Mumbo‑Jumbo!
What I miss after a hard day of #interpreting in a remote place is a taste of home – Asian food. In the past, choices in provincial areas were very much limited to Chinese cuisine. These days, however, there are far more options: Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, and even (fake‑Japanese) sushi places.
The photo shows the interior of a Vietnamese restaurant that I happened upon. The sheer number of dishes listed on banners feels like overkill to me.
Why? What’s wrong with it?
Well, it would be unthinkable for a proper restaurant in Japan to offer grilled eel right next to an offal hot pot – unless you were eating at a chain diner (famiresu = family restaurant).
Background:
#Japanese #gastronomy is defined by specialization. Good restaurants typically serve only one specific type of dish. We do have specialty restaurants in Germany as well – pancake houses, steakhouses, fish restaurants – but they are not so common.
By contrast, in Japan, restaurants are often named after the dishes they specialize in: soba (buckwheat noodles), udon, sushi, grilled eel, ramen, tempura, okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake), shabu‑shabu (beef hot pot), grilled meats – you name it.
That’s why I find this restaurant’s decorations rather fake. The Japanese texts on the banners are all correct, but they give me the impression of being mumbo‑jumbo.
Cuisine is culture. Context matters.
