Jing-We, my contact in the community, had promised to take us to eat Zainichi Korean cuisine. I follow her down narrow alleys lit with bright neon signs that twist and turn so much that I am not sure I can find my way out of the maze. We finally reach our destination: a wooden building…
Being Korean in Japan
Almost a decade ago, a motley group of Japanese ultranationalists gathered in front of a Korean elementary school in Kyoto. They came to protest the school’s use of the public park across the street. The school was an ideal target: it was affiliated with North Korea and did not have the means to fight back….
Food Authenticity In Japan
A fish burger to save a struggling region While doing fieldwork in Japan, I received a strange email message from a restaurant owner in a small fishing town that sits on the Southern coast of the island of Shikoku. The message explained that in an effort to revitalize the local economy, high school students had…
What is the Japanese taste of umami?
The first time I heard about umami, I had started working in a run-down sushi shop on top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. I learned how to steam Japanese rice and season it with the appropriate balance of sweetness and sourness. I cleaned and gutted small fish as I was not to be trusted…
5 essential Japanese table manners
The self-proclaimed aficionado parked at the sushi bar adds more wasabi to his little soya sauce bowl turning the mixture into sickly green mud. He then drops a piece of sushi in the mixture. The delicately molded rice brakes apart as the rice soak up more and more of the sauce. The sushi chef, neck…
How to avoid food culture shock in Japan
Out the window, sparsely populated luscious green mountains and valleys streamed by giving the impression we had left Japan. “Do you like meat,” asked Yasu my Japanese friend who was driving. “I love meat. There isn’t much I can’t eat,” I boasted remembering my breakfast of smelly natto fermented soybeans. We soon arrived at a small shop in…
Understanding the Japanese Izakaya
Japanese cuisine first went global when sushi shops spread throughout the urban dining landscape. Today, ramen shops are rapidly taking over the restaurant scene of large cities across the world. The next big thing to come out of Japan is the izakaya. Izakaya is spelled 居酒屋 in Japanese which translates to sake shop where you can settle yourself….
Live food tastes better in Japan
The first time I ordered odori ebi, dancing shrimp, in a Japanese restaurant, I was not too sure what to expect. The order came as four pieces of sushi topped with prawns that whipped their tails like they were trying to swim away. This had not been the first time I had dealt with freshly…
Making foreign foods Japanese
During its two hundred years of isolation, Japan pursued a policy that attempted to prevent foreign political and cultural ideas to penetrate the country. The goal was foremost to thwart the growing influence of the Catholic church by effectively cutting Japan off from the rest of the world. The law stated that the Japanese leaving the…
