Look, I get it. You’ve come to J-List Blog because you love Japan. Or you’re curious about it. Or you want to see adorable Japanese girls in maid uniforms. But sometimes, you see the food porn in anime and wonder, “How do you eat something that looks like that? With your hands? Toothpicks? Chopsticks? How?” The Food Diary of Miss Maid (メイドさんは食べるだけ, Maid-san wa taberu dake) is your best guide if you love the cute-girls-do-cute-things slice-of-life anime genre. And it even includes a maid! See how this relaxing anime serves as your reference guide to all things sweet and savory in a Japanese market district.
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The Food Diary of Miss Maid — Your Crash Course in Japanese Delicacies
The anime offers a tailor-made premise for visitors to Japan who would love to sample its signature food. Suzume Tachibana (voice: Kana Ichinose — Fern from Frieren) is a Japanese maid who moved to Great Britain as a child. Her master’s mansion collapsed while she was in Japan, forcing her to stay. It was only supposed to be a short vacation during a construction project, but now she’ll be there for a year! What should she do during that time? The Food Diary of Miss Maid reveals her solution: Suzume will use Chun Guide as her seasonal menu. Foreigners can sit by her side as she methodically works her way through a cartoon sparrow’s suggestions about what to eat and — even better for us — how to eat them.
Has this happened to you? You’re a weeaboo or an otaku, and you want to try a bit of your Japanese at a traditional ramen house doing a pop-up collab with a local anime convention. You order tonkotsu udon — onegaishimasu! — and the big bowl arrives with chopsticks and a ceramic spoon. How do you use them like a Japanese person? You never saw that in anime (unless you watched Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles). The Food Diary of Miss Maid serves up that scene, several times in an episode!
Episodic Servings of Slice-of-Life
The anime breaks each episode into vignettes based on what Suzume Tachibana wants to eat. Taiyaki is the first Japanese food she tries upon returning to Japan. It’s only the national pastry! Chun (voice: Daisuke Sakuma — Michiru Hazama from Cardfight!!), the cartoon mascot of Chun Guide, is also the narrator for The Food Diary of Miss Maid. Chun is the Japanese onomatopoeia for sparrows’ chirps. Most gourmet anime shows dish up generous servings of food porn. But this one slides you side dishes of tips and tricks for handling and eating the food as extra “service.” Japanese cuisine, like most cultural aspects, rarely comes with an instruction manual. Now you have one to consult with a cute maid!
Suzume will, of course, have cute and quirky neighbors, like a cat and Nana Komatsu (voice: Maki Kawase — Akira Ogata from My Dress-Up Darling), the girl living next door. And Suzume’s grandmother (voice: Megumi Toyoguchi — Ghislaine Dedoldia from Mushoku Tensei) will suggest more practical tips. Such as using two (2!) toothpicks to hold a takoyaki ball!
The Food Diary of Miss Maid — Put Headphones on for the Main Course
The anime’s main charm comes from the appreciative squeals of delight Suzume blurts out whenever she samples a Japanese dish. Granted, Baumkuchen isn’t a Japanese snack, but you still must eat it the Japanese way if you buy it wrapped from a local Japanese store. The Food Diary of Miss Maid even teaches you how to peel open a convenience store rice ball. Please don’t turn Suzume’s squeals into a drinking game, but a squeal-meter tracking if she squeals more than once per food item chapter could be fun.
The Food Diary of Miss Maid (Maid-san wa taberu dake) streams on Crunchyroll in Japanese audio and multiple language subtitles.
Thanks for reading this post about a maid making inappropriate noises while tasting delicious snacks and entrées. I like the relaxing art direction and character designs. Plus, the instruction manual on odango and takoyaki. Two toothpicks! I never would have thought of that. Will you watch Suzume eat her way through the Chun Guide’s menu? Let us know in the comments!
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J-List is a corporation registered in Japan, and like every corporation, we have to count inventory when our fiscal year ends. But we hate counting stock, and would much rather sell it to you — so let’s have a sale! Through May 31st, get 15% off all shipping-from-Japan products automatically. Start browsing here!
