Are Japanese fussy eaters ?

[Maciamo]

As everyone knows, Japanese love eating. Food and cooking is taken seriously in Japan, and I dare say more than in any Western country. Have a look at Japanese TV; It's hard to zap through the 7 free chanels at any time of the day without stumbling on a cooking, restaurant testing (or tasting ) or culinary travel program. Japanese even advertise overseas destinations, not by praising its historical or natural attractions, but its food (and massage parlours ).

But digging a bit deeper into Japanese lifestyle, one realizes that Japanese are in fact fussy eaters. It is rather ironical because most of them take some pleasure at asking foreigners whether they can eat natto, sushi or umeboshi (usually these three - what lack of creativity, confronted to hundreds of Japanese dishes ). But once you ask them whether they can eat lamb, rabbit, turkey, ostrich or kangaroo, they suddenly change face and reply : "oh, we Japanese don't eat that kind of meat". You could always remind your interlocutor that "lamb" is consumed frequently in some Hokkaido specialities, such as the so-called "Genghis Khan". But no point in arguing, as they are mostly right; you won't find easily these kinds of meat in Japan (even in Tokyo's most cosmopolitan areas).

Basically, Japanese love meat, as long as it is restricted to beef, pork and chicken (and of course fish an seafood). It's extremely difficult to find the other above mentioned meat in Japanese supermarkets.

But that is not all. Have you tried asking Japanese whether they can eat snails, frogs or fried insects ? Few are the ones to like them, even though fried grasshoppers are a speciality of some parts of Kyushu (along with horse-meat, which I had forgotten to mention above).

Even when it comes to beef or pork, Japanese noramally don't eat offals. They'd be reluctant to eat Italian specialities like "trippe alla fiorentina" ("Florence-style bowels") or traditional British food such as haggis or kidney pie. Japanese also very rarely eat sausages, and I have never seen anything like "black pudding" ("Blutwurst" in German, "boudin" in French) in Japan. Does the idea of eating meat mixed in blood revulse them ? An odd exception is that Japanese seem to enjoy fried "beef tongue" (牛タン "gyuutan"), a dish that didn't appear before the 1940's when a cook first got the idea in Sendai, as times were harsh are meat was scarce.

Compared to their Asian neighbours, especially the Chinese, Japanese are fussy eaters. While Cantonese notoriously eat everything that moves, you will never have a Japanese feast of live scorpions or dog-meat (I admit some reticence myself).

Chinese aren't the only ones to enjoy dog-meat. Koreans, Vietnamese, Laotians, Thai and Indonesians also do. I've have seen (and tried) various fried insects (including cockroaches) in the streets of Bangkok, but the mere sound of the word cockroach is enough to disgust the average Japanese from eating anything.

Meat isn't the only weak point of Japanese. Interestingly, they do not eat a lot of fruits either. This case is a bit different, as it isn't that they can't eat fruits, but quite a few Japanese don't like them so much, except a few favorites such as bananas, "mikan" (mandarines) or melons. I've been told that "unlike us Japanese, Westerners like fruits".

Fruits are very expensive in Japan, particularily so in big cities, where you'll find apples sold 500 yen a piece or the famous 10.000yen melons.

[Jean-Francois]

Good for the Japanese. They leave out all the disgusting stuff!

[mdchachi]

Your point is true -- they are fussy compared to Asian neighbors but certainly not compared to most westerners. Especially Americans. As we'd be reticent to eat most of the stuff you mentioned as well.

[mad pierrot]

I read some of your other writings, Maciamo, and I must say you present a valid perspective. I recently read a publication addressing a similar issue.

"It is rather ironical because most of them take some pleasure at asking foreigners whether they can eat natto, sushi or umeboshi "

-Have you ever had a Japanese person ask you questions like this until you answer "NO?" For example, "Can you sit Japanese style? " (seiza)
It's funny, Japanese are always disappointed when I say "Yes." I did, in fact, have one woman keep coming back and asking me questions. Since I've answered all her questions positively, she doesn't talk to me anymore.....



