# Your Thoughts on Japanese Cuisine/Food



## Conrad2 (Jan 24, 2021)

Everything related to Japanese cusisine is welcome here.

I work in Japan about half a decade and really appreciate the wonderful food I had. One of my favorite dishes is Chawanmushi, an egg custard dish. To this day, my experience over there has impacted my cooking.

Without further ado, what are your thoughts on Japanese food?


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

I had some Japanese 'clear soup' years ago that was delicious.


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## vincula (Jun 23, 2020)

I love Ramen in all different kind of disguises!

Regards,

Vincula


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I've never had any so the poll doesn't cater for me. I don't fancy sushi but would be glad to sample something else.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I love Japanese home cooking! Always have miso, kouji, mirin, kelp and bonito flakes in the fridge. Some of my favourites include Buta Jaga, Karaage, Tonkatsu, Roll cabbage and Hamubaagu. 

Also love Tamagoyaki and Omu Rice (the "real" one, where the egg pouch is firm outside and running inside; put it on top of a plate of fried rice, slice it open, and the sides fall to cover all the rice.).

I like Chawanmushi, but I'm no good at making it. Making the stock or filtering the egg is not a problem, but I could never get all of the stock-to-egg ratio, the temperature and the steaming duration right at the same time. :lol:

One of the dishes that my dinner guests always enjoy is Mizore Nabe. The grated Daikon (Radish) that covers the cabbage/chicken/pawn soup always looks awesome. And it's easy to make, no technique required, impossible to fail.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I voted 'meh' as a best option as the only Japanese food ive experienced in any volume is sushi and i find it rather bland. I wait to be impressed.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

The best meal I ever ate, at a Michelin starred restaurant in a traditional Ryokan on the Izu Peninsular:





































And if you want to know what that all was, here's the menu:


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

I feel repulsed by the extensive consumption of sea food, deeply repulsed. A cuisine dependent on luxury sea food is almost self-defeating in cultural sense. But some other japanese dishes can serve wonderful food without sea food too, just the sea food part repulses me.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

@Chilham

Please do not take it personal, I always have had such grudge against japanese sushi and other type of sea food luxuries. Japanese food culture is still brilliant without sea food. :tiphat:


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Ariasexta said:


> I feel repulsed by the extensive consumption of sea food, deeply repulsed. A cuisine dependent on luxury sea food is almost self-defeating in cultural sense. But some other japanese dishes can serve wonderful food without sea food too, just the sea food part repulses me.


I have no idea what you are talking about with this post. What is repulsing about seafood?


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> I have no idea what you are talking about with this post. What is repulsing about seafood?


Seafood is nutritionally not requisit for commercial consumption, there is more than enough variety of food for any purpose without current scale of seafood consumption. Culturally,the best seafood by its nature is almost beyond any need of seasoning techniques, there is no demanding cultural depth in preparing luxurious seafood meals too. As a matter of fact, the history of japanese sushi is only 500 years, the legend of 1000 year history is not found on evidence. Italian risotto is another story, shell fish and scallop fishings are well controlled but overall, commercial fishing is destroying the environment to make the cost ever cheaper, thus making everything cheaper related to the industry, such way of consumption brings down our real food culture as the high end stuck in the demand of luxury raw materials as the lower end has to compromise to ever lower standard of qualities.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

One man's luxury is another man's staple.

For the purpose of this comment, the masculine includes the feminine and the singular includes the plural.

Aquaculture is sustaining many livelihoods in South East Asia.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

I've visited quite a few rather nice Japanese restaurants down the years in London - love it!


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

Chilham said:


> One man's luxury is another man's staple.
> 
> For the purpose of this comment, the masculine includes the feminine and the singular includes the plural.
> 
> Aquaculture is sustaining many livelihoods in South East Asia.


They are poor for that reason, chinese had been restraining from seafood for more 1000 years, especially in Song dynasty. The dog eating culture also only started to resurface recently in modern times, dog eating was considered for foot soldiers only in ancient times. The uncultured people are allowed eat almost everything, including people, nobody controls how indian untouchables should eat and they eat everything.



> Fish was an important part of the Dalit diet, particularly small fish that were redundant to bigger fishermen. In her book, The Weave of my life: Memoirs of a Dalit Woman, Urmila Pawar says, "The rich stored the flesh of sode (shrimps, prawns), tisrya (clams) or mule; poor people stored the water in which these fish were boiled. The stock was boiled till it became a thick-like sauce and was then stored in bottles. This was called Kaat."


