So, what do poor folk eat in Japan, and what can be done with rice?
 

I'm curious what the 'cheap eats' in Japan are for the teenage/young adults living on their own? I'm also interested in any fast and cheap ways to flavor or make dishes with plain rice. I've been eating it a lot lately since I can precook large batches and shovel in rice on the go, but it needs something besides salt. Soy sauce doesn't fit well with plain rice to me, and from what I understand, in Japan you're not traditionally supposed to eat say sauce on white rice, although I could be mistaken.

Anyways, cheap and fast meal ideas, please! :mtongue: :mtongue:

Furikake, Natto

retort pack Curry

Tamago gohan! :D
seriously, rice, an egg, soya sauce, done.



you can skip the soya sauce if you want... but that's heresy, only tell your closest friends ^^b

If you're a kid, you might be 'allowed' to add soy sauce to your rice, but as an adult, it is seen as a low-class thing to do. Or, some see it as something a Chinese person might do (as I have been told).

Instead, Japanese have a solution ... furikake in all sorts of varieties and flavors including ones for kids. They come in small individual-sized sachets or small shaker jars that you can use to sprinkle on top of your rice.

No child in Japan would ask or want to put soy sauce on white rice.

You need to be around some more kids in Japan.

It`s one of those things kids regularly ask for, or try to do themselves... And get yelled at by parents.
My own son, who has never actually had rice with soy sauce alone, will ask for it. The conversation usually goes;

卵しょうゆごはん食べたい～
ごめん、卵なくなってる。後で買いに行こうね
じゃ、しょうゆだけごはん食べたい！
だめ、ふりかけにしようよ。
えー　しょうゆだけがいいのに～～

Just buy a pack of what you see in my avatar and sprinkle it on your rice.

Pouring soy sauce on the rice is the last thing you would want to do. You won't live long if you do that for all that sodium.

I wonder if it is regional. I asked two Kansai moms before posting, both knew Americans had a strange habit of doing it, but had never heard of a child asking or a parent allowing it in Japan.

I highly doubt that it is regional, because parents do not allow it around here. I`ve never seen or heard of a parent allowing it - but I`ve seen plenty of kids ask and try to do it. Obviously it`s going to to depend on the kid, but I doubt it`s uncommon. I`ve seen the same thing up on the northern coast.
It`s just like licking up the soy sauce left after eating sushi, or wanting to eat furikake straight from the pack (with no rice). Doctors get a huge number of children coming in who drank whole bottle (table sized) of soy sauce. Kids just like the salty flavor, I guess. It doesn`t really have much to do with whether parents allow it or not.

It`s not something parents are going to brag about, but it happens. I think it`s also something that parents tend to forget about. A mom in our building took her younger daughter to the hospital about 6 months ago because she poured the whole bottle of soy sauce on her rice and drank the "soup". Even after throwing up because of it, the little girl kept asking for the "soup" and they had to hide all the soy sauce. The older sister consistently requested it because she liked the soy sauce parts of egg and soy sauce rice, but not the egg parts.
But fairly recently, she was asking me about whether it`s true that people overseas put it directly on their rice because NO Japanese person ever would, not even little kids, because they all know better. Umm... What about your daughters? She`d totally forgotten about it. They knew better now.

I am thinking kindergarten level, not older children. The local kindergartens and care centers make a point to not have soy sauce on hand (and ask to not put any in lunches) as the smaller kids will try to drink it straight or use it in parent-horrifying ways like squirting it straight on their rice.

and yet if there's a raw egg on it then you can add all the soya sauce you want ll

I like 卵ご飯. It never occurred to me to add soy sauce.

How slimy raw egg and rice is just makes me nauseous.
As an aside though, is eating raw eggs really not as bad for you as America portrays is to be? Back home they tell you you're gonna keel over at even a hint of uncooked eggs in your food.:confused:

If it's good enough for Rocky it's good enough for me.

lol. Whenever I do raw egg food in Japan, all I can hear in the back of my mind is stuff like "Don't eat the cookie dough, you'll get salmonella!" from years of that kind of conditioning back home.

I assumed most people added soya sauce to their tamago gohan... no?? Or are you a minority in this case?

I only know how I ate it. I am not going to pretend to be an expert in this department.

It`s my understanding that what is put on raw egg and rice depends on region.
I`m pretty sure that shouyu is most popular, but I`ve seen dashi, vegetable... something (山形ダシ), plain salt, ponzu, katsuo bushi, etc being used.

For tamago kake gohan most people mix the beaten egg and soy sauce in a small saucer and then pour it over the white rice. However, there is no hard and fast rule for this dish.