I'm always amazed at the questions I'm asked or statements I hear about America, too. Many teachers I know seem to get all knowledge about the U.S. from TV or McDonald's.
-All American LOVE hamburgers.
-CocaCola is America's traditional drink. (Coke does 80% of it's sales outside the U.S.)
-You can drive from New York to Chicago in 2 hours.
-All Americans live in places like Beverly Hills, 90210.
-"True" Americans are all white. (For example, I was talking about a friend of mine living in Chicago, J. Gonzalez, and the teacher told me he "wasn't really American.")
-The list goes on and on......

Go look in a Japanese travel agency, too. The ONLY places you find on tours are NY, Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and maybe San Frisco. I don't even bother trying to explain about people I know getting arrested protesting government actions. People just think I'm making it up.


Whew! What a rant! Of course, Americans themselves are in a league of their own in many ways.....

[mad pierrot]

That was wa-a-a-a-a-y off-topic. Whoops!

[kirei_na_me]

Wowwwwwww...I guess we have been around a completely different kind of Japanese people. All the Japanese people I know and have ever known are not picky at all. In fact, they will eat anything with gusto.

In fact, I was amazed at how versatile they were. A lot of my Japanese friends, who have been around my father and my uncles who are really into deer, boar, and other wild game, will eat anything they give them.

I think mdchachi is definitely right when he says they might seem picky compared to other Asians, but they are extremely open-minded compared to the average American.

The only things I have known any of them to be picky about is maybe strong-smelling cheese.

The only thing my husband will not eat is bee larvae. I was so amazed by what all he would eat, I told him to tell me what he would not eat, and he said bee larvae. Other than that, he'll eat anything.

[mdchachi]

> Other than that, he'll eat anything.

Actually I think I'm less picky than my wife. Although I don't care for a lot of the things she likes such as beef tongue, deer/horse sashimi, motsu (intestine), nankotsu (chicken cartilage) I will try them and eat them when they're in front of me. There are things that she just won't eat that I will. Examples are frog legs and bleu cheese. Another one is white asparagus. Also American cakes, especially the ones with the gritty/98% sugar frosting.

[mdchachi]

I didn't know "ironical" was a word until just now. I thought it was a cute mistake, but it's listed as a variant at m-w.com. Do they use this in Britain?

[kirei_na_me]

Originally Posted by mdchachi

> Other than that, he'll eat anything.

Actually I think I'm less picky than my wife. Although I don't care for a lot of the things she likes such as beef tongue, deer/horse sashimi, motsu (intestine), nankotsu (chicken cartilage) I will try them and eat them when they're in front of me. There are things that she just won't eat that I will. Examples are frog legs and bleu cheese. Another one is white asparagus. Also American cakes, especially the ones with the gritty/98% sugar frosting.

Right! Cakes. My husband will leave the icing on a cake. He can't eat anything really sweeeeeeet. Also, that chicken thing. I had never seen a chicken bone so clean before! Cartilage and all was gone. I think a lot has to do with not wanting to waste anything. The Japanese(the older ones, anyway) are taught not to waste anything. I used to get so frustrated because I would never have any leftovers from dinner. My husband thought he had to eat everything. It's amazing how they stay so thin. Well, it's amazing how my husband manages to stay so thin, because he eats like a madman and he eats everything. He can eat more than my father, and that's saying something.

[Maciamo]

Originally Posted by mdchachi

I didn't know "ironical" was a word until just now. I thought it was a cute mistake, but it's listed as a variant at m-w.com. Do they use this in Britain?

Ironic or ironical, who cares. Both are listed in my Oxford dictionary and even my English-Japanese list both with actually more example sentences using "ironical". Apparenly both are used in any variety of English (including US).

[Maciamo]

[QUOTE=kirei_na_me]Wowwwwwww...I guess we have been around a completely different kind of Japanese people. All the Japanese people I know and have ever known are not picky at all. In fact, they will eat anything with gusto.[quote]

People living outside their native country are almost always more open-minded.

A lot of my Japanese friends, who have been around my father and my uncles who are really into deer, boar, and other wild game, will eat anything they give them.

I didn't mention deer and boar because Japanese also eat them, though extremely rarely due to its cost and unavailability (hunting is prohibited in Japan, if I am not wrong).

I think mdchachi is definitely right when he says they might seem picky compared to other Asians, but they are extremely open-minded compared to the average American.

Well, I won't say that all Europeans would eat everything I listed, but I don't know so many people who wouldn't eat at least the European dishes (except vegetarians ).

The only things I have known any of them to be picky about is maybe strong-smelling cheese.

Among people I know in Japan, most elderly people dislike cheese (except almost tasteless ones like mozarrella). My wife's grandmother wouldn't even eat most Western food, including pasta. But elder people worldwide are more often than not very picky for food they haven't been used to in their youth. Let us not include them at all in our comparisons.

[mdchachi]

Originally Posted by Maciamo

Ironic or ironical, who cares. Both are listed in my Oxford dictionary and even my English-Japanese list both with actually more example sentences using "ironical". Apparenly both are used in any variety of English (including US).

Who cares?

It's ironical that you would say this. You are the one who lists the most minute differences in language in and culture and write long posts about it. I'm curious because I've never heard this before. I care.

Judging from a search at news.google.com, "ironical" is most commonly used in India and S. Africa. Just a couple of references in the U.S. and UK.

[kirei_na_me]

Going with my husband to France was interesting. He would eat plenty of escargot, but we had an interesting experience in Les C駘饕riti駸 in Hotel Nikko de Paris with bleu cheese. He thought he was going to be brave and try the bleu cheese, but let's just say it didn't work so well. I quickly got it away from him and replaced it with some brie.

[mdchachi]

> unavailability (hunting is prohibited in Japan, if I am not wrong).

No, hunting is allowed. My father-in-law goes hunting frequently. Usually for quail but he hunts deer and other game as well. However the training and licensing to get a gun (shotgun) is long and expensive. Everybody in your family must sign off on it. If somebody doesn't want you to have a gun, you can't have it. Also you must present your gun(s) yearly to show that you still own them. And to keep your gun & license, you actually have to use it every year. (Kind of like how you have to fly so many hours to keep a pilot's license.)

I've never been hunting but I can go right now and buy a gun if I wanted to. Yet my father-in-law lives in a country with some of the strictest gun laws anywhere and he owns a gun and hunts. Don't you find that ironical?

[mad pierrot]

I live in Wakayama, and people hunt boar around here. They even shoot monkeys, there is a ichi-man bounty on them. (But they don't eat the monkeys...)



Back to the topic: Most of my Japanese friends will try anything. Then again, I'm sure some of them are just being polite when they tell me they like certain things. (Like my cooking...)

[Buntaro]

What does one do with a dead mnkey...?

[mad pierrot]

Collect the reward!!! (Monkeys are hurtin the mikan industry.)

[cacawate]

Oh man, Rootbeer. The Japanese aren't the biggest fans in the world of it; most tell me it's tastes like medicine to them. I also had my friend try Mexican candy and he made the most messed up faces I've ever seen on a human being. Suffice to say, he didn't like that much either.

-Jeff

[Soren]

Originally Posted by mdchachi

I didn't know "ironical" was a word until just now. I thought it was a cute mistake, but it's listed as a variant at m-w.com. Do they use this in Britain?

I hear it from time to time here, but "ironic" is overwhelmingly more common (at least in my part of the UK).

[RinniGal]

man, if i moved to japan, i'd have root beer shipped to me, cause it's the only soda i drink

[Snake Plissken]

I love mandarin oranges. Those are so small, sugary, and flavor packed. Plus sushi is awesome.

[Jason_Can]

I totaly misread the topic of this post