“Spaghetti alla puttanesca” in Naples. New York’s “hot dog”. The “feijoada” in Rio de Janeiro. The “macarons” of Paris. And so on. Each city in the world has its own trademark culinary wonder. With Aichi, it could not be different. But here, the very heart of Japan, place to where everybody must come if they want to move from one side of the country to the other, even the repertoire has a name of its own. An extensive description of all the extraordinary local cuisine, the “Ten Commandments Tablets”, if you will, which summarizes all that is utterly important, under a single name. The people of Aichi Prefecture proudly presents: The “Nagoya Meshi”.

Aichi's food culture has always been recognized as unique, but as of recently, with everybody seemingly looking for new and more tasteful eats, Aichi is focus of long overdue attention. For some, the roots of the high profile are due to the culture of its peculiar brew of soy paste “miso”, soy sauce and fermented rice condiment “mirin”, among others. For example, while regular miso generally loses flavor when boiled, Aichi's soybean miso is a miracle seasoning that actually gets tastier the longer it is simmered. The local foods that typify Aichi, such as miso broth noodles “miso-nikomi udon”, miso broth winter dish “miso-oden” and breaded pork cutlets with miso sauce “miso-katsu”, all use this special variation of soybean miso, and all involve simmering.

Adding to all this is the lively curiosity of Aichi's natives which resulted in ingenuous inventions like the “Hitsumabushi” and “ogura toast”, a multitude of ingredients skillfully matched to create new flavors, styles and cultures.