They're surrounded by oceans, what do you expect?
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oregontrackfan1 wrote:
This might be the worst post I've seen on this website
It’s like someone went to great lengths to write an extensive essay about why kicking puppies and kittens is actually a good idea.
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food eater wrote:
I also have an extremely high opinion of Indian/Pakastani food, although have never made it out to either region.
Can’t wait for your critique when you return from your south asian trip. Guessing you’ll rate them C- on spiciness.
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food eater wrote:
Buffoodery wrote:
There’s many of both, but it’s true there’s Bengali around the train stations & more west African places further north as opposed to North African restaurants south of the river. Immigrants from specific areas often cluster in specific neighborhoods. Such enclaves often indicate more, not less, of a given population in a city. Is this last point news to you? Have you not left your couch in a while? Too busy making forum posts?
It also means I typically can't pop out to go to one of these restaurants during lunch or on my way home for dinner. Having concentrated clusters of cuisines like this also means that the food hasn't penetrated highly into the common culture, so if I ask one of the people at work "what good restaurants should I try?" they're less likely to suggest it.
I imagine almost every major city in the world has a diverse selection of good food if you're a local with the time to search for it, but if I'm staying somewhere for a few weeks of work and just have a few colleagues and google to use in my search it's often hard to find it.
There’s your problem: you’re judging the city or nation by the vagaries of your office schedule and commute. Doesn’t that sound stupid to you? Shouldn’t you try to figure out what’s actually out there before you generalize? Shouldn’t a runner feel comfortable covering ground?
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Let me give a shout out to one aspect of Japanese food which is AMAZING - the food at their convenience stores.
When we were there for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, it was the height of Covid. We couldn't go out to eat - period. Heck we couldn't even leave our hotel unless we were going to the track or a convenience store/grocery store and if we left the hotel, we had to sign out and be back within 15 minutes (unless going to the stadium).
So we did live a lot on Door Dash and McDonalds and KFC. But I spent a ton of time in their convenience stores and was blown away by the whole experience. They had full meals in plastic containers that were amazing - stuff you'd never find in a US convenience store. And everything was super cheap. Like a coke cost $1 versus $4 here.
I was so blown away by it I vowed to start a similar chain of convenience stores in the US. I never did it but do remember researching it and discovering the NY Times had an article on a guy who had a blog devoted to their amazing convenience stores. I can't find that article however. Does anyone know the term for their stores as I'd like to re-read it.
In trying to find it, I did find this NY Times article that starts with the following line: "In Japan, convenience stores are celebrated."
Now the OP is a foodie who probably doesn't like fast food or convenience store food so he's not impressed - but as a fast food aficianado, I was BLOWN away.
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Ok. The term is Konbini and the NY Times lavished praise on them during the Olympics with this article which is the one I remember. It reference a podcast (I thought it was a blog) devoted to Konbini
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.72 -
Buffoodery wrote:
There’s your problem: you’re judging the city or nation by the vagaries of your office schedule and commute. Doesn’t that sound stupid to you? Shouldn’t you try to figure out what’s actually out there before you generalize? Shouldn’t a runner feel comfortable covering ground?
I'm judging them based on a mix of local recommendations, what I can find from looking online, and what I can find wandering around myself. What else am I supposed to do? Magically already know what food I like? Not form any opinion until I lived somewhere for a year?
I started this thread because food opinions are something that everyone has but don't have the heavy baggage of something like politics. This was a post made to have fun arguing about food takes, not my divine proclamation about a food culture's worth that will sway anyone else's opinion.
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rojo wrote:
Let me give a shout out to one aspect of Japanese food which is AMAZING - the food at their convenience stores.
Yeah, I will admit that the quality of food you'd get at one of these was a lot higher than your decently respected US wawa's and sheetz's. It's not something I'd seek out, but it's good to have something consistently fast and decent you can get at a pit stop or when rushing and the like.
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rojo wrote:
So we did live a lot on Door Dash and McDonalds and KFC. But I spent a ton of time in their convenience stores and was blown away by the whole experience. They had full meals in plastic containers that were amazing - stuff you'd never find in a US convenience store. And everything was super cheap. Like a coke cost $1 versus $4 here.
Another brilliant rojo post, one of the top ranked posters.
Every supermarket here in Australia and I am sure in USA have these pre packed plastic sealed meals simply requiring reheat , from pulled pork to rogan josh to lasagne and stir fry. You have them even in South Africa
Get out more. You had to travel to Japan and visit a 7 eleven to know those items exist throughout the world.
