According to Japan's "Chinese Herald", once upon a time, the "Chinese cuisine" in the minds of Japanese people was mapo tofu, green pepper meat shreds, Tianjin rice, and dried roasted shrimp. Therefore, after the Chinese arrived in Japan, they all learned that the "Chinese cuisine" in the eyes of the Japanese people looks a bit like our diet, but it is actually not the same thing. Chinese dishes such as mapo tofu, which japanese chefs reduce stench, salt, and sugar, have become their own and can be called "Japanese-style Chinese".
The Chinese were homesick, so they had to open a restaurant mainly for Chinese people on the spot, and their shop forms and contents were like a small food city in China. In these shops, from the boss to the practitioners and customers are almost all Chinese, walking in is a strong sense of nostalgia, but also a lively atmosphere that can be loud and noisy.
In the bustling streets of Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Ueno, Nishikicho, and Nishikawaguchi, where there are many Chinese, there are always snack bars with a local Chinese atmosphere.
To be honest, Azabu Jun has always thought that these shops are generally more cluttered than Japanese restaurants, but it has a feeling that people mistakenly think that they have returned home. In the case that many people have not returned to China for a long time because of the epidemic, getting together in these stores is simply eating, drinking, chatting and relieving homesickness.
In my impression, the decent Japanese have recently had a strange phenomenon, they have set their sights on these purely local style Ofge Chinese, and they have given these stores a collective name: Deep China Deep China.
The Japanese magazine Weekly Shincho, published on December 2, 2021, commented: "Walking through the somewhat noisy intersection at the west entrance of Ikebukuro, walking into a mixed-use building, the elevator presses to the third floor, wow, incredible, a smell of seasoning wafts out, here is like a food corner in a chinese department store or shopping mall."
Dahong's menu boards bear the names of food in Shanghai, Guangdong, Sichuan and even Fujian, Shaxian, Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan and other places. That's something I haven't seen in Japan. In the corridor, robots walk back and forth to clean up the plates, and the ordering is operated by the guests themselves on their mobile phones or electronic order boards in the electricity, where you can experience the "world's first" China at this moment. The shop is also very clean, not like the local feeling of the mainland in the past. ”
The Japanese are also very curious about the old hot pot with the blood of the Duck, after all, the Japanese do not eat duck, let alone duck blood. The Japanese responded with "Amazement!" ”
Long before magazines and online media coverage, Japan's "Deep China Research Association" edited a Tokyo "Deep China" guidebook, published by the Japanese publishing house Industry and Academy. The book also sold well, and Azabu Jun checked the book review, and the message was roughly: "Great, I hate this book late." Focusing on Ikebukuro, I visited restaurants Chinese every day and took notes, and the book contained more notes than I did"; or "I used to travel a lot to China for work, and I loved to eat authentic Chinese food, but I rarely found it in Japan." ”
In fact, not only in Chinese areas such as Ikebukuro and Kawaguchi, there are restaurants serving "deep Chinese" style food, but chinese food can be seen more and more in supermarkets across Japan.
For example, the following two pictures were taken by Azabu Jun at a Japanese supermarket near his home.
▲(Pictures are from Chinese Herald)
There are duck eggs, peeled eggs, red dates, sweet potato flour, spicy hot pot base and duck blood. Although Spicy Jun has not yet seen Japanese people buy it, one thing is for sure, Chinese ingredients have become more and more familiar to Japanese people. The food life of millions of Chinese living in Japan is injecting modern Chinese elements into Japan's old "Chinese cuisine" cuisine.
(Original title: Azabu Jun Fragmented Thoughts: The research content of Japan's "Deep China Research Association" turned out to be them)