Hardness of Water in West Europe

One of my first surprise upon starting life in West European country (i.g. Germany) was obvious difference of odor and taste of tap water. For people in Japan accustomed to soft water (around 50ml/l of minerals in Tokyo), it gives off slight smell of cray. When the water is used as it is for cooking Japanese cuisine, especially for soup(“shiru”), the taste is not exactly the one we are familiar with. After leaving water drop unwiped on kitchen sink, we see white powdery leftover afterwards---lime contained in the water. If you keep using iron by directly pouring tap water, it will become unusable in few month or so.

The difference of water is also reflected in culinary culture. Because minerals in the water tends to combine well with animal protein and aggregated as foam, clear meat-based “bouillon“ soup was developed in continental Europe. On the other hand, amino acids(especially Glutamic acid) in kelp such as “konbu” can be more easily extracted by boiling in soft water, eventually making Japanese soup-stock “dashi”.

On the first day landing on a foreign country, get a sniff on glass of tap water. (Warning; in many countries tap water is not suitable for drinking directly!)

Rhine River in Basel, Switzerland. The 1233km-long river water is rich in minerals.