Text 2. Example of Asian cuisine

Scan the text and find the information about national Japanese drinks.

 

Asian cuisine is devided into several groups according to the geographical position of the country. For example, East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the East Asian group such cuisines as Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese and others can be distinguished. As for Central Asian, there can be such cuisines as Mongolian, Tibetan, Turkmen, etc. In South Asian group there are Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani cuisines, etc. And in Southeast Asia there can be the following cuisines: Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, etc.

Japanese cuisine has developed over the centuries as a result of many political and social changes. The cuisine eventually changed with the advent of the Medieval age which ushered in a shedding of elitism with the age of Shogun rule. In the early modern era massive changes took place that introduced Western culture to Japan.

The modern term "Japanese cuisine" (nihon ryōri, or washoku,) means traditional-style Japanese food, similar to what already existed before the end of national seclusion in 1868. In a broader sense of the word, it could also include foods whose ingredients or cooking methods were subsequently introduced from abroad, but which have been developed by Japanese who made them their own. Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food (shun), quality of ingredients and presentation.

Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods (shushoku,), typically rice or noodles, with a soup, and okazu - dishes made from fish, meat, vegetable, tofu and the like, designed to add flavor to the staple food. These are typically flavored with dashi, miso, and soy sauce and are usually low in fat and high in salt.

A standard Japanese meal generally consists of several different okazu accompanying a bowl of cooked white Japanese rice (gohan,), a bowl of soup and some tsukemono (pickles). The most standard meal comprises three okazu and is termed ichijū-sansai ("one soup, three dishes"). Different cooking techniques are applied to each of the three okazu; they may be raw (sashimi), grilled, simmered (sometimes called boiled), steamed, deep-fried, vinegared, or dressed. This Japanese view of a meal is reflected in the organization of Japanese cookbooks, organized into chapters according to cooking techniques as opposed to particular ingredients (e.g. meat, seafood). There may also be chapters devoted to soups, sushi, rice, noodles, and sweets. This is also why a Japanese menu is never divided into appetizers, entrees, main dishes and desserts. Japanese menus are instead divided according to the cooking method.

As Japan is an island nation its people eat much seafood. Eating meat except wild animals, which is proper for eating in mountain areas, has been rare until fairly recently due to protection of farming stocks, Shinto and Buddhist philosophical influence, and mixture of these factors. However, strictly vegetarian food is rare since even vegetable dishes are flavored with the ubiquitous dashi stock, usually made with katsuobushi (dried skipjack tuna flakes). An exception is shōjin ryōri, vegetarian dishes developed by Buddhist monks. However, the advertised shōjin ryōri usually available at public eating places includes some non-vegetarian elements.

Noodles are an essential part of Japanese cuisine usually as an alternative to a rice-based meal. Soba (thin, grayish-brown noodles containing buckwheat flour) and udon (thick wheat noodles) are the main traditional noodles and are served hot or cold with soy-dashi flavorings. Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat stock broth known as ramen have become extremely popular over the last century.

It was the influence of Chinese cultures that brought the chopsticks to Japan early in this period. Chopsticks were used by nobility at banquets, they were not used as everyday utensils however, as hands were commonly used to eat with.

Sake is a rice wine that typically contains 12~20% alcohol and is made by multiple fermentation of rice. At traditional meals, it is considered an equivalent to rice and is not simultaneously taken with other rice-based dishes. Side dishes for sake is particularly called sakana or otsumami. Shōchū is a distilled spirit, most commonly distilled from barley, sweet potato, or rice.

 

Vocabulary

1 eventually – со временем

2 advent – наступление (какой-л. эпохи, какого-л. события)

3 to usher – вводить (in)

4 shedding – снижение

5 seclusion – отделение, изоляция

6 seasonality – сезонность

7 noodles – лапша; лентовидные макаронные изделия

8 pickles – соленые или маринованные огурцы

9 ubiquitous – вездесущий; повсеместный

10 chopsticks – палочки для еды

 

Text work

1. Find English equivalents in the text:

1 развивалась в течение нескольких веков

2 с наступлением средневековья

3 произошли значительные изменения

4 в широком смысле слова

5 совмещение основных пищевых продуктов с супом

6 с низким содержанием жира и большим количеством соли

7 сварены, приготовлены на пару, жаренные во фритюре

8 разделены по способу приготовления

9 важнейшая часть японской кухни

10 подается горячим или холодным

 

2. Fill in the table with words with common root:

 

Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
cooking
	develop
		ubiquitous
			typically

 

 

3. Skim the text once again and find information about a standard meal in Japan. Retell it to your partner.

4. Read the following extract about dining etiquette in Japan. Which facts seemed to you quite normal and which ones are rather unusual? Discuss it with your partner.

· It is customary to say itadakimasu ("I receive") before starting to eat a meal, and gochisōsama deshita, ("It was a feast") to the host after the meal and the restaurant staff when leaving.

· Before eating, most dining places will provide either a hot towel or a plastic-wrapped wet napkin. This is for cleaning of the hands prior to eating and not after. It is rude to use them to wash the face or any part of the body other than the hands.

· The rice or the soup is eaten by picking the relevant bowl up with the left hand and using chopsticks with the right. Bowls of soup, noodle soup, donburi or ochazuke may be lifted to the mouth but not white rice. Soy sauce is not usually poured over most foods at the table; a dipping dish is usually provided. Soy sauce is, however, meant to be poured directly onto tofu and grated daikon dishes. In particular, soy sauce should never be poured onto rice or soup. Noodles are slurped.

· Blowing one's nose at the table is considered extremely offensive.

· Chopsticks are never left sticking vertically into rice, as this resembles incense sticks (which are usually placed vertically in sand) during offerings to the dead. Using chopsticks to spear food, to point, or especially to pass food into someone else's chopsticks is also frowned upon. It is also very bad manners to bite on your chopsticks.

· When taking food from a communal dish, unless they are family or very close friends, turn the chopsticks around to grab the food; it is considered more sanitary. If sharing with someone else, move it directly from one plate to another; passing food from one pair of chopsticks to another is a funeral rite.

· It is customary to eat rice to the last grain. Being a fussy eater is frowned upon, and it is not customary to ask for special requests or substitutions at restaurants. It is considered ungrateful to make these requests especially in circumstances where you are being hosted, as in a business dinner environment. Good manners dictate that you respect the selections of the host. This is a common mistake that visiting business people make.

· Even in informal situations, drinking alcohol starts with a toast (kanpai) when everyone is ready. It is not customary to pour oneself a drink; but rather, people are expected to keep each other's drinks topped up. When someone moves to pour your drink you should hold your glass with both hands and thank them.

 

5. Work in groups. Discuss Russian etiquette rules. Can you find any similarities in Russian etiquette and Japanese one? Make up a list of the main rules in Russia. Compare your list with other groups.