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Yoshoku means western food and is the category of Japanicized (real word?) Western food, but have been in the mainstream so long and are so drastically altered in many cases that they are still considered Japanese food. I'm pretty much way into all of it, especially hayashi rice.
There's also a much less codified bit of it (and wikipedia doesn't seem to have much on it) for China and Taiwan--especially with old-style Shanghainese cuisine, including what old Shanghai believed was western cuisine though very much different. Unfortunately, that seems to be more and more lost with each passing year and much of that was already forgotten it seems especially as it was western and often eaten by the middle class or well-to-do. I should probably try to spruce up the wikipedia articles on that because it's barely scratching the surface.
Anyway, at least in Japan, there's a large number of foreign foods available in restaurants or in some cases the supermarket, but it is rare to find authentic versions of it. Pretty much only high end restaurants have authentic foreign foods. Other foods have been Japanified. Like curry (it's more savory than spicy) and pizza (Pizzala, nasty, ugh!). Of course there's also fast foods (McD's, etc). Some of the local chains and some of the "gourmet" hamburger places have decent burgers. Donuts have also been made in Japan (pretty tasty), and the some of the best coffee I ever had was in Hakone.
Japanese pizza is pretty poor. I'm almost certain you can get good pizza in Tokyo, because...well...it's Tokyo (you can find everything there). But I never found good pizza (I settled for Shakey's once, bleh). If I had to guess, I would say you can find a super expensive, but super delicious, authentic Neapolitan pizza, but a Brooklyn-style pizza would be hard to come by.
Coffee in Hakone? Sounds relaxing. There's some great coffee in Tokyo if you know where to look. My friends and I went on such a coffee hunt. We found a half dozen or so places we could highly recommend to anyone. The best espresso I ever had was in Tokyo (Bear Pong in Shimokitazawa). In Italy's defense, I never sought out the best since the one around the corner was always great, so Italy may have better espresso (but it'd be very close).
Almost every cuisine available in Asian metropolitan cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok and Phuket. As these are the most visited cities in Asia by foreigners and in these cities food choices are jut unlimited.
A couple years ago, I was researching Southeast Asia as a possible retirement destination, and this was one of my main questions. I looked up restaurants in some of the cities I was considering, and I was surprised at the variety of food that was available. For instance, check out the variety of restaurants in Chang Mai or Phuket. of course, I can't comment on the quality, and there might be only a couple of Mexican or Italian restaurants, as opposed to the dozens we have here in Portland, Oregon, but I was impressed. When my wife and I went to Florence, Italy, a few years ago, it was hard to find anything but Italian food. Not that we wanted anything else while we were there, but if we were to live there as expats, it would be difficult to satisfy our inevitable cravings for non-Italian foods.
I once read that a good way to make a living as an expat in many cities is to open a restaurant that serves the cuisine of wherever you're from, assuming there are enough other expats or adventurous locals to support it. I once knew of a Southerner who moved to Paris, opened a barbecue joint, and was quite successful. The converse is certainly true in Portland. We have an appetite for food from all over the world here, and many immigrants open restaurants or food carts.
Here in the U.S., you can find restaurants from all over the world. Italian food, Mexican food, and Chinese food (though mostly Americanized) can be found all over and is eaten by many people in their homes.
I was wondering if any foreign cuisines have been introduced to Asian countries and how often people eat them both in their homes and out at restaurants.
For example, I'm wondering how common it is to see a family in Thailand eating spaghetti at their dinner table or some other foreign food.
I have a Korean friend who said that growing up the only food he ever ate was Korean food with the exception of American fast food and Korean-style curry (integrated into Korean cuisine from Indian influences)
Thanks
Koreans are the least likely to eat non-Korean foods. Internationally, when they travel, they pack up their backpacks with Korean foods as they travel even.
It's also one of the most difficult places to find decent non-Korean foods.
But if you go other places in Asia, you'll see tons of international foods. It depends on the country, and each Asian country is so completely different. Kind of like how each US state is completely different, and you might see everything on earth in California, but few international restaurants in North Dakota, for example.
