The reason why Japanese cuisine became so popular
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I thought this TV show uploaded on Youtube was so interesting, so wanted to share this on my blog. The show talks about the growing popularity of Japanese cuisine. You probably heard of Sushi, Tenpura, Sukiyaki..classic Japanese meals. Japanese food is appreciated all around the world. But why is it so popular? I honestly questioned that when I first moved to Los Angeles. There are so many Japanese restaurants there even though I have to admit that very few of them actually serve authentic Japanese food. I love California rolls, but they aren’t authentic sushi!
“EATING IS CONSIDERED A SHINTO (GOD) RITUAL, AND MEAL ITSELF IS CONSIDERED GOD” the TV show says..
According to the survey the website company (hotel.com) conducted, people around the world voted Japan as the third country, which has the most delicious local food. Of course Italy was voted number 1 and France was voted the second. In New York, Japanese food is so popular and you can actually eat Sushi in Chinese and Korean restaurants. The show explains the reason why Japanese food became extremely popular in America is not only because of the healthy ingredients and seasonings used in Japanese food but also being able to use chopsticks is considered “cool”.
Then it gets interesting. Japanese government applied to UNESCO to have its cuisine listed as a global heritage. Japanese food consists of rice, miso soup, fish and vegetables, and they are very balanced. However according to the government home statistics, the amount of money a single family spends on bread exceeded the amount spent on bread last year for the first time. and this shows how Japanese people have become disinterested in their own food.
Then the judges in the show made some interesting comments on this video, and one guy suggested that the authenticity of Japanese food is compromised in many Japanese restaurants which are actually run by Chinese and Koreans in America, so we should be able to impose some type of restrictions once UNESCO registered Japanese cuisine as a global heritage. I am sorry but that is just absurd. and many things said in this video are completely inaccurate based on my own experiences. I’ve lived in Southern California for a very long time, and yes Japanese food is very popular here, and it is also true that very few restaurants serve authentic Japanese dishes. Even Sushi just isn’t the same as the typical nigiri zushi that you find in Japan..the most popular kinds are california rolls, dragon rolls, philadelphia rolls etc etc..and even Udon isn’t the same. But unfortunately, the same thing applies to Chinese and Korean cuisines and people in American love unauthentic Asian food. It is nearly impossible to impose restrictions because if the restaurant serves only very specific types of authentic sushi with raw fish, people in America wouldn’t go to such places regularly and honestly there wouldn’t be enough business because people here don’t really care about “authenticity”, and I thought it was very ethnocentric for these old Japanese men to criticize Koreans and Chinese people for serving Sushi in America..well, there are demands for popular Japanese “rolls”..