Eating People

Posted on July 15th, 2008 in Culinary, Customary Drivel, 日本語 by Deas

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Genghis Khan: Man or Mutton BBQ?

Yes, that Genghis Khan. Or Чингис Хаан, or Chinggis Khaan, Činggis Qaɣan, or just plain Temüjin to his mom. If you’re confused, I’ll explain. It recently came to my attention (again) that the vast majority of my high school students hear this name and think of a dish associated with Hokkaido. It’s basically grilled chunks of mutton, though some dictionaries call it mutton barbecue. You see, if you’re talking about the person, you don’t say ジンギスカン (Jingisukan), you say チンギス・ハーン (Chingisu Haan).

Here are the definitions given by my ancient Canon G50 Wordtank.

ジンギスカン
[人名] Genghis Khan ((アジアの大部分とヨーロッパ東部を征服したモンゴル帝国の始祖；１１６２？－１１２７))
[料理] ジンギスカン鍋 (a) mutton barbecue

Genghis Khan
チンギスハーン, ジンギスカン (成吉思汗) (c. 1162-1227) ((モンゴル帝国の祖(在位1206-27)))

ジンギス-カン
ジンギスカン料理
羊肉の焼肉料理.薄切りの羊肉を,ニンニク,ショウガなどを加えた醤油（しょうゆ）のたれにつけ,独特のなべにのせて焼く.(現)
★蒙古料理を連想させる名だが,現地にはない.北京料理の烤羊肉（カオヤンロウ）の変形.

Now, the same definitions fully in English (romanized to show the differences).

Jingisukan
[Person's Name] Genghis Khan ((The founder of the Mongolian Empire that conquered most of Asia and Eastern Europe; 1162? - 1127))
[Food] Jingisukan Nabe: (a) mutton barbecue

Genghis Khan
Chingisuhaan, Jingisukan (成吉思汗) (c. 1162-1127) ((Founder of the Mongolian Empire (reign 1206-27)))

Jingis-Kan
Jingiskan Cuisine
Grilled meat dish made with mutton. The mutton is cut into thin strips, dipped into a marinade with a soy sauce base and garlic, ginger, etc. added. Then it is grilled on top of a special type of pan. (Modern)
★The name of this dish associates it with Mongolia, but it does not actually exist there. It is simply a variation of the Beijing dish called 烤羊肉 or kaoyanrou.

Note: 成吉思汗 is apparently how the name Genghis Khan is written in old Chinese characters. You can see the original Mongolian script (pulled from Wikipedia) here too, though. In Japanese, these kanji don’t retain the readings necessary to pull the same sounds out. I asked if the were effectively ateji (当て字) or phonetic equivalents, but the answer was that they are not Japanese ateji. But I imagine that somewhere back along the line that they were just phonetic representations of the Mongolian name made with Chinese characters. (Unless his name was “to become, good fortune, thinking, sweat,” that is.)

So, like I was saying, my kids know nothing of the Mongolian Empire or its founder. Instead, this legendary man’s name has become the word that they use to describe a touristy mutton dish fed to people on their class trips to Hokkaido. Awesome. It reminds me of a similar word re-appropriation. This time, a whole group of people. The word is “Viking.” If you’ve been in Japan for any length of time, you’ve probably had a “viking” lunch. (Check the bottom of the disambiguation page for the reference under “Other Uses.”) You see, “viking” means “all you can eat buffet” here. Not the Norsemen with funny helmets who ransacked European port cities and whatnot. No, really. Those guys are ヴァイキング (Vuaikingu). Here are the definitions. I like the extraneous ones entries, sometimes.


Viking: Norse Pillager or Buffet Lunch?

Viking
-n
1 ヴァイキング, ヴィーキング ((8-11　世紀に欧州の北部および西部を略奪した北欧人));[v-]海賊;((口))スカンディナヴィア人
2 ヴァイキング((米国の無人火星探査機；１９７５年に２機打ち上げ))

バイキング
1　[西洋史] a Viking
2 (バイキング料理) (a) smorgasbord; バイキングの店 a buffet-style restaurant offering as much as one can eat for a fixed price

バイキング
1 スカンジナビアに住んでいたノルマン人の異称. ８－１１世紀、船に乗ってヨーロッパ名国を侵略.
2 バイキング料理
バイキング計画 [Project Viking]
NASAの火星無人探査計画.１号は１９７６年７月に、２号は同年９月に打ち上げ、７７年７月軟着陸に成功.火星の極冠が二酸化炭素の氷の他,水氷にも覆われていることなどを発見した.(現)
バイキング料理
食べ放題料理.一定の料金であらかじめ用意された１０－２０種類の料理をセルフサービスで好きなだけ食べられる.(現)北欧のスモーガスボード[smörgåsbord(スカンジナビア式の前菜)]を日本向きに改称,昭和３３年（１９５８）帝国ホテルが始めたのがおこり.

