Another Day, Another Meme: 100 Japanese Foods to Try
Yesterday I did the 100 Chinese Foods meme and mentioned that I'd check in today with the 100 Japanese Foods to Try meme. Here it is.
This one was started by Maki Itoh on her blog Just Hungry. The idea, again, is to copy and paste the list into your own site, bolding the items you've tried.
The interesting thing about Maki's list is that it goes way beyond the Japanese foods we know and love in the West. Sushi, sashimi, and noodles barely make an appearance here. It's a real eye opener.
My list appears after the jump. It seems the other folks here at SE are burnt out on 100 foods memes. Maybe they'll chime in in the comments.
Unfortunately, Maki didn't help out with links to less-commonly known items, so I had to go through and look up a ton of terms to make sure I could bold things off. I've included the links here.
My other quibble with this list is its specificity. Isn't it enough that I've had freshly made mochi? Do I really have to have it with tofu flour, sugar, and natto? Does the umeboshi really have to be homemade? Can't I just check off the umeboshi I've had at restaurants? There are several items I was about to check off before reading that I had to have XYZ with it. But, I suppose that is the list-maker's prerogative. And maybe you really haven't had the version of such-and-such item until you've had it just so.
And so, without further ado ...
100 Japanese Foods to Try, Adam List
1. Properly washed and cooked, top quality new harvest white rice (shinmai)
2. Freshly made tofu, as hiyayakko or yudofu
3. Properly made misoshiru and osumashi
4. Properly made homemade nukazuke
5. Very fresh sanma (saury), sizzling hot from the grill, eaten with a drizzle of soy sauce and a mound of grated daikon radish
6. Homemade umeboshi
7. Freshly made, piping hot crispy tempura. I prefer vegetable tempura like shiso leaves, eggplant and sweet potato.
8. A whole grilled wild matsutake
9. Freshly made sobagaki with sobayu
10. Mentaiko from Fukuoka, or tarako [I have had tarako, if that counts. —AK]
11. Onigiri with the three classic fillings: umeboshi, okaka, shiozake
12. Assorted fresh-as-possible sashimi
13. Saba oshizushi
14. Mugicha
15. Kakifurai
16. Morinaga High-Chew candy, grape flavor
17. Karasumi
18. A pot of oden, preferably with homemade components especially ganmodoki, boiled eggs and daikon radish
19. Ika no shiokara
20. Calpis
21. Ankou nabe
22. Unadon
23. Komochi kombu or kazunoko
24. Yamakake, grated yamaimo with maguro (red tuna) cubes (or just with a raw egg)
25. Properly made gyokuro shincha
26. Milky candy
27. Wanko soba
28. Omuraisu with demi-glace sauce
29. Handmade katayaki senbei
30. Yohkan (yokan) from Toraya
31. Ishi yakiimo: sweet potatoes cooked in hot stones, available from street vendor carts
32. Natto
33. Fresh seaweed sunomono (can also have some tako in it)
34. Ikura or sujiko
35. Tonkatsu
36. Goma dofu
37. Chawan mushi or tamago dofu: the same dish either piping hot or ice cold
38. Freshly made mochi, with kinako and sugar, grated daikon and soy sauce or natto [I'm not sure if I've ever had mochi with each thing stipulated here, but I am getting tired of all the qualifiers here. I have had mochi freshly made by old Japanese ladies at Korakuen; I hope that's enough, thank you. —AK ]
39. Gindara no kasuzuke
40. Hoshigaki
41. Inarizushi
42. Chikuzen-ni
43. Surume
44. Yakinasu with grated ginger
45. Tamago kake gohan
46. Kabuki-age
47. Nikujaga
48. Spinach gomaae
49. Fuki no tou
50. Okonomiyaki
51. Yakitori
52. Ohagi
53. Japanese style curry, with rakkyo and fukujinzuke as condiments [My third favorite food! —AK]
54. Kenchinjiru
55. Yakult
56. Kakipea [I LOVE THESE THINGS! —AK]
57. Takoyaki
58. Sakura mochi
59. Buta no kakuni
60. Daigaku imo
61. Kappa Ebisen
62. Chicken tsukune
63. Hakusaizuke
64. Hayashi rice
65. Goya champuruu
66. Dorayaki
67. Ochazuke [Mmm. Love this stuff. Haven't had it in forever. Now have a new craving! —AK]
68. Sakuma Drops
69. Stewed kiriboshi daikon
70. Takenoko gohan (or in fall, kuri gohan)
71. Cream or potato korokke
72. Fresh yuba
73. Real ramen
74. Monaka
75. Ekiben of all kinds [I've only had 1 or 2; does that count? —AK]
76. Edamame
77. Chicken karaage
78. Kuzumochi
79. Mitarashi dango
80. Konnyaku no dengaku [Couldn't find a good source for this; I'm guessing "harvest konnyaku" —AK]
81. Yukimi Daifuku [Mochi ice cream —AK]
82. Sukiyaki
83. Nama yatsuhashi
84. Panfried hanpen
85. Nozawanazuke or Takanazuke
86. Kiritanpo
87. Amanatto
88. Narazuke
89. Aji no himono [Dried horse mackerel]
90. Baby Ramen
91. Kobucha
92. Kasutera
93. Tazukuri
94. Karintou
95. Sauce Yakisoba [I've had yakisoba, but I'm not sure if I've had "sauce yakisoba." I have no idea what that is. —AK]
96. Kamaboko [Yes, several times, usually in "real" ramen. —AK]
97. Oyako donburi
98. Atsuyaki tamago
99. Kuri kinton
100. Japanese potato salad [LOVE IT! —AK]
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15 Comments:
100 anything is way too many.
