![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lostinanime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Soup-Currythumb.jpg?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss\")
<\/a>\nThe Japanese themselves have certainly become quite sophisticated foodies, but it wasn\u2019t always that way. Not only is this an island, but one that\u2019s been isolationist for almost all of its history. With the country cut off from the world, not only did the populace have no exposure to non-Japanese food, they were limited by what ingredients they could source. The easiest (though not foolproof) way to tell if a food item is native is whether it has a Kanji name or not, though some things did sneak their way in through China and Korea.<\/p>\n
What people today (including the Japanese) think of as the most iconic Japanese dishes are not, in fact, always Japanese in origin. Tonkatsu was brought here by the French. Tempura has its roots in Portugal (the European country – along with Holland – with the longest and richest history of interaction with Japan). The Japanese never ate salmon (including sushi and sashimi) before Europeans brought it here. And ramen, one of Japan\u2019s most popular exports, emigrated here from China (but nevertheless has no kanji).<\/p>\n
Contrary to widely-held Western myth, cows and associated food products are not European imports. They\u2019ve been known here since the 2nd Century AD after being introduced from China. But the eating of meat has been discouraged for much of the intervening two millennia, after Emperor Tenmu – a devout Buddhist – issued a decree against the consumption of most domestic animals in 675. This created an \u201cuntouchable\u201d castee associated with the butchering of animals and tanning of hides, but some meat consumption always persisted (especially in the mountains of the north). It was indeed the opening of Japan after the Black Ships that saw the eating of meat become widespread at last – both because of cultural influences and more availability of meat products to the common people.<\/p>\n Broadly, food here is grouped into two categories. Washoku<\/em> is Japanese food, and Youshoku<\/em> is \u201cforeign\u201d. But there are a lot of fuzzy definitions of that these days, as the Japanese put their spin on foreign cuisines like curry and pizza. Hell, there were no sushi rolls in Japan before foreign tastes exerted their influence. There\u2019s a whole subset of \u201cJapanese Chinese\u201d for example, which is nothing like the various Chinese cuisines I knew before I came here (which may not have been \u201cauthentic\u201d, but I did like in the Bay Area, which probably gets as close as anywhere in North America if you\u2019re selective).<\/p>\n Ramen certainly represents one of Japan\u2019s biggest food exports, origins aside. From hipsters in San Francisco to shopping malls in Kansas and markets in Hamburg, ramen is now eponymous worldwide. I love it but limit my intake because it\u2019s just hard on the system. Japan\u2019s #1 food export, though, is inarguably sushi<\/a> (it trailed only pizza in that Picky Eater survey for most popular dish). Unlike ramen sushi is actually pretty healthy if you don\u2019t go nuts on the shoyu and limit intake of fatty fish (mercury). You can get great sushi in any major city in the world now, if you can afford it. The biggest difference being in Japan is that you can get good sushi cheap here, and in the States at least cheap sushi was generally a dismal proposition.<\/p>\n For this piece, Nicc asked me to talk about my favorite food and drink moments from any medium, not just anime. And two came to mind immediately for me, both from American film. One is Sideways<\/em>, where the character played by Paul Giamatti has a bottle of legendary French wine (1961 Cheval Blanc, from Bordeaux) which he obsesses for the entire movie about finding the \u201cperfect moment<\/a>\u201d to open. The other is Big Night<\/em>, Stanley Tucci\u2019s film about two Italian-American brothers (played brilliantly by himself and Tony Shaloub) trying to open a restaurant together. The whole film is a celebration of food and cooking, but the moment that most stands out for me is Tucci\u2019s character (the front-of-house brother, not the chef) making an omelette<\/a> in an extended single take without dialogue.