It’s funny how so many of the foods eaten by the Japanese on a daily basis aren’t very Japanese at all. Sure, people here eat plenty of things that are associated closely with Japan, like soba and udon noodles, sushi and sashimi, or donburi (“big bowl”) dishes like gyudon (beef bowl) or oyakodon, the “parent and child” rice bowl consisting of chicken and egg cooked together and put over rice, but there are many non-Japanese foods consumed here, too. Of course, there are many dishes that have been imported from China, like gyoza (pot stickers) or ramen, although the Japanese don’t consider the stir-fried yakisoba noodles to be Chinese in origin, much as they look like chow mein to me. The Japanese have internalized foods from many other countries, including Italian spaghetti, French croquetes (which go so well with that Japanese Tonkatsu sauce) or American “hamburg steak” (steak made from ground beef). The single most popular food in Japan might just be that ubiquitous curry rice, the thick curry sauce served over steaming rice, which was imported from India via Britain during the Meiji Era. We probably eat it 4-5 times a week at our house.
