What Does the Emperor Eat?
I am fascinated by the Imperial Family in Japan and read all I can about them, which is not so much because they seem to be very private. I recently read an article on Japan Today about the Imperial Palace menus. There is a staff of 43 employed in food preparation for the Imperial Family.
The meat, dairy products, vegetables, and some other things come from the Imperial Farm in Tochigi Prefecture. Chemicals and pesticides are used sparingly. At the beginning of 2017, the farm had 32 head of cattle, 729 chickens, 58 pigs, and 355 sheep. About 20 types of vegetables are grown and many types of dairy products produced.
One friend of the Emperor who has been a dinner guest said that the meals were more fugal than he thought they would be and a bit on the bland side. A typical lunch is said to be rice/barley mixture, miso soup, grill sawara fish, glazed ginger and chestnuts. Sounds delicious to me!
The Emperor and Emperess (who are in their 80's) recently returned from a trip to Vietnam and Thailand. It is the custom for the entire Imperial family to meet them at the airport when they have been away! Here are some photos posted on The Imperial Family of Japan blog.
6 comments:
Hi Pamela ,very interesting,they look a lovely couple.
It is lovely to read that they live a relatively normal life and not one of excess as you see so often with people in power. Great the family turns out to meet them.
I would imagine at their age they wouldn't eat much spicy food. I'm surprised their security allows the family to met up in mass when they come and go.
You've really turned me onto this royal family. On your last post I ended up going to wikipedia to look up the life of the Empress before she became empress. It's very fascinating.
Very interesting to learn a bit more about this royal family.
That food does sound delicious - especially when it comes from such a special little farm - but still pretty frugal for royalty. Seems very appropriate for the Japanese though!
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