Food keeps exiles happy

From the Journal, May 25th 2007

Nana Otsu Galloway is feeding her fellow Japanese exiles' taste for soy, sushi and soup noodles. Jane Hall reports.

WHEN Nana Otsu Galloway wed her English husband 19 years ago and followed him halfway around the world, little did she realise she would be leaving more than her family behind.

But she soon discovered that marriage to Darlington-born Graham Galloway would mean having to give-up another slice of her life back in Japan - the food.

For while other world cuisines have successfully made their way onto our menu - indeed, Indian curries and Italian pasta are now as `British' as fish and chips and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding - Japanese has yet to make its mark beyond vacuum-packed sushi and thick, dark soy sauce.

Nana battled for years, with mixed results, to adapt Western ingredients to the recipes she grew-up eating back home in Tokyo - braised hijiki seaweed, Gyouza dumplings and Daikon in broth being just some of the exotic sounding dishes.

Now she need struggle no more. In a real-life case of "if the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed will go to the mountain," Nana has launched her own internet-based company bringing a true taste of the East to the North-East.

Aimed at the region's burgeoning Japanese community, Momotaro Foods sells imported, pre-packed ingredients not readily available outside London alongside kitchen utensils and crockery.

Launched in mid-2006, the business has already proved a hit with the 1,000-plus Japanese ex-pats currently living between the Rivers Tweed and Tees.

But in a bold move, Nana is now hoping to extend Momotaro's appeal beyond her fellow countrymen and introduce Japanese food and its associated culture to the wider British public.

And she believes the current debate about rising obesity levels could be the key.

The Japanese diet is heavy on fresh vegetables, brown rice, soy and delicately cooked fish, and is regarded as one of the healthiest in the world. While obesity levels are reaching epidemic proportions in both the UK and America, in Japan just 3% of men and women are regarded as being seriously overweight - mainly those attracted by the Western-style fast food outlets that are springing up.

Japanese people also have the highest life expectancy - 86 years for women and 78 for men, as opposed to 79 years and 75 respectively in the UK - and the lowest rates of heart disease and other life-threatening illnesses. In short, Japanese people, especially women, are the healthiest in the world.

If anyone needed inspiration to change their diet, then Nana is a positive advert. The mother of two daughters aged 14 and 11, she looks years younger than her real age of 45. She has a slight, but not skinny, frame, perfect skin, gleaming dark hair and bags of energy.

She is a living example of what most women her age dream of.

Yet Nana is no different from millions of other Japanese women who grew up eating their mothers' traditional, home-cooked food.

"I believe it is the protein in the Japanese diet that is good for women," Nana explains. "We eat a lot of soya products, tofu and fresh fish, all of which are essential for building and repairing the body.

"I have certainly noticed since moving to the West that Oriental women look many years younger than their actual age. To my eyes, Western women look more mature. At the moment, the life expectancy for a Japanese woman is 86, which is much higher than anywhere else.

"I think as long as the Japanese stick to their traditional diet then we stand a good chance of slowing down the ageing process. It is unfortunate, however, that the younger generation in Japan is being enticed into eating fast-food and obesity is becoming a problem, but compared to the problem here, it is nothing."

The budding entrepreneur, who lives in Richmond, North Yorkshire, has noticed her own weight fluctuating since she came to live in the UK. "I've put on quite a lot of weight because of the diet. I think because of the cold winters, traditional Western cuisine is very heavy and you use a lot of fat, all of which make it easy to gain weight.

"Once you pass 40 you have to be careful anyway, I think, about what you eat. Now that I have changed back to a traditional Japanese diet I've lost weight again. I haven't had to diet. Using myself as a guinea pig, I believe it is because Japanese food is cooked differently and uses less fat and oil. Also, in Japan there is an emphasis on eating modest portions, so you naturally lose weight."

When most people think of Japanese food, they think of sushi. Sushi restaurants are catching on in Britain, mainly in London, but Nana insists that raw fish is a very small part of the cuisine.

A typical Japanese supper might consist of a selection of fresh, seasonal vegetables and tofu, chopped and stir-fried at a high heat, accompanied by a bowl of brown rice, which anyone in Britain could effortlessly prepare.

To make the task easier, Nana has included 50 recipes on the Momotaro website aimed at would-be British converts, including vegetarian, soups and sushi. Any hard-to-get ingredients are only a mouse click away.

Nana admits she was bemused by how hard it was to obtain Japanese ingredients when she arrived in the North-East. A former travel agent, publisher and interpreter, she met her chartered accountant husband in Hong Kong in 1988. Following their marriage they initially lived in Britain for six years and then in Singapore and Malaysia before returning to the North for good five years ago.

"Because of Nissan and its associated businesses, there is a sizeable Japanese community in the North-East," Nana explains. "A food supplier from London used to make a once a month delivery to a fixed point in Newcastle, but these stopped four or five years ago, leaving us with nothing.

"The Chinese supermarkets in Newcastle and a few other shops stock some ingredients, but they are not specialists, so we were all left completely lost. I was having to ask my family to send Red Cross-style parcels from Japan.

"That is the main reason I started to fill the gap by getting supplies up here. I would take these to the Saturday Japanese School in Washington and then get further orders.

"There are two types of people living in the Japanese community up here. There are a number of ex-pats who spend a couple of years here before going back to Japan and are more reliant on Japanese food and are eating it every day. Then there are the other half, who like me, are married to English people or live here permanently, and have adapted to life here.

"But even so, you still need to be able to eat Japanese meals, although not necessarily every day."

English people began asking about the foods she was supplying and how to cook them. "That's when I thought I would launch the website with the recipes to increase understanding of Japanese food and allow people to prepare a genuinely authentic Japanese meal at home."

She believes the time is right not just because of people's health concerns, but because we are becoming more adventurous in our eating.

The name Momotaro means `peach boy' and comes from a Japanese fairy tale. The story is of a little boy who was found inside a peach, and grew up to be a big, strong man who fought ogres.

Nana will be hoping her business proves equally as robust.