About pouring soy sauce directly onto white rice ... if you have not witnessed it, then it would not be surprising. When I indicated that sometimes young kids might be allowed to do it on occasion at home, there are plenty of households who wouldn't even allow it at all (or admit to it). And, regardless, certainly not in front of a guest or even a homestay student etc. It's considered very poor form to do so. So, if/when Japanese do this (as it doesn't necessarily taste bad), they do so in the privacy of their own homes away from prying eyes.

Although it might not sound as appetizing, the preferred spartan condiment of choice - when there is nothing else - are Japanese pickles ... which includes the solitary umeboshi ... Hinomaru bento.

From a diffrent cultures point of view-

It dosent seem so strange as i have personally seen it happen...not so much soy sauce but salt......Kids love it for some reason.

Ive had to remove actual food from neices/nephews due to what I considered too much salt.

I'm not in Japan, but I do try to cook Japanese style food regularly. I'm just curious what the standard cheap meals are overseas. Soy sauce is too salty for plain rice, IMO, but I haven't tried it with egg. Raw eggs have a small possibility of salmonella but are more nutritious than when cooked. I used to eat plenty of raw eggs and use them in shakes a few years ago when I was really into fitness.

But, why is there such a negative view of putting soy sauce on white rice?

I'm not sure. In fact, I think the Chinese put soy sauce directly on their white rice...

To Japanese, soy sauce is a condiment and pouring it on the rice might considered as weird as a 'mustard sandwich' ( which a friend growing up poor & black in the US reported eating occasionally when he grew up). Or, like taking a huge dollop of ketchup or sugar and stirring it into a glass of water -- which I once saw a homeless fellow do in restaurant. Associations of being low class and inappropriate.

The standard of the hygiene management is different.

That is the understatement of the year. :)

I can't even find a bruised apple in a grocery store if I try!

The probability of encountering eggs contaminated inside with salmonella is actually very very low. In the US, according to one industry association (which I admit might be biased), 1 in 20,000 or 0.005%. If we assume that Japan is even safer, then obviously an even lower probability.

However, the outside shell of the egg can be contaminated with all sorts of shit and other crap harboring bacteria other than salmonella. The ones that you see in the supermarket have been cleaned - unless you were naive enough to believe that they came out of the hen all white and pristine.

For using serving raw eggs where the diners break their own eggs (eg. let's say for sukiyaki), I was taught to disinfect the shells in a warm bath of vinegar and salt -- and then rinsed and dried - before presentation. Here is a quick explanation: How to Easily Clean and Disinfect Fresh Eggs | eHow.com

1 in 20,000 or 0.005% with a population of 310 million is still 15500 people at their first egg ...
if those were the chances if getting hit by a car each time I cross the street, I wouldn't cross lol

Yes, soya sauce rice is quite common in Chinese food and people put it in directly, particulary if they just have plain rice with no meat or minimal side dishes (i.e. going cheap - ugh reminds me of a dish I had in Singapore). Just wondering though, most of the the Katsu dons I've seen, had soya sauce in the rice...although that's the Japanese resturants here in Australia. I've had it a few times in Japan as well - but can't remember whether there was soya sauce there.

It's so gross! If I was poor enough to own no food other than white rice and soy sauce, I still wouldn't mix them.

I haven't yet tried it with soy sauce, just raw egg. It makes a good breakfast.

HI!

If you have a grocery store nearby, before closing time they have premade meals for half off... You can get a full plate with rice, meat, and pickled radish for only 200yen. It is delicious and oh so cheap.

I also think that the soya sauce that the Chinese use is a bit different. Janpanese soya sauce is typically very strong salty/bitter. The soya sauce that the Chinese put in rice is typically milder and usually has sugar mixed in, so it's also a bit sweet as well. Doesn't taste bad at all with rice!

So, it seems to be acceptable table manners in China - and I've had friends who've done it in Japan. However I would not recommend it. The looks you'll get by pouring soy sauce over your white rice in Japan will be similar to if you had picked up your soup plate with both hands in a French or Italian restaurant and licked it clean. :mtongue:

This whole topic makes me kind of sad. The fact that something as simple as putting a condiment on rice can turn into such a big deal.

This is the land of corn on pizza, and the like. Now, some of the elitists may say that "I just don't understand," or whatever, but I'd like to think we're all intelligent enough to look at it from an objective standpoint.

Corn and pizza are foods that have absolutely no relationship to each other (they come from different parts of the world, but if you're arguing that it's American pizza then that's just being petty), and corn is a side dish by today's standards that is a standalone food but complements meals as a filler.
Soy sauce, on the other hand, is a condiment that is meant to be poured on food/dip food in. So to treat it like it's outlandish when one puts it on the staple of the nation just blows my mind.

