Food in Japan
Japanese food is known for its healthy ingredients and taste. Worldly well-known foods are sushi, tempura, sukiyaki and noodles. But the question is, "Do we eat sushi everyday?" Well, the answer is "No".
1. Everyday food.
Traditional Japanese home cooking dishes includes "rice, miso soup, soy beans food, and grilled fish". Most people consume rice twice a day and variety of soy bean product such as tofu, soy sauce, and miso. This is because Japanese did not eat meat until recently, we started to eat meat in 1868 when the emperor proclaimed a cultural awakening to catch up with Western nations. Nowadays, many working, younger people eat simpler, westernized food such as toast and coffee.
Kids in schools eat both bread and rice, side dishes and desert which are school lunch programs. Style of the school lunch programs is varied among Japanese, Indian, Korean, and combination of Western and Japanese food.
Workers in Japan eat at canteens at their companies, cafes, restaurants, or to bring their own lunch boxes. Many of workers spend from ¥500 ($4.5) to ¥1,000 ($9) for their lunch.
Average Japanese consumes 1,840 kilocalories a day, which opposed to People in Western countries consume around 3,600 kilocalories a day.
2. About "Rice".
Although, there are various theories, "Rice" has been started produced 3000 years ago. It is the most important agricultural product in Japan, accounting for 25% of total agricultural production. Self-efficiency of rice is almost 100%, yet average annual consumption of rice per person is down to 50% when compared to it was in 1965. Makes annual consumption average of rice is 57kg.
3. About "Noodles".
There are variety of noodles can be slurped in Japan. (Will explain "slurping" later.)
Udon, soba, ramen, somen, chanpon, yakisoba, kishimen, and so many. Yes, Japanese love noodles. You'll see thousands of noodle restaurants in Japan, especially ramen.
4. Why do Japanese slurp when they eat noodles?
Well, this must be shocking when you see it the first time. Since this behavior is considered to be rude in many countries.
We do it for a reason, slurping noodles makes its soup to smell and taste better.
Try eating noodles without sound, and slurp after that. Personally, I do it at home with spaghetti which makes olive oil and other ingredients to become more "incensive". This "slurping" may be better explained with am example of that slurping wines. It tastes and smells totally different when you slurp wine. Well, roughly put, but the same thing.
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