Ainu cuisine Totally Explained

Everything about Ainu Cuisine totally explained

Ainu cuisine is the cuisine of the ethnic Ainu in Japan. The cuisine differs markedly from that of the Wajin, or ethnic Japanese. Ainu cuisine, for instance, doesn't prepare raw meats like sashimi instead preferring to boil, roast or cure meat. The island of Hokkaidō in northern Japan is where most Ainu live today; however, they once inhabitated most of the Kurile islands, the southern half of Sakhalin island, and parts of northern Honshu Island. Until recently, the Ainu were thought to be exclusively a hunter-gatherer society, but recent excavations on the Hokkaido University campus have revealed extensive fossilized grains. There are very few Ainu restaurants in the world, such as Rera Cise in Tokyo, Ashiri Kotan Nakanoshima in Sapporo, and Poron'no and Marukibune in Ainu Kotan, Hokkaidō.

Ingredients of the Ainu Cuisine

Crops

Deccan grass
Foxtail and Chinese millet
Wheat
Buckwheat
Beans

Wild plants

Pukusa, a wild garlic also known as kitopiro, and among the Wajin. Pukusa is very similar to ramps found in Canada and the United States in taste, texture and appearance.

Animals

Hunting

Bear

Deer

Fox

Raccoon dogs

Rabbits

Seals

Whales

Hazel Grouse

Mallard

Recipes and dishes of note in Ainu cuisine

Kitokamu - a sausage flavored with pukusa

Munchiro sayo - millet porridge

Ohaw or rur, a savory soup flavored with fish or animal bones. Kelp is also used to add flavor to the stock. Unlike the majority of the traditional Wajin soups, the Ainu don't use miso or soy sauce in their soups.(External Link

) The solid ingredients such as meat, fish, vegetables and/or wild edible plants are added to the stock.

cep ohaw - salmon soup
kam ohaw - meat soup
yukkuohaw - venison soup
pukusa ohaw - pukusa soup
pukusakina ohaw - anemone soup

Munini-imo [munin("fermented" in Ainu) + imo ("potatoes" in Japanese)], savory pancakes made with potato flour. Potatoes are first fermented underground by the repeated freeze-thaw cycles, and then milled and dried. The flour is soaked in water in order to remove the bitter taste and then baked on a griddle like a thick pancake. The potato flour made with this process can be easily stored for at least twenty years. The munini-imo is very sticky like mochi.

Sources

Ainu Agriculture

Origins of Ainu

English site of the Ainu Museum

Official site of an Ainu restaurant in Tokyo, "Rera Cise"

Official site of an Ainu restaurant in Ainu Kotan, "Poron'no"

Official site of an Ainu restaurant in Ainu Kotan, "Marukibune by Moshiri"

Further Information

Get more info on 'Ainu Cuisine'.

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