty, sweet, sour, bitter are all too familiar, but what about umami? In a nutshell, this is the sweetness of meat, discovered by the Japanese people for a long time and turned it into a characteristic, helping to distinguish their country's cuisine from the world's cuisine. Unlike the sweetness of sugar, umami is described as sweet but long, lingering on the tip of the tongue and throat, you can find it in broths, baked goods and stews. It can also be broadly interpreted as "taste" - food without umami cannot be considered delicious.
If you wonder why Japanese food is always strangely light, the secret lies in umami. The Japanese always try to keep the sweet taste in fish meat by minimalist cooking, keeping the meat fresh and naturally sweet without having to season it too much. This light taste is not only good for health, but deeply in it also shows the Japanese attitude of respect for nature: What nature gives them, they eat it, do not want to change too complicated.
A delicious dish must have all these 5 flavors, in which the salty, sweet, sour, and bitter flavors are complementary to help the umami stand out. Natural flavor is the unique feature that helps Japanese cuisine stand firm and be on par with other major cuisines – for example, French cuisine likes to cook and taste sophisticated dishes.
3. Go hoo – 5 ways to cook
Having beautiful colors and delicious spices is not enough, you also have to know how to cook food to make Japanese food delicious. In general, Japanese cuisine seems ethereal and simple, but actually the Japanese have applied enough sophisticated cooking methods, to the point that chef David Chang had to exclaim.
"Preliminary", when processing food, Japanese people often use up to 5 cooking methods: stewing, baking, steaming, frying, and boiling. They are very familiar, but for the Japanese, the technique is much more demanding than we imagine. No matter how it is cooked, the dish must not lose its natural sweetness and moisture, adhering to the rule that must have Umami taste above.
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