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By the way, I was in Japan in April last year, Yokohama/Tokyo and if I didn't want to eat sushi etc, which was awesome at lunchtime during our sessions, I could find great food in restaurants
The OP was obviously looking for an American sized sub sandwich with lots of fries
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I am Sam wrote:
By the way, I was in Japan in April last year, Yokohama/Tokyo and if I didn't want to eat sushi etc, which was awesome at lunchtime during our sessions, I could find great food in restaurants
The OP was obviously looking for an American sized sub sandwich with lots of fries
It's very easy to find american style fast food with lots of fries in Japan. They even have all the same chain restaurants.
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food eater wrote:
My personal evaluation for the foods in the countries I've visited:
A+: USA (almost entirely due to their good access to international cuisines in big cities)
A: Italy, Turkey, Mexico, London (for similar reasons to the US).
A-: Hong Kong, Egypt, Canada (similar to US, but noticeably worse).
B: Germany.
B-: France, Switzerland.
C: Hungary.
C-: Japan.
D: Rural parts of the US and UK.
I also have an extremely high opinion of Indian/Pakastani food, although have never made it out to either region.
OP, don't take this the wrong way, but you deserve to be drawn and quartered for this.
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Japan has some of the best food. My favorite meal since high school will always be TakoBan
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food eater wrote:
I recently got back from my first visit to Japan (10 days in Tokyo for work followed by a few weeks of visiting old friends and tourism during the holidays) and was pretty amazed by how hard it was to find decent things to eat.
I had always heard about how good and healthy the Japanese diet was, but when following my local hosts or friends around it was rare to come across foods that didn't have pretty overwhelming quantities of salt, fat, or sugar. Even when I sought it out, it was also pretty rare to find anything with much spice (especially heat), and even the well reviewed Korean and Chinese places I tried seemed to have their flavors pretty toned down. Western food was also very bizarre, with staples like cheese and bread somehow being even worse versions of the stuff you typically get at US or UK supermarkets. The curry also seems to have been inspired by the worst versions of the dish you can find in the UK instead of the delicious varieties you find across the rest of east Asia.
My personal evaluation for the foods in the countries I've visited:
A+: USA (almost entirely due to their good access to international cuisines in big cities)
A: Italy, Turkey, Mexico, London (for similar reasons to the US).
A-: Hong Kong, Egypt, Canada (similar to US, but noticeably worse).
B: Germany.
B-: France, Switzerland.
C: Hungary.
C-: Japan.
D: Rural parts of the US and UK.
I also have an extremely high opinion of Indian/Pakastani food, although have never made it out to either region.
Much of "international cuisines" in the US are tailored to the tastes of American customers. Just like much of "international cuisines" in Japan are tailored to the tastes of Japanese customers.
So OP likes the Americanized version of "international cuisines" better than the Japanized version of "international cuisines"? Not a big surprise.
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Lol, they're eating dogs~!!~
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This quoted post has been removed.
Springfield. The immigrants there have made the cuisine infamous
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AverageForFun wrote:
Japan has some of the best food. My favorite meal since high school will always be TakoBan
After a recent bad case of post-Mexican runs, we have TacoBan in our house too.
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Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:
Much of "international cuisines" in the US are tailored to the tastes of American customers. Just like much of "international cuisines" in Japan are tailored to the tastes of Japanese customers.
So OP likes the Americanized version of "international cuisines" better than the Japanized version of "international cuisines"? Not a big surprise.
To be fair, I also quite like the local versions of the cuisines from almost everywhere else I've been. It's not like the restaurants I was going to in most of my other A grade picks like Turkey, Egypt, etc. are all that tainted by the US palate.
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food eater wrote:
I imagine almost every major city in the world has a diverse selection of good food if you're a local with the time to search for it, but if I'm staying somewhere for a few weeks of work and just have a few colleagues and google to use in my search it's often hard to find it.
So this is basically your problem in Japan. Your colleagues did not recommend the "right" places that fit your taste.
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food eater wrote:
rojo wrote:
Let me give a shout out to one aspect of Japanese food which is AMAZING - the food at their convenience stores.
Yeah, I will admit that the quality of food you'd get at one of these was a lot higher than your decently respected US wawa's and sheetz's. It's not something I'd seek out, but it's good to have something consistently fast and decent you can get at a pit stop or when rushing and the like.
Anthony Bourdain used to go to Tokyo so that he could buy some food from convenience stores there.
Watch his "Parts Unknown" episodes on Japan. I think he knew a thing or two about food.
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