let me start in a positive, i love tokyo more than anywhere i have ever been. the bakeries blew my mind daily. i ate a croissant, mochi, and [insert baked good] daily. this became my caloric intake because the rest of the food i found terrible. i need to know if i’m crazy and alone on this. i just spent three months in tokyo w a bit of travel to osaka, kyoto, okayama, hida / gifu in the mountains. i found the food bland, unhealthy and highly unbalanced flavor palette that seems to rely on meat or sugar for pretty much all flavor (like french food which i also find terrible and hyped). and why are we sweetening things like eggs with sugar and not seasoning anything?
there were basically five flavors i could not escape and i could only taste one of these five in whatever i was eating. it overpowered all other flavor. the five highly savory flavors are:
1. miso
2. soy sauce
3. seaweed
4. fish (often a bonito fish taste which honestly tastes like cat food smells)
5. pork
the ramen tasted like meat water. the gyoza like pork fat. the onigiri like seaweed, the sushi like fish (yes i know but there are other things served with it that could compliment but they are overpowered). soba like soy sauce. etc. and it was all bland. the curry had great flavor but i could not (literally) stomach how oily it was. it’s just oil and seasoning?? it was also an indian curry flavor not unique to japan. i think the main difference was that it was sweetened.
japan is a highly innovative yet traditional culture and the food seems deeply stuck in tradition. i went to an exhibition on food history, i did some research and came to the conclusion that A: japanese food is mostly for function and not about social aspects of meals or pleasures. and B: the 1,200 year ban on meat that ended in the 19th century is the reason EVERYTHING now has meat. you could NOT be a vegetarian in japan. i tried as i got sick of the meat that was flavoring everything. that pendulum effect is real.
i ate at a tofu restaurant in takayama which blew me away, other than this i can’t even think of a meal that i even remotely remember.
i cooked a lot in tokyo and stuck to indian food because that was some of the best i have had outside of london and srilanka (not india i know similar spices and prep). and of course 7/11 when randomly everything would be closed. (best onigiri is at 7/11, try me)
for context i stayed in sumida, ate at the izakaya, ramen spots, taverns, etc. they all feel like a copy / paste. i was taken places by locals who are mutual friends. ate with them at “the best soba restaurant in japan” and all these restaurants i found exactly the same and equally mediocre, if not bad. i can’t get over the sweetening of savory foods with sugar, and generally how unhealthy everything was and that nothing was seasoned. vegetables aside from cabbage are rare. and the amount of carbs served with basically no vegetables was astonishing.
i understand i may not be able to taste differences with a pallet i am used to but i live in LA, in koreatown, i have access to amazing fresh food from all over the world. i enjoy ramen in LA. it is seasoned broths. i have lived in chicago in a predominantly vietnamese, and north east african neighborhood. i have spent months in mexico city and oaxaca for work, and i have been fortunate to travel south east asia for a few months, traveled the US, the Caribbean, parts of the middle east etc. and my moms parents are from sicily and cook almost every meal from their my entire life. i think i know at least something about food? i know my not being a huge meat fan could affect my take on japanese food… its all meat, but mexico is also huge on meat as are many cultures who cuisine is superb, and rife with cultural moments and traditions, diverse and healthy ingredients and seasoning! it’s a bit like french food—meat is all the flavor. why? japan has amazing pickled flavors that are rarely used. root vegetables grow plentiful in japan yet finding a dish made with them is very difficult. i was so confused and disappointed and when i tell people this they get upset, then offer little in a rebuttal. do people “like” it cuz it’s so different its chic or exotic or something?
i would love some experiences and opinions as i want to travel back with a new perspective and potentially way of navigating food in japan. it’s such a complex place and culture i appreciate deeply. i really want to like the food! thank you all.
by Ill_Stable_8894