Introduction

To the Japanese, dashi is an indispensable part of our diet - it has become part of our bodies. If we go without it for a number of days, we become unsettled. An example of this is the longing for Japanese dishes such as miso soup and udon noodles that emerges whenever Japanese people travel abroad.

Dashi is the foundation of Japanese cuisine, used in a great variety of dishes, including nimonowan (soup dishes), ohitashi (greens in dashi sauce), takiawase (simmered dishes), rice dishes, and many others. Heated or chilled, mixed with or absorbed into other ingredients, its role is extraordinarily important. It is said that if ten chefs were to prepare dashi there would be ten different dashi stocks at the end. As well as these variations there are different kinds of dashi; perhaps the best-loved formula is the combination kombu (kelp seaweed) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes).