Subject: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese (Was: Food and Identity)
> It's unfortunately easy for me to imagine a time down
> a few more generations when food might be all that's
> really constant among Nikkei communities ...
I think we're pretty much there right now!
But is food a unique and lasting base to build a community on?
Anybody can cook or eat Japanese food. "Japanese" restaurants are
increasingly operated by Chinese and Korean immigrants. The teriyaki
place down my street is run by a Vietnamese couple. I suppose it
could be argued that we still do it the best or "the right way".
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> Anybody can cook or eat Japanese food. "Japanese"
> restaurants are increasingly operated by Chinese
> and Korean immigrants. The teriyaki place down
> my street is run by a Vietnamese couple. I suppose
> it could be argued that we still do it the best or
> "the right way".
Yeah. Check out the restaurants in SF J-Town -- mostly all are Korean.
Interesting how successive generations of immigrants follow the same tracks ...
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> Anybody can cook or eat Japanese food. "Japanese"
> restaurants are increasingly operated by Chinese
> and Korean immigrants. The teriyaki place down
> my street is run by a Vietnamese couple. I suppose
> it could be argued that we still do it the best or
> "the right way".
Food maybe cultural, but it is certainly not a thing we should be possessive about.
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> Anybody can cook or eat Japanese food. "Japanese"
> restaurants are increasingly operated by Chinese
> and Korean immigrants. The teriyaki place down
> my street is run by a Vietnamese couple. I suppose
> it could be argued that we still do it the best or
> "the right way".
It's true -- because it's harder and harder to find Japanese
who want to work in restaurants, lots of Japanese restaurants now hire
non-Japanese, whether they're Caucasians, Koreans, Chinese or whatever.
My mom tends to look down on restaurants where she says something in
Japanese to a server and they don't understand her, and I struggle with
those feelings too. I realize anyone can cook Japanese food "correctly"
given training and experience ...
My office co-workers took me a few months ago to lunch at a
Benihana of Tokyo Restaurant
(for those who aren't familiar, it is the Japanese steakhouse chain
really helped to popularize Japanese food in the pre-sushi era by having
Japanese chefs who used flashy knife techniques on table-top grills)
and from the owner on down to servers and chefs, there wasn't a single
Japanese employee -- most were Hispanic! Still, the food tasted pretty
much the same as I remember from years ago, and the the place was packed.
And yesterday I met with one of the owners of a relatively new chain of
Japanese "fast food" restaurants (I know, Japanese "fast-food" is
an oxymoron) called Ginza Express. His business plan states that
the goal is to make Japanese food a modular, repeatable commodity that
won't need Japanese to cook or run as a business, making it a franchisable product.
He started in Arizona, is expanding into Utah and Florida. He happens to be a JA,
and he says the recipes are from his grandmother and mother. The food is OK,
though I wouldn't call it either gourmet or "authentic" (whatever that means).
Limited menu, of course.
So, the Taco Bell-ification of Japanese food is happening rapidly.
Is this good or bad?
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> The Taco Bell-ification of Japanese food is happening rapidly.
I have another story along the same line ... YOSHINOYA is a beef bowl fast
food chain restaurant from Japan where they are also prevalent. Besides
the Beef Bowl and the Chicken Bowl, they had just introduced a new
Tempura Bowl. So far the best Tempura Bowl we've had from a Yoshinoya
franchise is one in East Los Angeles where all three staffers in the
restaurant all spoke Spanish to each other! Other franchises closer to
populations of Japanese and Japanese Americans were very bad.
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> > Anybody can cook or eat Japanese food. "Japanese"
> > restaurants are increasingly operated by Chinese
> > and Korean immigrants.
>
> Yeah. Check out the restaurants in SF J-Town -- mostly
> all are Korean.
This might be a little controversial topic, but I am curious.
I have noticed more of Korean people entering into
Japanese based businesses such as restaurants, markets, and other areas.
Have you or others noticed this trend?
I think Yaohan is owned by Korean management.
How do you feel about this? I feel people have a right to do
as they want to, and they have a right to work where they want to.
But for me, I prefer to eat at a Japanese restaurant owned
by a Japanese person. I prefer to eat
at a Korean restaurant owned by a Korean person.
To me it's more authentic. What do you think?
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> I prefer to eat at a Japanese restaurant owned by
> a Japanese person. I prefer to eat at a Korean restaurant
> owned by a Korean person. To me it's more authentic.
