Fermented foods are such an integral part of the Japanese diet, it¡¯s easy to take them for granted. From traditional salty-savory cooking seasonings to pungent pickles and fizzy-sweet rice cultures, the sheer number and variety of products is remarkable.
This breadth only really sinks in when you visit a store on the scale of Hakko Department, near Shimokitazawa. The shelves of its shop are packed not just with the usual miso, shoyu, ²Ô²¹³Ù³Ù¨, sake and vinegar, but also many less widespread regional specialties.
There¡¯s shottsuru and ishiru, both varieties of fish sauce; tamari, a type of soy sauce made from soybean °ì¨Âá¾± rather than wheat; ³Ù´Ç´Ú³Ü²â¨, cheese-like Okinawan fermented tofu; and saltless sunki pickles from the mountains of Nagano Prefecture. These, along with many other traditional foods teeming with microbiological life, are the raison d¡¯etre for Hakko Department.
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