A soup that contains umami components from simmered ingredients and brings out the flavors of a dish.
Dashi is a soup made by simmering ingredients to extract “umami components.”
Japanese-style dashi used in washoku draws out the aroma and umami of kombu and bonito, among others.
Rather than being enjoyed on its own like a typical soup, dashi is used to bring out the flavors of a dish.
“Umami” is one of the “basic tastes,” alongside sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and saltiness.
There are many ingredients used for dashi, such as kombu, bonito, dried shiitake mushrooms, ago (flying fish), and niboshi (dried sardines), and they are used differently depending on the dish.
The four types of dashi commonly used in washoku are kombu dashi, bonito dashi, awase dashi, and shiitake dashi.
Awase dashi is dashi made by extracting umami components from multiple ingredients.
Dashi is a soup made by simmering ingredients and extracting umami components
Dashi made with multiple ingredients is called “awase dashi”
Starting with oden, many Japanese dishes let you really taste the flavor of dashi itself