And again, for a romanized half-translation of the above definitions.

Viking
-n
1 vuaikingu, viiking ((Norsemen who pillaged northern and western Europe in the 8-11　centuries)); [v-] pirates; ((slang)) a person from Scandinavia
2 Vaikingu ((American unmanned Martian probe; 2 launched in 1975))

Vaikingu
1　[Western History] a Viking
2 (Viking cuisine) (a) smorgasbord; Viking shop: a buffet-style restaurant offering as much as one can eat for a fixed price

Vaikingu
1 A term used for Normans who lived in Scandinavia. In the 8-11 centuries, {they} rode boats and invaded Europe.
2 Vaikingu Cuisine
Vaikingu Program [Project Viking]
NASA’S unmanned Martian probe program. #1 was launched in July of 1976, and #2 was launched in September of the same year; in July of 1977 they succeeded in making soft landings. They discovered that the Martian polar caps were covered by frozen carbon dioxide, ice, and water, among other things. (Modern)
Vaikingu Cuisine
All you can eat cuisine. For a set price, one can help themselves to anything they like from a selection of 10-12 dishes prepared beforehand. (Modern) Northern Europe’s smorgasbord [smörgåsbord (Scandinavian style hors d'ouevres)], renamed to suit Japan. The Imperial Hotel started the trend in Showa 33 (1958).

Fascinating what you learn when you look stuff up. Anyhoo - if you know of any other interesting changes, leave them in the comments. (But remember - Japan has no monopoly on turning people and people groups into foods, so feel free to include any country’s additions.)

Recent Addiction

Posted on July 10th, 2008 in Culinary, Customary Drivel by Deas

I am insanely addicted to this type of banana soy milk. How addicted you ask? Addicted enough to buy 12 small ones at a time because I cannot buy them on my island. Addicted enough to go to the websites I found mentioned in small print on the packaging to try and find out whether a larger container of it is available for purchase. It is really, really good. I hit these two sites: Tamabijin, the Honda Trading page about soy cultivation and importation, and Kibun Food Chemifa [sic], the folks who make the banana soy milk drinks with said soy - though they are apparently not proud enough to actually list the glorious banana drink on their products page. What gives?

Well, guess what I discovered? This beloved banana soy milk concoction is made with American soybeans. Beans from southern Michigan and Ohio, to be precise. Japan’s a huge soybean producer, right? I mean, the number one condiment associated with Japanese food is soy sauce, right? And tofu is a huge deal here too, right? So Japan’s gotta be big in the soybean market, right? WRONG. Surprisingly wrong. While Brazil comes in at a very close second place, America dominates the field. (U.S.A.! U.S.A.!) I was really bewildered when I discovered this fact. Granted, I’m from South Carolina - our agriculture tends to gravitate around corn, cotton and tobacco cultivation. (Though chicken, turkey, and cattle pull in gobs of money for us - the majority, actually. I’m discussing crops, so I’m ignoring them.) So maybe my soy ignorance is forgivable.

According to this animation put together by a consulting group, in 1961 America had a 69% share in the global soybean market. That’s nuts. (Soy nuts, even.) In 1972 it topped out at 74% of the market, and as of 2005, it sits at 40% of the global market. Wow. I had no idea. And according to the most recent data available, America produces 66,780,000 metric tons of the total 184,560,000 metric tons produced globally. Not bad. Japan, number 17 on the list of producers, contributes 230,000 tons. I guess that means that it would be way cheaper to buy American soy for banana drink purposes than domestic soy. (And I have no idea about governmental price controls for soybeans here, but I know that they do it with rice. In my opinions that hurts Japan’s agriculture and just makes the farmers dependent on government. But I digress.) Interesting stuff.

By the way, there are no large sizes that I can find. I went to the Kibun Soy Milk Lineup page, too, but they only offer the banana delight in 200 ml singles or 3 packs. However, it seems you CAN buy cases of 18 small ones online for delivery from retailers. (Yay for the Kibun-approved link to Rakuten!) Hmmmm…

Syrup Sadness

Posted on July 7th, 2008 in Culinary, Customary Drivel by Deas
Possibly related posts: |Anthropogenic Global Warming|

Here are the two kinds of breakfast syrup available at my local supermarket. (I say breakfast because I’m sure you can get some simple syrups flavored for snowcones right about now. Or Monin type syrups for drinks. Maybe.) Anyway, I’m hugely disappointed. The “(Hot/Pan)cake Syrup” on the left runs about 300 yen per bottle. The bottle contains about 200 grams of syrup. Oof. But worse yet, the “Maple Syrup” on the right costs about 600 yen for about 150 grams. (And it’s not even the good stuff!) Needless to say, the volume of both of these is reeeeally small. Both bottles fit in your palm. The diameter of the cap is about half that of a normal PET bottle. That means I can get about 4 pancakes very sparsely covered with half a bottle of syrup. Unreal. My toothpaste tube has more volume to it. I think I have a little capsule of super glue that has about one third the volume. The syrup is simply too small. And pricey. But I wanted to try pancakes again. (It was the first time in about 2 years.) They were pretty dry. Sigh. Sadness.

