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Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes

Winifred Bird (Goodreads Author),

Paul Poynter (Illustrator)

4.26 · Rating details · 31 ratings · 20 reviews

From bracken to butterbur to "princess" bamboo, some of Japan's most iconic foods are foraged, not grown, in its forests, fields, and coastal waters--yet most Westerners have never heard of them.

In this book, journalist Winifred Bird eats her way from one end of the country to the other in search of the hidden stories of Japan's wild foods, the people who pick them, and th ...more

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Paperback, 264 pages

Published March 30th 2021 by Stone Bridge Press (first published March 9th 2021)

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Apr 04, 2021 Evelina | AvalinahsBooks rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: anyone who's enthusiastic about cooking

Shelves: arcs-or-review-copies, books-of-2021, edelweiss, non-fiction, other-cultures

How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss

4.5 stars

This book was incredibly interesting. While I have never been to Japan (sigh...), I have grown up in a country where foraging for mushrooms is common and normal. We would go on mushroom picking trips to the forest every autumn, ever since I was a little kid, and many other families did as well. The custom is sadly slowly fading out, but it's still quite normal to do it. So having grown up with it, I know what a rare treat foragi How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss

4.5 stars

This book was incredibly interesting. While I have never been to Japan (sigh...), I have grown up in a country where foraging for mushrooms is common and normal. We would go on mushroom picking trips to the forest every autumn, ever since I was a little kid, and many other families did as well. The custom is sadly slowly fading out, but it's still quite normal to do it. So having grown up with it, I know what a rare treat foraging and actually FINDING stuff is. I sometimes wonder whether we tap into our ancient brain when we go picking mushrooms or berries - because there's certainly a high associated with finding them - at least for me, and it's a high like no other. It wouldn't surprise me if my brain still rewards me for accomplishing something my great great great grandmothers needed simply to survive.

So reading about foraging in a country whose culture I really admire was truly magical. I have never had or seen most of the plants mentioned there, but what is Google for anyway? Naturally, I spent the entire book googling the plants and fawning over imagined dishes with them. It was so interesting to learn that people apparently still forage a lot for wild vegetables - that's so interesting, because while it's completely normal to forage for wild strawberry, huckleberry, cranberry and mushrooms here, greens are just not something we pick (possibly due to the climate or simple widespread traditions of agriculture). Now more than ever I want to go visit Japan and find some local small farm to visit where I could taste some of these foods!

The book also includes recipes, but I don't know how useful they are outside of Japan. The author does mention some substitutions, but the recipes are mostly meant for foraged plants in Japan. For some of them, maybe they could be grown in your garden too, but since I'm not a gardener, I wasn't familiar with the names. However, if you are, you might know them, as the author includes both the English and the original Japanese names as well. She does mention in a couple of places where you could buy it if you're outside of Japan.

It also includes some pleasant, black and white line drawings that complement the essays and the recipes.

It was definitely not a standard type of book - I've never read one where it's not specifically a recipe book, but rather these essays about food and the history of foraging in Japan, historical methods of gathering and working the materials, with some recipes and ideas interspersed in between of the stories. I liked this format - it felt as if I was hanging out in someone's home, and they were telling me stories while I was also watching them cook and teach me the recipe. I would love to read more books in this format.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

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Apr 24, 2021 Bookworm Extraordinaire rated it really liked it

⭐⭐⭐⭐

PROS
-- Well written
-- Author passionate about the subject
-- Informative
-- Entertaining
-- Wonderful poetry
-- Recipes
-- Beautiful illustrations

CONS
-- Very specific to Japan so I am not sure how easy it would be to make a lot of the recipes

**ARC Via NetGalley**

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Apr 17, 2021 Alicia Bayer rated it liked it

I read this book as an American forager. Our family forages hundreds of pounds of wild foods a year and they make up a big part of our diet. We forage wild asparagus, mushrooms, elderberries, acorns (once processed they make a fantastic flour), ramps, lambs quarters, apples, pears, gooseberries, raspberries, wood sorrel, dandelions and their flowers, nettles and much more. I wouldn't want to live without foraged foods, not just because they're free and incredibly healthy but also because they ju I read this book as an American forager. Our family forages hundreds of pounds of wild foods a year and they make up a big part of our diet. We forage wild asparagus, mushrooms, elderberries, acorns (once processed they make a fantastic flour), ramps, lambs quarters, apples, pears, gooseberries, raspberries, wood sorrel, dandelions and their flowers, nettles and much more. I wouldn't want to live without foraged foods, not just because they're free and incredibly healthy but also because they just taste so much better than most grocery store produce. We also forage for a lot of medicinal plants like plantain, elderberries, mullein, etc.

