BEAUTIFUL STARTS TO YOUR DAY

Japan has the longest life expectancy and the longest health expectancy in the world. One reason might be their beautiful healthy breakfasts.

 

Last week, I was in Paris to celebrate New Years. The hotel where I was staying had amazing croissants, l’omelettes au fromages, and cafe au lait, which I totally enjoyed the first two days there. But they also offered a Japanese breakfast.

Photo: Troy Ziel. Japanese Onsen Breakfast at Yuyado Souan.

I’ve had them before a couple of times before at hotels in other cities. Japanese breakfasts are often fascinating and exceptionally delicious, as I recalled. I also remembered that they are incredibly healthy. The Japanese breakfast does not include oil, salt, butter, bread, sugar, cream, or coffee. It is, however, packed with super-food nutrients.

 

Photo: Courtesy of Bobby Jay on Food.

 

As I knew my next few nights would be filled with far less healthy indulgences, as we drank the last drop of 2013 and popped open 2014. So, I began to order Japanese breakfasts each morning to mitigate the damage.

Photo: Courtesy of Hoshino Resorts. KAI Izumo Japanese Breakfast.

They were really wonderful. A traditional Japanese breakfast emphasizes poetry in taste, texture, temperature, color and shape, while it plays out a symphony in nourishment. It is comprised of more than a dozen components, each carefully prepared and arranged.

Photo: A. Wee. Japanese Breakfast at the St. Regis Osaka.

It takes a long time to prepare and quite a while to eat, which is why it makes the perfect breakfast to indulge in while traveling -- the hotel does all the work of preparing it, and there’s no rush to eat and run.

Photo: Courtesy of the School of International Letters and Cuisine. Japanese Breakfast.

Japanese breakfasts are exquisite still life arrangements. Each element of food and vessel is considered as an artistic element. Each contrast and harmony works.

 

The breakfasts usually include a Japanese egg dish, miso soup, a variety of steamed or grilled fish, sashimi, seaweed, tofu, steamed and pickled vegetables, fruits, and traditional condiments. All to be combined however you like over a bowl of steamed rice.

Photo: Blue Lotus. Onsen Tamago.

The eggs come one of two ways -- onsen tamago or tamagoyaki, a layered rolled omelet. I love the onsen tamago.  It is like the most luxurious poached egg -- with its custard white and its satiny, yet velvety, and intense yolk. In Japan, the traditional onsen tamago egg gets its glory from slow-cooking, in its shell, in hot springs, at 75 degrees C. Some modern chefs cook it sous-vide. It comes floating in a delicate ichiban dashi broth.

Photo: Courtesy of The Chocolate Bunny. Onsen Tamago

Instinctively, I scoop the onsen egg out of its porcelain bowl and lay it out on top of a bowl of steamed rice. I begin to pile on pieces of slightly smokey grilled hake and shards of toasted nori.

 

Photo: Courtesy of Sekiuchi. Umeboshi.

 

I scrape some silky flesh off of the umeboshi (the tart pickled ume plum), add dab it into the mix. A sprinkle of himono, dried house mackerel, and squid shiokara, fermented salted squid, finishes it off. I then dive in with my chopsticks to start the ultra-thick golden egg ooze, like a warm glacier blanketing the whole lot. The combination rocks.

Photo: Courtesy of Troyziel. A Japanese Breakfast.

Steamed asparagus with white miso sings from one corner of the tray, while earthy kombu-rich miso soup with homemade tofu beckons from another. Pickled lotus root, perfect pieces of salmon sashimi, freshly pickled ginger, and freshly grated wasabi act as palate cleansers.

Photo: tpholland. Flower of the konjak, or elephant yam.

The konjak yam noodles are pleasantly bouncy. The nattō, soybeans made gooey by stringy bacillus subtilis bacteria, didn’t win me over, but maybe some day.

 

The tea was an unforgettable emerald green.

Photo: Courtesy of I Wander. Shangi-La Hotel Tokyo Japanese Breakfast.

While I will definitely look for them now when I travel, I know I won’t start making traditional Japanese breakfasts at home. It would take up half my morning just to rustle up and eat one. But I noticed that I felt good eating them -- and after eating them. I was surprised that I did feel lighter and springier. I felt satisfied and very well nourished throughout the day, often until a latish dinner.

Photo: kattebelletje. Kombu Seaweed.

So in this new year, I’m going to start incorporating Japanese elements into some of my breakfasts. I won’t have much of the traditional variety in one meal. But I can enjoy fewer things. And I won’t take the time to make the onsen. But a poached or soft boiled egg can fill in.

 

Grilling a piece of fish takes about as long as cooking an omelet -- so no big deal there. I can keep some umeboshi on hand. It only takes a few minutes to soak some kombu and make a fairly good miso soup. Steaming the rice is the only long part. But leftover rice works great.

 

Japanese breakfast are a beautiful way to start your new 2014 days. Thanks, Frank Bona, for inspiring me to write this piece!

Photo: Courtesy of Master Ceramics.

Read more about Beautiful Starts, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact, including 10 New Books Full of Sparks, and A New Start of the Universe in our posts throughout this week.

 

Enter this week’s BN Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Starts. Send in your images and ideas. Deadline is 01.12.14.

 

Photo: Courtesy of InterActiveMediaSW.

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