What has made you click into this article? –– Is it “emergency stock food” or “delicious”?
In Japan, which is frequently visited by natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, sometimes there will be up to three days of black-out (without electricity) and cut-off (roads etc. to the outside world cut). Therefore, it is customary for the Japanese families to stock up food and water for the consumption of at least 1 week. While it is of course possible just to stock up more “normal food” than normal, many families seem also to invest in “emergency stock food” (非常食 or 備蓄食料), which can be stored for a long time and can often be eaten without other utensils.
When talking about these emergency stock foods, people sometimes think of war-time food (very dry biscuits, for example). However, that is actually not accurate, at least not in modern day Japan, where technological improvement has allowed these emergency stock foods greatly advanced comparing to the older days. In fact, it seems that the nature of emergency food has entirely changed: it is not to prevent starvation any more.
It is not surprising when you think about it: humans can survive with water for nearly a month and it has been a long time since “starvation” has killed anyone in Japan following natural disaster. Instead, the purpose of emergency stock food in Japan is more about maintaining health. Health here is, of course, related to nutrients etc. But in Japan, it is more about reverting to “normal life” immediately after disasters and maintaining mental health. That, we think, is why the Japanese emergency stock food are so delicious even in ordinary standards, as our food sampling has shown.
Food sampling
In Japan, families usually buy emergency stock food not in supermarkets but in home centres (where one buys them together with furniture, bedroom furnishings etc.) This time we have chosen a few of them to test their tastiness!
Kanpan Canned biscuits
The most classic one is the canned biscuits –– and if you visit a natural disaster prevention centre in Japan sometimes they give it to you for free.
The one we sampled is the Sanritsu kanpan canned biscuits, which also comes with pure sugar. The catch phrase written on the classic can is “Delicious to eat and secure to store”. In terms of taste, it is not as rich as mainstream Japanese biscuits/okashi but, when you eat it long enough and with water, it can actually taste more delicious in a way, because you can taste the “purity” of this biscuit. That is immediately obvious when you compare the ingredient list with the “mainstream” biscuits.
Ready made meals
There were a great variety of easily made food like rice, soup. dishes and even desserts! This is unsurprising from a country famous for its ready made meals. However, what is special about emergency stock ready made meals is that some of them claim to be delicious even without being heated. The second, probably more important difference is their expiry date. In fact, the one that we sample simply has no expiry date written on it!
Soup
Desserts
The one we tried is called tomato soup risotto. We also tried to eat half of it it cold, and then heating the other half of it. It was quite delicious – in fact, just like ready made meals one find in supermarkets!
Canned bread
There are a variety of emergency bread and we chosen the chocolate danish to sample. Wrapped in butter paper. It is a bit dry but goes really well with the soup/risotto we mentioned above!
Others
There are other emergency food which we haven’t got the chance to sample except taking pictures. If you have tasted them, feel free to leave a comment about their tastes!
After seeing all these emergency stock food, which of the above do you want to try the most?
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