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新鮮な驚きをもたらした豆腐料理
日本の食文化を代表する「豆腐」は筆者にとってはヘルシーだが退屈な食材だった。
だが、ある本との出合いがもとで
その見方ががらりと変わることになった。
Bored with tofu
I am really tired of all the news about food. I am tired of the well-meaning nutritionists and talk-show hosts telling me a high-fat diet is bad for me. I know that already.
We are told that the Japanese are losing their food culture, and that more and more they are getting hooked on a diet of hamburgers and fried chicken. More fat and cholesterol in food is the cause of increasing obesity and higher rates of cancer and heart disease.
Mothers who feed such lethal food to their children should be treated like drunk drivers. They are a menace to society. But maybe their love of junk food is just a symptom. Maybe they are bored with the traditional Japanese food that is considered healthy because it is always the same.
Take summer food, for example. Once the weather finally heated up, I started to look for cool, tasty, healthy things to eat. There was sushi and sashimi; there's not much that you can do with them. And some recent innovations in cold noodles have attracted a lot of well-deserved attention. I tried them with a wide range of sauces or loaded with all sorts of tasty vegetables.
Then, of course, there was tofu - always served with bonito shavings, ground ginger, chopped green onions and soy sauce. It is nutritionally balanced, aesthetically pleasing, and after 30 years, very boring.
This summer, I realized that I was bored with tofu - at least, as it is usually served in Japan.
Why should tofu be boring? It is one of the world's best foods. The cheapest source of protein, it has almost no fat or calories. Yet the Japanese seem to have made a fetish of serving it cold in one way and only one way, at least in summer.
I, too, used to be conservative about food. I grew up in a traditional Italian-American home where pasta sauce always meant tomato sauce. My motto was: "If it isn't broken, don't fix it." But tofu seemed ripe for a taste revolution. I don't mean adding it to milkshakes or making it into "tofu burgers." I mean something really radical.
Luckily, I discovered a new approach to tofu and other Japanese ingredients in a cookbook called "The Breakaway Japanese Kitchen" by Eric Gower (Kodansha International). The writer lived in Japan for 15 years, but always in out-of-the-way places without good access to restaurants. With no professional training as a cook, he began experimenting with local ingredients and trying things most Japanese wouldn't think of doing. His book has transformed my view of tofu. I used to think of it as a soft, inert, white blob. Now it is a gourmet treat.
Many of his tofu dishes are created almost instantly in a blender, like the tofu and smoked salmon mousse with ground walnuts and orange zest. Spread on toasted bread, and accompanied by a chilled white wine, it provided many quick, cool, delicious lunches this summer.
Or how about a sauce of figs, pickled ginger (gari) and a little olive oil, made in a blender, spooned over tofu and topped with chives. Can you imagine what it tastes like? Probably not. So try it. Get out of the food rut. Start experimenting. You'll never look at tofu again in quite the same way, I promise you.
Shukan ST: Sept. 12, 2003
(C) All rights reserved
- Bored with 〜
- 〜に飽きて
- well-meaning
- 善意の
- nutritionists
- 栄養学の専門家
- high-fat diet
- 高脂肪食
- food culture
- 食文化
- are getting hooked on 〜
- 〜のとりこになる
- diet
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- obesity
- 肥満
- lethal
- 死を招く
- menace
- 危険なもの
- symptom
- 何かの現れ
- Take 〜 for example
- 例えば、〜のことを考えてみよう
- heated up
- 暑さが厳しくなる
- have attracted 〜
- 〜を集めた
- well-deserved
- 当然の
- a wide range of 〜
- さまざまな種類の〜
- loaded with 〜
- (めんに)〜が乗った
- bonito shavings
- 削り節
- ground ginger
- おろしショウガ
- nutritionally
- 栄養学的に
- aesthetically
- 美的に
- protein
- タンパク質
- seem to have made a fetish of 〜
- 〜することを盲目的にあがめているようだ
- in one way and only one way
- たった一通りのやり方、それだけのやり方で
- used to 〜
- かつては〜だった
- motto
- 座右の銘
- If it isn't broken, don't fix it
- 壊れていなければ直すことはない(うまくいっているなら変革の必要はない)
- seemed ripe for a taste revolution
- 味の革命を受け入れる素地が出来上がっているように見えた
- radical
- 急進的な
- ingredients
- 食材
- out-of-the-way
- 辺ぴな
- has transformed 〜
- 〜を変えた
- think of 〜 as 〜
- 〜を〜だと考える
- soft, inert, white blob
- 柔らかくぐったりした白い塊
- treat
- ごちそう
- blender
- (料理用)ミキサー
- mousse
- ムース
- ground walnuts
- 細かく挽いたクルミ
- orange zest
- オレンジの皮
- chilled
- 冷えた
- figs
- イチジク
- pickled ginger
- 甘酢につけたショウガ
- spooned over 〜
- スプーンですくって〜にかける
- topped with 〜
- 〜でトッピングした
- chives
- チャイブ
- rut
- マンネリ