Stocking the Japanese Pantry

Lou:     Flo, before we get knee-deep in rice, I think we should start our blog with a few basics. Like a list of stuff you need when you’re cooking Japanese food.

Flo:      Good call Lou. Okay, so my husband always says Japanese cuisine starts with this: Sa, Shi, Su Se, So.

Lou:     Huh?

Flo:      Sa, Shi, Su, Se, So is a quick way to remember the basic ingredients in Japanese cooking. With this stuff and you can pretty much make any Japanese dish since most of them use at least a couple of the following ingredients.

Here’s the breakdown:

“Sa” stands for sake, mirin and sato.

Lou:     So that’s rice wine, sweet rice wine and sugar.

Flo:      “Shi” stands for shio.

Lou:     That’s salt.

Flo:      “Su” is rice wine vinegar.

“Se” stands for shoyu.

Lou:     Okay, soy sauce. Got it.

Flo:      “So” stands for miso. (Incidentally, also my husband’s name.)

Lou:     Cool, all Japanese syllables. I like that.

Flo:      It's clever, right? But my mother-in-law says that Sa, Shi, Su, Se, So also spells out the order you need to add these ingredients when you’re cooking. At first I thought, “Ahh, whatever. Just throw them all in.” But no. Trust me, add that soy sauce and miso last because if you cook them too long they will burn, and it'll be a horrible mess.

Lou:     Okay. See that’s useful. And of course there's an order-- we're in Japan.

Flo:     God forbid you switch up the order here.

Lou:     I know, absolute chaos. Now about getting all of this. Out here we're pretty much rolling in miso, but I don't think back home you should have too much trouble finding these ingredients. Even if you don't have a Japanese grocery store where you live, any half-way decent Asian supermarket will carry this stuff, and probably a few of the posh grocery stores too.