Ainu cuisine
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Ainu cuisine differs markedly from that of the Wajin, or ethnic Japanese. Ainu cuisine, for instance, does not prepare raw meats like sashimi instead prefering to boil, roast or cure meat. The island of Hokkaido in northern Japan is where most Ainu live today; however, they once inhabitated most of the Kurile islands and the southern half of Sakhalin island. Up to 1 million descendents of interbreeding between Ainu and Wajin live throughout Japan. Until recently they were thought to be exclusively a hunter-gatherer society, but recent excavations on the Hokkaido University campus have revealed extensive fossilized grains by using something called the flotation method. Ashiri Kotan Nakanoshima and Rera Cise are the only Ainu restaurants in the world.
Ingredients of the Ainu
Crops
- Deccan grass
- Foxtail and Chinese millet
- Wheat
- Buckwheat
- Beans
Wild plants
- Kitopiro, a wild garlic grass
Animals
- Bear
- Salmon
- Seals
- Whales
- Deer
- Raccoon dogs
- Dogs: the dog is the only animal known to be domesticated by the Ainu.
Much of the legend of their hunting prowess has been handed down to the current generation in the form of songs and epic poems from Ainu music.
Recipes and dishes of note in Ainu cuisine
- Kitokamu, a sausage flavored with kitopiro
- Munchiro sayo, millet porridge
