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Rakuten
Joined: 14 Jun 2010
Posts: 67
Location: Japan
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 Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Bread wrote: |
| Rakuten wrote: |
| Japanese people always were asking me what my favourite food was, and my reply was the same most every time, and it seemed like it was always met with amusement. |
I get the same thing, and I think the reason is largely that it's considered kind of a "childish" food to have as a favorite. A lot of kids will say curry rice is their favorite food. Kind of like an adult in the US saying their favorite food is macaroni and cheese.
That, and they were probably expecting you to say "hamburgers." 
Just as an aside, I have met a LOT of Japanese people (I'd say it's close to 100% of them) who think that Japanese-style curry rice is a foreign food (from India, of course) and that it exists all over the world. I really wish that it did. |
Haha, yeah I figured that to be the case. I think I remember reading somewhere that it was somewhat considered to be a "kiddie" food.
I too have heard from Japanese people that many consider it a "foreign" food- at least not authentic Japanese food. But, their style of curry is very different and while it may be based originally around Indian curry, there is a distinct difference between Japanese vs. Indian curry.
When pressed for more "authentic" Japanese foods I liked- I always had to go with Japanese style ramen being my other absolute favourite (there is NOTHING like a big, hot bowl of spicy flavourful Kansai ramen!!).
This too is technically not authentic Japanese either, as it was originally Chinese. At that point I give up and usually just say "takoyaki" or something. (Takoyaki is pretty great too) |
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PO1
Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 136
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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@Rakuten: I ate curry rice pretty regularly too. The funny thing is that I never ate curry much before moving to Japan. I actually went to two different Indian places-one in Tokyo, one in Kyoto-and I quickly learned that Indian curry will obliterate your tongue. I knew that Japanese curry was rather mild by comparison, but I wasn't prepared to have a numb tongue from the spiciness of Indian curry.
Korean food also killed me many times. Please, please, for the love of everything holy, never eat Korean food and then drink tequila. WORST...IDEA...EVER!
I was always curious to try the Domino's pizza with squid and mayo and other such ingredients I prefer not to eat on a pizza...
So there's a Coco restaurant and a Coco convenience store?
Personally, I loved the TGI Friday's in Ueno. Only because I couldn't find anywhere else to have Western food with goofy drinks.  |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:43 pm Post subject: |
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| PO1 wrote: |
| I actually went to two different Indian places-one in Tokyo, one in Kyoto-and I quickly learned that Indian curry will obliterate your tongue. I knew that Japanese curry was rather mild by comparison, but I wasn't prepared to have a numb tongue from the spiciness of Indian curry. |
Wow! Didn't know there was only one type of Indian curry.
Or that Japan was a good place to learn about Indian cuisine, because I've yet to find any entirely authentic Indian cuisine here.
That's like saying, "I ate a mouthful of canned tuna once... I didn't like it. That's why I know that I don't like any fish."
In case you should ever end up in an Indian restaurant against your will in the future, I recommend you order a korma which is very mild and work your way up. And if you are not in the mood for and actual sauce, tandoori chicken is also safe.
I'm partial to bhajia, but this being Japan, it always comes as something more akin to tempura. It's not bad by any means, but it's not bhajia. But I'm happy now that I'm stocked up on basic Indian ingrediants from the UK. I can do some real Indian/Mauritian cooking for a while. If I'm feeling really generous, I might even debase myself to making diwali sweets for the staff at school. |
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PO1
Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 136
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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Well, there are different kinds of Japanese curry rice and I didn't specify which kind either. I didn't say I didn't like it either. I just said it was really spicy. That doesn't mean I didn't like it. I like spicy food even though it punishes me later.
That's like saying it's negative to say "I ate a mouthful of tuna and it was salty." Maybe I like salt?
I'm obviously ignorant to Indian cuisine. I didn't even know nan. The Indian waiter looked at me like I was an idiot. Which I am (when it comes to Indian food).
I'm not sure what authentic Indian food is supposed to taste like, so they could have served me anything and I wouldn't know the difference. It's the same when Japanese (or even Americans) say they like Italian food, when in actuality they've never eaten "authentic Italian" food. They've only had their country's version of it.  |
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David W
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 457
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:52 am Post subject: |
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| PO1 wrote: |
2. Gusto-Good family style place. They actually had a really good hamburger there at one point.
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And they still do. THE GUSTO KING BURGER. 1100 calories of goodness (with chips) for 600 yen. Completely made of win! |
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Apsara
Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 8:30 am Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
Wow! Didn't know there was only one type of Indian curry.
Or that Japan was a good place to learn about Indian cuisine, because I've yet to find any entirely authentic Indian cuisine here.
That's like saying, "I ate a mouthful of canned tuna once... I didn't like it. That's why I know that I don't like any fish."
