Some of you may have heard the claim that Japanese intestines are longer, or in some other way, different from those of other people. This is of course just one part of the entire school of Nihonjinron (日本人論), or discussions on the uniqueness of the Japanese race/culture/nation/language. Unlike most of the nihongjinron pseudo-science (like Japanese use the opposite side of their brain to process language, etc.) this one sounds at least vaguely plausible. After all, there are all sorts of morpholigical differences between races; hair, skin, facial features, height, and so on. Could it be true?
Category: Food
Cannibal beef
For those who were wondering why Japan has still not ended their ban on US beef, today’s NYT makes it quite clear.
The F.D.A. proposed banning from animal feed the brains and spinal cords of cows more than 30 months old. It also proposed banning the same parts of any animal not passed by inspectors as suitable for human food, any tallow that contained more than 0.15 percent protein and any meat contained in brain or spinal column that was separated from carcasses by machine.
The new proposal would still allow animals to be fed material that some scientists consider potentially infectious, including the brains and spinal cords of young animals; the eyes, tonsils, intestines and nerves of old animals; chicken food and chicken dung swept up from the floors of poultry farms; scrapings from restaurant plates; and calf milk made from cow blood and fat.
[…]
Michael K. Hansen, an expert on prion diseases at the Consumers Union, called the proposed regulations “completely inadequate,” noting that Britain “took many halfway steps in their efforts to eliminate mad cow disease and failed to stop it.” Only when it stopped feeding mammals to food animals did they cut the cases down to less than 10 a year, he said.
Two busted with illicit beef
Today’s Taipei Times has this brief news item.
Two people were caught last Wednesday at the CKS International Airport trying to bring in beef from Japan, despite a ban on its import, the Taipei Customs Offices said yesterday. Japan is the only Asian victim of mad cow disease and has reported 20 cases since September 2001. The government has banned the import of Japanese beef since 2001. Inspectors seized nearly 20kg of frozen beef from the luggage of the two passengers, including a Taiwanese and a Japanese, when they arrived from Tokyo aboard a China Airlines flight. The smuggled beef was shipped to a quarantine center in Hsinchu where it will be destroyed.
It’s almost funny that Japan, which has had 20 confirmed cases of mad cow disease, has banned beef from the US, which has had no cases of human transmission in that same time period.
Taiwan Retailers voluntarily removing US beef from shelves amid mad cow fears
More in our continuing coverage of mad cow disease panic.
Taipei Times reporting that some retailers are voluntarily removing American beef from their shelves following the recent announcement of a second confirmed case of BSE (mad cow disease) in an American animal.
Some local supermarkets and those in Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store (新光三越), Breeze Center (微風廣場) and Pacific Sogo Department Store (太平洋崇光百貨) have echoed the Consumers’ Foundation’s (消基會) call to halt the sale of US beef.
However, other major retailers, including Carrefour, RT-Mart (大潤發), Tesco and Costco, have claimed they will abide by the government regulations and continue to sell their stock of US beef. Removing beef products will lead to immense financial losses given US beef’s dominance in the market.
Costco, the nation’s largest importer of US beef, has sold an average of 22.5 tonnes of US beef, or NT$10 million (US$320,000), per week since the import ban as lifted on April 16.
No word yet on whether Yoshinoya Taiwan will be continuing to use imported American beef. I just found an actual 24 hour open Yoshinoya only a few minutes bike ride from my apartment (and next door to a Mos Burger!), so as long as they serve gyudon I’ll be eating there, regardless of this irrational fear resulting from isolated cases. BSE is certainly worth being scared of-a terrifying disease where your brain basically rots in your skill-but so far there’s no evidence that anyone has actually eaten meat from an infected US animal, in contrast to the genuine outbreak in Britain several years ago in which dozens of people died.
NEWS FLASH OMFG: FAMILY MART TO OPEN IN AMERICA!!!!!
AP brings good tidings:
Japan’s ‘Family Mart’ to Open in U.S.
06.21.2005, 09:14 AMAWESOME Japanese convenience store operator FamilyMart Co. said Tuesday it plans to open 200 stores in the U.S. over the next four years, the first in California.
The inaugural U.S. store will open July 20 in West Hollywood, California, under the name “Famima,” the nickname widely used by Japanese.
It will offer traditional Japanese convenience store staples like “omusubi” rice balls, “bento” box lunches and sushi, as well as U.S. fare like takeaway sandwiches, the company said in a statement. < -- I've died and gone to heaven! "We would like our American customers to experience a new shopping style," it said. FUCK YEAH, I have been waiting for this for EIGHT YEARS!!! The store will also feature wireless Internet access, an ATM, a copy machine and an eat-in area, it said. COOL! The company said it plans to have three U.S. locations by the end of the year and about 200 by February 2009. OPEN ONE IN DC. I BEG YOU. FamilyMart already has about 11,500 stores, including franchises, in Japan and other Asian locations including South Korea, Thailand, China and Taiwan.
Guess what? When “Famima” opens in DC, I never have to go to Japan again! I’ll just eat lunch there every day! Haha! I never thought Forbes Magazine would make me feel like dancing on air, but then I never expected this either! Joy!
U.S. Receives Assurance From Japan on Beef Exports
The United States Agriculture Department won assurance from the Japanese government on Tuesday that a second potential case of mad cow disease found on American soil would not affect negotiations to resume beef exports to Japan, the top American export market.
But critics of the department’s mad cow testing program said the case underscored the need for more intensive testing to determine how prevalent the fatal, brain-wasting disease was in the American herd.
The Agriculture Department said Friday that it had found bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in an animal that had tested negative last November. It would be the second case of the disease to be found in the United States, and the fifth in North America, since 2003.
