Mar 12,2020
Mayuko is committed to ensuring that people can enjoy the closest thing to their usual meals even if essential services are cut off by a disaster. To that end she travels all over Japan giving talks and workshops on emergency meals and disaster preparedness. She is an advocate of what are called Oyu Pocha Recipes®, which require just a pan of boiling water and a plastic bag. She is also the author of numerous cookbooks for emergencies, including Simple, Timesaving Instant Recipes for Just-in-Case Meals.
Mayuko came out with a new book in 2019 entitled Simple Soup & Miso Soup Recipes—Because Even in a Disaster, You Want to Enjoy Your Food!. This was inspired by her desire to write a cookbook devoted exclusively to miso and other soups.
“Both our kids just love miso soup. From the time they were little, they had miso soup every morning before going to school. Even when they had no appetite, they could handle miso soup. Even when they could barely get out of bed in the morning, after a bowl of miso soup, they’d head out the door bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. It was like someone had flipped a switch. I’d make a pan full of miso soup the night before, and they’d have it before going to school. It was a daily ritual.”
Mayuko had already come up with lots of recipe ideas for emergency situations. As long as you had a portable stove, a gas cartridge, and a stockpile of water, she figured, you could easily put together a hot meal with whatever you at home. But miso soup was what she most wanted people to be able to enjoy it in a disaster. After all, her own children ate it without fail. It was the switch that got them going in the morning.
What’s more, miso soup is the perfect disaster food, says Mayuko.
“I’ve talked with people in disaster zones, and a constant refrain was the lack of vegetables and the desire to eat something hot. It’s really difficult to eat a balanced diet when essential services are down after a major disaster. But the important thing in a disaster is maintaining your physical and mental health. Miso soup is great in that regard. Not only is miso itself rich in nutrition, but the other ingredients in the soup are a source of fiber and protein. Above all, having hot food gives you the will to live. If disaster strikes and you have to survive on a diet of onigiri rice balls or pastries, a hot bowl of miso soup helps soothe the soul.”
Miso soup has another advantage as well, according to Mayuko.
“Even if you can’t get hold of fresh vegetables, you can still make a nice chunky miso soup by adding dried vegetables or other dried foods or anything that can be stored at room temperature. Miso soup made with lots of ingredients is a good source of nutrition, even if you have hardly any side dishes. And whatever you put in miso soup, the miso brings the flavor together, ensuring the soup tastes delicious. The potential combinations are endless. It’s also easy to come up with variations on miso soup. You can use a Chinese-style broth instead of your usual dashi stock, say, or add a touch of yuzu pepper or ground sesame seeds. You never get bored of miso soup, and that’s what makes it the perfect disaster food.”
So what should you keep on hand to ensure you can continue enjoying miso soup even in the event of a disaster?
“If you want to have hot miso soup even when all utilities are down, a stockpile of water is essential. You’ll also require a portable stove, a gas cartridge, and a pan.”
Gas cartridges have a seven-year expiry date, says Mayuko, so don’t just leave your portable stove in the cupboard. Try cooking on it once in a while so the cartridge doesn’t expire without your realizing it. She also provides this advice on ingredients.
“If you’re going to make miso soup, you need to have a supply of miso. Condiments like miso and soy sauce taste different in different parts of the country. I’d strongly recommend you make sure you don’t run out of the miso you always use, because the familiar taste of what you’re used to will be comforting. If you have swallowing issues, stock up on plenty of off-the-shelf food thickener. It will give you peace of mind.
“As for what to toss in your soup, dried vegetables work great. Fresh vegetables are difficult to get hold of when the retail supply chain comes to a standstill after a disaster. A stockpile of dried vegetables is very handy at times like that, because they’re a source of fiber, you don’t have to bother slicing them, and there are no food scraps to throw away. Besides familiar miso soup ingredients like green onions and daikon greens, you’ll also find a large selection of dried vegetables at the supermarket in the dried foods section, such as freeze-dried eggplant, onions, and lotus root. Be sure to check them out.
“Other dried foods that make delicious miso soup ingredients include freeze-dried tofu, dried daikon strips, and shelf-stable deep-fried tofu. All are high in nutrition and have plenty of flavor. For a bit of a twist, I’d recommend canned mackerel or something else in a can or fish sausage or dried sausage.”
A wide assortment of foods that keep at room temperature are available at the supermarket. They include dried vegetables, freeze-dried tofu, dried daikon strips, dry-packed hijiki seaweed or mushrooms, canned mackerel, and fish sausages. “When you realize that anything shelf-stable works as a miso soup ingredient, it greatly expands your list of options,” Mayuko observes. “Explore different great-tasting combinations yourself.”
When stocking up on supplies, a good idea is to maintain a rolling stockpile.
“While dried vegetables and other dried foods can be kept at room temperature, they don’t have a very long shelf life—only six months or so. That’s why I’d suggest maintaining a rolling stockpile. Use the items in your stockpile for your regular meals, and replenish whatever you use. That reduces the amount you have to throw away because it’s past its best-before date. It also lets you stock up on favorite foods you eat every day.”
