The Japanese in the Netherlands and Their Foodways

Food Culture Forum About Food Culture from the Netherlands 2 patterns. My purpose in calling attention to these known and uneaten, and often even thought of as events is to argue that, in the principal ways in which distasteful or repulsive, in Outer Asia. he Japanese in the ordinary people ate, so-called Asian or Eastern and I refer to these “dairy products” not only because I T Western food patterns were at one time much less think that there are significant attitudinal differences different structurally than they would later become. in the way peoples feel about them, but also because Netherlands and Their Foodways This does not mean, of course, that people East and their use has been absolutely fundamental in the West were eating the same foods, or that what they ate development of broadly based food patterns and what Katarzyna J. Cwiertka Ph.D. was prepared in the same or similar manner. goes by the name of haute cuisine in the West. In fact, Leiden University, the Netherlands Implicit in my argument about the core-legume- if I were asked what single feature of Western food fringe structure of food patterns is the idea that practices stands out for me as more contrastive than vegetable protein played an important political role any other in marking the West off from the East, I because it made possible the siphoning off of animal would say the use of cream, butter and cheese. Katarzyna J. Cwiertka, Ph.D. protein by ruling groups in many agrarian This is the point at which my speculation must Katarzyna J. Cwiertka is a researcher at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She graduated in 1990 from Warsaw University’s Asian Studies Institute, where she received societies–possibly at a tolerable nutritive cost to end. Though it serves only a limited purpose to her M.A. degree in Japanese Studies; in 1994 she received an M.A. from Tsukuba commoners. This seems to have been particularly classify the cuisines of Asia together as if they were University’s Regional Studies Course. Dr. Cwiertka received her doctorate in 1999 from clear in East Asia, where soybean and mung bean by- merely variants on some common theme, I suppose Leiden University, Center for Japanese and Korean Studies. Her most recent articles in products proved to be especially critical, and where something can be learned from the exercise. Much English include “Culinary Globalization and Japan,” Japan Echo (1999) vol. 26 no.3; and indigenous creative genius led to the stabilization of more, of course, could be said by particularizing the “A Note on the Making of Culinary Tradition––An Example of Modern Japan,” Appetite an array of legume byproducts of enormous variety, ways in which these cuisines diverge. I have not really (1998) no. 30. Other writings include “How Cooking Became a Hobby: Changes in Attitude and transcendental nutritive and cultural importance. tried to enumerate East-West differences here. It Towards Cooking in Early Twentieth Century Japan” in The Culture of Japan as Seen It seems to me quite suggestive how many soy-based would take an eternity, and I think that it would leave Through Its Leisure (S. Fruhstuck & S. Linhart, eds.), SUNY Press, 1998. derivatives are contrived to resemble animal protein. us no better informed. Instead I’ve tried to identify Where legumes have proven nutritively and certain underlying and ancient structural similarities culinarily significant in every world area with a stable upon which systems of difference arose, and have agriculture, their role in Asia is note worthy because touched on what some of those basic differences Like air and water, food is essential to life. It plays the women living in that country.* they have so often become vehicles for intense taste, might be. same crucial role in sustaining life in humans as in In 1996, there were 5,812 Japanese registered at serving simultaneously to fill two of the three animals. In addition to its essential biological function the Japanese Embassy as residents of the Netherlands. categories I have enumerated: legumes, but at the of maintaining health and vigor, food is part of many Over 80 percent were persons assigned to jobs in same time taste enhancers or fringe foods. In Asia, the other aspects of human culture. People display their Holland by their employers; they consisted of use of legumes as a contrasting base, especially when (Note) aesthetic tastes, for example, through the arrangement employees of Japanese companies, students, salt- or sweet-flavored, is particularly noteworthy. * Space does not permit me to discuss cooking techniques here, in and serving of dishes, and they observe taboos with researchers, and Japanese civil servants on overseas Whether as a stuffing for steam-baked goods, in relation to particular foods. Dr. H. T. Huang’s important paper on regard to eating that reflect traditional customs and postings and members of their families. Japanese sauces for meat and vegetables, as soup, soup-like and fermentation and food science, which appears in