That’s all.
Edit: No but really, why is it in everything? Bentos, sandwiches, salads. Why not regular salad leaves? If anyone knows the reason why then I’d love to be enlightened.
Edit Edit: I am well and truly down this rabbit hole now and I’m actually researching it. So far I have learned:
– Cabbage is an easy and cheap way to bump up the nutritional value of dishes.
– Cabbage helps to digest fatty foods (hence it’s often served alongside katsu, karaage etc).
– Cabbage rose to popularity in Japan as an affordable staple after WW2.
– It’s adaptable and lacks a strong flavour so it’s good for a number of dishes.
I may be developing a renewed respect for shredded cabbage…
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Sir/Ma’am the complaint thread is tomorrow.
> regular salad leaves
You are one of those people who call lettuce “salad”, aren’t you?
Guessing it’s a cost savings sort of thing, since there seems to be an inverse relationship between the cost of the salads and the amount of cabbage in them.
Regular lettuce would be wilty as heck before anyone got around to eating it. Especially in room temp bento. Cabbage holds up better.
You should go to Korea where they have kimchi in everything!
Someone told me that cabbage is good for the stomach and digestion.
I’m not a professional but I can tell that it’s healthier than fast foods.
Even worse is the konbini salads where the majority is just the shredded daikon hiding underneath…
I think Japanese cuisine has a very strong focus on presentation and so I think that the cabbage is jut supposed to enhance that aspect of it.
So in other words it’s just for looks. Eat it if you’d like, don’t if don’t want to
Hey cabbage is at least healthy. Much better than the soggy ketchup spaghetti that sits at the bottom of bento, just soaking up all the grease from the karaage.
When you get a kebab and they ask “would you like some meat with that?”
Shredded cabbage is Japanese culture. For 40 years I thought it was unnecessary. But after understanding the taste of raw cabbage, I realized that many people in Japan want it. Raw cabbage is a western dish unique to Japan, along with Neapolitan pasta.
I agree they have great salad in western countries. But those cost 18 USD!
I like cabbage… At least burgers here come with lettuce. They changed from lettuce to cabbage on burgers in Australia from what I heard.
You are not alone. I’m sick to the back teeth of shredded cabbage in everything. It’s gotten to the stage that I automatically flip over every single conbini salad to check for the wretched stuff, and sure enough it’s tucked away away the bottom, plumping up the lettuce and mini tomatoes. As far as I’m concerned it’s just used as a cheap filler, and also as a way of disguising old cabbage.
Yuck.
Loving the edit edit.
I like that you put “shredded cabbage” and “rabbit hole” in the same post.
The Japanese are used to having raw, shredded cabbage (or daikon) on everything, so they don’t even think about it twice, but if its just about any other vegetable, their cognitive processes simply freeze.
Chomping on things like uncooked carrots is something I’ve learned to not do in front of Japanese people, because the inevitable horse/rabbit comparisons started getting pretty damn cringe.
I think the main reason cabbage is so common is because lettuce is just too damned expensive most of the time.
> I am well and truly down this rabbit hole now and I’m actually researching it
>
>Welcome to reddit
Meanwhile here’s me ordering an extra side of shredded cabbage
I used to hate it too, but I’ve learned to stop worrying and love the kyabetsu. It’s healthy, cheap, doesn’t get soggy like other leaf vegetables, and goes well with just about any kind of sauce.
That said, it’s still a travesty how conbini salads put all the good stuff on top to hide the mountain of shredded cabbage hiding beneath.
Thé character development in this post is phenomenal
It’s a cheap filler. It also supposedly helps digest oily foods like tonkatsu.
I actually really like cabbage, but you’re right. It’s used way too much here.
I remember a few years ago I went to Denny’s (don’t get me started on that place) and ordered a caesar salad. What came was a pile of shredded cabbage with a couple of actual lettuce leafs, some sliced up lunch ham, and caesar dressing. All for the great price of 700 yen.
I never, ever ate cabbage in my home country. It was a povo food.
However, I have definitely come around. A lot crunchier and heartier than soggy old lettuce on things like burgers and sandwiches. Making your own tsukemono for sandwhiches is a winner as well. Grate some cabbage, daikon and carrot and stick it in a jar with some apple cider vinegar, a dash of olive oil and some black pepper. Golden.
The only thing I take umbrage with is pay for a salad and being given some shredded cabbage with one cherry tomato and some thousand island dressing for 800yen. Gethefugoudahere with that shit.