Job Discussion Forums

[jademonkey]

I used to teach this maniacally nationalistic old hag of a woman who insisted (amongst other things) that
* Japanese chocolate is cleaner (ie, bug free) than all other chocolate
* Japanese people are just better
* Japan invented most things that in reality came from China
* Chinese, Koreans are inferior and don't dare mention any scientific/historic truths that refute that

[6810]

As for the rice thing...

I wonder how many foreigners have started eating rice for the first time as a steady part of their diet in Japan?

I've eaten rice forever and have to say, that the sheer diversity of strains of rice as well as grades among these varieties.

So when someone says "J rice is tastier than x Rice" seriously, are they that up to speed on rice?

[cornishmuppet]

Maybe vaguely related, but I'm not sure...

I'm currently in Sendai, which is apparently 'famous' for 'gyutan', or cow ue. I innocently asked my girlfriend what they did with the rest of the cow, and she thought I was taking the pis s. As far as I can see, they either import lots and lots of cow tongues from other parts of the country (or overseas), or there are a lot of mute cows about. I certainly didn't hear any. So it kind of seems strange to claim beef tongue 'fame' when in all likelihood its not from here at all...

Kind of like Nagano, where I live, which is famous for soba, the wheat for which, so I'm told, is imported mostly from Australia.

Not that I care particularly, or course, I just find it kind of funny really.

[J.]

What's more Japanese than (Sanuki) Udon?

Weeel, the local story is that Kobodaishi brought back the idea of making wheat dumplings from China along with the language. He supervised a large group of local farmers in digging a large pond, (Manno Pond) to act as a resevoir for the whole area due to the hot summers. Now that they had plenty of water, sardines in the Seto Inland Sea for the dashi ,and I guess wheat, they decide to make soup, and Kobo Daishi taught them to make "Woo-don", which he had learned in China. Originally dumplings, the Japanese adaptation was to make them into long noodles and put the filling on the outside, ie in/on the soup. Presto, Change-o -- Japanese Udon.

In my experience rice is about as good as it's freshness. The reason rice is often better here than from the supermarket in North America has more to do with the turnover than any special superiority of origin. Rice cookers don't hurt either.