What is the food like?

[Peterc]

Hi there,,
A quick query, whilst most of us have dined on Japanese food in restaurants accross the world, is this food much different to the stuff actually served up over there in Japan? I know chinese food there is much different to your local takeaway but what about Japanese food?

[synthia]

Sushi and most of the other Japanese foods we get in the US taste pretty much the same. There are a lot of things, though, that we never see in the US. Soups with stomach and intestines in them, for instance.

Some aberrations are not available. In Hawaii, for instance, you can get Spam nori (meat, wrapped in rice, wrapped in seaweed). That is definitely not available. California roll sushi, however, is available.

There are lots of things like little grilled octopi on a stick, green peppers with sea salt on a stick, and a lot of things I won't eat on a stick. There is an omelet sort of thing called okonomyaki, that has many regional versions, that I have never seen in the US.

[japanfan]

I have heard many times that the "Japanese food" sold at "Japanese restaurants" in the West are not really anything like actual Japanese food.

[larabell]

I don't think Japanese food in the US is anything like what you can get here. With a few rare exceptions, most Japanese restaurants I've been to, at least in California, are not run by Japanese. If you try hard enough, you can probably find similar quality food in Japan but, by and large, the restaurants here take great pride in their work and the competition is very stiff. Could be I've just been over here too long and have become somewhat of a snob but I generally stay away from Japanese restaurants in the States because I'm always disappointed.

One thing that you see here that you don't see in the States is a large number of specialty shops. A sushi restaurant, for example, would probably not have tempura or teriyaki on the menu. The very best restaurant in my neighborhood serves almost nothing but chicken. A soba (buckwheat noodles) shop will most likely serve soba, possibly udon (also noodles), and nothing else.

Then there are the isaka-ya (bars, basically) which generally have an overwhelming array of various sorts of foods -- all served in one- or two-person portions, the idea being that you order a few dozen of these small dishes while drinking with your buddies.

Of course, there are also family-style restaurants of various sorts. And fast-food places just like in the West. And just about every kind of ethnic restaurant you can imagine (at least in Tokyo and possibly Osaka).

Some of the stuff is challenging. I don't go into restaurants that list "stamina" as their main specialty ("stamina" is a kind-of bad translation for "guts"). Nor do I buy Oden (strange-looking objects floating in brown water) from the local 7-11 (I wouldn't by *anything* from 7-11 that wasn't commercially wrapped anyway). But that's what's cool about Japan -- you can ignore half the food and still never find time to try the rest ;-)...