Won't Miss #387 - whining about American portions

One of my students has a brother who lives in San Diego. He has gained 15 kg. (33 lbs.) in two years due to eating American-size meals. I suggested that he not eat everything he is served and prepare his own food more frequenlty, but she wasn't having any of that sort of crazy logic. No, it was the American food that was the problem, not his laziness about cooking or inability not to gobble

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Won't Miss #382 - sugar in "everything"

When you think of Japanese food, the last thing you probably think of is sugar. It is absolutely true that the sweets have less total sugar than a lot of Western sweets. However, sugar (or artificial sweetene) is added to plenty of savory foods and traditional dishes. Sukiyaki, nimono, and other dishes have sugar and/or sweet sake as components. A great deal of savory sembei also includes

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Will Miss #371 - vinegar drinking

What's for dessert? Vinegar, of course!

Of course, when I say I'll miss drinking vinegar, I don't mean me personally, but the fact that the Japanese do it. And it's not that "only" they do it, because apparently folk medicine worldwide claims vinegar will cure everything that ails you. It's more the pervasiveness of vinegar for drinking and how it is more fully integrated into the culture

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Will Miss #313 - miso soup

People talk a lot about authenticity and food, and I generally think it's a bunch of snobbery put forth by people who need to elevate themselves (via their tastes in food) above others about a trivial point. However, after years of eating Japanized American food and some experience eating Americanized Japanese food, I have no choice but to change my thinking in this regard. The origin and

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Won't Miss #305 - mistrust of imported food

One of the bits of marketing that you find appears on some food designed to be fed to infants and toddlers, as well as the odd product for adults, is the fact that the ingredients are made in Japan. When a package says, "made with rice grown in Japan," I wonder why it even matters. I think one of the reasons is that many Japanese people don't trust the safety of food grown in other countries. In

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Will Miss #293 - soba boro

There is a type of buckwheat cookie that is unique to Japan (in my experience) which I really love. It's called "soba boro", and is a small, flower-shaped crispy treat. It is made with simple ingredients - buckwheat flour, sugar, and eggs. They aren't too sweet, taste of caramel, and have a lot of the crispy, airy nature of meringue cookies due to the large amount of eggs and sugar that are used

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Will Miss #175 - unabashed appreciation of food

One day while I was working in my office, the president's daughter, who had been coerced into working by her parents, was sitting at her desk eating a "Queenie Muffin". As she ate it, she made the equivalent of, "mmmm, mmmm" sounds. She wasn't ashamed to let it be known that it was really good and that she enjoyed food. In fact, most Japanese people aren't afraid to show their appreciation for

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