I was hoping to find a sort of kinship in this book and learn how people on the other side of the world use wild plants in similar and different ways from the ways we do. This book didn't really hit that mark. There's more talk of a few people doing really complicated ways of foraging and processing foods in traditional ways than just modern Japanese people subsisting on the delicious and healthy wild plants that are all around.

At one of our local foraging spots, we frequently run into Hmong families that harvest completely different greens than we do. One morning, my teenage daughter and one such family tried to communicate with each other about what they were each harvesting. For our family, it was spring ramps and nettles (one of the healthiest wild plants in the world, and surprisingly tasty once you blanch them and remove the sting or blend them in smoothies). My husband and daughter didn't recognize the greens they were harvesting but they seemed very enthusiastic about them. I was hoping to learn more about the plants that might be loved in other places and go unappreciated here, or to even learn new ways of enjoying plants that are found in both regions.

This was definitely an interesting book. I was often saddened about how much is being lost in Japan in terms of both nature and traditions (Bird describes massive trees that are being purchased from rural families so companies can use them to make one-slab tables for very rich people from the giant trunks, for instance). It almost seems like a tribute to the past rather than a modern foraging guide for Japan. It is fascinating and well written, but probably not ultimately helpful for those interested in actually foraging either in Japan or elsewhere.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review. ...more

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Mar 12, 2021 Books on Asia rated it liked it

I applaud Winifred Bird for her research and for bringing awareness of Japanese foraged foods to the forefront in this book. Her prose is often beautiful and she clearly has a passion for the subject (if not always its tastes). One Japanese concept that threw me for a loop when I first came to Japan was the idea that many foods are eaten here because they are good for you, not because they taste good. This was a revolutionary concept to me, and is a good reminder of what food should ultimately b I applaud Winifred Bird for her research and for bringing awareness of Japanese foraged foods to the forefront in this book. Her prose is often beautiful and she clearly has a passion for the subject (if not always its tastes). One Japanese concept that threw me for a loop when I first came to Japan was the idea that many foods are eaten here because they are good for you, not because they taste good. This was a revolutionary concept to me, and is a good reminder of what food should ultimately be: healthy.

I would have enjoyed this book much more if it hadn't been trying to be so many things: a guide to Japanese plants (for those living elsewhere), a cookbook, and a travel-journal. To me there was a lack of cohesiveness throughout; it lacked something like a narrative to pull all the sundry parts together. The first part of the book is essays which cover the author's travels around Japan to uncover the secrets of foraging. We are introduced to a bevy of plants in the first chapter that I'd never heard of, despite being given their English translations. So I really had no idea what the author was talking about through much of this chapter. The second chapter on Horse Chestnuts, another unfamiliar plant, was much easier to grasp because of its singularity: a tree, its history, and nuts that look like buckeyes. Chapter four covered bamboo and bamboo shoots, which almost everyone has heard of and can picture. So I wondered why we were presented with such challenging plants in chapter one, rather than building up in a more incremental style, say from bamboo to unheard-of-weeds. Even if each chapter included a drawing of the plant at the beginning, or a collage of such plants that would be introduced in the each chapter would have been a huge help.

There is an index in the back of the book that explains what all these plants are, along with illustrations, which is invaluable. Since I was reading the e-book version, it was very difficult to flip back and forth. Something like internal links, or even page numbers, would have been helpful. As a result, I recommend reading the print version of this book, and reading the index of plants first, to familiarize yourself, before delving into chapter one of the essays.

The essays were interesting, but lacked the story-telling aspect that makes travel writing compelling. Merely being introduced to people the author met and summarizing what they said or taught her is not enough on its own. Bird excels at describing characters, what they're wearing, and giving clues to their personality, but the characters are rarely given their own voices. Instead, the author interprets everything through her own lens, which makes the reading seem academic and dry. A couple times a sister and an infant appear with nary an explanation of why these travel companions are with her and why they suddenly appear out of nowhere. I felt like the essays would have been better presented as stand-alone essays rather than as part of a travelogue (which requires coherence).

At any rate, despite these frustrations with the book, I'm glad I read it and I hope to use the information to expand my nascent foraging activities. I don't think you'll find the information in this book anywhere else! So kudos to Winifred Bird, blazer of new trails.