--Dalit Identity And Food - Memories Of Trauma On A Plate

I can not find English sources about Song dynasty`culture on sea food, but there is a lot in chinese sites about how most ancient chinese people and japanese commoners were not allowed to eat sea food(Just search chinese site:宋朝海鲜）. Since ancient times in all civilized countries, high cultured people have mostly avoided to consume exotique foods, for example, tibetans do not eat fish at all, they observe one of the most rigorous food cultures in China. Negritos, australoids, tribalist people have no such restrictions: elephants, monkeys, any type of sea food could be on the stove. Ugly way of eating surely will bring our culture to the level of dalits or australoids-commercialism has no moral brakes. One more thing, India`s richest man Mukesh Ambani is a vaisha, not even an aristocrat, although he married a brahmin wife because he is rich enough. Self-obstinance is the way of living a real aristocratic life.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

I found the food in Japan very affordable, and tasty. Ramen, tempura, the salads, etc. I had one breakfast at my hotel that is the most memorable breakfast I ever had, in Kawaguchiko. The variety of colour and taste, texture. I'm not a big fan of sushi, but only had the stuff in Chinese /Japanese buffets.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

HenryPenfold said:


> I've visited quite a few rather nice Japanese restaurants down the years in London - love it!


Make sure you have some japanese yakitori/roasted chicken meat, supposedly the best japanese street food ever.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

Recommended Japanese food:

1-Japanese sukiyaki: japanese luxurious hot pot for the expensive beef, the soup could be made from some fish stocks but better than eating sushi, forgivable. Becareful, only expensive beef can be used for sukiyaki, avoid ordinary beef for sukiyaki, for th beef needs to be almost raw to dip into the hotpot. 

2-Yakitori: japanese style roasted chicken meat, known for being japanese for its specialty sauces.

3-Ramen, myself not a big fan but, you can try. 

4-Yakisoba: stir-fried noodles, often seasoned with beef sauces and other spices, forgivable for seafood ingredients, need to try out. 

I also know japanese breweries make the best whisky and mild rice wine too. I had a bottle of Haig Club whisky(I know it is british) with my older cousin brother december last year for the year end gathering, very good, my brother loved it too. I mixed it with cool water only, can not drink it pure. Mayeb this year I will try japanese?


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Ariasexta said:


> Seafood is nutritionally not requisit for commercial consumption, there is more than enough variety of food for any purpose without current scale of seafood consumption. Culturally,the best seafood by its nature is almost beyond any need of seasoning techniques, there is no demanding cultural depth in preparing luxurious seafood meals too. As a matter of fact, the history of japanese sushi is only 500 years, the legend of 1000 year history is not found on evidence. Italian risotto is another story, shell fish and scallop fishings are well controlled but overall, commercial fishing is destroying the environment to make the cost ever cheaper, thus making everything cheaper related to the industry, such way of consumption brings down our real food culture as the high end stuck in the demand of luxury raw materials as the lower end has to compromise to ever lower standard of qualities.


Japan is an island country and getting food from the ocean is the most available source. Have you seen the Anger Management thread?


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

SanAntone said:


> Japan is an island country and getting food from the ocean is the most available source. Have you seen the Anger Management thread?


I posted there and managed myself for a while. It is fine now.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Phil loves classical said:


> I found the food in Japan very affordable, and tasty. Ramen, tempura, the salads, etc. I had one breakfast at my hotel that is the most memorable breakfast I ever had, in Kawaguchiko. The variety of colour and taste, texture. I'm not a big fan of sushi, but only had the stuff in Chinese /Japanese buffets.


Breakfast in Kawaguchiko?

Mmmm.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Like all the seafood and Ramen, but as it doesnt use chiles, so don’t like it as much as Indian, Thai, Chinese or Mexican

Seems like Japanese took maybe the least from the Columbian exchange? No one would miss tomatoes, potatoes, corn or chiles in any Japanese dish (cant even think of one that uses any). The closure of Japan to foreign trade until the 19th century kept all this out of the country, whereas these plants expanded rapidly across the rest of Asia (corn excepted perhaps). Hard to imagine pre-16th century Indian food with no chiles

Also hate how the glop mayo and wasabi all over the various rolls


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Ariasexta said:


> Culturally,the best seafood by its nature is almost beyond any need of seasoning techniques,


BS, whatever you got from the ocean its better either blackened or put in this

https://www.pepperdelight.com/fish-molly/


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I love Asian cuisine but I rarely go to a Japanese restaurant. Mostly Vietnamese, and Middle Eastern.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Bwv 1080 said:


> ...Also hate how the glop mayo ... all over the various rolls


They don't. We do.


