WHY do you like Japanese food?

miz ducky · Post by **miz ducky** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:22 pm

This is obviously inspired by the WHAT Japanese Food Do You Like? thread.

I lived in Okinawa for 2 years. There was a Japanese exchange student at my friends house when I was in Jr. High. I live in Hawaii where many many people eat Japanese/Japanese inspired food.

No matter how much I eat, I never have liked very much Japanese food.
(I've even got the "You like Anime and you don't like Sushi?!" comment more than once.)

Yakisoba has always had a really greasy mouth feel, so I've never really liked that. Rice balls with hardly any thing in them taste salty to me. I've never liked seaweed. I've tried and tried to find a sushi that I like, but I've realized that the vinegar in the rice, to make the starches extra sticky, makes sushi completely unpalatable for me. I did eat a lot of curry when I lived in Okinawa (yay Coco's), and there was this little bity place called Hoka Hoka Tei that had really yummy bento's.

I found andagi in Hawaii (supposedly Okinawan doughnuts, but I couldn't find andagi at the festival I attended last Aug in Okinawa). Those are pretty good as long as they are still fresh. In Hawaii they even make a kind of "andagi-dog", which is pretty good too.

So having said all of that.

What about Japanese food tickles your taste buds?

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:10 am

For me it would have to be the unfamiliar tastes and smells Japanese foods have that my normal 'country American' diet would never have. I love trying new foods no matter how normal or strange they smell or taste! My favorites include:

Veggie/Shrimp Tempura - I love the soft, crispy texture the tempura batter gives the veggies and shrimp, even though it can be greasy due to being deep fried I still love it when everything is piping hot and fresh. Plus I absolutely LOVE the salty dipping sauce you eat with it!

Miso & Tofu Soup - I love the flavors of the soup with it's pieces of seaweed and tofu. I like their textures in my mouth.

Daifuku - I first ate one of these little desserts about 2 years ago and immediately fell in love with them. I love when you take the first bite you get powder all over your mouth and the slightly doughy texture just tastes pleasant to me (possibly due from eat bread dough when I was little, lol). I also love the asuki bean filling! Ichigo daifuku are my favorite!

Other than these and a few other Japanese foods such as yakisoba, snacks/junkfoods, ramune, etc. I haven't had much Japanese foods to try out. I wonder if it's hard to make authentic Japanese foods at home from scratch?

Post by **Kaona** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:36 am

Miz Ducky you live in the best place of all to experience great Japanese food outside of Japan! Or, I guess I should say the best modified Japanese food. Mochi, for example...do you like it? Hawaiians like to sweeten it up and add chocolate, vanilla, coconut flavors, but it was Japanese at some point. Mixed plates- 2 scoop rice, chicken or beef teri, mac salad - that is fairly Japanese. Spam musubi? It is sort of sushi with spam. Saimin at Hamura's and Jo-Jo's shave ice on Kauai? Does any of this sound yummy at all?

If not, don't feel bad, it just doesn't appeal you your taste buds. My mainland husband will never get used to rice every night instead of potatoes. I don't like fish, so I'd say 75% of Japanese food I avoid, and the other 25% I devour!

The best part about Japanese food is trying to figure out what you are about to eat, or what exactly what you've just eaten. My Obasama Abe always said, "If it is edible, Japanese will eat it, unless it's catfish."

miz ducky · Post by **miz ducky** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:48 am

You're right about the food in Hawaii. You can even get "McSaimin" at McDonalds. It's basically like a CupONoodles.

Basic fish, chicken, beef foods are fine with me. I ate a bite of my best friends "Black and Blue" Ahi (Basically cooked very quickly just on the outside tuna). I try most things.

One time we went to a all-you-can-eat place that had lots of cut up and chilled meats to choose from then you take the food back to your table and cook it over a fire grill in the middle. We cant read kanji so it was an interesting meal. One thing a friend grabbed was too chewy for normal meat, but it didn't taste like calamari. We tried to ask the guy at the door and he just said "beef" and rubbed his stomach. Yummy.

I don't like squishy texture foods. I gag on Jello. I tried butter mochi, but didn't like it very much. I'll try another one if it is offered someday.

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:08 pm

We had a japanese exchange student in high school who was grossed out that I was eating sushi. That was a real mind bender for me.

Eating strictly american food for almost 18 years, my palate was ready to try new things. Sushi is really healthy for you so it's probably as much a placebo effect in as much as it is the flavor. Although some placed make it REALLY delicious.

However there is some japanese food that I don't like: green tea ice cream, raw squid, tonkatsu.

Cooking for a couple high class restraunts, I'm always willing to try new and different things. Even if I know it's bad I'll still try it to know the flavor, maybe there was a different technique to making it that I WILL like, who knows?

And I can never pass up a good teriyaki bowl

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:09 pm

miz ducky wrote:You're right about the food in Hawaii. You can even get "McSaimin" at McDonalds. It's basically like a CupONoodles.

Next time I'm in hawaii, I'm going to eat some spam from McDonalds. Just so I can say I did

kittens · Post by **kittens** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:13 pm

Can I say..... obviously I am from Japan???

Kujaku · Post by **Kujaku** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:39 pm

I'm not saying I like all Japanese foods. But the ones that I do like is because I enjoy the taste of it. Unagi is delicious....

Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream is so unique with it's slightly sticky & gooey outside and light & cold green tea taste on the inside. The first time I actually ate it, I didn't like it, but the taste grew on me. It's not a flavor I can compare to any American Made Ice Cream I ever tasted.

Everyone has their preference in foods. My older brother likes a lot of sour tasting foods. My wife likes really hot tasting foods (her papaya salads are so hot I litterally tear up after the second bite, but that is my fault for wanting to eat hers when she always make a second batch that is not so hot for our girls and I). Whatever taste good to me is what I like. From Philly cheese steak sandwiches to hot beef & basil Thai Food, to Jerk Chicken at a Jamaican Stand, to Red Deer that I had in Montreal.

Just because you like anime doesn't mean you have to like sushi. That's just as dumb as my friend telling his date "what do you mean you don't like fish, you're asian!?!". When I heard that I almost died laughing

.

blueheaven · Post by **blueheaven** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:41 pm

I have always been a person who likes eating fish. So most Japanese food appeals to me. I also like noodles and rice. Most importantly, I love spicey foods. So Japanese food has it all for me.

duotrouble · Post by **duotrouble** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 1:16 am

I like Japanese food because it was the first food I was exposed to when I was a kid. Let me explain. I learned to eat with chopsticks before I learned to eat with a fork and I'm not Japanese.

I moved to Guam when I was one year old. When I first starting eating solid foods, I was eating rice, tempura, fish, stirfry, etc. So to me, it's not "new" food.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:49 am

right now, my favorite japanese food is the chicken-egg bowl at daikokuya in little tokyo, LA. there is something about the melted egg on hot sticky rice on a cold night... mmm...