In Japanese, Western food is known as yōshoku (洋食), which literally translates to ‘foreign food’. Yet, dining on yōshoku in Japan reveals, quite bluntly, how not foreign ‘foreign food’ really is.
Consider the cutlet, カツ. The most common version being tonkatsu (豚カツ), thick-cut, breaded, deep-fried pork served with shredded cabbage, rice and miso soup. While the origins of tonkatsu are blurred, it was most definitely introduced to Japan through trade with the West. Since then, tonkatsu chefs have forgone forks and knives, sandwiched it between white bread and Japanese mayonnaise, and served it with a tangy blend of pureed apples and Worcestershire sauce. Yet, to this day there probably isn’t anyone outside Japan who would tell you that tonkatsu was European, nor would there be anyone in Japan who would tell you that tonkatsu was Japanese.
And so, as Western dishes flooded into Japan through the ports of Edo and Yokohama, the Japanese have perpetually internalized them and recreated authentically Japanese versions. While one may draw parallels between yōshoku and the Americanization of exotic foods, in many ways, Americanization is much easier to understand, for in the case of the United States, the food accompanied the immigrants. Indeed, most American-Chinese kitchens are run by Chinese restaurateurs, whereas the Japanese world of cuisine continues to insist that yōshoku is best prepared by Japanese chefs.
At the end of the day, yōshoku is Japanese food. While the evolution of various Western dishes – the omelette, French toast, demi-glace sauce, steak– may have been rooted in lands abroad, most of these roots were torn away, and Japanese chefs reinvented the dishes entirely. Elaborate cheeses characteristic of Western European cuisine were shaved away, sauces were reduced to white, black and red, and everything deep-fried was drenched in panko breadcrumbs. Korokkes are no longer croquettes; kare is no longer curry; Naporitan spaghetti is not Napolitan spaghetti.
Just the same, here in Japan, friends of mine have ordered hamburgers and not been given buns. Yet somehow, I’m okay with that.
