Japan centenarians: Food mysterious immortal Highlanders from Nagano

A study conducted in 2010 by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, showed that the longest life for both men and women across the country observed among residents of Nagano Prefecture. Most likely the key to longevity lies in the power style, inherent to the region. All of us, this prefecture is known buckwheat noodles, pies oyaki, leaves nodzavana - and, perhaps, that's all. If you dig deeper into the food culture of the ancient Shinano Province, we find a wide variety of ideas for the preparation of traditional foods, cultivated since ancient times in this region. Let's look at a few such dishes.

Pickles without salt

"Unharmonized Orchestra of lactic acid bacteria." That is dubbed one of the local dishes actor Yoji Tanaka, who is known for his remarkable game. It marinades "ures" of local turnip, have long been manufactured in Kisoti area.

Tanaka was born in Kisoti town, he began to speak in the programs of the interesting foods from different parts of Japan, and thus became the "ambassador samoprevozglashennym", telling about the features of their native cuisine. In 2009, he became an official "ambassador ures city Kisoti».

Marinade "ures" made of red turnip, and lactic acid bacteria contained in its leaves act as a leaven. History in this snack is long, even in the works of Basho family meeting can find a place in one of his poems: "In the spring ends of the stems marinated Kisoti»

. The most important feature of this dish is that when it is not used cooking salt grams. Marinate red turnip with leaves, harvested before applying "ures" as a leaven. It turns sour and some seemingly incomplete taste, but if you add the pickled turnips in miso soup or buckwheat soba noodles, it turns out that it goes well with these dishes. In the local restaurants with buckwheat noodles on the menu even included dish "ures-soba».

In each house the taste of pickles - is different, and his nickname "unharmonized Orchestra" by Tanaka he deserves for this reason. The city Kisoti almost every family decided to marinate red turnips. Each year arranged "ures Competition", where the best participant gets the title of "master ures". In 2013, the jubilee twentieth contest.

In recent years, more and more attention is paid to particular cooking turnip without salt. If you look at the results of the health and nutrition survey by prefectures, conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, it is possible to trace a clear relationship between the amount of consumption of vegetables and salt consumption. The reason is that all over the country in food use a large amount of pickles, so it turns out that as a result of receiving the vegetables the body receives a lot of salt.

In Nagano Prefecture has long been eating a lot of vegetables, but here at one time there was a problem of excessive salt intake. Now, Nagano, a leading life expectancy in Japan, is campaigning to reduce the amount of salt and has already achieved a significant reduction in the number of diseases, such as heart attacks. "Ures" - one of the few marinades that can solve the problem

. Outside Nagano "ures" virtually sold, with the exception of fairs and festivals. Usually it is being bought through the Internet. However, after more and more tourists come to the marinade Learn more people to the area Kisoti to buy "ures". According to a survey conducted in Kisoti among the houses, preparing the marinade, the number of billets increased from 13, 4 tons in 2010 to 17, 2 tons in 2012.

It is sad that in this season of ripening time Turnip is not coincided with the best period for marinating, so there is a shortage of the product. This traditional dish is in a sensitive balance with nature.

Seasoning of Enoki (enokitake) also helps reduce the amount of salt consumed

You've probably heard about the seasoning of enoki, originally from Nagano Prefecture, which was told in the national transmission a few years ago, then this topic is widely discussed. Sales of this product is steadily growing by 10-20% a year, and Nagano continues to produce new hits of the food industry.
Nagano Prefecture - "Empire of mushrooms" - made 89, 5 thousand tons of enoki mushrooms in 2011, accounting for 60% share in the Japanese market. Among all manufacturers Nakano Nagano city supplies most enoki in the country.

Seasoning "enoki ice" is prepared as follows: mushrooms are ground in a blender and then are cooked pasta, then it freezes. Invented seasoning, and started from scratch enoki mushroom production director Ato union Nakano Hirofumi. Somewhere in 2007, he had the idea to cook the mushrooms and have this weight, and then the thought came to freeze her. Nakano has registered the trademark "Ice enoki" in 2009. They even published a book with recipes.

Enoki Mushrooms are considered an excellent dietary product, because the dietary fiber they help to control the absorption of fat. And as during spraying in the mixer break the cell walls that make up the fiber, then during cooking they release all their nutrients, it turns out that the absorption of these substances from spices is much easier than if you have a simple mushroom.
< br> Also seasoning helps to reduce salt intake. If you add "ice enoki" curry, steamed vegetables, miso soup, the taste of the dish becomes richer, and you can easily reduce the amount of salt. Seasoning can be cooked at home, you will need to take into account, be sure to cook pasta at least one hour.

Local producer of frozen foods (Nagano) has launched production now seasoning can be found in the prefecture, and even in your local stores "7-Eleven». In the metropolitan area hit products in supermarkets such as "China es", where you can buy it in a conventional sale.

Sandwich with "tomato jelly»

Region Nagano Prefecture Suwa in Japan is the only producer of agar-agar. Slender rows of drying of agar-agar in the local fields in winter has become a part of the winter landscape.

In December 2013 the city of Nagano Tino introduced its new product with agar-agar - "tomato jelly." In this project, to develop new products to cooperate manufacturers Union agar Nagano, Tokyo University of Science in Suva city Tino.

To agar solidified in cold weather when the preparation using red algae. Region of Suva, which has no outlet to the sea, began to specialize in the production of agar-agar due to the fact that there is low average temperatures, little snow falls, and thus it is easy to freeze agar.

In recent years, due to the fact that the increased amount of agar-agar powder at low cost, which is on with the addition of marine brown algae plants Nagano production began to decline. However, the chairman of the Union producers of agar Nagano Takao Koike emphasizes the advantages of their product: "These two products are deceptively similar. But the factory agar washed agaropectin, which helps to reduce cholesterol

. " New product - "tomato agar" - contains a bed of agar-agar and concentrated tomato juice, and frozen in the form it is given these tomatoes. This agar-agar, helps reduce blood sugar and cholesterol, you can easily eat all the time, for example, crumble in a salad or added to the sandwich, like a regular tomato.

"But at the same sandwich our agar does not produce as much water as a simple tomato" - emphasizes the product's strengths Union. In addition to supplies to nursing homes and school canteens, they also planned to sell tomato agar by mail.

Turnips, mushrooms, enoki, agar ... Maybe the reason is that the prefecture is not landlocked, but modesty of its inhabitants in the food helped them maintain the traditional food culture. In doing so, they helped various innovations era of widespread change in this matter.