In case you should ever end up in an Indian restaurant against your will in the future, I recommend you order a korma which is very mild and work your way up. And if you are not in the mood for and actual sauce, tandoori chicken is also safe.
I'm partial to bhajia, but this being Japan, it always comes as something more akin to tempura. It's not bad by any means, but it's not bhajia. But I'm happy now that I'm stocked up on basic Indian ingrediants from the UK. I can do some real Indian/Mauritian cooking for a while. If I'm feeling really generous, I might even debase myself to making diwali sweets for the staff at school. |
Completely agree that Indian curry comes in lots more levels of spiciness than tongue-burning, but where are you eating that you aren't finding authentic Indian food?
I have probably been to 30+ Indian restaurants all over Tokyo, and having made several lengthy trips to India I find the curries here to be quite authentic- they're almost always cooked by Indians, so it's hard to imagine there would be huge differences.
I often go with Pakistani or Indian friends, and haven't heard them mention a lack of authenticity- other than the bhajias, what did you find different? |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 10:53 am Post subject: |
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| Apsara wrote: |
I have probably been to 30+ Indian restaurants all over Tokyo, and having made several lengthy trips to India I find the curries here to be quite authentic- they're almost always cooked by Indians, so it's hard to imagine there would be huge differences.
I often go with Pakistani or Indian friends, and haven't heard them mention a lack of authenticity- other than the bhajias, what did you find different? |
I'm not in Tokyo where perhaps more authentic Indian cuisine is avaliable. With a lot of my mother's side of the family being Indian or Indian Mauritian, I was raised on Indian food and that most certainly isn't what I've been getting out here.
To name but a few issues:
Crazily sweetened naan.
Things listed as containing paneer but coming with some evil melted or cottage-type cheese instead.
Don't know what went into my sag aloo paratha but it certainly wasn't vegetarian when it came.
In fact there has always been a surprising lack of vegetarian options.
Taaka Dal has always been a safe option in my travels until I came here.
I most certainly would never take my nanni to the Pakistani (I'm assuming that's what they were since I couldn't understand them) run place we visited last weekend... she'd be kicking the cooks out of the kitchen. |
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Lyrajean
Joined: 19 Jul 2006
Posts: 109
Location: going to Okinawa
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Bread wrote: |
Just as an aside, I have met a LOT of Japanese people (I'd say it's close to 100% of them) who think that Japanese-style curry rice is a foreign food (from India, of course) and that it exists all over the world. I really wish that it did. |
It gets better. If you are from Vermont, try explaining that Bamonto kare is not from Vermont. That Vermont is not even particualrly well known for curry, nor well covered by indian restauranteurs. I do this one every year with my students...
That said, while authentic Indian curry is avaialble in okinawa alongside Japanese curry, I was very glad I explained to my Japanese date the other day that we were going to be eating Indian curry as opposed to the Japanese stuff as I got the impression he'd never had 'real' curry before, despite being fluent in English and well-traveled at least in America. |
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Bread
Joined: 24 May 2009
Posts: 318
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Lyrajean wrote: |
It gets better. If you are from Vermont, try explaining that Bamonto kare is not from Vermont. That Vermont is not even particualrly well known for curry, nor well covered by indian restauranteurs. I do this one every year with my students... |
Oh, I always figured that they didn't even know that Vermont was a place. I'd never even made a connection between Vermont Curry and the state of Vermont. A lot of Japanese people's minds are totally blown when they find out that Kentucky is the name of a state in the US and not the name of a chicken restaurant. (「ケンタッキーに行こう！」 「。。。飛行機で？」)
Try telling them about Baskin Robbins's name, too! Even though it says Baskin Robbins right on on the "31" sign, no one has ever read that part of the sign in the history of Japan. |
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PO1
Joined: 24 May 2010
Posts: 136
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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On the name thing, is Yoku-Benimaru a Western franchise? I really don't know. When I looked up the name, Yoku is actually katakana for "York." Just seems a strange name for a supermarket.
I always got a laugh when my girlfriend would say "Do you want to go to Kentucky (referring to KFC)?"
I would say, "Yes, let's get on a plane and fly to Kentucky." |
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Apsara
Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 11:41 pm Post subject: |
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| seklarwia wrote: |
I'm not in Tokyo where perhaps more authentic Indian cuisine is avaliable. With a lot of my mother's side of the family being Indian or Indian Mauritian, I was raised on Indian food and that most certainly isn't what I've been getting out here.
To name but a few issues:
Crazily sweetened naan.
Things listed as containing paneer but coming with some evil melted or cottage-type cheese instead.
Don't know what went into my sag aloo paratha but it certainly wasn't vegetarian when it came.
In fact there has always been a surprising lack of vegetarian options.
Taaka Dal has always been a safe option in my travels until I came here.
