The Adventures of Rene — Japanese Food Edition
Growing up, my family is more of a Chinese food or fast food kind of family. There’s always been a Japanese restaurant in the neighbourhood but my first proper Japanese meal only happened in the mid Y2K.
It’s not that we were not exposed to Japanese culture. I would religiously watch Sailor Moon or any Japanese drama featuring Kimura Takuya, my dad spoke basic Japanese… There were hardly any sushi chains around but there’s Jusco which we frequent almost every weekend.
But somehow we just didn’t click with Japanese food.
And then something happened in 1999 and I still remember it so vividly.
My sister went to Jusco with her friends and she bought some sushi back. Me, being the annoying youngest child who wears Hello Kitty from top to toe, insisted on wanting the Hello Kitty sushi. (I feel bad for my sister… she probably bought iti because she wanted it)
First bite in, I got choked by a bloody cat-faced sushi!!
I was so traumatised that the next sushi I had was in 2007. (Things might have been different if I chose the tamago sushi instead)
And then in 2002… a friendly promoter in Jusco offered me a tester piece of unagi. I took it happily because who doesn’t like free stuff?
I was 12 years old and dumb. To me (back then), eels are fish Pikachu. The promoter assured me that it’s very safe to consume unagi but I was scared that if I don’t chew thoroughly, I’ll get zapped.
For the next few days after consuming that tiny piece of unagi, I was legit worried that something might go wrong with my body. Nothing went wrong fortunately and I bragged it to my classmates about my ‘electric’ experience and they were like WOAHHHHH!
Four years later, we had a class party and everyone was welcomed to contribute a little something. My three amigas and I decided to make sushi. At this point, I’ve been exposed to proper Japanese food but I still don’t eat sushi… so yeah, I don’t know how to make sushi.
Apparently vinegar is extremely important when it comes to preparing sushi rice. None of us knew when or how much vinegar to add into the rice. And for some reason there is this myth among us that sushi rice sticks together because of mayonnaise.
So we omitted the vinegar and put a HELL lot of mayonnaise into the rice.
I was disgusted (sorry if any of my amigas are reading this now) by what we prepared but we came back with an empty tupperware so I guess we did something right?
By now, you should be able to tell that my friends and I were not the sharpest tool in the box back then in high school. If you’re not convinced, the next incident will take all your money.
There was a Japanese restaurant just across the street from our school and one Friday, we decided to pop by for lunch after class. One friend was feeling extra hungry so she went all out with a big set and some side dishes. Another friend was a small eater and opted for gyoza and rice.
It was all oishii and delicious until the bill came. The 10% service tax came to quite a big sum and why the hell did we split evenly among each other???? Thinking back, it was so unfair to the small eater friend. #justiceforsmalleaters
Fortunately, our math skills and awareness have grown significantly and now have a better way of calculating our bills. #socialismftw
Fast forward to 2011, I managed to snag some cheap tickets to Tokyo and that marked my very first solo trip out of the country!
I’ve turned 20 but still dumb cause I was so under prepared for this trip! It was cold and I had motion sickness (who travels without meds?) but thankfully my host family was helpful and took good care of me.
One day, they prepared scallop sashimi for dinner. I have this irrational fear that sashimi will stick to the roof of my mouth but I didn’t want to disappoint them so I ate it anyway. Gulp it down and my throat protested it by making this ‘wueckkk’ sound.
OMG!! I am so sorry!! (I wanted to jump into a hole so badly)
My solo trip to Tokyo may be a bit gaggy but my first family trip to Tokyo in 2017 is one of my favourite memories ever.
Ever since the late 2000’s, Japanese food has become a part of my family meal. Whenever there is a celebration, we would ALWAYS go for Japanese food. So this family trip was a fun foodie trip for us.
We tried all sorts of delicious not-your-usual Japanese food but the one that stood out was the melt-in-your-mouth B5 wagyu at a teppanyaki restaurant in Ginza!
I don’t even know the name of the restaurant or have any photos of the dish but ahh… I want to go back to that place again with my family and I really look forward to that day (which was supposed to be this year but delayed thanks to Covid).
Do you remember your first time eating sushi? Or your very first experience of Japanese culture? Drop a comment and let me know!
