Japanese food v. Chinese food
 

I love 'em both, but I give a slight edge to Japanese. It's more healthy and I love Japanese steakhouses.

I couldn't have said it better myself. It's a tough call, but I gotta give the edge to Japanese.

Chinese and it isn't even close.

Come on. That's like asking someone to pick a favorite child.

Due to sushi, I have to go with Japanese. Both both are wonderful.

I'm not eating Chinese food until I have some confidence that every single product isn't adulteratued with industrial chemicals.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...062701472.html

One would think that my opinion on the matter would be obvious, given my moniker, but things are not so simple. I frankly find that a good percentage of the Japanese food over here is a complete waste of calories. I have several specific rules about what I will and will not eat over here, and there are only three or so restaurants in NYC that I will trust to prepare, say, a nice una-don. When in doubt, I'm much more comfortable ordering food from some random place in Chinatown than a Japanese restaurant I'm not comfortable with. This will likely change once I get salmonella from a plate of Beef with Broccoli.

For the record, I don't consider Asian fusion restauarants (such as Nobu) to be true Japanese. I do consider them to be tasty.

On the other hand, I refuse to eat authentic Chinese after my time in China. The actual stuff they eat over there is nothing short of inuguso (lit. dog feces). Oh, the stories I have! And I was eating at formal business dinners - I shudder to think of what the average Wang eats off of the heated barrel on the street.

Disclaimer: I in no way intend the above to reflect my thinking on any race or ethnicity. The opinions above are limited solely to the culinary realm, and any offensive comments found within are the results of your own internal biases.

In my experience, formal Chinese food is more bizarre than the everyday stuff. Eating exotic and expensive, albeit disgusting, foods is a way the Chinese upper class can seperate themselves from the peasants. The everyday Chinese food that you buy off the streets is terrific.

That actually is a relief. Sounds somewhat like the Douglas Adams concept of Andearan Parakeet Glands - more or less things used by rich idiots to impress other rich idiots.

I remember going down a street in Beijing where they were selling scorpions on a stick and grasshoppers on a stick. That was the only thing in China that I just couldn't bring myself to try.

Yeah, I should have added a caveat that you can still find some crazy stuff on the streets.

Japanese food is really quite a simple cuisine. There is not much subtlety or diversity in my opinion. Sushi is so one dimensional that some super markets can make it as well as a fine Japanese restaurant. What unique artistry you do find in sushi is generally the product of fusion with Western cuisines.

I find teriyaki and tempura unimaginitive and I get bored of them fairly quickly, though I will eat a teriyaki lunch every once in a while. Much teriyaki is simply overbearingly salty/sweet. The soups are tasty and elegant, but again, redundant and fairly simple. Whole Foods supermarket has a nice array of Japanese soups about as good as you'll find anywhere. I have similar comments about sukiyaki as the soups.

On my visits to Japan I enjoyed teppanyaki, including especially the kobe beef. But you don't get teppanyaki and kobe beef anywhere like it is in Tokyo. Here it's the stuff of chains for some reason. Maybe culterally Americans don't like sharing a table with strangers. Kobe beef probably requires cruelty to animals.

In contrast, the varieties and subtle qualities of excellent Chinese food are infinite. Personally, I never saw this so evident as when I visited Beiging. The hotel we stayed at had half a dozen nice restaurants, all serving Chinese food, and each one was a completely unique experience. Yes, super markets serve something that passes as Chinese food, but it's like calling French fries French food. The only places you can get fine Chinese food is at Chinese restaurants, invariably prepared by master chefs. Indeed, I've found that Chinese restaurants wax and wane depending on the chef, and I imangine they are sought after like baseball free agents.

Like French food Chinese food is a mother cuisine in that has impacted a variety of lesser cuisines such as Japanese and Thai enormously.

That's an improvement on the stuff I had. I stomached the sheep tripe without much problem, but the propane-torch barbequed parakeets were too much. The latter were literally parakeet sized birds, the preparation of which entailed (as nearly as I can tell) the removal of the head and cooking with a propane blowtorch and nothing else (i.e. innards attached, feet remaining, etc.). We asked our translator how we were supposed to eat these things - were we supposed to nibble the meat off the miniscule bones? We were then informed that the bones were crunchy and we were to consume these much as one would would eat a mini-snickers bar: pop the whole thing in at once and chew away.

Thankfully, this was a scarce two weeks after my worst culinary experience ever (exotic sashimi in Japan - raw abalone liver is quite the deal), so I was able to choke it down with minimal gags and no puking.

You don't have to eat the fierce food. China is an ancient culture. Like the Middle East you still find much residue of medieval times there. This is not all there is to Chinese food needless to say.

Wow. That's hilarious, almost like a hazing ritual.

I went to a nice Chinese restaurant in Japan, and I have to say, it was quite good, and completely different than any Chinese food I had ever seen in the states.

Japanese food is simple and clean. Chinese food is oily in comparison.

There is a reason why those rare times I see an overweight Asian, that I automatically assume that person is Chinese.

Waters doesn't eat out and lives off of his food storage and what he can grow in his back yard. So take this for what it's worth.

I agree there are more ways to get fat off of Chinese food than Japanese, and it's more tempting to overeat good Chinese food.

Chinese food even hugely impacted Italian cuisine.

Interesting. How so?

Pasta. There was no pasta in Europe until Europeans interacted with the Chinese. Legend has it Marco Polo brought it back with him. Also, most of what you love about Japanese food is similarly derivative of Chinese. Like I said, Chinese is the French food of Asia, except that to Asia China is like a conflation of Greece, Rome, and France to Europe/USA.

