Fast-food in Japan (Marièke POULAT)

Fast-food in Japan

Fast-food = MacDonald and Cie, « junk food »... An equation which describe quickly, it is true, but not badly, what French people are thinking of fast-food. A false image, as it is also possible in France to eat a sandwich or a salad to eat quickly, but also often real, as there doesn't exist in France so much restaurants with quick and cheap service... and it is also not really accepted by the society to go alone in a restaurant.

The situation is totally different in Japan or, at least, in Tokyo. Indead, restaurants have here an image really different from the one they have in France, which has a great impact on the food and on the service which are proposed. In Japan, restaurants are less a place where you can have a familial or a friendly break, than a way of eating. That's why it is well accepted to go there alone, to eat in less than some minutes and to leave. Moreover, alimentary habits are far from those we have in France: the portions are less big, there isn't any desert at the end of the meal (either in restaurants or at home) and the French rythm of three main meals in a day is not respected: the breakfast is, for instance, a real meal, with rice, fish or salad, and it happens that a coffee or a candy is enough for a lunch...

These differences have an impact on the food served in the streets of Tokyo, particularly in the areas where workers are. The food is diverse, but is still fast food as you need only some minutes to command, receive you only dish and eat it, and only some hundred yens to pay it. The symbol of this rapidity is the organisation of the space in most of the little restaurants which served this food:
custommers are often served directly on the counter which is surrounding the chef's stove. An organisation which fits the available space (as their maximum size might be around 10m 2) and the custommers'demand: as most of them eat alone, they don't need to sit in front of someone. Prices hugely vary in fonction of the served dishes, but most often they are between 300 and 1000 ¥ (3 and 10 €) for an only dish. Finally, command can be made thanks to a ticket: at the entrance of the restaurant, you have to go to a ticket machine on which all the served dishes are written, to choose the one you want, to press the button, to pay, to take the ticket and to give it to the chef who is going to make it and to serve you. Or how it is totally possible to live in Japan without speaking a single word of Japanese. You can decide if it is a good thing or not.

It is extremely difficult for me to describe all the types of food which are served in these shops...
Indead, in the only district of Takadanobaba where I live, the restaurants pile up, with a different on each three meters, and they are making very diverse dishes. About the quality of the dishes, it is also complicated to give an opinion, at least for me: as I am still not really accustommed to Japanese food, it is complicated to say if it is good or not cooking as it tastes different from what I am accustomed too... But I can at least say that, for now, I didn't find any restaurant where I couldn't finish my plate.

Here is a little glimpse of the food you can find in Tokyo's streets:
–
Ramens: there are Chinese pastas drown in a bol of soup (in a miso soup
in Tokyo), to which is added a lot of ingredients in fonction of the
restaurants and of the command (vegetables, meat, eggs...)

– Udons: This is an another variety of pastas drown in a soup and often
served with tempuras or fried vegetables or onions... but it also depends
of the shops and the command.

– Meal with rice: there is a lot of these kind of meals, served on a base of rice, as gyuudon
(beaf, egg and onions on a portion of rice), unagi (steels on rice)... In some chains of
restaurants, as Matsuya or Yoshinoya, prices are from 280 ¥, for the smallest size.

Omerice (or Omelette and rice...) which is, as its name indicates it, a meal
of rice with tomato and chiken, surronded by an omelette and coat with
ketchup.

– Curry Rice, a meal of rice and curry served with different types of
meat (beaf, porc...)

Bentos: Those are some takeaways compartimented boxes where you can find many different types of meals; as rice, fried chicken, salads or pastas and sushis...

– And, of course, the different chains of « fast-food » we already know in France, as McDonald, Subway, Burger King, KFC... It is fun to see that most of them try to insert some ingredients of Japanese food in theirs recipes, creating the Tofu Burger of the Teriaki Mc Burger. To those occidental chains, we can add some Japanese chains, as Mos Burger, Freshness Burger, or Corean, as Lotteria.

There is a big number of possibilities, isn't it ? You can easily spend two weeks in Japan without cooking once. And above all as the one who will go to Japan will soon realise that cooking here can be really expensive as fruits and vegetables are unaffordable. For instance, an apple is around 100 ¥ (more than 1€...).

However, that doesn't mean that there doesn't exist in Japan some places where you can meat your friends to eat a good meal. Izakayas, some familial restaurants (as the cheap chains of italian restaurants Saizeria), but also many restaurants selling the seductive concept « All you can eat » let people meet around a big friendly meal.

Marièke POULAT