Archive for the ‘Usual Misunderstanding’ Category

To an outsider, Japanese food is really complicated and confusing, so it is no wonder that a number of widely held misconceptions have grown up around it, particularly regarding the English names for some Japanese ingredients. What I do find surprising, however, is that many of these misconceptions are so widely held and persistent. Anyway, I thought I’d kick off the blog by listing up a few of my favourites, some of which are more serious than others.

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I love Japanese food. For me, it is the most inventive, creative, stimulating and above all delicious cuisine on the planet.

At the same time, however, I have been confused, repelled, frightened and, on one or two occasions, almost reduced to tears by it.

I’ve called this blog the Gaijin Gourmet not because I think I know all there is to know about Japanese cuisine (far from it), but because I’m a non-Japanese person (gaijin) who has, over the past ten years, learned, sometimes the hard way, a few things about Japanese cuisine, and have come to love it more and more.

By writing this blog, I hope that I can tell someone something interesting or useful about Japanese food that they didn’t know before, and discover lots more interesting and useful things from other people.

So please, do feel free to contribute with your thoughts, comments, agreements and disagreements.