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

I was close to an addiction to sushi at one point. Today I like salmon, tuna, and yellowtail sashimi, maybe a couple of others, and only occasionally. We don't get some of the kinds we used to, or they're too expensive.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

Bwv 1080 said:


> BS, whatever you got from the ocean its better either blackened or put in this
> 
> https://www.pepperdelight.com/fish-molly/


But the pickled fishes are worst smelling food ever, smells like liquidass. But I have never tried processed fish before, in my 37 years of life so far, only have fresh lobster and sea crab once, the former in 1994, the latter in 1996, tasted like orgasm, they still haunt my memory.  Cookings were minimum, boiled to skin red, not removing the shell untill put on the desk, those things are evilly delicious.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Ariasexta said:


> But the pickled fishes are worst smelling food ever, smells like liquidass. But I have never tried processed fish before, in my 37 years of life so far, only have fresh lobster and sea crab once, the former in 1994, the latter in 1996, tasted like orgasm, they still haunt my memory.  Cookings were minimum, boiled to skin red, not removing the shell untill put on the desk, those things are evilly delicious.


Blackened is not pickled - it's a filet of fresh fish coated in Cajun spices then quickly fried in butter at very high temp, same with the curry. Lobster is tough - really only good in places where they have not spent a lot of time in the tank - never order it outside of Boston or NYC. Crab travels better


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Blackened is not pickled - it's a filet of fresh fish coated in Cajun spices then quickly fried in butter at very high temp, same with the curry. Lobster is tough - really only good in places where they have not spent a lot of time in the tank - never order it outside of Boston or NYC. Crab travels better


That Cajun sounds nice, I could try it on other kinds of flesh. I have never eatean other sea fishes, probably had ingested unknowingly from some snacks, in china there was a kind of mangled fish sweets, tasted really sweet but smelled like cat biscuits. Tank fishes in china are said to be kept alive in waters laced with illegal preservatives, in the US can you say those tanks are just salt waters? My town is 300km from the shore, and I never buy sea products in my local markets that explains why I almost eat no seafood since then. Preservatives are cheap, the more poisonous the cheaper, never bet against the economic gains on the sincerity of the minor traders.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Ariasexta said:


> That Cajun sounds nice, I could try it on other kinds of flesh. I have never eatean other sea fishes, probably had ingested unknowingly from some snacks, in china there was a kind of mangled fish sweets, tasted really sweet but smelled like cat biscuits. Tank fishes in china are said to be kept alive in waters laced with illegal preservatives, in the US can you say those tanks are just salt waters? My town is 300km from the shore, and I never buy sea products in my local markets that explains why I almost eat no seafood since then. Preservatives are cheap, the more poisonous the cheaper, never bet against the economic gains on the sincerity of the minor traders.


Used to be you could only get reliably good seafood near the coast in the US, but that changed with better logistics (and more wealth). Only thing you see live in US supermarkets is lobster and crawfish (Asian markets here have fish in tanks though). American Chinese restaurants never had much seafood except shrimp, despite the fact that they were primarily started by Cantonese immigrants (or in Houston where I live, Vietnamese refugees of Chinese descent). Now that more authentic mainland Chinese restaurants are all over town, still don't see much seafood - tends to be trash fish like tilapia or shrimp, with the focus on real Sichuan or Hunanese dishes (which are great)


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Used to be you could only get reliably good seafood near the coast in the US, but that changed with better logistics (and more wealth). Only thing you see live in US supermarkets is lobster and crawfish (Asian markets here have fish in tanks though). American Chinese restaurants never had much seafood except shrimp, despite the fact that they were primarily started by Cantonese immigrants (or in Houston where I live, Vietnamese refugees of Chinese descent). Now that more authentic mainland Chinese restaurants are all over town, still don't see much seafood - tends to be trash fish like tilapia or shrimp, with the focus on real Sichuan or Hunanese dishes (which are great)


Well, I will have to swerve back on to the thread. I started the chinese preservative topic. Tanks seems to be unique to chinese, vietnamese, korean restaurants, be warned then. Supermarkets are just way safer, but yes, western brand markets.

