In recent years, Japanese food has become increasingly more popular in North America. This is most likely due to North Americans' increased awareness of the healthy nature and unique flavor of Japanese food. It is estimated that the number of Japanese restaurants in the U.S. has more than doubled to an astounding 10,000 restaurants nationwide in the past 10 years. The use of Japanese ingredients in upscale Japanese restaurants owned and operated by Americans and in restaurants that serve French cuisine or other non-Japanese menu items has also increased. Expensive Japanese restaurants in New York City that charge a minimum of $200 a meal for Japanese food are crowded with American customers on weekend nights. In addition, Japanese food products, such as sushi, shoyu and tofu are now readily available in U.S. supermarkets and such food products are becoming more widespread in the average U.S. household.

It was our intent, in writing this book, to give North Americans an even more profound knowledge of Japanese food. This book focuses on the four essential ingredients of Japanese cooking: miso, shoyu, su — Japanese vinegar and dashi soup stock (bonito or kelp). These ingredients not only provide the foundation for the flavor of Japanese cuisine, but also have historic value as ingredients that have evolved uniquely in Japan since ancient times. The book also provides an explanation of the history, nutritional value, varieties and uses for each of the 4 essential ingredients.

We sincerely hope that a variety of North American readers, including chefs who have a special interest in Japanese food, will read this book. And, in doing so, we hope that you will obtain a renewed awareness and understanding of Japanese food that will allow you to communicate the wonder of Japanese ingredients and cuisine, including original Japanese recipes, to others in your own unique ways. Nothing would make us more pleased, if by reading this book, more people in North America became true connoisseurs of Japanese cuisine.

MISO (味噌)
Miso, a salty, fermented soybean paste, whose history in Japan goes back 1200 years to Imperial and Buddhist kitchens, is still one of the indispensable daily staples in Japanese cooking. Its robust flavor, long shelf life and exceptional nutritional value were soon valued and favored by the warrior class samurai, who eventually took political power from the Emperor in the 12th century. By the 15th century, the consumption of miso spread to commoners, and the popular miso shiru (miso soup) that is universally...

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SHOYU (醤油)
Today, shoyu, or soy sauce, the primary staple in Japanese cooking, is an internationally used condiment. In the mid-thirteenth century, a Japanese Buddhist monk, Kakushin, brought from China to his temple in Yuasa City, Wakayama Prefecture, the technique of pickling summer vegetables, such as cucumber, eggplant, melon and ginger, in a base of soybeans and grains, along with salt, as a way to preserve the precious vegetable harvest. After several months of pickling in the hot and humid weather, the monks soon discovered...

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SU (酢)
Sour flavor, which is the product of bacterial fermentation of alcohol made from fruits and grains to produce vinegar, or simply the sourness derived from acidic fruits, such as lemons, is one of the key taste sensations of human beings. The first official mention of rice vinegar production appeared in the Engi-Shiki, the Laws and Regulations published in A.D. 908. In these early centuries, vinegar played an important role in preserving food, in addition to adding sourness to prepared dishes. Today, we use rice vinegar to produce...

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DASHI (出汁)
No Japanese kitchen can do without dashi, or Japanese stock. Dashi is the foundation of Japanese dishes, as is chicken stock for Chinese cuisine and beef, or chicken and vegetable bouillon for French preparations. Japanese chefs start their day by preparing dashi. Subtle but aromatic, properly flavored dashi is a chef’s pride and is the base of his or her culinary creations for that day. The most popular dashi materials are kombu (kelp) and katsuobushi (dried katsuo [skipjack tuna] flakes). Kombu is synonymous with...

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Editors: Keiichi Nishimoto, Makoto Yamauchi, Tomoko Watanabe, and Hiroko Shimbo*

*Hiroko Shimbo, a recognized authority on Japanese cuisine, has published two cookbooks: The Japanese Kitchen (Harvard Common Press) and The Sushi Experience (Alfred Knopf). A member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and the Women’s Chef and Restaurateurs, she serves the advisory board at Blue Ocean Institute, a conservation organization devoted to inspiring a close relationship with the sea and the sustainability of its food resources.