<\/p>\n The post LiA Bespoke Project: Itadakimasu! – Japan’s Food Culture<\/a> appeared first on Lost in Anime<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Food is life, so they say – it\u2019s both sustenance and pleasure, a necessity and a luxury. Read more <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The post LiA Bespoke Project: Itadakimasu! \u2013 Japan\u2019s Food Culture<\/a> appeared first on Lost in Anime<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[61,122,127,129,124,128,125,132,131,133,126,130,123,66,94,88,97,56,64,65,60,112,40,75,95,104,33,120,105,101,98,115,30,29,41,86,70,69,68,72,71,26,118,108,87,46,55,48,52,54,51,50,83,62,58,57,36793,109,35,59,63,85,79,82,96,80,27,81,114,44,42,43,45,38,39,110,117,100,111,116,73,89,90,92,91,93,84,78,37,102,34,36,77,67,74,99,113,119,28,121,32,47,49,53,103,31,76],"class_list":["post-155049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime","tag-airpods","tag-anime","tag-anime-characters","tag-anime-cosplay","tag-anime-edits","tag-anime-merchandise","tag-anime-movies","tag-anime-news","tag-anime-recommendations","tag-anime-reviews","tag-anime-series","tag-anime-streaming","tag-animes","tag-app-store","tag-app-store-samsung","tag-appgallery","tag-appgallery-oneplus","tag-apple","tag-apple-music","tag-apple-tv","tag-apple-watch","tag-bbc-sport","tag-best-mobile-games","tag-bixby","tag-bixby-xiaomi","tag-champions-league","tag-cyberpunk","tag-cyberpunk-2077","tag-fantasy-football","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-formula-1","tag-fortnite","tag-free-fire","tag-free-mobile-games","tag-freebuds-pro","tag-galaxy-a52","tag-galaxy-note-20","tag-galaxy-s21","tag-galaxy-watch-4","tag-galaxy-z-fold-3","tag-game","tag-games","tag-golf","tag-harmonyos","tag-how-to-backup-iphone","tag-how-to-factory-reset-iphone","tag-how-to-reset-iphone","tag-how-to-restore-iphone","tag-how-to-unlock-iphone","tag-how-to-unlock-iphone-5","tag-how-to-unlock-iphone-6","tag-huawei","tag-ios","tag-ipad","tag-iphone","tag-japanese-culture","tag-live-soccer","tag-lol","tag-macbook","tag-macos","tag-mate-40-pro","tag-mi-11-lite","tag-mi-home-security-camera-basic-1080p","tag-mi-home-security-camera-basic-1080p-huawei","tag-mi-smart-band-6","tag-minecraft","tag-miui","tag-mlb-scores","tag-mobile-game-design","tag-mobile-game-development","tag-mobile-game-marketing","tag-mobile-game-monetization","tag-mobile-games","tag-mobile-gaming","tag-nba-scores","tag-nba-standings","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-scores","tag-nhl-scores","tag-one-ui","tag-oneplus","tag-oneplus-9-pro","tag-oneplus-buds-pro","tag-oneplus-nord-ce-5g","tag-oxygenos","tag-p40-pro-plus","tag-poco-x3-pro","tag-pokemon","tag-premier-league","tag-pubg","tag-pubg-mobile","tag-redmi-note-10-pro","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-pay","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-steam","tag-steeam","tag-top-10-anime","tag-valorant","tag-when-do-the-iphone-7-come-out","tag-when-does-the-iphone-7-come-out","tag-when-is-the-iphone-7-coming-out","tag-world-cup","tag-xbox-series-x","tag-xiaomi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155049"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155270,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155049\/revisions\/155270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nOne very important aspect of Japan\u2019s food culture is kyoudo ryouri<\/em> (\u90f7\u571f\u6599\u7406), the regional specialty. Japanese are obsessive about regional identity, something that asserts itself in a myriad of cultural elements (like dialects). Every prefecture, city, and even decent-size town will have local specialties they proudly try to hawk to tourists. Most everyone knows about Osaka and takoyaki or Kobe beef, but those are only the tip of the iceberg. Hokkaido is my personal favorite in this respect, featuring not just the nation\u2019s best produce, dairy, and seafood but Sapporo specialties like soup curry<\/a> and Sapporo miso ramen.<\/p>\n<\/a>Of course, Japan also possesses a rich and diverse history of distilling and brewing alcoholic beverages. Sake alone could be the subject of many bespoke articles, so ingrained in Japanese history and society is it. There\u2019a also shochu of course, and the 20th Century saw the country venture into whisky and beer. Taketsuru Masakata is regarded as the father of Japan\u2019s whisky industry (I pass by the distillery which bears his name every day on the train). He came from a family important in sake since the 1730s, but went to Scotland to study whisky distillation and would go on to found what is today one of the world\u2019s richest and most revered whisky industries.<\/p>\n<\/a>There are many others I could point to. The mama-san making corn tempura in Still Walking<\/em>. All of My Dinner With Andre<\/em> (though it\u2019s not really about the food). Mr. Creosote<\/a> from Monty Python\u2019s Meaning of Life<\/em> (which also features \u201cThe Salmon Mousse\u201d). You have to give a shout-out to Dungeon Meshi<\/em> just for sheer creativity. “Eat a Duck I Must?”<\/a> from Shinryaku Ika Musume<\/em>. The Ramen Jiro episodes of both Space Dandy<\/em><\/a> and BokuYaba<\/em><\/a>. Food is life, so they say – it\u2019s both sustenance and pleasure, a necessity and a luxury. As such it\u2019s hardly surprising that it\u2019s such a big part of not just Japanese fiction, but every medium in every language.<\/p>\n<\/a>
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