Around Japan in 47 Curries: Kanagawa
Uncategorized 
Comments Off on Around Japan in 47 Curries: Kanagawa
Tom Baker (Chiba, 1989-91) has begun a 47-part weekly series of posts on his Tokyo Tom Baker blog, in which he will sample and comment on a curry from a different prefecture each week. Here’s his first installment, about Kanagawa Prefecture:
Yokosuka, in Kanagawa Prefecture, is the perfect spot for a naval base. It occupies most of the Miura Peninsula, which forms a natural breakwater protecting the mouth of Tokyo Bay. The establishment of an Imperial Japanese Navy base there in the late 19th century gave Yokosuka an unexpected connection to the nation’s culinary history.
In its early days, the navy was plagued by the painful and often fatal disease beriberi. Food historian Katarzyna J. Cwiertka writes in her excellent book “Modern Japanese Cuisine” that 12 percent of all Japanese sailors were found to be suffering from the condition in 1883. A high-ranking navy doctor named Kanehiro Takagi was aware that beriberi was rare in Western navies, whose sailors more often ate meat. He theorized that a high-protein diet might improve sailors’ health. Efforts were begun to Westernize navy meals by including more meat, and curry was one of the dishes used for that purpose. It became a staple of Japanese navy cooking.
Comments are closed.