Not what I love. While it's very true that the Chinese had major impact on Japanese foodstuffs, the impact is, oddly enough, more recent than some would believe (i.e., in the last 100 years). I think it's very easy to overstate the Chinese influence. Certainly somethings such as Dim Sum were incorporated wholesale, but most of that is post Meiji Restoration.

The real, traditional Japanese food, which I surmise few have actually had, is no more of Chinese origin than I am. It was simply a product of the three things that Japan had access to: fish, salt and rice.

I like Onigiri with umeboshi inside.

Too bad I can't buy it.

I am also a big fan of natto.

I don't think natto is Chinese. Might be wrong.

Natto is not Chinese. It was discovered when a daimyo from the Mito area (I forget the archaic name for the province off the top of my head - probably Hitachi) went on a trip, got lost, was forced to eat rotten soybeans, and discovered he liked them. Mito Natto is still considered to be the best.

People from southern/western Japan generally regard natto much as I do barbequed parakeets.

So is tofu, the panoply of noodle soups, anything stir or deep fried or steamed or grilled, the pickled vegetables. Anything seasoned. Just about everything but sashimi is derivative of the mother country. Same is true for Vietnamese, Korean, and Thai, except Thai is also heavily influenced by Indian cuisine.

Origins aside, Japanese tofu and Chinese tofu are not even within the same zip code of each other.

1. Korean
2. Japanese
3. Chinese

They're all great and I eat Asian food at least a couple times a week.

That sentence right there disqualifies everything said in your post. How can a food connoisseur like you make such an outrageous comment? Supermarket sushi (even in glorious Seattle) tastes like crap to anyone with any kind discriminating taste in sushi. Sushi should NEVER be mass-produced and it must always be eaten fresh. As in immediately. Throw on some packaging, throw it in the counter, and within 15-30 minutes the texture and flavor go all to hell.

The Chinese patented steaming food? Interesting.

When you get a second, post some of your Asian recipes. I'm always interested in trying something different.

Clearly SU has never had sushi in Tsukiji for breakfast. There is a reason why I only trust about three places in NYC for sushi.

I trust no place that is more than 150 miles inland. If you aren't picking your fish in the market in the morning, I don't want what you're serving.

I love Korean food.

I sense an SU/MW fight is near.

I've heard it said that Japanese food is a simple food, but I think such basics as miso and dashi have subtleties in flavor that shouldn't be dismissed. Or are those of Chinese origin too?

For instance, take a simple dish like udon. I love udon, but not all udon is created equal. The underlying broth is so important, and that's where the artistry of creating a good dashi comes in. BTW Nikuman, the best udon I've tasted in the States is from a restaurant in Houston.

I also loved simmered foods like mizutaki and shabu shabu. And even if it's simple, rustic food, I like a good yakitori sauce too.

Amen to that. I wish I could get that down. Our Japanese friends make udon and soba dishes that are exquisite.

By the way, have you ever seen the movie Tampopo?

Pulkogi is heaven.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1826...243204,00.html

You can find various recipes. Search for pulkogi, pulgogi, bulgogi, bulgoki. Cut up your beef or pork very thin slices. Soy sauce, sugar, korean red pepper paste,

http://www.koamart.com/shop/30-1356-...te__2_2lbs.asp

sesame oil and/or sesame seeds, yellow or green onion, garlic, ginger. Marinate it over night. Fry it up. Make your Chinese style sticky rice. Take some leafy lettuce (not iceberg!) and place it out. Eat lettuce wrap style, with a little rice, piece of meat, then optionally add thin slices of garlic, small pieces of kimche, and/or a dab of samjang (samchang).

http://www.koamart.com/shop/30-1986-...rap_2_2lbs.asp

Or ignore the lettuce and just chow down the meat and rice.

Other great Korean dishes which would be difficult to make at home but are delish.

Ojingo pogum (squid fried rice)

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?...pic=36532&st=0

Tolsot pipim pap (hot stone bowl fried rice)

http://www.pbs.org/hiddenkorea/recipes.htm

Kimche stew

http://www.trifood.com/kimchichigae.html


My favorite Japanese:

Sukiyaki, we make this at home regularly

http://japanesefood.about.com/od/bee...utsukiyaki.htm

Yakiniku

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakiniku

Similar to Korean pulkogi but without the marinade and the lettuce wrap. Just fry up a bunch of meat, tofu, and assorted veggies, and dip into a Yakiniku sauce you buy at an Asian market with your rice

Other Japanese foods I love but don't make at home

Shabu Shabu (to die for)

http://www.globalgourmet.com/destina...habushabu.html

Yakisoba

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisoba

I also make a delicious Koreanized curry dish--stewed carrots, onions, chicken/beef with thick brown curry.

Can you post some more rehashed Chinese food?

This is good to know. I have a favorite udon place around here that I'm not happy to leave behind

I agree on your point on the intricate flavors, especially as they relate to miso. There are literally hundreds of types of miso, and each region has its specialties.

Frankly, people who only eat normal Japanese food are missing out. What most people get are the things that are served in Tokyo. What you don't get are the various regional specialties, some of which (like rice containing bee larvae in the Nagano region, or rice with crickets in the northern Tochigi region) are especially exotic.

Good shabu shabu, when mixed with a proper ponzu sauce, is second to no dish I have ever had, and that includes anything and everything I've had at all the fancy-schmancy places in Manhattan.

Korea and Japan have isolated, autonomous histories of 2,000 years. Chinese food restaraunts in China, Korea, and Japan (not to mention US) all serve different style food. SU's just showing his typical arrogance and ignorance in this thread.

Tonkatsu is also very easy to make. Eggs, flour, pork from Costco, a hammer wrapped in tin foil, panko and some oil, and you're set. Finding the tonkatsu sauce isn't that hard either, in most major cities.