Nikkei Chronicles #1—ITADAKIMASU! A Taste of Nikkei Culture
For many Nikkei around the world, food is often the strongest and most lasting connection they have with their culture. Across generations, language and traditions are often lost, but their connections to food remain.
Discover Nikkei collected stories from around the world related to the topic of Nikkei food culture and its impact on Nikkei identity and communities. This series introduces these stories.
Our Editorial Committee selected their favorite stories in each language. Here are their favorites:
- ENGLISH:
Authentic
By Barbara Nishimoto - JAPANESE:
Grandma’s Pickles Story: Sharing Grandma’s Rakkyo with the World
By Asami Goto - SPANISH:
Japanese Stoicism By Ariel Takeda - PORTUGUESE:
Ofukuro no aji: Mrs. Shizuka’s cassava misoshiru
By Rosa Tomeno Takada
Stories from this series
One Grain of Rice
Oct. 11, 2012 • Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey
My mother was always reminding me to eat every grain of rice from my bowl: “Hito tsubu mo nokosanaide tabenasai.” It’s the equivalent of “Clean your plate.” Japanese mothers are just like Jewish mothers in this regard. Well, the stereotypical ones, at least. They command and plead, “Eat it up, you don’t want to end up like those kids.” The implication here was pale and scrawny. Pale and scrawny white or pale and scrawny black. Didn’t matter. You didn’t want …
Quick Thoughts on Japanese Fast Food
Oct. 9, 2012 • Gil Asakawa
American-style fast food was only introduced in Japan during the past 30 years—when I lived there as a child, there were no McDonalds, Pizza Hut or KFC to be found in the alleys and skyscrapers of Tokyo. Those bastions of U.S. culture arrived in the late ‘60s and during the 1970s, and when they did, they often adapted to Japanese tastes, by featuring custom versions of the familiar Big Macs and Quarter Pounders we know and love. In Japan, for …
Ofukuro no aji: Mrs. Shizuka’s cassava misoshiru
Oct. 8, 2012 • Rosa Tomeno Takada
My mother came to Brazil when she was three years old and since childhood learned to eat all that nature could offer, already being able to tell what was edible. Even geckos, nine-banded armadillos; in short, just about anything that appeared in front of her. She was married at the age of 14 and a short time later went to live in a small farm in the town of Bastos. I remember how she prepared everything with simple seasoning like …
Family Meals That Integrate Rather Than Segregate
Oct. 5, 2012 • Francesca Yukari Biller
While growing up within two different cultures left my siblings and me with bittersweet challenges, we have always had the sweet comforts of the family meal and a “welcoming” table that satisfied both our appetites and spirits. Feasting on distinctive recipes passed down from my father’s Russian-Jewish family, and my mother’s exotic blend of Japanese-Hawaiian heritage, serves as a reminder that we are a family nourished by honoring our ethnicity and the diverse ingredients that make us whole. My family, …
Nikkei Chop Suey Restaurants and Fortune Cookies
Oct. 4, 2012 • Yasuko Nakamachi
In America, there is a great amount of interest about the origins of the fortune cookie. According to a study by Fitzerman-Blue, the fortune cookie—now served all across the country—is said to have gotten its start from chop suey restaurants after World War II. Chop suey is an Americanized Chinese dish, consisting of pan fried meat (often chicken or pork) and vegetables, and bound in a starch-thickened sauce. In 1945, American soldiers returning to San Francisco’s naval base had first …
The Black Noodle
Oct. 3, 2012 • Chanda Ishisaka
I made some soba for dinner today. Soba is a Japanese noodle made with buckwheat flour. My memory of soba noodles is having them with my obachan (grandma) at this one restaurant I grew up with called Oki’s in Monterey Park, California, which is no longer open. I must have been around six years old when one day, I was at Oki’s with my two aunts. I was trying to explain to them I wanted soba. Although at that time, …