Gluten Free in Japan (2003)

By Carol Fenster, Ph.D.

Three chefs in crisp white toques prepare six delectable courses of gourmet food, exquisitely styled on beautiful dishes and served by black-tuxedo-clad waiters moving unobtrusively among 50 food reporters. Sounds like a typical press conference in the U.S., right?

Not quite. The chefs require a translator because they speak only Japanese. The food is mostly gluten-free––prepared with sorghum––and the location is a lovely, Oriental hotel in one of the largest cities in the world––Tokyo, Japan.

What, you ask, is a cookbook author doing in Tokyo, Japan, talking about gluten-free cooking? I was sent there by the U.S. Grains Council to present seminars on the use of sorghum in gluten-free cooking. The week was a whirlwind of activities designed to promote the use of sorghum in Japan.

My traveling companion was Norma Ritz Johnson, Communications Director of the National Grain Sorghum Producers. She is a walking encyclopedia about sorghum, so between the two of us we had the topic covered. As many of you know, I’ve used sorghum extensively in my cookbooks for about 5 years now and I eat it daily.

Food Allergies Have No Boundaries

Just like in America, food sensitivities are rising in Japan. In fact, recent legislation mandates that the top 5 food allergens––wheat, dairy, eggs, peanuts, and shellfish––must be listed on food labels. Their incidence of food allergies is quite similar to ours: 1-2% for children; 2-5% for adults.

Sorghum is seen as a viable alternative to wheat, especially in their snack foods, so the Japanese are busy learning about sorghum, its safety, and how to use it. My role was to help provide some of that information.

Thanks to the Many Vendors Who Provided Products

At each presentation as well as the cooking demonstration mentioned at the beginning of this article, we displayed the many foods and books in the U.S. that use sorghum. We had many products with sorghum: Omega Smart Bars, Bob’s Red Mill products, Gluten-Free Pantry’s bread mixes, flours from Twin Valley Mills, Authentic Foods and Ener-G foods, etc. My cookbooks, Bette Hagman’s cookbooks, Shelley Case’s book, and Living Without magazine were also displayed as well as the mail-order catalogs of many companies that sell sorghum products. All of this was designed to illustrate to the Japanese how we use sorghum in America. We also took the Quick Start Diet Guide published jointly by the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG) and Celiac Disease Foundation (CDF) to illustrate that two leading celiac organizations endorse sorghum for celiacs.

Japanese Chefs and (Mostly) Gluten-Free Cooking

About those Japanese chefs… I say “mostly” gluten-free because the French Bread had wheat in it (they haven’t mastered gluten-free breads, yet). Otherwise, we sampled mouth-watering, gluten-free dishes such as Grilled Beef served on a bed of pearled sorghum (served much like couscous or rice pilaf); Sorghum French Bread (wheat-based, but adding cooked, pearled sorghum for texture and nutrients—my colleagues tell me it was great!); Pearled Sorghum salad (much like tabbouleh), Sorghum Crepes; Sorghum Pudding (much like our rice pudding), and Sorghum Breakfast Muffins. I was impressed at the work and planning that went into this presentation.

Each chef prepared the food right before our eyes, then, magically (just like on TV, where there’s always a finished version in the fridge or oven!) we were served a sample of that food by black-tuxedoed waiters using fine china and silver. The samples had been “plated” beforehand and looked lovely.

Health is a Hot Topic in Japan

Health concerns are VERY important in Japan. We were interviewed by several different magazines and newspapers and their questions centered about the health benefits of sorghum. They were very informed about the glycemic index of food, which is a measure of how quickly food converts to sugar in our bodies. They’re well acquainted with terms such as anti-oxidants, polyphenols, and GMO issues. They also are well informed about what’s happening in America regarding the health scene.

Dining Gluten Free in Japan

Eating gluten free in a foreign country can by tricky, especially when you can’t always read the menu. Fortunately, most of my breakfasts were eaten in the hotel’s coffee shop which had the usual American breakfast fare of eggs, bacon, fruit, coffee, etc. For the more adventurous, there was the typical Japanese breakfast, consisting of fish, rice, pickles, tea, etc. It’s actually quite a healthy way to eat in the morning because it is low-fat and well balanced in terms of protein, carbohydrates, etc.

Lunch and dinner away from the hotel were a bit more difficult. Usually, we had our Japanese hosts with us (two wonderfully talented women from the Tokyo branch of the U.S. Grains Council) and they helped decipher the menu, often ordering for me in Japanese. They were very good at anticipating what I could and couldn’t eat. I think the biggest problem was the soy sauce, which most likely contained wheat. If I were to return, I’d take my own bottle of wheat-free tamari, just to be safe. There are little booklets to help you with the Japanese language and I advise using them.

Fortunately, I didn’t have any problems with food. When we were in a Japanese restaurant without our hosts, we ordered fish, rice and lots of green tea. It seems that most Japanese understand English, even if they can’t speak it. I avoided anything that was likely to have soy sauce and of course, the tempura (deep-fat fried fish and vegetables in batter) was off-limits. I was never hungry!

On our first night, we had dinner at a restaurant that had a chef from, of all places, the Queens in New York City. Food is art in Japan. He prepared a wonderful dinner of grilled tuna on a bed of pearled sorghum and capped it off with a delicious cake made of sorghum. Each dish was beautifully displayed on the plate and I almost felt guilty about taking a bite and destroying the beauty!

One night we had shabu-shabu, which is meat and vegetables that you cook yourself in hot water in a vat that is recessed in your table. As you cook the food, the water becomes broth and at the end of the meal you drink the broth. It’s delicious. Of course, we used chopsticks almost all week and I got pretty good, except eating little chunks of tofu required a bit more finesse.