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Feb 13, 2021 Story Circle Book Reviews rated it really liked it

Eating Wild Japan is a book about exploring relationships between culture, time, eating well, and the wild plants all around us. Winifred Bird’s fascination with her topic and her eagerness to share shine through. She is clearly passionate about foraging in general, and particularly in Japan. The author spent three years researching this book after living in Japan for nine years and it shows.

The book is divided into three parts: a collection of essays; an illustrated guide to plants and Japanese Eating Wild Japan is a book about exploring relationships between culture, time, eating well, and the wild plants all around us. Winifred Bird’s fascination with her topic and her eagerness to share shine through. She is clearly passionate about foraging in general, and particularly in Japan. The author spent three years researching this book after living in Japan for nine years and it shows.

The book is divided into three parts: a collection of essays; an illustrated guide to plants and Japanese wild foods; and recipes. All three parts emphasize the culinary, cultural, and historical roles of foraged wild foods in Japan. Bird includes delightfully simple line drawings of plants and tools used for foraging in Japan.

The Japanese word sansai (山菜) means mountain vegetables, and traditionally refers to vegetables that grow naturally and are foraged in the wild rather than cultivated. Bird writes extensively on sansai, including its ecological impact, health benefits, and expression of hospitality. She dives into the history of sansai and the impact that agriculture has had on the tradition.

Japanese historically forage for bamboo shoots, chestnuts and other plants; but foraging is not limited to Japan’s mountainsides. Bird tells of the “sea folk” (primarily women) who dive deep to gather seaweed, oysters and other ocean delicacies.

She reminds the reader throughout that foraging is part of many cultures. Although the onset of an agricultural society has diminished its importance, in some cultures it has remained as a task essential for survival (most notably during times of famine) or as the source of delicacies—or both. She contemplates the dichotomy of this “paradoxical judgement,” concluding that “agriculture makes wild foods abnormal, and there are always two sides to abnormality: despicable aberrance and sought-after rarity.”

Eating Wild Japan is a rare peek at a small but engaging piece of life on Earth. Perhaps Winifred Bird, with this book, can lead an effort to carry on the tradition of preparing foraged foods as one more way to shrink our individual ecological footsteps. If nothing else, she teaches us old ideas that could become new ideas and another way to appreciate what we have and the joy of living in a smaller space. I was reminded of myself as a child, following my great-grandmother into the woods in search of sassafras leaves to be ground with a pestle into filé, an essential herb for gumbo and other dishes common to our region and heritage.

Eating Wild Japan is a charming escape, as well as a practical guide for those who choose to explore on their own.

Story Circle Book Reviews thanks Regina Allen for this review. ...more

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Feb 19, 2021 Janet rated it liked it

Shelves: 2021-rev-when-i-read, cookbook-food-alc, k-e-k

Date reviewed/posted: February 19, 2021
Publication date: March 30, 2021

When life for the entire galaxy and planet has turned on its end, you are continuing to #maskup and #lockdown to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation as the #secondwave is upon us, AND it is a loverly minus 26 degrees, snowy and icy where I am currently stuck living, so superspeed readers like me can read 300+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today.

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader ...more

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Feb 24, 2021 Erin Loranger rated it it was amazing

Thank you to NetGalley and Stone Bridge Press for giving me the opportunity to read Eating Wild Japan and provide an honest review. Congratulations to author Winifred Bird on this gorgeous book which was no doubt a labor of love.

Recently repatriated after having lived in Japan for a numbers of years, my family still has a running joke that everything green and not immediately identifiable is a "mountain vegetable". For that reason, the description of this book immediately appealed to me and I am ...more

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Feb 20, 2021 Kathleen rated it really liked it

An informative and interesting guide to Sansai or wild plants, Eating Wild Japan is a blend of essays, illustrations and recipes. Winifred Bird lived in rural Japan for eight years and is well versed in the country’s history and culture.

The essays begin the book. Her essays feature weeds, horse chestnuts, fiddle leaf ferns, bamboo and seaweed. Her research introduces her to cooks, fisherman and farmers who
provide her with local legends as well as recipes. Bird describes how foraging in the woods ...more

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Feb 27, 2021 Opal Edgar rated it it was amazing

I come back from 7 years living in Japan and all I can say is how much I wish I’d had this book with me. This is an exquisite walk, research, cookbook on Japanese foraging culture. I lived in Tokyo so my contact to nature was not as extensive as if I’d been in a more rural area, but even then you can’t help but feel over there the importance of seasons and nature. It is not in any kind of sense that fight we forever portray in the West: nature vs culture, but it is very much an integral and cele ...more

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Feb 26, 2021 McKenzie rated it it was amazing

