Japanese Assignment Mark S.
What is obentou? • Obentou is a type of box lunch available throughout Japan and is eaten by school children and workers. It can be found everywhere and bought from supermarkets, local stores and street kiosks serving offices. In restaurants red and black lacquered boxes tend to be used and cardboard and plastic boxes are the usual take away versions. • The box contains and assortment of foods including rice, pickles, grilled fish or meat, vegetables and cake in many varieties in combinations to suit the seasons.
What are Onigiri? Onigiri are made by cupping hot steamed rice and pressing the rice into a ball or triangular shape with your hands or with a mould so that it is soft inside but has a firm outside. They usually have a filling outside which is usually salty such as fish, pickles, seasoned bonito and soy. Sometimes these balls are wrapped in nori paper. Onigiri is also known as omusubi or nigirimeshi.
What are Ekiben? Ekiben are obentou boxes that can be purchased from train stations or from vendors inside the trains, throughout Japan. “ Eki” is the word in Japanese for train station.
Are Ekiben the same throughout Japan? Ekiben vary from region to region in content, style and packaging and offer the local delicasys. The pursuit of the Ekiben has become a national past time. Entire books have been written explaining the features of every different ekiben available along the 26000 km of railways in japan.
What is Konbini Bentou? Konbini means convenience store in japanese. So Konbini bentou is a bentou from a japanese convinience store.
What are the rules of using chopsticks? The correct way in Japanese etiquette to rest the chopsticks is to place the end you eat with on the rest (which is usually a ceramic rest) with the other ends on the table, uncrossed and parallel to the edge of the table. If there is no ceramic rest to put the chopsticks on make use of the knotted paper case and use it as a chopsticks‐rest. Never place chopsticks in a bowl of rice standing upright because this is a symbol of death. Do not gesture with chopsticks or suck on the chopsticks. Also do not offer anybody food using your chopsticks instead each person should serve themselves by using serving platters. When somebody is serving you food stop eating and put your chopsticks down.
How are primary school lunches in Australia and Japan different? Australian primary school lunches usually consist of carbohydrate in the form of bread in sandwiches, meat( usually in sandwiches), dairy products such as yogurt and cheese, fruit and snacks(which can include nuts and dried fruit). Sometimes there can also be a vegetables like a carrot or celery. Japanese primary school lunches will differ in presentation and ingredients. Japanese children will usually take a obentou boxes to school. Half of a typical obentou will consist of rice as the main carbohydrate, the other half will include ingredients such as vegetables and protein in the form of fish and eggs. The vegetables are more likely to be pickled, boiled or steamed rather than fresh ones which is more typical for an Australian school lunch. Also Japanese attach great importance to the appearance of their food. There will be a lot of consideration in preparing the Japanese box lunch making sure it is visually appealing, which is not important for Australian school lunches.
Comment on some differences between Australian and Japanese food.
Presentation: Japanese people attach great importance to the appearance of their food. Japanese chefs will arrange the food to symbolize something. For example Japanese chefs may put a fish with a twist on it’s tail on a crystal platter so it symbolizes a fish swimming in a stream. Japanese like to keep their food separate. The Japanese very rarely like to mix rice with sauces and other foods. Australian and western cultures only take care in presentation of food for “haute cuisine”, in other words, at very expensive or special restaurants but not in the home or ordinary eateries. Australians like to mix their foods. For example they like to mix their rice with vegetables, curries and sauces and other such flavours. In doing so the presentation of the food is lost.
• Ingredients: The Japanese like to use fish, rice and soy products in the form of miso. Freshness of the produce is very important both at home and in restaurants. The Japanese chose their ingredients soley in season. Australians use produce which, if not fresh, is artificially obtained all year round as it often comes from a hot house or a cold storage. The traditional Japanese diet looks to simplicity. It has not been influenced by the spice tradition of it’s neighbouring meat eating countries in Asia. Japan’s main food “enhances” our sauces from soybeans and puree from daikon( a Japanese radish). Australian food and Asian countries other than Japan which have a rich carbohydrate and meat diet use a wide variety of heavy gravy, spicy sauces and mixes.
• Nutrition: Japanese food relies on the goodness of fresh protein and vegetables. Their protein source is mainly fish. Their carbohydrate source is rice as wheat and barley are only recent introductions into the country. Australian food has a much higher carbohydrate content and dairy foods are readily available. Wheat, barley and maize are available flours used to bake bread and similar foods in the western world, including cakes, biscuits and cereals. Bread is not a traditional Japanese food. Rice products are the main ingredients to make sweets and “baked” foods in traditional Japanese foods fare. Australians, besides drinking milk, eat a lot of dairy products and have adopted the European yogurt and cheese. These types of foods aren’t traditional Japanese ingredients.
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How has the diet of Japan changed since world war II? Why has it changed? The Japanese diet has been influence by western types of food
after World War II mainly in the increased consumption in meat , dairy products and carbohydrates like bread and potatoes. Japan has also been exposed to changes in their diet from the Chinese which is seen in the greater variety in vegetables and the Chinese types of carbohydrates. This has had an impact on the height and build of the average Japanese child. The average height of a 12 year old Japanese boy has grown from 136cm(in 1950) to 153cm(in 2000) there also has been an increase in height for girls. • These changes have occurred because of the occupation of Japan by the United States of America and allied forces after the war for approximately 6 years. Also since that time Japan entered into a period of economic boom which gave them continued access to foreign foods including those which expensive imports.
What are the greetings you say “before and after a meal”? The greeting you say before a meal is “itadekimass” (I humbly receive). The greeting you say after a meal is “Gochisoo samadeshita” ( I have had a nice meal).
Bibliography • Norbury,P(2003), Culture Smart!, Japan, Explore, SouthYara,Victoria. • http://www.airandangels.com/bentobox/ 1/11/09 • What I want to know about Japan, Australian Edition, Information Section Consulate‐General of Japan in Sydney. • Foster, D.(2000) The Global Etiquette Guide to Asia, John Wiley & Sons, New York. • Fodor’s Japan(2005), Fodors LLC, Random House, New York. • DK Eyewitness Travel Guides Japan (2003), Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. • http://web‐japan.org/kidsweb/index.html 18/10/09