Japanese and Food
As you probably know, the Japanese government has placed a ban on US Beef following an occurance of Mad Cow. This of course makes perfect sense and is entirely reasonable to me. Japan tests every cow for the disease. The United States has up until now tested none. The US had also up until now slaughtered and distributed “downer” cows that are unable to stand up, which are the ones most likely to have the disease.
Interestingly, one of my students in voice pointed out that America has banned the import of Japanese beef since Japan had an outbreak three years ago. This was news to me of course. I had never heard of a ban. I see no reason why America, which exports tons of beef, would want to import it from Japan. American beef is cheaper, and beef is just beef. I could care less what country the cow came from.
This surprised my students. At grocery stores the beef is labeled what country it comes from (Japan, America or Australia). They also had differing opinions on which was best. Some liked Japanese beef because it was juicier and more tender. Others did not like this because it was fattening, but liked Australian beef which is leaner but not as tough as American beef. Most seemed to prefer Japanese beef, but Australian was a contender. No one seemed to like American beef*. Amusingly, they aplogized before speaking negatively about American beef. As if I care!
However, this idea that I would be offended is pretty universal. They seem to hold the notion that one will naturally prefer his own country’s food. I have yet to ask someone which country has the best food and receive a reply of anything except “Japan”. In fact, it is almost always “Japanese food, of course”. They then are shocked to hear that Chinese, Mexican and then Japanese are my favorite foods.
* previously, a student had bemoaned the loss of Gyudon [essentially a teriyaki beef bowl] at Yoshinoya due to the ban on US Beef. Yoshinoya is a Japanese version of something between a Waffle House and McDonalds. It is open 24 hours, has the kind of family restaurant feel with bar stools. They are grotesquely fast cheap–300 yen for a beef bowl in 30 seconds. It is their speciality. They accomplish the price by using American beef exclusively. Unfortunately, they had to change to Pork bowls since they can’t import US Beef anymore. The most interesting aspect is that you order your food at a vending machine, and hand the server your ticket.