I found this little book to be a really fascinating read. There was something comforting about Bird's food based adventures and I have added a lot of things to my culinary bucket list because of this book. However, a lot of the "wild produce" discussed within these pages would not be available where I live, but there are a lot of related species that could be used as a substitute along with some more readily available specialty ingredients from the local Asian supermarket. I don't come from a ba ...more

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Mar 21, 2021 Leanne rated it it was amazing

Like clockwork, every year around the spring equinox, as the ducks and egrets return to the rivers and sprigs of green grass begin sprouting in lawns, people in Japan take to the hills to pick mountain vegetables, herbs and other wild foods. As translator and writer Winifred Bird explains in her new book, Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes, there is no common Japanese phrase that corresponds precisely to the English terms “wild food” or “ Like clockwork, every year around the spring equinox, as the ducks and egrets return to the rivers and sprigs of green grass begin sprouting in lawns, people in Japan take to the hills to pick mountain vegetables, herbs and other wild foods. As translator and writer Winifred Bird explains in her new book, Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes, there is no common Japanese phrase that corresponds precisely to the English terms “wild food” or “foraged food”. In English, “wildcrafted” foods can include anything that is not a product of agriculture—from wild boar and wild mushrooms to dandelions picked in empty lots and seaweed collected on rocks along the seashore. Perhaps because wild foods have always been part of the Japanese way of “getting out in nature”, there is not an all-encompassing term. The closest word, muses Bird, is sansai, which denotes mountain vegetables and herbs and can sometimes include nuts and mushrooms.

In the fascinating introduction to her book, Bird considers the way in which these foraged foods have long existed alongside Japan’s rice-centered culture. Invoking anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney’s classic book on the subject, Rice as Self, Bird reminds readers that rice has been the main ritual food of Shintoism and the staple of elite diets since it took hold in Japan over two thousand years ago. “Each grain,” she writes, “was thought to have a soul, and for many centuries people believed that consuming rice gave human beings sacred energy and power.” Paddy farming dictated how water was shared and how the landscape was divided up. And because taxes were based on rice harvests, the crop has always represented wealth, culture and the Japanese psyche itself.

Despite the supremacy of rice, wild foods have never really disappeared from the Japanese diet, Bird writes, in the same way they have in other countries. Of course, before agriculture, all foods were foraged. But even after the introduction of agriculture in Japan, the riches of the forests, rivers and oceans were a source of sustenance during times of famine. In her chapter on the horse chestnut, or tochi-no-mi, she describes how this wild food source served as the ultimate safety net against famine. It also formed a large part of the pre-agriculture-age diet of the Japanese. One Middle Jomon period gravesite, dating 2,500 to 1,500 BCE, found near the southern tip of Lake Biwa. uncovered a huge quantity of clam and nut shells that upon inspection were found to be mostly horse chestnuts. Archaeologists speculated that these horse chestnuts comprised thirty percent of the Jomon diet. In chapter two, she goes into the process by which the toxins are leached out of the horse chestnuts and a few ways that people still enjoy them today.

This is the terroir of seaweed and spring greens, of ferns and bamboo, of wild fish and foraged mushrooms.
Rest of my review at the Asian Review of Books
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Jun 22, 2021 LilliSt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle, netgalley

I have received an advanced review copy via Netgalley in return for my honest opinion. Thank you!

5 stars - Beautifully compiled essays and useful information about foraging in Japan

Winifred Bird has put together an absolutely wonderful book on the cultural history of foraging food in Japan, completed by a guide to plants, recipes and a very thorough bibliography for anyone interested in further reading.
It is rounded off by absolutely beautiful illustrations by Paul Poynter.

The first half of the I have received an advanced review copy via Netgalley in return for my honest opinion. Thank you!

5 stars - Beautifully compiled essays and useful information about foraging in Japan

Winifred Bird has put together an absolutely wonderful book on the cultural history of foraging food in Japan, completed by a guide to plants, recipes and a very thorough bibliography for anyone interested in further reading.
It is rounded off by absolutely beautiful illustrations by Paul Poynter.

The first half of the book is made up by 5 essays which focus on single plants or plant groups with the greatest historical relevance and impact, like the horse chestnut, bamboo shots or seaweeds. Those chapters are beautifully written and elegantly weave together the tales of her research travels, the cultural history of these foods and further musings on the philosophies of foraging. For anyone who likes foraging this will be a wonderful read, even if you have never been to Japan.

