Ainu cuisine
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Ainu cuisine is the cuisine of the ethnic Ainu in Japan. The cuisine differs markedly from that of the Wajin, or ethnic Japanese. Ainu cuisine, for instance, does not prepare raw meats like sashimi instead preferring to boil, roast or cure meat. The island of Hokkaido in northern Japan is where most Ainu live today; however, they once inhabitated most of the Kurile islands, the southern half of Sakhalin island, and parts of northern Honshu Island. Up to 1 million descendants of interbreeding between Ainu and Wajin live throughout Japan. Until recently they were thought to be exclusively a hunter-gatherer society, but recent excavations on the Hokkaido University campus have revealed extensive fossilized grains by using something called the flotation method. There are a very few Ainu restaurants in the world, such as Rera Cise in Tokyo, Ashiri Kotan Nakanoshima in Sapporo, and Poron'no and Marukibune in Ainu Kotan, Hokkaidō.
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[edit] Ingredients of the Ainu
[edit] Crops
- Deccan grass
- Foxtail and Chinese millet
- Wheat
- Buckwheat
- Beans
[edit] Wild plants
- Pukusa, a wild garlic also known as kitopiro, gyouja nin'niku (ギョウジャニンニク or ascetic garlic?) and ainu-negi (アイヌネギ or ainu leek?) among the Wajin. Pukusa is very similar to ramps found in Canada and the United States in taste, texture and appearance.
[edit] Animals
[edit] Hunting
[edit] Fishing
Much of the legend of their hunting prowess has been handed down to the current generation in the form of songs and epic poems from Ainu music.
[edit] Recipes and dishes of note in Ainu cuisine
- Kitokamu - a sausage flavored with pukusa
- Munchiro sayo - millet porridge
- 0haw or rur, a savory soup flavored with fish or animal bones. Kelp is also used to add flavor to the stock. Unlike the majority of the traditional Wajin soups, the Ainu do not use miso or soy sauce in their soups.[1] The solid ingredients such as meat, fish, vegetables and/or wild edible plants are added to the stock.
- cep ohaw - salmon soup
- kam ohaw - meat soup
- yukku ohaw - venison soup
- pukusa ohaw - pukusa soup
- pukusakina ohaw - anemone soup
- Munini-imo [munin ("fermented" in Ainu) + imo ("potatoes" in Japanese)], savory pancakes made with potato flour. Potatoes are first fermented underground by the repeated freeze-thaw cycles, and then milled and dried. The flour is soaked in water in order to remove the bitter taste and then baked on a griddle like a thick pancake. The potato flour made with this process can be easily stored for at least twenty years. The munini-imo is very sticky like mochi.
[edit] Sources
- Ainu Agriculture
- Origins of Ainu
- English site of the Ainu Museum
- Official site of an Ainu restaurant in Tokyo, "Rera Cise" (Japanese)
- Official site of an Ainu restaurant in Ainu Kotan, "Poron'no" (Japanese)
- Official site of an Ainu restaurant in Ainu Kotan, "Marukibune by Moshiri" (Japanese)
