On the occasion of the Tokyo Olympics we discover Japanese cuisine. With the French chef Amandine Chaignot we travel to the island of Hokkaido, in search of umami ("tasty" in Japanese), identified in 1908 by the chemist Kikunae Ikeda, is considered the fifth element of taste after bitter, sweet, salty and sour. The result is the miniseries, from Thursday 5 August on laF (Sky 135) "The taste of travel - In Japan", 8 episodes of 30 minutes each in search of the secrets of the most authentic and healthy Japanese culinary tradition.
Between kombu, seafood,
Wagyu meat
,
sake, ramen
: a journey into flavors and senses from a thousand-year history but also into Japanese culture and tradition, between nature and spirituality, as well as a moment of sharing and exchange with local chefs.
From rice
, a staple food for the Japanese for over 2,000 years,
to kombu
, a seaweed with surprising benefits, from the sweet pleasures of
anko
, a mixture of red beans used in many desserts, to
eel
, a national dish cooked with secret methods. to make it delicious, up to the
takoyaki
, fried octopus meatballs,
fugu
tempura
, puffer fish that is processed to deprive it of tetrodotoxin and make it edible, and
ikejime
, method of slaughtering fish to keep the quality of the meat unchanged.
8 stops to travel through the fascinating island characterized by wild nature and the largest agricultural producer of the entire nation, from Furano to the volcanic lake Tōya passing through Niseko, the capital Sapporo, Hakodate, home to the most important fish market in the region, Shikabé and Matsumae, home to Hokkaido's only Edo-period castle; Amandine ends her journey with a detour to Tokyo aboard the shinkansen, the fastest train in the world, to taste traditional ekiben, visit a tofu factory and meet chef Noriyuki Hamada.