6/22/2018 0 Comments The vitality of CultureI recently visited a typical Japanese restaurant, one that you would probably see in most cities in the U.S. As I sat down to browse the menu, particularly the sushi selection, it suddenly struck me that many of the sushi options popular in the U.S. are rarely seen in Japan, the indisputable origin of sushi. Sushi rolls such as California roll, Boston roll, and Philadelphia roll are considered as the most common types of sushi in the U.S., but certainly not in Japan, where sushi is largely fresh seafood-based. In addition, using deep-fried ingredients such as Tempura in Sushi is also uncommon in Japan, as the flavor and texture of deep-fried ingredients may overpower other ingredients of more delicate flavors (e.g. the rice in sushi). In other words, the sushi found in America is not exactly the same as the sushi in Japan, despite bearing the same name. Should Japanese people worry about their culture being misrepresented?
Depending on how conservative you may be in terms of multiculturalism and globalization, you may have a different answer to the above question. My take however, is that there is little to worry about. Instead, the Americanized Japanese sushi perfectly testifies to the vitality of Japanese sushi culture, and serves to spread its charms across the globe. We live in an era where communications among different cultures are becoming increasingly inevitable, as traveling/migrating to different countries, a practice that used to be a privilege of a few people, is now accessible to many in the population. Consequently, people’s interest in learning and experiencing other cultures has grown as well. Unfortunately, for most people, it is difficult to imagine, envision, let alone embrace the practices and customs of a different culture that one is completely unfamiliar with. Understandably, one may find food from a different culture exotic and interesting for the moment, but if the food is too different from what s/he is used to, that exotic and interesting food experience will likely only stay in one’s memory as “something different”, without triggering further wishes to enjoy or understand it more. In order for a typical American in the 60s to truly enjoy sushi as a food rather than merely a token of “exotic experience”, sushi in the U.S. needed to incorporate something that Americans can feel related to. Thus “reverse rolls” were born (the aforementioned rolls are all examples of reverse rolls that reversed the order of seaweed/nori and rice when rolling the sushi—traditional Japanese sushi rolls would have nori on the outside, rice inside of nori to wrap up the other ingredients; reverse rolls have rice outside of the nori). The reverse rolls look more comfortable for Americans, and they also mostly used ingredients familiar to Americans, such as carrots, cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese. The combination of a little bit of rice with lots of vegetable/fruit and some cheese sounds healthy and appealing, making these reverse rolls that never appeared in Japan a great hit in the U.S. They have become a mainstay of most sushi restaurants. Interestingly, the popularity of the Americanized Japanese sushi did not take away Americans’ interest in authentic traditional Japanese sushi. Rather, after accepting the Americanized Japanese sushi (reversed rolls), many Americans become more willing to try the authentic ones, thus Japanese restaurants nowadays often have a more traditional sushi selection made with fresh raw seafood (e.g. salmon, tuna, mackerel). It seems that the less traditional reverse rolls served as the “introductory” experience of authentic Japanese sushi that prepared more Americans to be able to enjoy and accept the authentic Japanese sushi, which they may never have liked if it was their very first taste of sushi. In a sense, the successful spreading of sushi worldwide has testified to the vitality of sushi culture, in that the sushi culture is robust with rich contents and values that fit into the modern world. Sushi is convenient to eat (at least if you use chopsticks reasonably well) since they’re bite-sized, and, compared to mainstream Western foods, healthier with a variety of high-quality protein (usually fish) and lightly processed vegetables, and relatively mild in taste. These features remain unchanged while sushi is being globalized, and the adjustments made to cater for the taste and preferences of people from different countries (e.g. reverse rolls, more locally available ingredients) did not touch the core elements of the sushi culture. As a result, the worldwide spread of sushi culture has benefited from the localization of sushi in different regions since the localization has made the culture more relatable and easily acceptable to people of different cultural backgrounds. This may be a lesson that many cultures could learn from.
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