I most certainly would never take my nanni to the Pakistani (I'm assuming that's what they were since I couldn't understand them) run place we visited last weekend... she'd be kicking the cooks out of the kitchen. |
Naan here is sometimes but not always fluffier than you would get in India- Japanese people like "fuwa fuwa naan". I haven't noticed any sweet naan though.
I'm a fan of palak paneer and have only seen authentic paneer so far. Tokyo has a few wholly vegetarian Indian restaurants (the Nataraj chain is a good one), but most also serve curries with lamb or chicken in them- they don't usually mix ingredients though- if it's a vegetable curry it will be vegetarian, since there are lots of Indian people in Tokyo (mostly working in IT) and they want to keep their custom.
Is it Hindi that you understand? The Urdu that most Pakistanis speak is very similar to Hindi, enough so that my Pakistani friends have no problem understanding Hindi movies, so maybe those people weren't Pakistani if you didn't understand them. Possibly they were from South India and speaking Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada etc, or they could even have been Nepali. |
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seklarwia
Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano
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| Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| Apsara wrote: |
Naan here is sometimes but not always fluffier than you would get in India- Japanese people like "fuwa fuwa naan". I haven't noticed any sweet naan though.
I'm a fan of palak paneer and have only seen authentic paneer so far. Tokyo has a few wholly vegetarian Indian restaurants (the Nataraj chain is a good one), but most also serve curries with lamb or chicken in them- they don't usually mix ingredients though- if it's a vegetable curry it will be vegetarian, since there are lots of Indian people in Tokyo (mostly working in IT) and they want to keep their custom.
Is it Hindi that you understand? The Urdu that most Pakistanis speak is very similar to Hindi, enough so that my Pakistani friends have no problem understanding Hindi movies, so maybe those people weren't Pakistani if you didn't understand them. Possibly they were from South India and speaking Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada etc, or they could even have been Nepali. |
Even the other ALTs noticed how sweet the naan was last weekend. And yes, we've had fluffier naan in kyuushoku. If the reaction of my school is anything to go by, they should serve fluffy naan in the restaurants, too.
As I said, perhaps you have more authentic Indian food in Tokyo. Out here though where there are far fewer foreigners and even fewer that aren't Brazilian, Thai, Philippino or Korean, it is definately being aimed at more Japanese tastes. Same in the French and Italian restaurants here. Although if I'm around Tateshina again or when next I'm in Tokyo, I might check out Nataraj.
And no they weren't speaking Urdu either so I assumed they were speaking one of the other regional languages. Although I don't speak a fantastic deal of Gujarati, I would have understood at least a little of what they were saying. But you're right; I'm so used to understanding Indians that I forget how many languages are spoken there sometimes. I don't think they were from Nepal though. The place didn't even get a shout out at foreigners welcome meeting with the mayor last year. |
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Rakuten
Joined: 14 Jun 2010
Posts: 67
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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When I was last in Japan for school, there was an indian restuarant right near the school I would often go to with friends. The food was good but man...they did NOT know how to do spicy!
I love spicy food, and I mean really spicy food. Every single time I went there, I would be like...just max out the spice please. Make it as spicy as you can, please! And everytime, they would look at me and just laugh and be like "yeah yeah sure of course" and it was NEVER spicy enough! 
I guess maybe they were afraid to make things to spicy for the Japanese customers (which don't seem to be big on majorly spicy food). But, their Nann was fantastic. It wasn't sweet as far as I could tell, just tasted like regular nann. They had pretty amazing cheese/garlic naan too!
What I couldn't find any of- was authentic or at least halfway decent Mexican food! (I was in Kansai/Osaka area). I had some major cravings and I only ever found one Mexican restaurant in Namba (which was full and not accepting further reservations).  |
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natsume
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
Posts: 409
Location: Chongqing, China
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| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:42 am Post subject: |
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The best burger I have found in Tokyo/Japan (so far) is at the Hawaiian chain Kua Aina. They also do excellent sandwiches. Pricey, but worth it.
http://www.kua-aina.com/main.html |
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kotoko
Joined: 22 Jun 2010
Posts: 109
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| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 3:10 am Post subject: |
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1. Japanese curry does not deserve to use the name curry. It should be "Japanese brown stew" instead.
2. There is an awesome Indian curry place near me (Mie) that I go to when I feel homesick. The do have the sweetened naans that you (the guy who complained a few posts back) were on about (I like the honey naan myself) but the curry is the real deal. The two chefs are from Deli.
3. I went to welcome some new JETs the other week. I had to take a group of about 10 to lunch, none had had their first pay check yet and Italian seemed to be what most people wanted. "I know just the place", said I. "Cool, as long as it's not Saizeria, because all their Italian food is, like, totally Japan-isized".
Face palm. |
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