Yamashita - The Origins of Japanese Food (Tue)

[Anonymous]

I have always been curious why Japanese restaurants always serve their food in a Bento tray. Now it all seems to makes sense.

[Anonymous]

This would be a great lesson for students in trying foods from other cultures. At my school we used to have a cultural faire where students/parents/teachers of different cultures would bring food to share with the all the staff and students. This would be a great addition to this event. I would like to bring back this tradition to include Japanese food and its origins.

[Anonymous]

This article was fascinating because I didn’t know that ramen started as a mean for the working class. I just thought it was ubiquitous throughout Japan for centuries. I think this quote sums it up for me how ramen is seen in Japan: “Its preeminent role in the postwar Japanese diet can perhaps be understood as similar to the role of pizza in American food practices.” Pizza is ubiquitous in the U.S., and by comparing ramen to pizza in this way helps to solidify exactly how ramen has influenced Japanese cuisine.

I think students would benefit from learning about how there are different types of ramen. I eat Japanese ramen often (specifically from Shin Sen Gumi), and sometimes when I talk to my students about eating it, they think I’m eating Cup O Noodles most of the time. Only the students who are consumers of Japanese culture understand what I am talking about, but it’s not many of them. It’s sad, too, because my students live so close to Little Tokyo so it’s a short bus ride away. I would think about using ramen as a way to get them out of their bubbles.

[Anonymous]

@jmallard
I could definitely use the article to help me teach my 2nd graders Japanese table manners possibly in a small group of 5 at a time. Thanks for sparking my idea for a lesson plan! Different food cultures are always interesting and fun to learn more about!

I would love to see this lesson in action. I am curious if you will also teach about the table manners of other cultures for comparison or if they are to think about the table manners that are expected in their own homes. Would you think about having a sort of “International Day” event as well?

[Anonymous]

file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/3.%20Road%20to%20Multicultural%20Gastronomy%20(1).pdf

This story on Food, Power and Identity by Katarzyna J. Cwiertka describes a period in history where trading was flourishing between western and Asian countries. At this time, according to the story Westerners demonstrated evident resistance to Japanese and Chinese food, even though the choices available were mainly based on tea, rice, and vegetables, which were far more nutritive than the so called western food based on lard, meat, poultry, and bread. However and throughout means of international trading, foods, adaptations to the Japanese gastronomy was slowly adopted even though resistance from both cultures had some clashing moments. Some foreigners described Japanese /Chinese food as fishy, and abominable tasteless..", which only worsened their misery when their "delicious European food" was not available in the local markets for months.

I really would like to plan a lesson on Asian gastronomy where my students could observe and analyze how during the 1800s western food was scarce in Japan and China; they should be able to discriminate how during these years of transition between both cultures, a lot of changes had to occur for the British and other investors in order to flourish as business people. My students should be able to appreciate through research, videos, and geography, how the ports of Yokohama, Nagasaki, and others, grew as the main sites for international trading. Students will identify the social and economical factors that catapulted the development of the restaurant and hotels industry that generated the economical and cultural expansion of western and Asian as a byproduct of international trading in Asia.

This topic is so rich that will require various days to explore and understand how the evolution of Japanese and Chinese food took several years to be accepted and digested by westerners. This would open a discussion session where a multi-cultural culinary appreciation will take place in small groups. I will assign a each group with some countries in East Asia to investigate the story of typical dishes and to present their outcomes to the class. Another day, they should bring the ingredients to prepare a meal in class, and have an Asian food festival. As a variation, I would take them into a field trip to a Chinese or Japanese restaurant/ or as a homework assignment to observe the menu, explore foods, tastes, table manners, in order to identify and report differences and similarities between own native culture and Asian foods, and table manners.

[cgao]

Please download and read the attached documents before the Tuesday morning session.
edited by cgao on 7/22/2016

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[Anonymous]

I think Japanese people slurp while drinking tea as well. I am a heavy tea drinker and slurps tea because I can actually taste my tea better. However, it is kind of rude in Korea and in the US so I do it just at home.

[Author]

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