Another night I had grilled beef tongue, which was delicious. There is a special kind of very expensive beef in Japan called Kobe. They are fed special foods while being fattened up and the meat is very red and heavily marbled. It’s actually quite tender and delicious.

Speaking of the wonderful Kobe beef, we spent two days in Kobe City, riding the bullet train for about 2-3 hours to get there. This high-speed train is very smooth and quiet and doesn’t rock back and forth like our American trains. Consequently, I had no motion sickness.

There aren’t as many baked goods served in restaurants as in America. For example, they don’t have the customary bread basket at the beginning of the meal. Dessert is more likely to be ice cream (perhaps green tea flavor, which was delicious) or various types of chilled, “jello-like” sweets. So, avoiding baked goods in restaurants was fairly easy because there weren’t any!

I always carry food with me and this was trip was no exception. I brought several Omega Smart Bars, which are made of flax, sorghum, etc. and sweetened with low-glycemic agave nectar. They come in a variety of flavors. I often ate one during the wee hours of the morning to stave off hunger until it was time to go to breakfast. I usually made a pot of green tea in my room, using the electric teapots that were quite common. What a nice invention! I carried lots of dried fruits, nuts, and a few crackers. It was hard to buy fresh fruit in the 7-11, but there was plenty of it at breakfast and the nearby Starbucks had bananas.

Gourmet Food Stores

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting an upscale food market. The food was beautifully displayed and there was every cooking utensil imaginable. They had more forms of wheat flour than I’ve ever seen in any store in America. The produce was gorgeous. Some fruits are astronomically expensive. For example, a single musk melon (cantaloupe) was $100 in American currency. They look absolutely perfect and are typically given as gifts. I never did get an explanation of just why they are so expensive.

The department stores have huge food department, too, similar to the one in Harrod’s in London. Being a self-confessed “foodie”, I strolled the aisles marveling at the incredible diversity of foods, all beautifully displayed. The fruit is rarely allowed to touch other, instead being encased in it’s own little protective wrap.

7-11 in Tokyo?

Most of the American fast food restaurants are in Tokyo, too. Less than a block from our hotel was the ubiquitous 7-11. I went there nearly every day, partly to buy something (such as bottled water), but partly just to continue perusing the aisles and watch the people. The Tokyo 7-11 is a microcosm of what the Japanese eat. There are the usual breakfast pastries (just like in America), but also ready-to-eat salads, ready-to-heat dishes and soft-boiled eggs, and many other Japanese concoctions I didn’t recognize. Lots of bottled drinks, including water, green tea and many kinds of “health” drinks.

Snack foods are very big in Japan and the 7-11 has a huge display for a store of its size. They’re usually puffed or toasted and usually salty––much like our Cheetos or other crunchy snacks. Many new snack foods use sorghum. In fact, they view it as “new, different, and wonderful” and Japanese foods containing sorghum had the words “White Sorghum” in English on the package front. Then there are the unusual foods swimming in broth near the checkout stand. I don’t know what they were, but I’m sure some of our foods (such as green chile) wouldn’t appeal to them, either!

American Hotels in Japan

I’ve visited Tokyo before (20 years ago, in fact) and stayed in an American hotel. I did so on this visit, also, and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Tokyo for the first time. The restaurant menus are printed in English and you can get many kinds of American food, the staff speaks excellent English, and the rooms have American amenities such as electrical outlets, hair dryers, and fax machines. The Asian Wall Street Journal (in English) was delivered to our hotel room each day.

How Hot & Humid Can It Get?

Tokyo in July is an experience! Coming from a high, dry climate in Denver, Colorado means that I don’t DO heat and humidity very well! In fact, when I stepped off the plane I felt the distinct clutches of claustrophobia, as the heat and humidity engulfed me. Two days later we learned what true humidity really is when Typhoon Hylong struck Tokyo. Lots of rain and wind, but we were never in any danger. Fortunately, we spent most of our time in hotels and meeting rooms and only had to suffer the extreme weather walking to and from the subway and taxi cabs. Lightweight clothing and an umbrella are essential!

The Japanese Get It Right When It Comes to Customer Service

Whenever we went, I was impressed with the Japanese attention to customer service. They were always friendly and courteous, attentive to every detail, and seemed genuinely eager to please the customer. What a delight! In fact, at the end of my stay a bell hop approached me in the hotel lobby and gave me a present of two Japanese postcards. One of the bullet train (which travels at speeds up to 200 mph) and the other of the various kinds of sushi available in Japan. What a kind gesture!

Giving a Presentation in Japan

Our presentations were given in lovely meeting rooms, one at the Tokyo American Club and the other in a lovely, Oriental hotel in Kobe City. The attendees were Japanese businessmen (and a few women) who were in an industry that used sorghum (usually food, but also pharmaceuticals, spices, and brewing).

Giving a presentation required an interpreter. Our entire presentations and other background material were translated into Japanese beforehand and given to each attendee in a folder. It’s quite a strange feeling to see your resume in Japanese! During the presentation, I would say only one or two sentences at a time. Then the interpreter would translate using a microphone so all attendees could hear. This is called consecutive interpretation and meant that a 40 minute presentation would stretch to be 70 minutes.

When attendees asked a question, we had to wear headsets so that the interpreter’s translation was heard only by us. It was quite an experience, but gradually I came to like it because it allowed me to think about what I going to say next and to choose my words very carefully so as to avoid really big, complicated words that might defy translation.