I'm not sure if this is an obvious question or not, but...
What does the ethnicity of the restaurant "owner" have to do to
make it "more authentic"? You can always hire a Japanese-speaking
staff, or cooks who can prepare "authentic" Japanese (or whatever)
dishes... and one doesn't necessarily have to be "Japanese" to have
those skills, right?
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> What does the ethnicity of the restaurant "owner" have to
> do to make it "more authentic"? You can always hire a
> Japanese-speaking staff, or cooks who can prepare
> "authentic" Japanese (or whatever) dishes... and one
> doesn't necessarily have to be "Japanese" to have those
> skills, right?
So, you don't care whether the ethnicity of the people running
a restaurant is the same as the type of restaurant? I care about it.
I think people have a right to open up any restaurant they want to.
But I wouldn't want to eat at a Korean restaurant if a
Japanese person opened it. I would prefer to eat at a Korean owned Korean
restaurant. And vice versa. I know it's the Politically Correct thing to
say, "Who Cares?" about who owns it, but I think it's important.
But, I think anyone can open up any business they want to.
I don't mean to sound prejudiced or disrespectful to the Korean people.
I respect them. But to be honest, it feels like some Japanese people are
selling out their own businesses to Korean people. I feel like some
Japanese people should continue their business and not sell out just
for the money. I know this sounds racist on my part, but I just
wanted to express how I feel inside. Maybe I am uneducated.
Maybe I am just misinformed. Again, I feel people have the right
to open up the kind of business they want to.
And to the Korean people, they have a right to open up the kind of
business they want to. Again, these are just my inside thoughts.
What do you people think? By talking out my feelings, maybe I can
become more informed and understanding.
One more thing. Without being racist and disrespectful to the Korean
people, if the Japanese people are sellling out their businesses to anyone,
regardless of race, just on the basis of money, that is not good.
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> You don't care whether the ethnicity of the people
> running a restaurant is the same as the type of restaurant?
> I care about it.
Food and service are what matter to me. I think Koreans also
make a version of sushi which is a little different from Japanese style,
but tasty! I'll admit that I was shocked when I once went to a
Taiwanese-run Japanese restaurant, and was greeted by tanks of live fish
and shell fish (like you might see in Chinese restaurants, but not usually
Japanese). But I happily bought some takoyaki from a friendly Chinese
merchant in Tokyo.
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> It feels like some Japanese people are selling out their
> own businesses to Korean people. I feel like some
> Japanese people should continue their business and
> not sell out just for the money.
In many cases, these restaurants are opened de novo by Koreans
(Coreans) who learned how to prepare Japanese food during the
colonization of their country by Japan in the first half of the
20th century. Often the menu will feature both traditional
Korean (Corean) food and Japanese dishes. Koreans (Coreans)
were also forced to learn the Japanese language.
I once came across a military museum in Japan which displayed
an old map of Japan, which included Korea (Corea) and Taiwan.
GoldSea, an Asian American website, has an interesting page
about "Korea vs. Corea":
Korea or Corea?
http://goldsea.com/Air/Issues/Corea/corea.html
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> It feels like some Japanese people are selling out their
> own businesses to Korean people. I feel like some
> Japanese people should continue their business and
> not sell out just for the money.
I don't know about that.
I feel there's been a lot of "cross-Asian" interactions
for quite a while. My adopted mom sometimes gives me some Taiwanese
yokan, and I kind of like it... Also, is kim-chee, tofu, shoyu, and other
"Japanese" food "really" Japanese? And what would you do for a
Japanese-owned/managed restaurant with a Mexican cook, and a
Korean waitress? I sometimes buy my "Japanese" food from the
Chinese market, so am I "selling out"? And would it be better for me to
pay more money for the exact same product, and drive a longer distance
to get there? I sort of see it as capitalism and free enterprise at work...
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> Is kim-chee, tofu, shoyu, and other "Japanese" food
> "really" Japanese?
Kimchee is Korean (Corean). And the first record of a food made of
raw fish over vinegared rice (sushi) was in China.
Subject: Re: Japanese Food By Non-Japanese
> Is kim-chee, tofu, shoyu, and other "Japanese" food
> "really" Japanese?
Also add is curry really Japanese? And then if you eat the pizzas in Japan,
it certainly looks a lot different than pizza here in the States.
Of course, can you really call pizza in the U.S. a type of Italian food?
There must be a spectrum here, nothing is really black and white.
Last updated 23 April 2000