Hi all,
Time to give you guys assignments for this class, as I told you before.
Everytime I found the topic from the chatting of the students, and this year I thought over with some students (see Assignment plans on 23 Dec.). Foods from the wild.
To make the theme clear, I would like to limit "something that you or your family got from the wild (but fish are excluded)."
For example, you may have experiences of picking wild vegetables, mushrooms, or insects in the mountains or paths of rice fields, picking clam, hunting(?!). Not-very-familiar items may be better as each student will get new information.
Please first suggest of your candidate of the topic (to avoid the same theme by different students) as a comment to this post. Sooner is better, like by the end of 2023.
I would like to ask you to submit your presentation slide file (MS Powerpoint, or similar) by 15th Jan.
Below is the way to do.
1) Each of you state what will be your subject as a comment to this post by Jan 5, 2024.
2) You make the presentation and send the files directly to me (miyake.takashi.s9@f.gifu-u.ac.jp) by Jan15, 2024.
3) I will first pick up 3~4 of them, and let you watch them. you talked over them for several days (Q&As), and then we go on to the other 3~4 every week.
4) Everyweek after watching the files, you make questions to at least 2 presenters.
5) When we finish talking over all of the files, we close the class (by the mid to end of February).
Sounds good?
If you do not have MS powerpoint, ask me. If you can prepare it via google slide or something that we can see via browser, that will be fine.
You should try to include:
1) what it is, when and how you may get it.
2) how you (or your family) cook it. General explanation would be OK, but if you (or your family) have any tricks, let us know. If you eat at any special occasion, please explain it.
3) please include photos instead of “text only”. You can pick photos from the web (and show the source URL like the sample file attached) if you do not have your own.
5) if it is in circulation (sold somewhere), let us know.
Any questions?

Dear Prof. Takashi, I'm not very familiar with wild foods because I usually eat out or shop at the supermarket and make simple meals. Also, my family lives in the city, so we don't have access to wild food. Therefore, I am extremely troubled by this issue.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is not a wild food, I would like to focus on the theme of ``Makomo'', which is a rare ingredient that our laboratory grows every year and that I eat every year. Could you give me permission?
I am not familiar with makomo, and happy to look forward to seeing your presentation next month. When I search about it, it seems like the species can be found in the wild but wild ones are not edible due to hardness(?). I would like to know more about that aspect.
Delete"Yomogi (Mugwort)" came to mind as a wild vegetable that I have picked and eaten myself.
ReplyDeleteIt may be a commonly known food... But, I would like to find out what kinds of wild Yomogi are available and how they are eaten.
Sounds good. Okinawa people also ear yomogi, so I wonder if it is eaten in any other countries like Taiwan, China or Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteI would like to choose "dried sweet potatoes" as my topic. When I was a child, I was looking forward to the dried sweet potatoes that my grandmother cooked from the sweet potatoes she harvested, every year.
ReplyDeleteI think it a kind of crops so I would like you to reconsider. I guess that you grandmather collected many from the wild.
DeleteSensei, regarding your instruction, i would like to choose wild edible plants that are extensively utilised in Indonesia, including poh-pohan (Pilea melastomoides), leunca (Pilea melastomoides), winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus), and basil (Ocimum basilicum). Apart from that, I will also introduce "Ulat sagu" as a unique wild food insect from Indonesia. I have never eaten this insect, but I am interested in introducing it to this class. Thank You
ReplyDeleteIt is enough if you introduce one of them but you can go on if you wish. Personally, I am interested in the first two, as we Japanese collect a similar plant like Elatostema involucratum.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNo problem. You can introduce either one of them. Well, I like both. In my childhood, I never saw fukinotou but now it is one of my favorite tempura items.
DeleteDear Prof Takashi,
ReplyDeleteI would still like to present with the meat of wild animals.
I have eaten deer, raccoon dogs, nutria, etc. I hope to be able to mention about deer hunting. I would mainly talk about deer meat, as I only hunt mainly deer.
Sounds cool. I hope you include some cultural aspects of hunting in Japan.
DeleteDear Prof. Takashi,
ReplyDeleteI would like to choose "Sijimi" as my topic.
My grandmother's family are fishermen on Oki Island in Shimane Prefecture.
My grandmother sends us many "Shijimi" and "Sazae" every year.
When I was a child, I used to collect "Shijimi" on the beaches of Oki Island.
Should be nice. When I was a kid, I never have a chance to catch Shijimi, but only Asari (and Akagai). My first experience of catching Shijimi was in Niigata. I found people went into the mud beach at a river mouth so when I did the same, I had the feeling of touching some shells on my sole.
DeleteSo, how about bamboo shoots?
ReplyDeleteThis is the one that my grandmother collects from the bamboo forest.
After googling about it, it seems that the only few east Asian countries eat bamboo shoots.
In my family, we eat it as stewed dish, but there are many things that should be written about, such as the processing steps needed to make it edible.
Sounds good and should be better if you have experiences of digging them.
DeleteI would like to decide ginkgo nuts as my topic.
ReplyDeleteGood. I saw many people gathering nuts, but I haven't done it myself and do not know how to prepare them.
DeleteDear Prof. Takashi,
ReplyDeleteI would like to introduce the honey mushroom (Armillaria mellea) in my hometown.
My parents used to pick the honey mushrooms from the forest and then dry them in the sunlight before using them to make delicious chicken soup when I was a child. In recent years, they stopped doing that. So unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of these mushrooms. Is it ok if I use some pictures from the internet?
Sure thing. So did they use only for soup stock? Or did they use it as one of the ingredients? I hope the latter and if so, please introduce the cookings using it.
ReplyDelete