Projects are under way to provide tasty hot meals to help ease the despair of people during perhaps the worst times of their lives.

Currently, in the aftermath of natural disasters, rice balls, sweet baked goods, boxed meals from convenience stores and other articles are typically distributed cold to evacuees at shelters.

In the hopes of changing this tradition, the TKB48 initiative held an event at the Ginza Six commercial complex in Tokyo on Sept. 1, Disaster Prevention Day.

Up to 50 visitors who ordered drinks could sample emergency meals.

A 32-year-old man tasted a high-quality chicken meal that makes effective use of cooked and dried rice.

“This is delicious,” he said. “Is this really emergency food?”

The menu for the program consisted of three dishes: coated deep-fried chicken rice, Cobb salad and vegetable soup.

The recipes were developed by Ryusuke Kurabayashi, 52, the grand chef at the nearby Shiseido Parlor restaurant.

The meals can be prepared with ingredients that remain in refrigerators for two days following a disaster.

To save fuel during such emergency situations, heat needs to be applied only briefly to the food.

The two-day window is important because the Society for Disaster Shelter and Refuge Life arranges for toilet and kitchen facilities, as well as beds, to be delivered to evacuation centers within 48 hours of a disaster.

Yoshihiro Mizutani, 52, an executive director of the society, started the TKB48 initiative in 2017 after he observed Italy’s disaster relief efforts firsthand in 2012.

According to Mizutani, kitchen-equipped vans, featuring professional chefs and cooks who volunteer to help evacuees, are rushed to shelters within 48 hours of natural disasters in Italy.

Different meals are prepared for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and more than one plate is served each time. Cafeteria spaces are set up inside relief centers for evacuees to eat with others, he said.

Mizutani said taxpayer money covers the Italian system.

In Japan, authorities often provide onigiri, bread, bento and other “factory-processed” items as emergency food.

Mizutani saw sweet bread distributed to an evacuation center for four months. He also noticed a sign urging evacuees to “drink up your instant noodle’s soup” because discarding the liquid could damage the drainage system.

Hot dishes are sometimes prepared by volunteer cooks in Japan, but they are often limited to curry or pork and vegetable miso soup.

“The real enemy for survivors is despair,” Mizutani said. “Tasty warm meals, along with restrooms and beds, are essential to guard victims from despair.”

However, cities, towns and villages in Japan offer significantly different levels of emergency aid, as a standardized nationwide mechanism is still not in place, Mizutani said.

LEARNING FROM ITALY

Some groups of food truck operators have started working with local governments to deliver their edible specialties in emergencies.

Consisting of 64 food van operators, the Ehime Kitchen Car Association has signed emergency cooperation partnerships with seven cities and towns in Ehime Prefecture, including Matsuyama and Imabari, since 2019.

Mellow Inc., the provider of the Shop Stop app that shows details of traveling eateries nearby, introduced an “emergency squad of food trucks” in 2019.

It has reached agreements with Saitama, Osaka Prefecture’s Toyonaka, Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward and Munakata in Fukuoka Prefecture to dispatch kitchen-fitted vehicles from its 2,700 registered operators to emergency shelters.

One remaining challenge is for the member restaurants to obtain licenses to do business in the specified regions. Without the license, food vans cannot distribute meals even in disaster-hit areas.

“Our program fails to achieve its full potential whereas business operators are eager to do their best,” a Mellow representative said. “We would like the system to become a little more flexible.”

BASIC COOKING METHODS FOR EMERGENCY MEALS

Chicken Rice’s Main Ingredients (Serves 4)

(A) 20 grams butter, 150 grams chicken thigh, 100 grams chopped onion, 100 grams boiled mushroom slices; (B) 100 grams ketchup, 15 grams tomato paste, a pinch of salt and pepper; 400 grams dried cooked rice, 800 ml water, 20 grams Parmesan cheese, a pinch of parsley

1. Melt butter in pan to fry (A).

2. Add (B), rice and 400 ml water. Blend and boil them down.

3. Add remaining 400 ml water and turn stove off. Put lid on and steam for 15 minutes.

4. Add and blend Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle chopped parsley.

Chicken rice using rehydrated rice can be made tender by adding more water than the amount indicated on labeling, according to Kurabayashi. Adding butter in the process helps the meal become much tastier, too. Pouring a little soy sauce for finishing also works well.

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Cobb Salad’s Main Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 chicken thigh or chicken breast, 2 Tbsp salt koji (shio koji), 2 boiled eggs, 1 avocado, 1 tomato, 2 cucumbers, 1 lettuce, 4 Tbsp mayonnaise, 2 Tbsp ketchup, a pinch of oyster sauce, lemon juice and honey

1. Cut open chicken, apply salt koji and put it in plastic bag with zipper.

2. Boil water in pot, turn stove off and leave it for 3 minutes.

3. Place chicken in plastic bag in hot water to be recovered after 30 minutes.

4. Cool and cut chicken into bite-size pieces. Cut vegetables and boiled eggs into bite-size pieces, too.

5. Put and blend seasonings and other ingredients in bowl. Place salad on lettuce leaves before serving.

Chicken is cooked in a plastic bag with a zipper at low temperature. Power failures during emergencies can cause frozen meat and other ingredients to melt. Pork and beef melted in that way can also be used. Frying is easier but fried meat becomes tough once cooled. Meat treated at low temperature remains tasty even after growing cold, according to Kurabayashi.