At this moment, many places in Japan is now at its peak for autumn this year! Therefore, the content for this week will mainly focuses about foods which are widely regarded as a must whenver you have a chance to visit Japan during this season!
There are many kind of foods in Japan ranging from a budget easy and quick snack to a 3-star of Michelin foods. However, each season of Japan also has its own uniqueness and tasting the seasonal foods is also another great experience for both local and visitors too.
As you may know that autumn season in Japan starts from September to late November, the overall temperature drops dramatically from around 30 Celcius to only 12-15 Celcius thus the process makes leaves to change their color in order to withstand the cold weather and prepare for upcoming harsh winter during December until February. Animals also need to gain supplies and energy to withstand the low temperature so many animal such as fishes during autumn are full of fat in their body which eventually affects its taste to be more delicious that other season of the year and the folllowing list of 7 foods below are all recommended visitors to try!
1. Sanma : Sanma is Pacific Saury in English while some regions called it as Mackerel Pike. During autumn, Sanmas will collect more fat inside their body this makes it give different taste than other season. For local Japanese, they love to broil the fish with salt or added only a squirt of lemon to increase the aroma and taste while others enjoy eating them with soy sauce plus Japanese rice. Moreover, if those Sanmas are fresh enough, it will be eaten fresh as a sashimi also. For this type of fish, it is very easy to find and many oversea visitors considered this menu as "an all time favorite"
2.Matsutake Mushrooms : Mushrooms are easy to find in Japan but Matsutake has been regarded from Japan as "King of autumn foods" because its fragrant smell and rich taste (prices also high), this mushrooms are widely eaten with flavored rice or mix with Japanese soup to get a great taste with delicious aroma!
3.Chestnuts : Chestnuts might be easy to find and can be found in many countries especially in Asia but in Japan, the local loves to consume them by boling with salt or soy sauce and even with cooking wine. Chestnuts are also considered as diet snack and the products of them are also made into confectionaries such as cakes and Yokan (Japanese jelly mixed with red beans).
4. Sweet potatoes : Japanese sweet potatoes are very popular especially in autumn, we can normally see the vendors who sell sweet potatoes in a small truck and roast them to attracts any people who pass by. Sweet potatoes are usually eaten by roasting but nowadays, many sweet potatoes have been turned into other product such as cake, yokan and candied sweet potatoes.
5. Asian pears : Japanese pears have shapes that resemble to apples but they have yellow, brown and green skin with juicy and crispy characteristics. During autumn, there is an activity that is so popular among both Japanese and oversea travelers which is fruit picking and no wonder that pears are also among the favorite target for the season. Pears can be enjoyed by eaten fresh but other form such as jelly or tart are also enjoyable too.
6. Persimmons : This fruit is a famous fruit during this season. Normally, persimmons have 2 flavors : sweet persimmons and sour persimmons. The sweet one is widely eaten fresh or use it as main ingredients for desserts such as jelly or Yokan while the sour persimmons usually turned into a dry persimmon.
7.Apples : Some Japanese considers apple as "fruits of autumn". For Japanese apples, the best time to eat them is from October until December. Moreover, apples picking in fruit farm also gain popularities among tourist both local and overseas too while the best way to eat apple is to eat fresh but making it to be other products such as apple juice, jam, pie, wine and vinegar are also common in Japan.
That was all for the blog this week, I hope that after reading this blogs some of you might want to try those mentioned food in a restaurant near your area. However, if you really want to travel to Japan for vacation or any kind of tourism then allow me to introduce a private tour company which provide gourmet tour in Japan.
Sauce from bokksu
Cover photo from nikkohotel, The rest are taken from fastjapan, guidable.co, wikpedia, onlynativejapan and japan-magazine
