Nanban Sauce

The Japanese characters for nanban roughly translate as ‘Southern barbarians’, and this expression, dating back to the 16th century, originally referred to Portuguese merchants and missionaries. The Portuguese were the first Westerners to enter Japan via Kyushu, the westernmost island of mainland Japan. With them, they brought South American chillies, their love for deep-frying foods and their habit of marinating them in vinegar and chillies – the ‘escabeche’ style. It was not long before t