Key Japanese ingredients

Japanese food, in all its incarnations, has some basic building blocks, a set of key ingredients which have evolved over the centuries and which are very specific to this kind of cuisine. The defining feature of many of these ingredients is umami, the fifth taste, best described as a savoury ingredient which acts as a natural flavour enhancer, lifting the original ingredient. Umami is found in shiitake, kombu, soy, miso and bonito flakes; the latter are used in hon dashi, the base stock for many marinades, broths and soups. Soy, brewed using fermented soy beans, is used instead of salt, although some of the more Westernized dishes in this book use sea salt in its place.