Food, Glorious Food!

Hello boys and girls,

This post was supposed to be published around Thanksgiving as a look into our lives around that time of food and togetherness. However, between some schedule changes, overtime, and general laziness I'm only getting around to it now. However, it is still chock full of fun facts, witicisms and is 100% fat-free!

Obviously one of the biggest differences between Canada and Japan is the food. Traditional meals in Japan consist of rice, fish, and miso soup. Morning, noon and night. Dinner might also include some pickled vegetables or some noodles, but otherwise that's it. However, since the days of European contact (when even the British complained the food was bland and boring) food has changed somewhat. The biggest difference can be found in the amount of junk food now consumed. Junk food not only includes things like Pocky, Foam, Fran and Carl (my favourites are cheesy and salty Carl!), but also dried salted fish, chocolate croutons, and green tea flavoured everything (my favourite being Hagaan Das Green tea and Kuromitsu (brown sugar) ice cream sandwich, mmmmmm).

Condiments and garnishes and other food accompaniments are also unique. A popular topping is mayo. It goes on everything; salad, eggs, cooked veggies, pizza, and the famous Osakan food, okinomiyaki (eggs and veggies and meat pancake). However, according to Carl's students, he was the only one to ever buy and like wasabi flavoured mayonnaise, although we might bring some home with us.

Right behind mayo in terms of popularity is kerneled corn. Sweet corn niblets go with everything too, especially pizza. One of the most popular pizza combos is seafood and corn, with mayo of course. Even if you specifically ask for it to be removed it comes with, because who doesn't like sweet, hot corn and cheese!

Corn salad is probably just as popular as cornflake salad. Both are mostly sold as bar snacks too. Yes, cornflakes make the perfect addition to everything from salad to yogurt to ice cream sundaes. And while you're at it, throw in some maple syrup too, for an extra special treat. For many of my students, Canada is the land of snow, Niagara Falls and maple syrup.

Along with the junk food habit, Japan has also acquired a few other bad habits. Bread here is big, fluffy, white chunks of sweet, soft, nutrition free goodness. I mean really big. A sandwich made from this bread could feed a family for a week. However, most sandwiches are made from paper thin slices of bread stuffed with corn, mayo, egg and fried meat of some sort, maybe with some seaweed added for extra flavour, and with the crusts cut off. There are even regional differences in bread; Osakans tend to like their toast soft in the center so they make the thickest bread. One loaf often contains only 5 or 6 slices.

White flour is everywhere here, in every form. Cream puffs, pastries, buns, buns filled mayo and noodles, buns filled with mayo and noodles and corn. The list goes on.

To counteract this glut of fiber-free flour, the traditional Japanese food natto is eaten. Natto is often foisted on foreigners here the way the Australian shove Vegemite at the unsuspecting. Only the brave and foolish walk down that path. Natto is fermented soybeans with the texture of sticky spiderwebs and the smell of ripe blue cheese. Like many foods, you have to wonder how people come up with the idea of eating it in the first place.
"What's for dinner?"
"Soybeans. Grab me that pot in the corner."
"You mean the one that hasn't been moved in a month and smells like Grandpa's feet?"
"Don't sass me! Just mix it in with some rice and you won't even know what you're eating."
"But Grandma it feels like there's a rock in my stomach."
"Are you dead yet? No? Then it's good for you!"
And as always, Grandma knew best. Or maybe the conversation went more along the lines of two kids double-dog daring each other to eat it. You never know. But now natto is as common as all the other popular fermented foods here, like miso and sake, mmmmm sake...

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving enjoying more traditional Canadian foods like turkey neck and giblet stuffing. May we all be united in a feeling of unity and thankfulness with our fellow man and our omnivorous stomachs.