Japanese restaurants in North America (2014, purchasing, eat)
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Having visited Tokyo and Osaka numerous times, sushi and sashimi is popular there. They have restaurants dedicated to serving only sushi (and some places only serve tempura, etc) Sashimi is usually eaten as the first dish in many restaurants.
Similar to here in the US, only with much smaller portions.
When I travel to Japan, I always have breakfast at a Japanese McDonald's (I know, not a good example) for convenience (close to my hotel and the subway station) and the portions are probably 25-35% smaller than a McDonald's here. I usually have the Filet-O-Fish (yes, they serve it for breakfast in Japan) and I have to eat two of them.
I have eaten at a TGIF and a couple of other American Burger places in Tokyo also.
Not really Japan, but I know in Seoul American family restaurants such as TGI's are considered fancy.
Young couples all doll up to go on a date there. And admittedly, the TGI food over there is way better than the ones over here.
Koreans actually get shocked when they learn that TGI is considered tacky in the US.
Not really Japan, but I know in Seoul American family restaurants such as TGI's are considered fancy.
Young couples all doll up to go on a date there. And admittedly, the TGI food over there is way better than the ones over here.
Koreans actually get shocked when they learn that TGI is considered tacky in the US.
Pizza Hut is considered high-class here, and same deal, when i tell them it's cheapo, lowest common denominator pizza in the US, they're shocked. KFC, McD's and BK aren't considered posh but they are higher-end.
In most major coastal areas, if you're going to go for sushi, then you generally go to a sushi restaurant. Especially among millennials, most people are aware of udon, ramen, tempura, etc, and will go to a Japanese restaurant for these dishes, first and foremost, rather than to get sushi. These restaurants generally do have sushi on the menu but they're more meant to be appetizers or small side nibbles instead of an actual meal.
Sushi is certainly popular in Japan as others have chimed in... go into any Family Mart or 7-11 and they have it prepacked in the ready-to-go meal cooler. It's not thought of as a meal, just a snack.
As far as its popularity in the US, it started to become popular in the 80's at a time when America was increasingly fascinated with Japan and its meteoric economic rise. As a food, the idea of little pieces of raw fish wrapped in rice and seaweed was about as foreign and exotic as one could imagine, and the people who started opening up sushi restaurants started pushing the "Master Sushi Chef" thing really, really hard, making it seem like good sushi could only be made by a learned, aging ninja who had dedicated his life to making little rolls of, well, raw fish, rice, and seaweed. It played into an unfolding narrative of Japan and the Japanese as being an enigma of powerful focus and mind-boggling tradition. It blew up in LA and then NYC during the 80's, spread to the rest of urban America, became a cliche by the early 90's, and then picked up again during the 00's and is more common than ever. You now have two generations of people who grew up with sushi being an established culinary genre and it's no longer thought of as "weird" or even particularly "exotic." Hell, I remember stopping at a "sushi bar" in Oklahoma City... the owners were a white couple, the husband was a nice enough guy but seemed like he was one of those self-taught 5th-dan judo masters... the sushi wasn't horrific or anything, but the rice wasn't sticky and none of the items used rice vinegar, sesame, etc.
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Originally Posted by boticelli
Chinese food (greesy chicken and fried noodles in a paper box as you see in American movies) is very un-chinese - the Chinese never eat like that
Nope, never, not at all... it's served in a little styrofoam box instead But chicken and noodles pan-seared in oil is a pretty common dish. Most noodle shops sell it, you see street vendors hawking it off the back of their motortrikes... it's just fast food, and some of it is greasier than others. I've honestly found that while in general Chinese food in China is better tasting (big shock), you can still find most authentic staple dishes available at any Chinese-owned Chinese restaurant in the US. I think that the attitude that "real" Chinese food can't be found in the US is overblown.
Orange chicken is totally Chinese-American and can't be found here, and so is the "duck sauce" you find in the US, though plum sauce is similar. Sweet and sour pork is a real Cantonese dish and fairly easy to find in Guangzhou, which seems to shock people as it's become a truism that any Chinese dish in the US can't possibly really be Chinese.. It's more popular in the West than in China but it's still Chinese. Ma po tofu is also a real Chinese dish that you generally see in nicer restaurants versus street joints. Mongolian beef as popularized by Panda Express and PF Chang's, doesn't exist in China per se nor is it Mongolian, but sliced beef that's been seared in hoisin sauce with onions is plenty common. It's always funny to me when I go out with my Chinese coworkers and they ask, "do you know what this is? It is called... hot and sour soup!" or "this is called a won ton, it is like a... dumpling!"
I think that one of the major differences in American Chinese and Chinese-Chinese food is that Chinese food in China uses more bitter and sour flavors, which are unpalatable to many Westerners. Americans tend to favor bold flavors that are either savory, salty, or sweet, and so there's often more garlic, soy sauce, pepper, etc in the American variations than the more delicately-spiced Chinese versions. I'm certainly guilty of liking my flavors bold, but it's easy to appreciate the richness of real Chinese cooking and as long as you live near an urban center with a Chinese immigrant population in the US, you can get fairly close approximations.
Pizza Hut is considered high-class here, and same deal, when i tell them it's cheapo, lowest common denominator pizza in the US, they're shocked. KFC, McD's and BK aren't considered posh but they are higher-end.
Same in Seoul . Thought I did not go to Pizza Hut I did go to a dominos once you looking at like $30 for a top of the range pizza!
Same in Seoul . Thought I did not go to Pizza Hut I did go to a dominos once you looking at like $30 for a top of the range pizza!
Yeah, it's pretty similar here. You can get a small pizza - which is really, really small - for about 40 yuan which is like $7.50-8, but if you plan on getting a large specialty pizza to split with your friends it can cost in the $20-30 range. I went there on a date (yes, really - it was her idea ) and I think we ended up spending about 90 yuan, which is like $14.
Asian pizzas tend to be a lot more intense than American ones, though... or at least, they can be... I mean, do a google image search for "Asian Pizza," some of those things are nutty. They have breakaway crusts formed into little bowls that have prawns and butter in them and stuff like that. Makes sense some of them are so expensive!
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But chicken and noodles pan-seared in oil is a pretty common dish. Most noodle shops sell it, you see street vendors hawking it off the back of their motortrikes... it's just fast food, and some of it is greasier than others. I've honestly found that while in general Chinese food in China is better tasting (big shock), you can still find most authentic staple dishes available at any Chinese-owned Chinese restaurant in the US. I think that the attitude that "real" Chinese food can't be found in the US is overblown.
) and I think we ended up spending about 90 yuan, which is like $14.
