Singapore Café Week 2015
By Siti Zawani
The UNESCO cultural heritage list’s latest addition is the traditional Japanese Washoku cuisine. The announcement comes at a time as Japanese people are increasingly turning away from traditional cuisine in favour of western fast food. Washoku is in fact a philosophy of cooking, which guides people in preparing meals. An example of such principles would be the varying of flavours in a meal, form sweet to spicy, to salty, etc. The move by UNESCO is certainly a welcome move and proponents of traditional Japanese cuisine hope that this will help to turn the tide of change, or at least remind people of the significance of traditional Washoku cuisine in Japanese culture.
