When Sonoko Sakai’s mother sneaked a little miso into her lasagne, she was not thinking of the kind of Japanese fusion that became an American dining craze in the 1980s. Rather, she was doing what Japanese cooks had been doing for centuries: adapting to outside influences. Many dishes now thought of as quintessentially Japanese are … Read more
A group of governors is aiming to have Japan’s hot spring culture added to Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2028, to bring recognition to the importance of the centuries-old practice of bathing in naturally heated water. The group, set up in November 2022, defines the culture of hot springs, or “onsen” in Japanese, as … Read more
When speaking about rice wines, one usually thinks of sake, either warmed up or drunk cold to pair with some sushi or some izakaya fare. A drink brewed from polished rice, water, yeast, and koji mould, it is one of Japan’s largest alcohol exports. However, there is another rice wine that not only has centuries … Read more
Sake is perhaps more Japanese than sushi. It is crafted in centuries-old breweries, savoured in the country’s pub-like izakayas, poured during weddings and served slightly chilled for special toasts. Now the rice wine has been inscribed by United Nations cultural organisation Unesco on its list of the “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”. At a meeting … Read more
1. Tara Margarita of Bourke’s wine bar in Hong Kong on putting simple human love back into cooking Margarita, head chef of Bourke’s in SoHo, shares her journey from corporate life to the culinary arts, emphasising simple, refined bar food. Avoiding the burnout so often found in fine-dining kitchens, she is now fostering a positive … Read more
Deep in a dark warehouse the sake sleeps, stored in rows of giant tanks, each holding more than 10,000 litres (2,640 gallons) of the Japanese rice wine that is the product of brewing techniques dating back more than 1,000 years. Junichiro Ozawa, the 18th-generation head of Ozawa Brewery, founded in 1702, hopes sake brewing will … Read more
