This strange crossing of cultural elements has been most obvious to me thus far in food. The Japanese have taken foreign foods and adapted them a bit. The end result is sometimes surprisingly good, but also sometimes awful.
From what I've eaten thus far, the Japanese take on spaghetti is neutral. Compared to what I'm used to in the States, it's not better or worse, just different.
When it comes to cheese, however, I can't say the same.
Japan doesn't seem very big on cheese. I managed to find a few foreign brands that taste about the same as what I'm used to at home, but the vast majority of regularly available cheese is...not exactly what I was expecting. You can find good cheese if you look hard enough, but the stuff that is mainly available in my local grocery stores is almost exclusively the type of overly processed cheese that tastes a bit like plastic. They even have cheese that is fruit flavored, which is something I have never seen at home.
However, its comforting to know that despite the Japan's affliction for putting their own twist on food, some things stay the same. The original Coca-Cola is a big brand here, and hasn't changed in terms of taste. Are there other coke flavors unique to Japan that I just haven't seen yet?
1 comment:
I do miss regular processed American cheese/Valveeta... But as you said, you can find such things at foreign grocery stores - you just need to know where to look. And that I suppose is globalization. Have you tried the seafood spaghetti here in Japan? There are some restaurants that do interesting things and put Japanese tastes into their pasta creations... I prefer Pepsi myself, but I passed on the cucumber flavored soda...
Post a Comment