Next is a guide to the many plants mentioned in the previous chapters which provides plenty of useful information like the scientific name of the plant as well as the Japanese name(s) and also advice on how to prepare this plant and what type of recipes it lends itself to. This part will probably only be useful to a limited number of readers but I think it might work well for experienced foragers who will probably have access to several similar plants in their neck of the woods, since the scientific name makes it easy to identfy their international cousins. Bird herself mentions which plants in other parts of the world fall into those categories.

Finally, the last part of the book are the recipes. Since Japanese cooking uses categories of dishes who are all prepared similarly, this is a trove in disguise. The recipe section may look deceptively simple, but it covers all basic preparation methods (dressed foods, simmered dishes, pickles, braises, tempura, rice dishes etc.) with basic recipes and plenty of information which plants or plant types work for which type of preparation. Since Japanese condiments are readily available all over the world, the recipes can be used to prepare local foraged (or bought) food Japanese style.

The whole book speaks loudly of Winifred Bird's love of Japan and nature, her culinary curiosity and is throughly researched. It left me longing to go back to Japan was a joy to read. I am sure I will refer to it time and again to try out some of the recipes! ...more

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Mar 07, 2021 My Goodreads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: cookbooks

Winifred Bird's Eating Wild Japan is several things at once: travelogue, field guide, and cookbook, and does all of them well. A former journalist, Bird has a keen eye for the personalities, landscapes, and foods she encounters; her vivid descriptions and lively prose make for an engaging read. Bird wisely chooses to focus on the foraging and culinary subcultures of several locations on Japan's four main islands instead of writing an encyclopedia of every wild plant that has ever been foraged in ...more

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Mar 13, 2021 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: advanced-readers-copy, food, non-fiction

*This book was received from NetGalley as an advanced reviewer's copy.

Foraged foods have always been an interest to me. I can remember being little and going mushroom hunting with my uncle and dad. And later as an adult, I've attended foraging classes at a nearby homestead. Learning about other foragers in other areas is right up my alley as a result. And what better place than Japan, where ingredients are treated with respect in most cooking.

Bird, who lives in Japan, undertakes several trips to ...more

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Mar 18, 2021 Amrita rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

My thanks to Netgalley and Stone Bridge Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Winifred Bird's Eating Wild Japan is one of those books about a hyper specific subject that draws you in and allows you to explore an alternate reality for a brief period of time. Before I began reading this exquisitely researched and detailed book, I was aware of the foraging culture in Japan but I had no idea of the extent to which it infuses Japanese culture. So much of the writing abo ...more

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Jun 03, 2021 V rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

Thanks to Netgalley, Winifred Bird, and Stone Bridge Press for the advance digital copy of Eating Wild Japan in exchange for my honest review. It is a wonderful compilation of history, plants and recipes. I'm a longtime gardener, really good home cook, and I love history, so this book hit on all points for me.
With the availability of food TV, Instagram, and apps (all of which I use and enjoy), I do still enjoy real books. This is one I would recommend as a detailed reference to Japanese regions, ...more

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Mar 04, 2021 Sara rated it really liked it

For those of us who've spent time in Japan, this book is a gold mine to enable us to identify the sansai that we often found in our soba. I was nervous that it was going to be all field guide and beyond my understanding, but that is not the case since it includes essays and recipes as well. This book fills a niche in the Japanese food book genre and will appreciate the foodies amongst us. The writing is also poetic and charming. Now, if we could only eat these delights outside of Japan!

Thank you ...more

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Apr 02, 2021 Bethany rated it it was amazing

Knowing where our food comes from is important to many people. In Japan many restaurants can tell you where every ingredient is from and some can tell you who harvested that ingredient. This was a lovely further exploration of Japan's food culture. There is so much information to glean here on the people and the foods themselves. It was fascinating and a book I know I will revisit.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me an ARC on NetGalley. ...more

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May 09, 2021 Kaz rated it really liked it

Not only was this informative, it was also really fun reading experiences and stories that accompanied recipes! I love foraging and this definitely taught me a lot about it, albeit only being about Japan. It was a bit wordy at times but once you get used to it, you can learn a lot. Recipes, history, anecdotes, poetry, foraging tips, what more could you ask for?

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Jun 15, 2021 Hannah Krueger rated it really liked it

This was a fascinating look at foraging culture in Japan, and manages to be three books in one - a collection of personal essays, a field guide to identifying wild herbs and vegetables and how not to die eating them, and a small collection of recipes using these wild herbs and veggies. The essays are incredibly well written, especially the footnotes, the field guide is accessible. The odds that you’ll be in Japan and using these to cook is low, but the recipes are still very well done. Definitel ...more

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