If food is a critical view of culture, then traditional recipes and foods can be an exciting glimpse into a lifestyle that's past. Now, most of the time when someone says "historical food", I know the first thing that comes to my mind is large legs of mutton being ripped in to without any silverware, and hard, crusty breads. While it certainly is true that some places did eat meals like this, the traditional and historical foods are much more varied than my limited imagination realized.
I did some research a while back into the lifestyle of feudal Japan, and a lot of what I found revolved around the traditional foods of Japan. Traditional Japanese food revolved around rice in many different forms, and the consumption of most kinds of meat , aside from fish, was really slim. One of the fun things that rose out of Japanese cooking is what is called wagashi. Wagashi is a kind of traditional sweet that was often paired with green tea, and it could take many forms. The earliest wagashi were fruits and nuts, although there have been the remains of cookies made from ground chestnuts found in some burials. Dumplings called dango were also invented early on. They were made of rice flour and often filled with sweet fruits or beans. Dango in many forms remain popular today.
During the Asuka period (538 to 710) trade to China brought back confections made of fried dough. Sugar also came from China around this time. Since the Japanese could not yet refine sugar, they prized it like a treasure. Until that time, they had used naturally sweet things like honey and fruits.
While the staple of Japanese cuisine evolved, many big changes came after more ingredients became available when European traders came in the early 16th century. Traditional wagashi is considered to be the confections that were created and perfected before that time.
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