“Fugu Chiri (hot pot with sliced blowfish)” from Yamaguchi Prefecture. Ingredients are mashed up and shaped into original shapes such as Japanese mushroom and carrots. They almost melt in mouth. (in Koto-ku, Tokyo)
Kotaro Yamada
Recipes for dysphagia are drawing attentions in the fast-aging society of Japan. Hospitals and aged care facilities all over the country are doing their best to “recreate” traditional food such as Japanese hot pod dishes for people having difficulties chewing and swallowing. They do so by using mashed-up ingredients and gelatin and shaping them into certain shapes.
On September 19, 2014, a contest for easy swallowing traditional food recipes was held in Koto-ku, Tokyo, jointly by Health care Central Kitchen Association of Japan and Engeshoku.com. In the venue were 163 traditional dishes looking and tasting almost exactly the same as their original models but prepared to be soft and easy-swallowing for those with trouble chewing and swallowing. They include “Fugu Chiri (hot pot with sliced blowfish)” and “Tenpura Soba (soba noodles topped with deep-fried prawns).”
One of the awards went to “Dote-ni (braised beef tendons in red miso sauce)” presented by Bisai Hospital of JA Aichi Kosei-ren, the Japan Agricultural Cooperative (JA) group. The dish is one of hospital patients’ favorites as “a delicious dish using local Haccho miso sauce.” A cook at the hospital, Tomomi Kinebuchi, 40, said happily, “I would like to cook even more delicious soft food for patients, making use of our past experience.”
(Sept. 21, 2014)