Japanese Recipes: Gohan and Seasonings
Gohan - Rice
I chose to serve sweet white rice. We went with "Sanpatong" brand because it happened to be on sale at the time but I feel it was slightly too glutinous and didn't act the same way as rice I was used to cooking. I prefer the Japanese brands, such as Nishiki.
Rice in Medieval Japan was not exactly like our modern white or brown rice, but somewhere in between. They pounded the rice to remove the chaff but the process did not remove the bran entirely, producing a semi-polished rice. White rice is probably closer in texture and taste to the semi-polished rice than the brown rice one finds in health food stores.
Rice was cooked in rice cookers and then transferred to warming trays, covered with plastic wrap and kept in an unheated oven until it was time to serve it.
It was served heaped (but not packed) in small bowls. Each bowl was garnished with a few black sesame seeds at the top of the rice mound.
Seasonings
Early Japanese food was prepared using very simple methods and a minimum of seasoning, so a diner was expected to use the seasonings in whatever combination they wished to make a dish suit his or her taste better.
Each diner was provided with a small portion of soy sauce (Kikkoman brand regular), rice vinegar (Marukan brand) and salt so that they could season their own foods. I note the brands because while one can find soy sauce and vinegar in any Asian grocery store, the Chinese and other varieties are often much stronger than the Japanese brands, and will overpower the delicate tastes of Japanese food.