The structure of the daily Japanese meal: "one soup, three side dishes" arranged around a bowl of white rice (gohan). There is no separation into starter/main/dessert: rice is the center, miso soup (shiru) always accompanies it, and the okazu (small savory, pickled, fermented dishes) gravitate around it. Sweets and fermented drinks like amazake are taken separately, during festivals or to warm up. This is the simple, nourishing cuisine of a rural household in Fukushima in post-war Japan, where Junko Tabei grew up.

Fermented soybean paste, miso is the salty-umami soul of the Japanese table. For Tabei, it was much more than a condiment: in freeze-dried packets, hot miso soup was her comfort at 8000 meters on Everest. Fermentation (miso, umeboshi, tsukemono, amazake) runs through all these recipes — it is the key technique that preserves, nourishes, and comforts.