Like many other countries and civilizations, throughout centuries of its history Japan has been heavily influenced by other cultures: from Tang dynasty China to Portuguese seafarers and evangelizers, from Dutch merchants and doctors to pan-western influence since Meiji Restoration.

In this context, roots of many things that are now considered “Japanese” can be traced to traditions brought to Japan from abroad, but while indeed that may be the case, as since arriving to Japan most of them have been so strongly developed, refined and ‘re-invented’ that generally speaking they have become unique cultural phenomena in themselves quite distinct from their originals.

This very well applies to the domain of food as well where many ingredients, cooking techniques and dishes once introduced onto Japanese soil have been modified and at times ‘re-thought’ to suit the psyche, ethos and mores of Japanese archipelago’s population.

In certain cases Japan became a rendezvous point where foods from different regions of the world have met together producing absolutely new kind of dishes… — like “Curry Udon” — a one-of-a-kind combination of South-East Asian spicy flavor and traditional Japanese Udon noodles developed during the thousand years since their prototype was introduced to Japan by a Chinese-educated Buddhist monk Ku-kai.