srhcb at 11:15AM on 09/14/08
@srhcb: Tell me about it. It took me 2 hours to look up all this stuff. Which taught me 2 things: I don't know a quarter as much as I thought I did about Japanese food and I'm not sure I ever want to do another 100 Foods meme again!
Adam Kuban at 11:25AM on 09/14/08
I have to go over the list and see what I haven't eaten! Since I lived in Japan, I have been trying to find all of the delicious foods I loved and now cannot find. Maybe this list will help me track some of them down!
DGibb at 11:29AM on 09/14/08
@DGibb: You'll probably have no problem with this list, then. I was able to check off quite a number of them, thanks to just a couple short trips there.
Adam Kuban at 11:32AM on 09/14/08
Adam, I think your fresh, old-Japanese-lady-made mochi counts! I lived in Japan for two years and ate everything that crossed my path, and I still don't recognize half the dishes on this list. Makes me wish I was back in Japan...
"Dengaku" is the name used when something is slathered in miso sauce and grilled. I've had tofu dengaku and nasu (eggplant) dengaku, but never konnyaku. Yum, I'm totally craving nasu dengaku right now.
anjali at 1:20PM on 09/14/08
Ok, I've eaten and heard of a lot of this stuff, but what the heck is BABY RAMEN? Do they mean the Baby Star Ramen crispy noodle snacks?
mochihead at 5:59PM on 09/14/08
Wow, that is some list. I was looking for the Kusaya listing tho'! ;o)
KirkK at 11:17PM on 09/14/08
Maki's original post on this says that she'll be updating her list at some point with explainer links to the foods. She wanted to put them in as-is for now to challenge her longtime readers and see if they knew what the foods were on their own. That's reasonable, I think, but until she gets those links in there, I'm guessing it will hinder her meme from really flying around the web.
Adam Kuban at 7:31AM on 09/15/08
Sorry about the qualifiers... I just wanted you all to know what the best is! :)
I actually didn't mean for it be a meme... rather a sort of reference list (yes I know, I need to get up the descriptions faster)
@mochihead yep I mean Baby Star Ramen (but we always called it Baby Ramen growing up. It represents the category of dagashi. Yes, explanation coming soonish.)
@KirkK - this is a list of food I like, not 'omg can I hold my nose long enough to get this thing that smells like an unclean toilet in my mouth' !
maki at 7:49AM on 09/15/08
@maki: Thanks for the clarification! Didn't realize it wasn't supposed to be a meme. I think I was in a meme mood because of the other 100 foods lists going on! Awesome list. I really learned a lot in reading it.
Adam Kuban at 10:44AM on 09/15/08
Adam, "sauce yakisoba" is yakisoba made with "sauce" (sosu). In Japanese cuisine, the mononymous sosu is a tangy liquid with a flavor similar to Worcestershire sauce (although milder). It is slightly sweet, quite tart, and just a little salty. Its ubiquity in modern Japanese cuisine gave it the honor of having such an ambiguous name while remaining instantly identifiable to those in the know.
I can only wonder what other "100..." memes you'll come up with, if ever.
Indian food? French? XD
levinedym at 8:10PM on 09/20/08
Ok, this is gonna make me look stupid, but I'm used to it. I'm tired of seeing the word "meme' and not understanding the context. So what is a #@# MEME?
lambowner at 12:06AM on 01/30/09
@lambowner: Wikipedia says, "A meme comprises a unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices; such units or elements transmit from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. The etymology of the term relates to the Greek word mimema for mimic. Memes act as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures."
When a meme hits the web, it's an "Internet meme." Says Wikipedia, "The term Internet meme is a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an inside joke. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although this concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information."
Basically, it's an idea that spreads virally. Have you seen LOLcats? That's a meme. Other memes: the whole FAIL! thing, the Dramatic Hamster, and Rickrolling, among many others.
Adam Kuban at 10:07AM on 01/30/09
Wow, I have a post-graduate degree and I don't follow that Wikipedia definition. And I haven't seen any of those examples you so kindly provided. But thanks for trying! I'm off to google LOLcats.
lambowner at 3:11PM on 01/30/09
Yeah. I know. The first definition is pretty heady. I think "an idea that spreads virally" pretty much sums it up. Think of catchphrases from TV shows and how your annoying coworkers and/or friends use them (SNL catchphrases; "I'll be back" from Terminator, etc.), which is probably a good example of non-internet memes.
Adam Kuban at 3:21PM on 01/30/09