DIY Japanese Food

I think it can be accurately said that the Japanese are foodies. More than the average American, I think the average Japanese enjoys the experience of eating food more. I was reminded of this recently when I went out to eat Korean BBQ with co-workers who would literally ooo and aww at each tantilizing bite of food that they would eat.

I don't want to paint a broad brush here - I don't think that Americans' attitude towards food boils down to opening your mouth and shoveling it in as fast as you can...though I'm sure there is some of that...especially with me! I just think to the average Japanese, eating, especially eating out, is about more than just the one sense of taste.

It's because of that need for a multi-sensory experience, I believe, that in Japan there are many foods where, if you go into a restaurant, you have to cook your own food. I can think of at least three distinct types of wildly popular foods in Japan where you walk into the restaurant and pay for them to bring you your food so that you can then begin to cook it. They are Korean BBQ, Shabu-Shabu and what we had earlier this week, Okonomiyaki. Shelley loves Shabu Shabu, likes Korean BBQ, so I introduced her and Anthon to Okonomiyaki this week.

Okonomiyaki is essentially a Japanese-style pancake - batter filled with things like meat, seafood, vegetables, noodles and spices. You mix it all together and let it cook on a griddle in front of you. It looks weird, but it tastes good. The circular griddle with the spherical shaped holes are for something called taco-yaki - breaded balls filled with octopus. The griddle also has room for yaki-soba, fried noodles, like chow mein.

Even in a dive like this one, the experience of eating something new and cooking it yourself adds to the multi-sensory experience that I think Japanese foodies crave. I really think we enjoyed our food more because we cooked it than had the okonomiyaki pancake had just showed up for us to eat. So, maybe the Japanese are on to something there. I'm waiting for some bright business school grad to take this business model to the next level and have people pay to not only cook their food, but to also clear the table and wash the dishes.