Mouthfeel: The Key To Understanding Japanese Food Culture

Japan Eats!

Our guest is Elizabeth Andoh, who joined us 14 times and shared her truly deep insight into traditional Japanese food culture.
Elizabeth is a food writer and Japanese cooking instructor based in Tokyo, and she has lived in Japan for over 50 years. She runs the culinary arts program called A Taste of Culture https://tasteofculture.com/ , which offers a great opportunity for non-Japanese people to explore Japanese culture through its food.
Elizabeth is also the author of 6 cookbooks, including the award-winning “Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Kitchen” and “Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions”.
Today’s topic is mouthfeel or 食感 “shokkan” in Japanese. The Japanese language has far more adjectives to describe mouthfeel. For example, according to a 2003 study, the Japanese language had 445 words, French 227, Chinese 144 and English and German around 100 to describe the texture of food in your mouth.
In this episode, we will discuss why Japanese people have so many different words to describe mouthfeel, examples of mouthfeel expressions that are unique and essential to understanding Japanese food culture and much, much more!!!

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