Japan, Nikko - Local Food

By Timothy Tan - October 08, 2016

Travelling provide us not only with the opportunities to see and experience new places, people and culture, it also allow us to taste food that we don't usually eat back in our home countries and cities. Although one may argue that with the increasing inter-connected world we live in, we can experience food from any other cities in our own backward, However, chances are that these food just don't taste the same as from their places of origin. Different cooking styles and customisations to suit local taste preferences often meant that the traditional cuisines from a faraway land simply taste different in another land.

Local town, Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan (2014)

Whenever I travel, I always make it a point to dine on local food for all my meals. Food is an important aspect that defines the place we travel to. Eating local food thus allow us to be fully immersed into that wholesale experience of being there and having done that.

For all the places that I have travelled to, Japan is one country for which I truly enjoy the local cuisine. Despite their relatively simple styles, Japanese food are different even between the different regions around Japan. The local ingredients of a region and subtle differences in the methods of preparation played important roles in defining the ultimate taste and colour of the dish.

While in Nikko during one of my trips, I had the chance to eat with some locals. It was a duck dish (the local name for which I have forgotten). But it was duck cooked in a different way from the duck dishes I usually find back in my home country. The taste, texture and preparation styles were unique (to me) and allow me to not only experience a duck dish which I had not tasted before but also one which I am unlikely too taste again unless I return to Nikko for another visit!