But, in general, most asian people in most asian countries generally eat asian foods. Kind of like most Americans throughout America, aren't cooking Pad Thai nightly, it's kind of similar with most asians.
I interviewed the study abroad director at my school and she said that Asian students, more than any other group, check the box saying they want food like they get at home, i.e. Asian students say they want to be put in households that cook Asian food. The Asian students who live on campus tend to eat at the "Americanized" Chinese restaurants a lot (we don't have real Chinese food at my school). European and Latin American students don't tend to want to eat American food.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Originally Posted by Tiger Beer
Koreans are the least likely to eat non-Korean foods. Internationally, when they travel, they pack up their backpacks with Korean foods as they travel even.
It's also one of the most difficult places to find decent non-Korean foods.
But if you go other places in Asia, you'll see tons of international foods. It depends on the country, and each Asian country is so completely different. Kind of like how each US state is completely different, and you might see everything on earth in California, but few international restaurants in North Dakota, for example.
But, in general, most asian people in most asian countries generally eat asian foods. Kind of like most Americans throughout America, aren't cooking Pad Thai nightly, it's kind of similar with most asians.
Interesting, maybe that's why we've seen such a proliferation of Korean grocery stores/supermarkets. Even 10 years ago I hardly saw any Koreans, I guess students/those on working holidays have been coming in, because we never have had or have a large Korean population. There's also quite a few Korean restaurants in the city, which is a benefit to us, long-live kimchi pancakes and barbecue! lol
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,037,872 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HonuMan
A couple years ago, I was researching Southeast Asia as a possible retirement destination, and this was one of my main questions. I looked up restaurants in some of the cities I was considering, and I was surprised at the variety of food that was available. For instance, check out the variety of restaurants in Chang Mai or Phuket. of course, I can't comment on the quality, and there might be only a couple of Mexican or Italian restaurants, as opposed to the dozens we have here in Portland, Oregon, but I was impressed. When my wife and I went to Florence, Italy, a few years ago, it was hard to find anything but Italian food. Not that we wanted anything else while we were there, but if we were to live there as expats, it would be difficult to satisfy our inevitable cravings for non-Italian foods.
I once read that a good way to make a living as an expat in many cities is to open a restaurant that serves the cuisine of wherever you're from, assuming there are enough other expats or adventurous locals to support it. I once knew of a Southerner who moved to Paris, opened a barbecue joint, and was quite successful. The converse is certainly true in Portland. We have an appetite for food from all over the world here, and many immigrants open restaurants or food carts.
Patong has speciality bars/restaurants/eateries that often cater specifically to certain nationalities. The German food was cheap and fantastic, and there are hole in the wall places operated by other nationalities.
Malaysian here, and apart from Asian (mainly Chinese) staples, I do cook up some Western fares from time to time. Today alone, I had couscous for lunch and spaghetti for dinner. And I had couscous on yesterday too (and Korean udon for dinner). Well, I just go for food that I wanted to have so it does not need to be Asian everyday for me - my palate is pretty wide.
In Japan I've found that there is plenty of awareness of European/American food, and Korean food. But my experience is limited to Tokyo and to the professional/middle-class of Tokyo. Their take on European food, like pasta as someone mentioned above, is very different from the real thing and not as flavorful. And I have been a guest at a Japanese home (just a normal middle-class, lovely family - nobody fancy or pretentious), where the menu included a great cheese plate and homemade risotto.
In Indian cities, people are still discovering Indian cuisine. Each Indian state used to be as distinct as European countries are from each other, so there are some really diverse cooking styles and so Indian cities have ethnic cuisines like Bengali, South Indian, Punjabi, Mughal, etc. But there's an awareness of "American" food (pizza, etc) and there are a lot of Italian restaurants but no authentic ones - well, there's a good Sicilian place in Mumbai actually. Chinese takeout is very popular, but it resembles real Chinese food the way a rock resembles a banana.
I've seen a lot of great Tibetan eateries in India, and Tibetan food sometimes even gets incorporated into the menus of non-Tibetan restaurants (like including Tibetan dumplings in the appetizer section). Southeast Asian cuisines are also drumming up a bigger following in the major cities.
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