I am not blaming other asians, this is a kind of cultural inertia, they just need someone to show them the way. Japanese people enjoyed continuous dynasties from 1st AD, their cultural consistency is remarkable, nazi praised their national unity, and their cultural adventage proves a powerful mechanism for absorbing the best influences from all over the world. If japanese people just gave up the greedy fishing I probably have to learn japanese from now on. My japanese really sharks, their dictionary gave no pronounciations of kanji characters(chinese characters), I was so annoyed I gave it up. Fate  I had the Cajun ordered, chinese McCormick-10 USD.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

I've never been the biggest fan, because they are even more allergic than Americans when it comes to spicy food. Excellent street food though I think Taiwan beats it on that front, and Hong Kong as being one of the great cuisine destinations on Earth.


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## Ariasexta (Jul 3, 2010)

fbjim said:


> I've never been the biggest fan, because they are even more allergic than Americans when it comes to spicy food. Excellent street food though I think Taiwan beats it on that front, and Hong Kong as being one of the great cuisine destinations on Earth.


Truly, accessible street food guaranteed with high quality and safety, offered by a decades old small vendor reminding some childhood memories is one of the most treasured happinesses of life.
But recently, many of them are gone.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Chicken Nanban.

I got interested in this because it, perhaps unusually, requires making two different sauces.

Coat the chicken with flour and then beaten egg. Then shallow fry them.

Make the first sauce, a sweet and sour sauce, with soy sauce, ketchup and vinegar. Add sugar if you want more sweetness but I won't. Put the chicken into the sauce. The egg crust on the chicken will soak up the liquid. Then take them out, make sure there is no excessive sauce dripping from the chicken, then plate them.

Make the second sauce, basically a tartar sauce. Most Japanese recipes call for mixing mayonnaise with diced onion and a hard-boiled egg that is crushed instead of diced or meshed in order to get that irregular lumpy texture. (I didn't want to use mayonnaise because of all those chemicals so I made a bare-bone white sauce then added the crushed egg, vinegar and seasoning.)

Pour the second sauce over the chicken. Voilà!


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

fbjim said:


> ... and Hong Kong as being one of the great cuisine destinations on Earth.


 .....


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Chilham said:


> .....


I live in Hong Kong. HK has a reputation of being a diner's heaven because of the wide variety of cuisines one can find here.

Even around the backwater neighborhood where I live, say within an 2-mile diameter, there are at least a hundred restaurants of various cuisines from around the world.

Quality-wise, if one believes the Michelin Guide, then HK is brilliant. But my prejudice against the Guide says they only scored for how nice the toilet smells, so there you go.

Interestingly, there is an urban myth here, and I'm sure there is some truth in it, that says, most top Cantonese chefs have emigrated to Canada in the latter half of the last century, so HK no longer has the best Cantonese cuisine in the world. For the best Cantonese cuisine, go to Toronto or Vancouver! :lol:

And since we are in the Japanese cuisine thread - I don't have any count of number of Japanese restaurants in HK, but I'm pretty sure they must be second only to Cantonese.


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## FrankE (Jan 13, 2021)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Also hate how the glop mayo and wasabi all over the various rolls


If it's glopped it's not wasabi.


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## composingmusic (Dec 16, 2021)

I've had some decent ramen and sushi in London, although the best Japanese food I've had was when I visited Kyoto once, several years ago... had some really great food there.


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## FrankE (Jan 13, 2021)

I've made my own sushi and would like to try that fancy beef and ramen, otherwise there's an awful lot of soy and abomination species of seafood.
I've massive respect for the Japanese culture remaining Japanese but our cuisines and food customs don't have much convergence.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Kiki said:


> I live in Hong Kong. HK has a reputation of being a diner's heaven because of the wide variety of cuisines one can find here.
> 
> Even around the backwater neighborhood where I live, say within an 2-mile diameter, there are at least a hundred restaurants of various cuisines from around the world.
> 
> ...


My own experience is that in Hong Kong you can have Chinese, Thai Chinese, Korean Chinese, Vietnamese Chinese, ...., but it's all Chinese.

