Japanese Tea and Kitchen Knives

choi

The following two items appeared in Florence Fabricant, Front Burner -- a column in the Food section of New York Times every Wednesday.

(1) Matcha Isn't the Only Japanese Green Tea. June 1, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/0 ... en-tea-shincha.html
("There's more to Japanese green tea than the hyper-trendy powdered matcha [抹茶 powdered green tea]. Aficionados eagerly await the year's first leaves of sencha tea. This seasonal early-blooming tea is called shincha and will be available until the end of June. [available from] Ippodo Shincha")

Note:
(a) sencha  煎茶
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sencha

Quote:

"is prepared by infusing the processed whole tea leaves in hot water. It is the most popular tea in Japan. This is as opposed to matcha 抹茶, powdered Japanese green tea, where the green tea powder is mixed with hot water and therefore the leaf itself is included in the beverage")

"The flavour depends upon the season and place where it is produced, but shincha [新茶], or 'new tea' from the first flush of the year, is considered the most delicious.

(b) The ja.wikipedia.org has a page for 煎茶, which states, among other things:
(i) "日光を遮らずに栽培し、新芽を使い繊細に加工したものである。"  (my translation: cultivation by shading from sun, use of shoots)
(ii) "生産、消費ともほぼ日本に限られている。"  (production and consumption limited to Japan, to which zh.wikipedia.org agrees)
(iii) "当初の「煎茶」は文字通り「煎じる茶」の意味で、茶葉を湯で煮出すこと"  (Sencha is, literally [according to the words], tea made by boiling the leaves -- it is something that extract essence by boiling tea leaves in hot water)

Japanese English dictionary:
* senjiru 煎じる 【せんじる】 (v): "to boil; to decoct; to infuse"
* nidasu 煮出す 【にだす】 (v): "to extract essence by boiling; to decoct"

(c) Ippodō  一保堂 茶舗 (京都 本店)

choi

(2) Nakiri Kitchen Knives That Chop and Scoop. June 15, 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/1 ... f-knife-nakiri.html
("Japanese nakiri knife. The blade is rectangular, making it like a cross between a chef's knife and a light cleaver, and thinner than a standard chef's knife, all the better for juliennes. * * * The knife is designed for vegetables * * * [made by] Wüsthof, the German knifemaker")

Note:
(a) julienne (n, v; of obscure development)
www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/julienne
(b) nakiri bōchō 菜切り包丁 ("na" is Japanese pronunciation of 菜)

(c) Japanese English dictionary:
* hōchō 包丁(P); 庖丁 【ほうちょう】 (n): "kitchen knife; carving knife"  (The h is softened to b, when h is not at the beginning of a compound word.)

(d) santoku
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santoku
(full name: santoku bōchō 三徳包丁; a general-purpose kitchen knife originating in Japan)

is different from chef's knife, whose end is more pointed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef%27s_knife
(e) cleaver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaver
(a butcher knife intended for hacking through bone; section: 3.2 Chinese "cleaver")
(f) Founded in 1814 by Johann Wilhelm Wüsthof, Wüsthof is family owned and based in Solingen -- a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.