Mayuko offers a further piece of advice from experience. If you stock up on too many different types of food, you may not be able to keep up with eating them all as part of your daily meals. And that can be stressful. The secret, she says, is to “buy a little extra of the shelf-stable items you eat regularly.”
Mayuko’s awareness of the importance of an emergency food supply was triggered by her own experience. It happened when that massive earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011.
“I was working as a registered dietitian at a nursery school at the time. My daughter was in junior high, and my son was in senior kindergarten and just about to enter elementary school. On March 11, I had to go out for a little while, and my son said to me, ‘I’d like to try being home alone before I start going to elementary school.’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s a good idea. You’re a big boy now. Watch a DVD for half an hour.’ So I left him at home and drove off in my car. And as I was driving along, the earthquake struck. It struck on the very day I left him home alone for the first time in his life. I’d never left him alone before.
“When the earthquake struck, I could feel the ground shaking violently even as I drove. I looked outside, and there were pedestrians crouching and clinging to the guardrail. I realized that this was serious. Fortunately the traffic slowly started moving, and I was able to get home. But both my daughter and my husband were out, and as it turned out they didn’t manage to get home until the next day. That got me thinking. If I had not been able to get back home immediately, would my son have been able to feed himself? Maybe he would have been able to have some snacks. But he probably would have found it difficult to open a can of anything, because I’d never shown him how to.”
As Mayuko drove, she kept thinking to herself, “Why today of all days?” You never know when a disaster might strike, they say, and she experienced that firsthand. And she had an epiphany.
“I had a misplaced confidence in my ability to protect my kids. I thought as long I was around, they’d be okay. But what I experienced on the day of the earthquake convinced me that as a parent, I had a duty to teach my kids how to fend for themselves.”
The earthquake also prompted her to start investigating emergency foods.
“I bought emergency foods available in the store and tried them. I checked how much they cost and how they tasted. I also figured there must be a way to cook a meal that even kids will find easy, so I started experimenting in the kitchen. What I ultimately came up with was Oyu Pocha Recipes®.”
The Oyu Pocha cooking method is also described as pack cooking or cooking in a plastic bag. This method involves putting the ingredients in a high-density polyethylene bag and placing the bag in boiling water.
“With an Oyu Pocha Recipe, you can place the rice, the miso soup, and the other dishes in separate bags and boil them together in the same pan. Plus the boiled water can be used repeatedly for Oyu Pocha meals.
“In a disaster, the cooked food can be served in the bag, then placed in a bowl to eat. So once you finish eating, you just throw away the bag. There are no dishes to wash. That makes this cooking technique a godsend in a water outage.”
NOTE:If the bag isn’t made of high-density polyethylene, it’s liable to burst in the heat, so be sure to use a bag labeled “high-density polyethylene.” Bags labeled “heat-resistant” or “suitable for cooking in boiling water” are also acceptable.
“Oyu Pocha Recipes are designed to be so simple that anyone can make them. So we don’t just hold workshops for adults. We sometimes hold them for kids and disabled people as well. These workshops feature a wide range of ingredients, and participants try out various ingredients. Some opt for good old spinach and deep-fried tofu, while others choose dried sausage, which isn’t a very common thing to put in miso soup, or have fun varying the flavor with yuzu pepper or sakura shrimps.”
It’s important, says Mayuko, to have a go at actually making something.
“Having an emergency stockpile at home is vitally important, but it’s not enough on its own to let you rest easy. When a disaster strikes, there’s a big difference between knowing something and being able to do it. It’s important to turn what you know or have heard into practical ability. There’s only so much you can do once disaster strikes, but there are lots of things you can do right now. Make Oyu Pocha meals as part of your daily routine and keep a rolling stockpile, so you’re prepared just in case. That way, you’ll be able to eat hot, nourishing meals and stay healthy even in an emergency.”
Registered dietitian
Registered dietitian
Mayuko spent many years working as a registered dietitian in the staff canteen of a major corporation, at a hospital, and in a nursery school. Since launching her own registered dietitian business in 2014, she has devoted herself to nutrition education and emergency food preparedness. Besides working on creating new recipes and developing new products, she travels all over Japan giving talks and classes as an emergency food advisor. She appears frequently on TV and radio and in newspapers and magazines. Her column “Saving Time on Housework” appears on the second Tuesday of the month in the evening edition of the Nikkei newspaper.
Her latest books (all in Japanese) include Disaster Preparedness for Parents and Kids: The Emergency Food Guide ; Disaster Preparedness for Parents and Kids: The Survival Technique Guide (both published by Rironsha); Simple Soup & Miso Soup Recipes—Because Even in a Disaster, You Want to Enjoy Your Food! (Just-in-Case Meals 2) (Seiryu Publishing); Cooking for Emergencies 1: Handy Recipes for When There’s No Power or Gas; Cooking for Emergencies 2: Handy Recipes for When There’s No Water; and Cooking for Emergencies 3: Protect Yourself by Stocking Up on Food (all published by Froebel-kan).
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