Japanese Restaurant Authenticity

[Mulboyne]

Dyske Suematsu gets a bit over-excited about authentic Japanese restaurants and Mark Dong disagrees:

DYSKE: How to tell a real Japanese Restaurant

Suematsu: What I'm about to tell you may be very specific to New York, but there has been a trend among Chinese and Korean restaurateurs to open Japanese restaurants without paying any respect to the art of Japanese cuisine. This is obviously done solely to take advantage of the bigger profit margin associated with Japanese cuisine. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against Chinese or Korean people...

Dong: ...[Y]our arguments are kind of condescending to Korean and Chinese people. You get so angry that they seem to be "stealing" Japanese culture and ideas but didn't the Japanese "borrow" many things from the Koreans and almost all Sino Asian countries have appropriated some form of language, food items, grammar, clothing, martial arts, etc. from the Chinese. I mean isn't the Japanese Kanji Chinese?...more...

Suematsu responds to Dong here:

...I also never said that Chinese and Koreans are the only people who are exploitative. I acknowledged upfront that some Japanese people are trying to cash in on the popularity of Kimchi by making inferior versions of them. The Japanese are just as exploitative as Chinese are, if not more. It was never intended to explore who is more exploitative. I was simply taking the Japanese restaurant phenomenon as an example of cultural exploitation. If someone were to write an article about how to tell a real Chinese restaurant in Japan, I would love it. Better yet, if someone were to write an article about how to tell a real Italian restaurant in Rome from the ones designed to exploit tourists...more...

[Charles]

They both missed the point. The reason why there are so many bad fake Japanese restaurants run by Koreans and Chinese, is that they're run by the Moonies.

[Jack]

Bottom line is Japanese restaurants, particularly sushi, are very popular in North America and yet there are not enough Japanese people of chefs to satisfy the demand. There being more Chinese and Korean people in North America than Japanese, and many not speaking the language fluently enough to find a normal job, go into business for themselves. Some open dry cleaners and others convenience stores. But many open restaurants that happen to be Japanese because it's so popular and has high margin. Not enough Japanese chefs to go around and yet people want to eat sushi. What do you do?

I personally don't like Chinese sushi shops because they really cut corners to make the product cheap. I find Korean people stick more closely to the Japanese method. If the chef speaks Chinese I walk out. Korean or Japanese and take a stool at the sushi bar.

[Greji]

But many open restaurants that happen to be Japanese because it's so popular and has high margin.

I was at a couple of "Japanese" restaurants in the suburbs of Phoenix awhile back and was quite surprised. There were only a few things on the menu I could remotely recognize as Japanese and there also wasn't an oriental in the joint to include among the customers other than my resident rice cooker and our kids. One of the places was owned by a brother who told me that he had served a tour in the Military in Japan and when he had the chance to buy this place from its previous owner, a nisei, he thought it would be a good investment. He doesn't use oriental help simply because it is not available to any extent in Arizona. He told me he constantly works on the menu and finds that the more Chinese style dishes, served as psuedo Japanese food, or with Japanese styled names, seem to work the best. He said he has been called on this by some "traditionalists", but freely admitted that he is not in business for the "tradition", but for the money!

He also admitted that he had contracted YBF while in Japan, which was another reason why the restaurant and ties to the orient had remained with him. Good dude, I'll go back to there again.

[(1VB)freels]

I have seen Filipino and Mexicans "posing" as sushi chefs. They are taught by either a Japanese or Korean. But when they get the hang of it, it's all them. As for the Chinese, I too don't go there. I know that it'll be crappy food and the service will be meager. That is for Japanese style food, not Chinese food. I think that they are more responsive if you go to a Chinese resturant then a Chinese run Japanese Resturant. But then again, I live in So Cal!!!

[Jack]

I went to a "Japanese" restaurant in Chicago, don't know who the owner was cause he sure was ain't Japanese. The Mexican posing as sushi chef had a big cloth bandage on his finger with which he was making sushi. He was obviously injured. I walked out of there as fast as I could before ordering anything. Took a cab and went to Hatsuhana, a real Japanese restaurant and I felt so good in that surounding with Japanese chefs and real Japanese customers around me.

[Charles]

...Took a cab and went to Hatsuhana, a real Japanese restaurant and I felt so good in that surounding with Japanese chefs and real Japanese customers around me.

I like Hatsuhana, but it's a little too snooty for my tastes (I was actually refused entry once, apparently I wasn't dressed well enough). I prefer Ginza Fish, it's only blocks away. Ginza Fish meets the one true test of a REAL authentic sushi restaurant: there is a large shelf of big sake bottles with the names of nihonjin written on them. if nihonjin eat there regularly enough to have their own bottles of sake, it's got to be a decent place.

[Jack]

I like Hatsuhana, but it's a little too snooty for my tastes (I was actually refused entry once, apparently I wasn't dressed well enough). I prefer Ginza Fish, it's only blocks away. Ginza Fish meets the one true test of a REAL authentic sushi restaurant: there is a large shelf of big sake bottles with the names of nihonjin written on them. if nihonjin eat there regularly enough to have their own bottles of sake, it's got to be a decent place.

I didn't know about Ginza Fish. I'll give it a try next time. I go to that city frequently. I never had troubles at Hatsuhana. But then again, why don't you just try dressing better all the time. Become a well-dressed man and be done with it.

[Charles]

But then again, why don't you just try dressing better all the time. Become a well-dressed man and be done with it.

I am always well dressed. But it was raining and I was soaking wet, so I didn't look that well dressed.