200 grams of “cake syrup” = ~ 9 Tablespoons (US) @ 33 cents per tbsp

150 grams of “maple syrup” = ~ 6.8 Tablespoons (US) @ 88 cents per tbsp

1 gallon of gasoline = ~ 256 Tablespoons (US) @ 2.3 cents per tbsp*

Forget oil. This stuff is the new liquid gold. Sheesh.

*Calculated using the slightly dated figure of $5.90 / gallon in Japan. Thanks Ken Y-N for fixing my math problem! :-)

Sex Sells

Posted on June 30th, 2008 in Culinary, Customary Drivel, Humor, Media, Photos, Unsolicited Commentary by Deas

Ha ha ha - I’ve been meaning to post this for…2 years. It’s the sake vending machine at the ferry port on my island. Nude chicks selling alcohol. What’s not family friendly about that? (Actually, I guess she’s wearing a hat, if that counts as clothing.) Sure, she has nostrils on her upper lip like a duck of some kind, but I guess that’s why she’s in her line of work. She’s got a face for radio. But the old fishermen who buy booze from her aren’t too bothered by it. Her milkshake bring all the boys to the yard. Ha ha.

UPDATE: That’s no GIRL it’s a KAPPA!!!! (Everyone scream.) Thanks to James for pointing that out with the first comment.

Surprise Confections

Posted on June 25th, 2008 in Culinary, Customary Drivel by Deas

I was minding my own business doing some English vocabulary review in the teacher’s room yesterday afternoon. Just before 5th period began, one of our math teachers runs in and asks me if I speak German. I wish I did. But I don’t. I told him so, and shrugged, as if to say “hey, it was worth a shot asking.” He then threw an apron at me. This is usually reserved for the home economics teacher, so I was confused. Why am I doing mathematics in German while wearing an apron? Well, it turns out that part of the job-hunt program here brought four fellows from a Matsuyama patissierie. The lead confectioner was a wonderfully kind bearded German man. He spoke no English (Japanese either), and I spoke no German. But we got along quite well.

I went and participated with the ebbing and flowing pool of students. They all have responsibilities to take care of, and the lesson spanned 2 periods. Some were there the whole time; some only for the first half, some only for the second. I watched the German gentleman sculpt some animals from marzipan. Then he had us all split into groups and try it. I successfully made a marzipan rose and a marzipan pig. I even decorated the eyes with white chocolate (and normal brown for the irises). Then, we went back to the front of the room where we learned how to use a piping bag made from wax paper to write in frosting. Again, we split into groups and tried writing - at first on a silpat non-stick sheet, and then on an actual cookie. I wrote in English and Japanese, using block letters, cursive script, kana and kanji. It was good fun.

Lastly, they announced that my supervisor’s birthday is tomorrow. So they brought out 3 larger cookies and asked us to use what we’d learned to write her some birthday wishes. All in all, it was a really nice surprise at the end of an otherwise incredibly boring day. :-)

Make Your Own Tortillas!

Posted on June 2nd, 2008 in Culinary, Customary Drivel, Media, Video by Deas


(Bigger version!)

Rejoice! For I told you I would try, and I did. I have crafted tortillas successfully using a trial and error method, about 2 bags of flour, and at least one large burnable garbage bag. :-) The experimentation process yielded these results. They are a combination of the wonderful recipe found here and the instructional video I found here. Only, I leave out the baking powder. I did it by accident the first time, but I liked the results so much I kept it that way. Here’s a breakdown of the info in the video.

Hardware: a frying pan (32 cm works well), a mixing bowl, a “rolling pin” of some kind (hardware store pins work too), a spatula (or chopsticks)

Software: Flour - 2 cups, Salt - 1 tsp, Vegetable Oil - 2 tsp, Milk - warm ~(≦)3/4 cup

Makes: 6~8 really small tortillas OR 5 Deas tortillas

But why just read the recipe, when you can see me act a fool make the tortillas in the epic 18 minute 39 second video above? No…really…why? I’m sorry at how long the video turned out - I did it impromptu…I guess it shows. Maybe I can hack together a shorter version when I get some time on my hands. Anyway… Try it! Tell me how yours come out. And tell me if anyone knows how to make my own taco seasoning…that’s the only bit left to tackle in this Tex-Mex self-sufficiency plan. :-)

* - Usually I use cheese and lettuce in my tacos…but I had to work with shredded cabbage in lieu of lettuce this weekend… And there was no cheese to be found… Sad. Also, I don’t usually look like a hobo. Well, at least, not all the time. :-)

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