When summer comes and freshly pickled nukazuke appears on the table, there is a particular kind of pleasure in seeing it again. It is not because anyone is thinking, “Great, fermented food.” It is simply the return of a familiar taste that belongs to that time of year.
In everyday life, most people in Japan do not stop to think about whether something is fermented before eating it. Miso and soy sauce are simply ordinary seasonings. Natto and pickles may have a reputation for being healthy, but that is not the only reason people eat them. People eat them because they like the taste, because they grew up with them, and because they have long been part of everyday meals.
Take nukazuke, for example. Drizzle a little soy sauce over it and eat it with steaming white rice. Just imagining it can make you want a bowl of rice. Nobody needs to think, “I should get some fermented food today.” The combination simply tastes good.
Fermentation became so deeply rooted in Japanese food partly because it was once a practical way to preserve ingredients. Before refrigeration, vegetables, fish, soybeans, and other foods could not always be kept for long in their original form. Fermenting or pickling them made it possible to keep eating what had been harvested or prepared after its season had passed.
But fermentation did more than preserve food. It also created distinctive flavors and aromas. Miso and soy sauce became basic parts of seasoning, and those flavors gradually became part of what everyday Japanese food tastes like. Someone who disliked natto or certain pickles when they were young may find that, somewhere along the way, they started enjoying them. They are not necessarily eating them out of duty because they are healthy. They have simply become flavors they want to eat.
A single meal can contain several fermented foods without anyone treating it as a special “fermented food meal.” There might be miso in the soup, soy sauce used with a dish, and pickles on the side. Add sake, and fermentation appears yet again. Each item has its own place in the meal, so the fact that they are all fermented barely registers.
If miso, soy sauce, and pickles suddenly disappeared from Japanese tables, many people would probably notice the change in the taste of everyday food long before they thought, “We are eating fewer fermented foods.”