Japanese food v. Chinese food

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by nikuman

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.

Tonkatsu is good but doesn't do it for me like other Asian dishes. The sauce tastes too much like A1.

[ute4ever]

It's hard to find real Chinese food anymore. It seems like every place I see has converted to mass production for buffet-style.

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by jay santos

Pulkogi is heaven.

Thanks for those recipes Jay. It will fun to try them out this summer.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

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.

I've eaten enough sushi to last people several lifetimes. My first father in law was Japanese and he used to make it and took us out a lot to eat it and my ex and I were great fans of it. But now my wife if anything loves it more than my ex did. We eat it practically every week. It was one of her recurring cravings during pregnancy in which she indulged, even though technically the doctor said don't eat it. I've eaten sushi in upscale sushi bars, conveyer sushi places (we have a great chain here called Blue C), at home, and in Tokyo. It's good food. I just get tired of it. As you tacitly admit, there's no virtue to it other than the freshness of the fish. I don't think it varies much from place to place in terms of quality when you get right down to it. Those cuts you see behind the glass in the sushi bar have been sitting there for at least a few hours. You're romanticising the sushi bar experience.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by ute4ever

It's hard to find real Chinese food anymore. It seems like every place I see has converted to mass production for buffet-style.

Usually you have to go to a Chinese community in a larger urban area.

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by nikuman

On the other hand, I refuse to eat authentic Chinese after my time in China.

I haven't spent any time in China, but when I lived in Boston I went to a Chinese restaurant on an "authentic" day and wow what a difference. Americanized Chinese food is as tasty as can be but that authentic stuff was horrendous. I'd be more likely to cut off and eat my own pinky before I'd eat that stuff again.

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by SteelBlue

I haven't spent any time in China, but when I lived in Boston I went to a Chinese restaurant on an "authentic" day and wow what a difference. Americanized Chinese food is as tasty as can be but that authentic stuff was horrendous. I'd be more likely to cut off and eat my own pinky before I'd eat that stuff again.

It's oft overlooked that a good portion of the diets of many people was not based on taste but rather availability. Some cultures have refused to move beyond that ethic, and things like sheep tripe, thousand year old egg, and haggis (to pick on another culture) are the result.

[marsupial]

I used to love Chinese food until I shared an office with a Japanese man. He was on this Panda Express kick that just so happen to coincide with the first trimester of my first pregnancy. Every day he got takeout there and brought it back to his desk. The aroma filled the entire office and it made me nauseated. My only escape was the women's restroom, where as a pregnant woman, I spent a lot of time anyway. That was more than six years ago, but still I am not a fan of at least the fast food version of the cuisine. Perhaps an opportunity to eat at an authentic Chinese restaurant would change my mind.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

As you tacitly admit, there's no virtue to it other than the freshness of the fish.

No, that's not what I was saying.

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

I don't think it varies much from place to place in terms of quality when you get right down to it. Those cuts you see behind the glass in the sushi bar have been sitting there for at least a few hours. You're romanticising the sushi bar experience.

All that sushi experience and yet so ignorant? What a pity.

The problem with supermarket sushi is not just the freshness of the fish. It is the fact that the sushi rice gets tough and stale after sitting in a cooler for hours. And the cucumbers wilt and extract moisture. And the seaweed extracts moisture from the rice and gets limp and chewy. And you can't even begin to approach the variety of styles and flavors and sauces that you would get at a quality sushi bar. Not by a mile.

This is like arguing that day-old leftovers from Panda Express are just as good as fresh chinese food from a gourmet restuarant. It's absurd.

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by marsupial

I used to love Chinese food until I shared an office with a Japanese man. He was on this Panda Express kick that just so happen to coincide with the first trimester of my first pregnancy. Every day he got takeout there and brought it back to his desk. The aroma filled the entire office and it made me nauseated. My only escape was the women's restroom, where as a pregnant woman, I spent a lot of time anyway. That was more than six years ago, but still I am not a fan of at least the fast food version of the cuisine. Perhaps an opportunity to eat at an authentic Chinese restaurant would change my mind.

I'm sure authentic Chinese would do the trick. Nothing like the smell of radioactive barbequed carp and grilled pig fat loaf.