kurogane wrote:Like any desperation ingredient. Most so-called Delicacies strike me as famine time necessities gussied up by pretence and bafflegab. Caviar comes to mind. The time I had whale or dolphin foisted on me the pighead wouldn't grill it for me, but I think that would have only helped with texture not taste. Easily the most worthless 3000 yen I have ever spent on food. Most non-Jpn I know that liked it are either babbling morons, or suffer from that weird thing where anything you try has to be good or it's your fault for being insufficiently sophisticated. As a cosmopolitan philistine, I'll have a nice steak please. Or Tonkatsu, which never seems to go wrong even when it's crappy tonkatsu.
I can buy that many Jpn will take to it, though. It's that love of gross, slimey and yucky they have, like with Chawan Mushi. And the mercury doesn't bug them, which is not particularly admirable but they're probably not all that wrong.
Couldn't agree more but I have a serious question Kuro - What was the longest stint you've spent in Japan?
Although I do visit 'merika™ 2-5 times a year, I've been in Japan long enough to have my palette recover from the sweet and salty assault that I grew up with. I'm not really a food nerd but I have definitely noticed that every trip back to the states I get a bit of shock when I bite into a burger or buy something like yogurt. The amount of salt and/or sugar in some things ruins it for me. On the other hand, I've all but given up on edible omiyage for my friends/family because nothing is ever sweet enough or "there isn't enough flavor." Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy most foods in the US and mule those hard to find items back with me.....but your mention of "being insufficiently sophisticated" reminded me of the need for sugar overload or dead sea level saltiness needed for many things to "taste good" to many in gaikokuland. Of course there will always be individual preference but when your idea of "normal" is insanely salty or sweet, your sense of taste is fucked.