Japan’s gastronomy, a key essence of washoku that makes the best use of ingredients

“Dashi” is the most basic ingredient of the Japanese-style dishes like soup, stew and sauce. It is the essence of the ingredients’ umami and aroma extracting from katsuobushi (dried bonito), kombu (kelp), niboshi(dried baby sardines), dried shiitake mushroom, meats, fishes, vegetables, crustaceans, etc. by boiling carefully. It can be said that “dashi” is something like bouillon, fond or broth of the Western cuisine. Dishes are the combinations of “dashi”, seasoning and ingredients.

With respect to washoku, Japanese cuisine, “dashi” is the basic ingredient of cooking, used in the every dish like miso soup, suimono, stew, noodles and so on. “Umami” contained in “dashi” is the specialty of “washoku” itself that encourages the taste of the materials by making the best use of them. By realizing the sense of “umami”, one would use less salt and could have the healthier eating habits. Recently, lots of chefs in the world have been interested strongly in the Japanese traditional cooking style using “dashi” extracted from “katsuobushi” and “kombu” and they have introduced it to their cooking methods. Japan’s unique sense of taste, “umami”, has turned out to be global now.