Sakai Takayuki VG10

There are several different types of Japanese cutlery. Most often than not, you will find in a Japanese kitchen the following: deba-bocho (to fillet fish), nakiro-bocho (to cut vegetables), and tako-biki hocho (to slice sashimi).

In serving food, presentation or plating is important. This makes the food served more tempting to look at. Japanese people know this very well and that is made obvious them having different types of kitchen knives. Almost all Japanese foods have vegetables either as garnish or part of the ingredients and Japanese know how to cut their veggies beautifully.    

Here are some techniques in cutting veggies using a vegetable knife:

Sengiri (Julienne) – Peel the vegetable first (carrot for example) then cut it into 3-inches length. Cut it lengthwise thinly like wafers. Stack all wafers then cut into fine julienne.  

Katsuramuki – This is a strand of daikon that you usually find sitting under your sashimi. They are not machine made but by hands of professional cooks. The art of cutting vegetables into this very thin sheets is called katsuramuki. Here are the steps in making a katsuramuki: Cut the vegetable into 5 or 6 inches length then peel the skin and discard it. Peel the skin for the second time but this time, make it into a much thinner sheet. This is the part that you are going to use. The resulting sheet should be so thin that you could almost see through it.

Flowers and decorative shapes – To make a sakuna flower from a carrot, cut five even grooves in lengthwise. Slice and place in an arrangement.       

At japanny.com, we offer Sakai Takayuki VG10. It is a 33 layer folded Damascus steel vegetable knife. It has a double-edged blade length of 160mm and is stain-resistant.