Slaughtering Japanse Meals

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by nobora

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Is that much soysauce bad for you?

Soy sauce has an incredible amount of sodium. A teaspoon is supposedly about 1000 to 1200mg of sodium.
Being as the recommended daily intake is between 1000 and 3000, using tons is definitely pretty bad for you.

[MMM]

Recently I was at my friends restaurant and a group of young Chinese men came in. I was surprised to see one of them take out his chopsticks before ordering. (Usually Japanese folks don't touch their chopsticks until the food arrives.) He then started "playing drums" on the table. That is something I would expect of an American boy, but not of a full grown Asian man.

Originally Posted by Nyororin

That reminds me - a friend recently came to Japan for a few months and mistakenly bought oyster sauce instead of soy sauce... Poured it directly on to the rice to eat it - and apparently enjoyed it.

I like oyster sauce...but can't imagine putting anything besides furikake or a raw egg on a bowl of rice.

[burkhartdesu]

Anyone have any Japanese/America faux pas?

Like, Japanese people committing "crimes" against American food?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by burkhartdesu

Anyone have any Japanese/America faux pas?

Like, Japanese people committing "crimes" against American food?

The most appalling thing I have experienced had to be fried chicken, chunks of corn on the cob, and french fries mixed into spaghetti. On the menu, it was only listed as "American style tomato sauce spaghetti"...

Umm, yeah.

ETA; Slightly off topic, but... If you really really want to see someone Japanese cringe and gag, offer them some rice pudding. It seriously never fails.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by burkhartdesu

Anyone have any Japanese/America faux pas?

Like, Japanese people committing "crimes" against American food?

I has some friends come from Japan and we went to a nice restaurant. 3 or 4 of the Japanese guests ordered steak. The waiter brought out one of the steaks and before he could go back to get the others one of the Japanese guys placed his steak in the center of the table and started cutting. We said "What are you doing" and he said "I am cutting my part". At first the Americans were confused then we realized he thought the one steak was to be shared (it was pretty big). We told him it was ALL his, and his face went red. But all of them ate every single bite.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

The most appalling thing I have experienced had to be fried chicken, chunks of corn on the cob, and french fries mixed into spaghetti. On the menu, it was only listed as "American style tomato sauce spaghetti"...

Umm, yeah.

ETA; Slightly off topic, but... If you really really want to see someone Japanese cringe and gag, offer them some rice pudding. It seriously never fails.

I think most of what passes for "delivery pizza" in Japan is criminal...tuna fish, mayo, corn...no thanks.

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by MMM

I think most of what passes for "delivery pizza" in Japan is criminal...tuna fish, mayo, corn...no thanks.

There are those places, and then there are normal pizza places. I can`t stand corn on pizza, but when I was growing up my mother worked in a pizza place where tuna was a really popular topping (One of their best selling pizzas was "Tuna and Anchovie Special") so it doesn`t make me cringe.

Aoki`s has to be the worst, both for weird toppings and being overly expensive. Our local pizza delivery place is great, and both Pizza Hut and Dominos offer completely normal pizzas.

[Sangetsu]

Originally Posted by MMM

I think most of what passes for "delivery pizza" in Japan is criminal...tuna fish, mayo, corn...no thanks.

It is criminal, but I'm not sure in which way; because it's lousy, or because of the fact that they charge 3500 yen for it. I miss Papa John's, where I could get twice as much pizza for half the money.

Mayo on pizza... such a thing would cause riots in New York or Chicago.

Yes, Pizza Hut and Dominos sell pizza in Japan, but they also offer octopus, squid, corn, and, of course, mayo, as toppings. Even Shakeys (my favorite old-school American pizza) has been Japanized into nearly inedible crap.

[MMM]

There was one Pizza California pizza I liked and got on delivery every once in a while...it was a single size pizza with spare toppings, but was very convenient. It cost 1600 yen, or about 18 dollars US...I don't think I would to that today.

[Nyororin]

I really have to chuckle about the pizza talk. "American" pizza is a bastardization of the original to begin with.
An Italian woman I know thinks squid and octopus on pizza is just wonderful, as I guess that was common where she is from. She was also talking about hot-dog, corn, and mayonnaise pizza being a popular thing in some parts of Italy.

Japan seems like somewhere between.