I think it was Steel who brought up the point about his black friend eating mustard sandwiches due to being poor. If I were a father in America and I had a son or daughter and she saw a poor person eating a mustard sandwich and requested I make her one, I wouldn't go "Now, now, sweety, that's only something poor blacks do..." as you guys make it seem is the social stigma for the Chinese as a correlation. I either tell her that there are more options for our sandwiches, or I'd let her try it and see if she liked it. If she didn't, no harm no foul. If she did, I wouldn't feed it to her every day but I wouldn't smack one out of her hands as you guys make it seem a Japanese mother would do to her child with a bottle of soy sauce, attempting to put it on rice.

And then of course the fact if it's just white rice and soy sauce, it's gruel. But if there's an egg in it, it's okay, for whatever reason. I could like see a SWAT team barging into a house and being like "Oh sh!t, there's the target! Get ready on my mark! Wait, wait! There seems to be an egg in it! It's okay! Phew, for a second there I thought it might have been the Chinese and their silly rice and soy sauce again!'

Well soya sauce and rice is quite common in Chinese food. Hardly something that's correlated with poverty. So common that it's commonly served with the soya sauce already in it, not something you put in yourself afterwards. Although it certainly helps, if one cannot afford meat or even vegetables.

Another user expressed that that's a Japanese mentality. That "it's something the Chinese would do," meaning (from the Japanese standpoint), it's something the poor would do.

We've had this argument on here before. People seem to speak on behalf of all Japanese and say "that never happens" or "NOBODY" does that-- including Japanese themselves. However, if you ask around enough you'll find plenty of people who do it. I suspect that there are people who don't really want to admit it though. I don't think it's something many people consciously make a meal out of-- it's probably like something that happens after eating some sashimi; why trash decent sashimi/sushi soy sauce? I think that's what happens a lot of the time.

It's funny though, because it's seen as worse than squeezing a giant gloop of mayonaise in your rise. Or how about all the kechup that is used in omurice? (Which I admittedly like). I personally don't really like a lot of soy sauce on rice (even too much with sushi gets gross). However, I think furikake is also too... salty or just thick tasting. It's a waste to use it if you've got good rice (of course that's in my experience, I'm sure there are some great furikake's out there).

I think the point is that you could complement your rice with a whole lot of other things than soy sauce. Like tsukemono or something like that. That's kind of the idea I got during the last time this argument arose on here.

I think some people are reading too much into some of the comments...

Pouring soy sauce on rice ... in Japan:

Yes - it probably tastes good. And, for many it might be a guilty sin that one allows young children to do at home or alone in the privacy of their own home. However, it is perceived as poor manners and 'low class' so it's not something any reasonably sane Japanese would do in public. Like licking the butter knife or something similar back home -- eg. something that tastes or feels good but you just would not do in public.

If you're still scratching your head and screaming but "that does not make sense!" - table manners and protocol aren't necessarily supposed to. In Japan, you hold the rice bowl positioned on the top of your left palm; in Korea, picking up the rice bowl would be considered rude. Same goes for bowls and small plates in Japan - holding picking them up is okay, but again, not in Korea. Abiding by Japanese table manners in Japan does not make you bigoted against Koreans - no more than not refraining from pouring soy sauce over your white rice would imply you're bigoted against Chinese. Just don't expect people to be understanding.

Back to the original question .. what do poor folk eat in Japan and what can be done with rice? Another dish is called 猫飯 (neko meshi) which is not 'cat food' but rather rice mixed directly into a bowl of miso shiru. My bet is that this is a dish that a lot more Japanese will confess to having at home by themselves (versus pouring shoyu over rice) but would stress never in public.

Another thing that some college students with a rice cooker but otherwise limited cooking skills might do is to buy tinned goods like tuna, mackerel or anchovies and deposit the whole contents over the rice like a donburi.

I personally just think it sounds gross. I use soya sauce for cooking and that's it, the taste alone, let alone POURED on something is just disgusting in my view. It's taste is strong and salty, I don't know why you'd want the pure taste of the sauce on anything.

Ew. xD

I know what you mean MissMisa, but there are a lot of dishes that are like that. Omurice is one of them in my opinion. I'm sure there are a ton of others. Speaking of soy sauce- have you ever heard of "black ramen"?

By the way, steel that was a good way of putting it.

I've heard of "猫飯" before-- I feel like it has a different name around here but I don't remember for sure. To be honest, that's kind of like something my wife's family would feed their dog though (not to be rude... it's just how they roll. I guess it's healthier than ramen/rice, which the dog is also sometimes subjected to).

Check it out:
What not to put on your rice | 世論 What Japan Thinks