On Monday Taiwan, which had resumed imports of American beef two months ago, and South Korea, which had been negotiating to restart them, expressed concern about the new case. Taiwanese officials said that if a final round of testing confirmed the disease that it would cease importing American beef. The news helped sink cattle future prices to their lowest level in 13 months.
But beef prices recovered slightly on Tuesday after Japanese officials said the latest discovery would not derail plans to restart exports to Japan, which imported $1.4 billion worth of American beef in 2003, or 36 percent of all American exports.
Soon people throughout Japan will once again be able to enjoy a nice gyu-don at Yoshinoya, just like here in Taiwan or back home in NYC.
Gourmet Watermelon “Densuke” auctions for 280,000 yen
The first-ever auction of the black-skinned watermelons known as “Densuke”, a delicacy of Hokkaido’s Tohma village, took place in markets in Asahikawa and Sapporo on June 10th.
The 15 melons auctioned in Asahikawa weighed, on average, 8kg with a diameter of about 30cm. A-Coop Asahikawa, a regional supermarket, paid the highest price, or 280,000 yen for one. This price was the same “charity price” as last year (tr: i.e. the Coop overpaid to support the farmers).
The melons this year are smaller than usual due to poor sunlight but are reported to be sufficiently sweet. During the peak time at the beginning of July, the melons will sell for a few thousand yen apiece mostly in retail stores in Hokkaido and the Tokyo area.
Tohma began raising the Densuke 「田助」 melons 22 years ago, and the unique name comes from a comic actor’s stage name. It also has the meaning of a rice field whose crops were rotated due to yield reductions (tr: or a slang term for a portable tape recorder).
Where’s the Niurou?
The Asahi reported today that as of June 1st, Yoshinoya resumed sales of gyudon at all 45 of its stores in Taiwan. This is the first time Taiwanese gyudon lovers have been able to buy the bowls in one year and four months since Yoshinoya halted sales last February following the Taiwanese ban on U.S. beef imports. Taiwan reopened imports in April, but only for cattle under 30 months of age.
According to the article, the price is some 20 percent higher than before sales were halted, but this apparently hasn’t stopped large numbers of visiting Japanese businessmen from frequenting Yoshinoya outlets.
Since MFT founding contributor Roy is in Taiwan this summer, and in keeping with the challenge issued by Adamu last week, and Curzon and Joe‘s intrepid trek to consume coffee flavored ramen, perhaps Roy might be willing to visit and give an eyewitness account. Five points for every photo you get of a Japanese salaryman chowing down on gyudon! And ten for any still beating hearts you find in the bowl!
Philly Cheesesteaks Suck — My trip to Philadelphia
First, let me tell you why I’m writing this: THE HYPE SURROUNDING PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS IS A LIE AND MUST BE STOPPED. They are disgusting and deserve none of the fame that they have gained. Now let me explain:
I recently had the chance to visit beautiful Philadelphia with Mrs. Adamu. The first capital of the United States includes a major monument to its role in the American Revolution in the center, which was certainly very impressive but not quite impressive enough to actually make me wait in line to see the liberty bell. Mrs. Adamu and I were soon bored, on our way home we decided to try the famous Philly Cheese Steak at Geno’s Steaks in South Philly — the biggest mistake I’ve made in a long time.
I felt betrayed as soon as I took the first bite and was greeted with hot blandness. All the hype, all the anticipation amounted to this:
Listen to the ingredients: Steakums, cheez whiz, and chopped onions on a soggy Portuguese roll. WTF? That’s it? This is the same crap I’ve been heating up in the microwave as a last resort food for years! What gives, Philadelphia??
The only thing that made it edible was the hot sauce that was available in the condiments section. At least then there was something to taste.
Initially I blamed myself. Had Japan tainted my taste buds so that I can no longer enjoy classic American food? Mrs. Adamu, a native Japanese, supported this initial suspicion. But then, no, I reasoned, I still like root beer, cheeseburgers and pancakes, so I must still be American enough to have an objective opinion.
So how could this have happened? Millions of people must be cheated out of their money each year based on the false assumption that something is different about Steakum sandwiches in Philadelphia. What a scam.
Clearly the cheese steaks are popular — there were stands all over the historical district and both Geno’s and the place across the street were lined up. Why weren’t more people spitting out their food and demanding their $6.50 back? I mean that’s a lot to pay for what’s basically the equivalent of peanut butter and jelly.
The answer came to me in a message from God. Without warning someone in a car shouted “NAZI FUCKS!!!!” in our general direction and sped off. Were they talking to me? (I shave my head so who knows) I looked around:
(Read here for more about this guy and Mumia)
(Note the tribute to 9-11 next to the Freedom Fries — aside from us and some other tourists, the rest of the customers were cops and firemen)
It was at once obvious that this place that serves its dubious delicacies with a heaping help of local pride and admiration for the most prominent local heroes, cops and firemen. These people don’t come here for good food, they come here because it’s part of their identity.
Now, that’s all well and good, but why must cheesesteaks then become something pawned off on unsuspecting out-of-towners? Perhaps because without cheesesteaks and the liberty bell, there isn’t exactly much to differentiate Philly from, say, Boston, DC, or other second-tier American cities. Yet I can’t accept the idea that any claim to fame is better than none. You might as well brag about having the world’s best green beans. These things are BLAND, BORING, AND SHAMEFUL. All Philadelphians with any self-respect would do well to shut these scheisters down before they can do any more harm. Besides, I hear they’re run by Nazis.
Coffee-flavored Ramen Available in Tokyo’s Katsushika-ku
This message is intended for Curzon and Nichi Nichi:
I saw this on the Japanese news today:
That’s right. Coffee flavored ramen. It’s a 5-minute walk from Ohanachaya station on the Keisei line. And it’s apparently pretty good. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to eat this strange ramen and let me know how it tastes. Good luck and godspeed!