Singapore seemed much more authentic cuisine, and better street food.

Just my experience, although repeated several times.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Kiki said:


> Interestingly, there is an urban myth here, and I'm sure there is some truth in it, that says, most top Cantonese chefs have emigrated to Canada in the latter half of the last century, so HK no longer has the best Cantonese cuisine in the world. For the best Cantonese cuisine, go to Toronto or Vancouver! :lol:


I believe it. I found the level of competition in Cantonese food very high here in Toronto. I believe most Japanese restaurants, and a few Vietnamese ones here are really run by Chinese, as I hear all the cooks talking in Cantonese. But here they do have a lot of authentic Vietnamese restaurants. There is a big Korean town here, but I haven't really explored it.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Chilham said:


> My own experience is that in Hong Kong you can have Chinese, Thai Chinese, Korean Chinese, Vietnamese Chinese, ...., but it's all Chinese.
> 
> Singapore seemed much more authentic cuisine, and better street food.
> 
> Just my experience, although repeated several times.


That's an interesting opinion, although I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean. Do you mean the Thai, Vietnamese and Korean food that you ate in HK all tasted the same? Also how do you mean by "it's all Chinese"? "Chinese" is a rather generalised term. Cantonese, Shanghainese, Beijingese, Sichuanese, to name a few of Chinese regional cuisines, all look and taste distinctively different. Throw in Thai, Vietnamese and Korean, the difference is night and day. No offense to your hosts, but perhaps they were not particularly good at picking decent restaurants. In fact, I'm more perplexed about something else: no Italian nor American food? Come on, at least Japanese tepanyaki, Belgium beer or German sausages? I would understand if there's no French because that's bloody expensive here. Perhaps because you come from the West, therefore you host deliberately avoided those, but I'm only guessing. However, to say "it's all Chinese" is, I'm afraid, either ignorance or more likely you've been taken to dupe places.

Singapore is great of course. Their core cuisine culture is a big melting pot based on Malay, Indian and Southern Chinese. Apparently you like that more. I like that also.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Phil loves classical said:


> *I believe it. I found the level of competition in Cantonese food very high here in Toronto.* I believe most Japanese restaurants, and a few Vietnamese ones here are really run by Chinese, as I hear all the cooks talking in Cantonese. But here they do have a lot of authentic Vietnamese restaurants. There is a big Korean town here, but I haven't really explored it.


Evidence from a Toronto local that supports that "myth" then, so it is likely not a myth after all.  I believe back then when a lot of people in HK wanted to emigrate, while the already sizeable HK community in Canada started getting into the catering business and tried to hire a lot of chefs from HK, and that's why they mostly went to Canada rather than somewhere else.


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## fbjim (Mar 8, 2021)

Kiki said:


> Interestingly, there is an urban myth here, and I'm sure there is some truth in it, that says, most top Cantonese chefs have emigrated to Canada in the latter half of the last century, so HK no longer has the best Cantonese cuisine in the world. For the best Cantonese cuisine, go to Toronto or Vancouver! :lol:


To some extent (though I'm sure you can get great food there still) I've heard this about Vietnamese food and Houston, TX.


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

Kiki said:


> That's an interesting opinion, although I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean. Do you mean the Thai, Vietnamese and Korean food that you ate in HK all tasted the same? Also how do you mean by "it's all Chinese"? "Chinese" is a rather generalised term. Cantonese, Shanghainese, Beijingese, Sichuanese, to name a few of Chinese regional cuisines, all look and taste distinctively different. Throw in Thai, Vietnamese and Korean, the difference is night and day. No offense to your hosts, but perhaps they were not particularly good at picking decent restaurants. In fact, I'm more perplexed about something else: no Italian nor American food? Come on, at least Japanese tepanyaki, Belgium beer or German sausages? I would understand if there's no French because that's bloody expensive here. Perhaps because you come from the West, therefore you host deliberately avoided those, but I'm only guessing. However, to say "it's all Chinese" is, I'm afraid, either ignorance or more likely you've been taken to dupe places.
> 
> Singapore is great of course. Their core cuisine culture is a big melting pot based on Malay, Indian and Southern Chinese. Apparently you like that more. I like that also.


I'd hardly come to HK to eat German, Italian, French or American food.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed many meals there. I always look forward to coming either to Kowloon or HK, but I always find myself happy to leave.


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