JAPANESE CULTURE AND TRADITIONS
Washoku — Wonderful and Beautiful Japanese Cuisine
A UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
“We eat with our eyes”
Washoku, or Japanese cuisine, is famous the world over for its impeccable presentation and meticulous attention to detail. Japanese meals are beautiful, tasty, and healthful.
There is a Japanese expression, me de taberu, 目で食べる, “We eat with our eyes.” As you can imagine, this refers to the time we spend admiring the beauty of our meal before partaking. It is a crucial aspect of Washoku.
Another saying instructs us that each meal should include foods of five different colors, and every day one should eat 30 different types of food. One kaiseki, or formal course meal, has at least that many.
This positive outlook on food, trying to include many different types each day, is refreshingly different from guidelines we often hear that advise us to cut foods out of our diets.
This mentality surely plays a part in the vast variety, colorful bounty, and artistic presentation that make up a single Japanese meal.
