Take a gastronomic journey through Japan

By Cyril Fourneris & Katy Dartford

Published on 19/10/2019 - 10:00•Updated 30/03/2021 - 15:44

Michelin-starred chef Thierry Voisin guides us through the flavours that make Japan.

In this edition of Taste, we travel through Japan to discover five emblematic products: surimi, konjac, soy sauce, miso and yellowtail.

We begin our journey on the port of Odawara, to discover the delicacy of surimi. But here, its production is an ancestral technique, executed by hand, by masters, rather than the industrial sticks we find in Europe.

We then moved to the Konjac fields of the Gunma prefecture. This root-vegetable has been grown there for centuries. And more recently it's become popular with Europeans keeping an eye on their figure.

We then move to Maebashi to explore a must in Japanese cuisine; 'soy sauce' or shoyu. In Japan, Soy sauce is like wine in France -there are hundreds of varieties.

Next we head for the Nagano Mountains, nicknamed the Japanese Alps, famous for the production of Miso, a fermented soy and rice paste. We met a producer who uses traditional methods to make it.

We end our trip in the Wakayama Prefecture, to discover an iconic fish from Japan: the yellowtail. It's a fish of choice for sushi and sashimi but it can also be cooked in many ways.