Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Golden (Food Reference List)
Last Updated on March 10, 2019
Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel set in Kyoto, Japan, that follows the life of Sayuri, a geisha, before, during and after World War II.
Where possible, I’ve included descriptions and some links to recipes and more information.
The Beverages
Green tea: a herbal drink with numerous health benefits
Sake: an alcoholic beverage, made from fermented rice. We came across this sake glossary for those who want to know more
Amakuchi: a very light sweet sake
Beer
Tea
Brown tea
Scotch and water
The Food
Peach
Mushroom
Soup
Crab
Grilled sea bass, pickles, soup and steamed rice: We love the sound of this Miso-Marinated Sea Bass recipe from Rasa Malaysia.
A rice ball sprinkled with sesame seeds, wrapped in a lotus leaf: Rice balls are apparently called onigiri in Japanese, and often have fillings such as pickled plum or grilled salmon.
Miso soup: A soup made of a stock called dashi (kelp and/or sardine based) and miso paste.
Rice
Rice crackers
Fresh ginger
Sweet rice cake: Also called Mochi. I’m actually going to point you to a Mochi recipes Pinterest board for this one. So many recipes out there!
Charcoal roasted squid
Dried fish
“and if she felt hungry, she certainly wasn’t going to stroll into the kitchen to prepare something by herself— such as an umeboshi ochazuke, which was a favourite snack of hers, made with leftover rice and pickled sour plums, soaked in hot tea.”
Try this ochazuke recipe from Just Hungry
Sweet plum or cherry (the syrup flavours that goes on top of shaved ice)
Matcha: A fine green tea powder
Red rice: rice mixed with red beans
Roasted yams
Two grilled, salted ayu and two steamed crabs: Ayu is also called sweetfish
Sweet rice cakes roasted with miso paste
source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentwang/158993659/
available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
Sashimi: thinly sliced pieces of fresh meat or fish
Ekubo: a sweet rice cake, with red circle dimple in the centre (for mizuage, the lose of virginity (describe better)
Tai no usugiri: paper thin slices of sea bream, fanned out on a leaf shaped plate served with ponzu sauce:
Yellow pickles
Rice mixed with red adzuki beans
Rising Sun Lunch Box: a pickled plum in the centre of rice
Braised tofu
Braised beef
Chocolates
Weak broth with a few noodles
Watery rice gruel flavoured with potato skins
Soybean dregs
Nukapan: fried rice bran with wheat flour
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Dried whale meat
Sausage from seals
Sardines
Yam boiled in soy sauce and sugar
Marinated beef
Yellow custard with ginko nuts
Grilled tropical fish
Dried squid
source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Kaki2.jpg/640px-Kaki2.jpg
available under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.
Persimmon
Clear broth
Ice cream
I remember reading this book years ago and being horrified at the thought of sausages made from seal meat. 🙂 How age and perspective change things – after all, that’s what sausage is. Ground–up meat, the fattier the better. Thank you for your wonderful blog. I discovered it completely by accident wanting more information on the exotic food descriptions in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and what did I find? Your reference menu! I love your site and can’t wait for more posts.
Hi Vanessa,
So true!
I’m so glad to hear someone was looking for food descriptions and lists! I wasn’t sure if anyone would use them, but I figured, I pull out all the food mentioned anyways, may as well make it available for others.
Bryt