Vol. VI of beliefs. The way in which food is produced, prepared company employees and their families accounted for Science and Civilization in China, (a continuing series growing out of and consumed clearly reveals the social dimensions of the largest group, making up 70 percent of the total. baked desserts, and in almost every way possible, the work of Joseph Needham), points to the difference between food. In all societies–as aptly expressed in the The nearly one thousand other Japanese registered sharply flavored legumes, especially toward the sweet steaming and baking as a basic diagnostic of Chinese cuisine. Japanese saying, “eating rice from the same pot”–food with the embassy were long-term residents, most of pole, have become a signature feature of local plays a role in fostering a sense of camaraderie. Food them Japanese women married to Dutch men. There * cuisines. thus brings a social significance to people’s lives, may be other Japanese residing in the Netherlands I have already dwelt on a pre-baking era in order which vividly symbolizes their cultural identity. who are not registered with the embassy, but that to point out ancient underlying commonalities in the Most people are unaware of the psychological number is likely to be small. preparation of porridge or gruel. What follows, aspects of food and the role that diet plays in The majority of Japanese in the Netherlands live in however, is a generality that clearly differentiates maintaining balanced mental and physical health. and around Amsterdam, the capital, where the some parts of Asia from others. I refer here to the use People take it for granted that the food they eat is Japanese school and Japan Culture Club are located, of animal byproducts, especially milk and its References similar to that eaten by those around them; they are thus forming the heart of the Japanese community. derivatives, such as cream and butter, their major Huang, H.T. (2000). “Soybean Curd and Related Products.” In often not conscious of the social importance of food. Accordingly, this study was carried out mainly in byproduct, cheese and other related foods including Fermentation and Food Sciences Part 5 of Biology and Biological This attitude toward food, however, changes as soon Amsterdam. The age of the 75 Japanese women who buttermilk, curds, yogurt and other fermented Technology, Vol. VI, of Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in as people move away from the environment to which participated in the study varied from those in their products. The use of milk and these and other China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 299-333. they have been physically and psychologically twenties to those in their fifties, and can, therefore, be byproducts from pastoral animals is economically and accustomed. Ordinary aspects of everyday life to regarded to a certain extent as representative of the Mintz, Sidney (1985). “The Anthropology of Food: Core and Fringe in which they had previously never paid attention take Japanese residents in the Netherlands. Generally culturally important in much of Asia, perhaps Diet.” India International Centre Quarterly 12 (2), pp. 193-204. on greater importance; long-somnolent sensations are speaking, women with families have to prepare meals particularly on the Indian subcontinent, and extending now keenly aroused. The taste of familiar foods they more often, and for the purposes of research on the northward along the edges of Han China. “The “Die Zusammensetzung der Speise in fruhen Agrargesellschaften: Versuch einer Konzeptualisierung.” In Schaffner, M., ed., Brot, Brei und was once thought plain and ordinary becomes special and daily diet, it was considered that they would represent traditional boundary between milking and non- Dazugehört (1992). Zurich, Chronos Verlag, pp. 13-28. nostalgic, acquiring the quality of symbols of a the most suitable research subjects; this study milking peoples in Eastern Asia ran roughly between lifestyle that has been left behind. therefore surveyed only married women. India, Tibet and Mongolia (areas of milking to the Schlettewein-Gsell, Daniela (1992). “Zum Nährwertgehalt von ‘core’ und This essay reports on the findings of a study on the Of the 75 women in the study, 44 were temporarily west), and Burma, China and Korea (areas of non- ‘fringe’.” In Schaffner, M., ed., Brot, Brei und was Dazugehört. Zurich, dietary customs of Japanese living in the Netherlands, living in the Netherlands with husbands who had been Chronos Verlag, pp. 45-66. milking to the east),” Simoons writes (Simoons, away from culturally familiar surroundings. Based on posted there in connection with their work; in this 1970). For the most part, these products, so familiar in Simoons, Frederick (1970). “The Traditional Limits of Milking and Milk a survey carried out in the autumn of 1996, this study study, these women will collectively be referred to as most of the West and so important in India, were little Use in Southern Asia.” Anthropos 65, pp.

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