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ASIAN FOOD
Q. Is there such a
thing as Thai bread?
Q.
Is there ever a good time to tip in Japan?
Q.
What is 'edamame' and how do I eat
it?
Q.
Is there
kid-friendly Thai food?
Q.
How do you use chopsticks?
Q.
How do you pronounce 'Satay'?
Q. What are the
effects of eating too much Japanese horseradish?
Q.
What is the bread called
that's part of Indian food?
Q. Do samosas come with a dip?
Q. How
do you pronounce 'wasabi'?
Q. How
do you pronounce 'edamame', and why can't we eat the
pods?
Q.
Is there such a thing as Japanese coffee?
Q. Bread seems to be popular throughout
the world, but is there such a thing as 'Thai bread'?
A. Thailand
doesn't have much of a history of bread-eating.
This is despite the French bringing croissants to
neighbouring Vietnam, and the English introducing sliced
white loaves to places as close as Malaysia.
Nowadays, of course, you can find this, and other kinds
of bread in Thailand, but still they are not what people
would first to turn, for say, breakfast. Instead,
expect to find bread used in snacks, even to hold slabs
of ice cream to make ice cream sandwiches- literally!
Q. I
understand that it is customary in Japan NOT to tip at
any restaurant or service-providing facility. Are sushi-ya
an exception?
A. Nope!
Japan is a land where tipping is an alien concept-- it's
not done to anyone there, ever, which makes it an easy
rule to remember, and even easier to follow.
Instead, everyone- including people in roles where we in
America would normally tip- is paid a decent salary.
Incidentally, The Food Virgin once tried to tip some
especially helpful hotel staff, but that just ended in a
lot of embarrassed Japanese-style giggling, and the
return of my money. So relax, and enjoy your trip
there! P.S. When in America, tip as per
usual at Japanese restaurants, like you would at any
other.
Q.
I went out to eat Japanese food recently with
friends, and something called 'edamame' came to the table.
It looked like a bowl full of pea pods, and one friend
said we should eat the pods, like with snow peas, while
another said to just eat the beans inside. Which one
is right?
A.
Your 2nd friend is right- definitely don't eat the pods!
Edamame is a popular Japanese appetizer, and is fun finger
(and mouth) food. Pick up a pod, put it near your
mouth, and squeeze the beans into your mouth.
Discard the empty pod either into a bowl that the waiter
will bring out just for this, or put them in a neat pile
on your plate or side plate.
Q.
I read your article on Thai food and want to try it, but
will have to take my whole family. Will there be
anything there that I can feed my 5 and 8 year olds?
A.
Yes! Although some Thai food can be spicier than
kids are used to, other dishes are great for kids.
Start them off with chicken satay, which can either be
eaten plain or dipped into the peanut sauce. For
main dishes, fried fish, pandan chicken, and tom kar gai
are all mild. You can also ask whether a chili-free
version of pad thai or other dishes can be made.
Q.
At home when I eat Chinese food, I eat it with a fork, but
when I'm out, sometimes chopsticks are available.
I've seen people using them and they make it look easy,
but I tried it once and it didn't work for me at all!
Will anyone care if I don't use chopsticks in a Chinese
restaurant?
A.
Well, the good news is that no one will really care if you
stick to the good old tried-and-true fork when you eat at
Asian food restaurants in America. But the even
better news is that it's not all that hard to learn how to
eat with chopsticks. The trick is to hold your hand
out as if you're about to shake hands, then curve your
fingers comfortably. Anchor one chopstick across the
end of your middle finger and the joint of your thumb.
Your thumb pressing toward your palm will keep it in
place. The other chopstick will be held between the
ends of your thumb and index finger and will rest against
the index finger. This is the chopstick that will
move so that you can pick up items and hold them firmly.
It is easier to learn with wooden chopsticks, as these
have better grip than ceramic ones. Order Chinese
and practice at home until you are comfortable enough to
try it in a restaurant. For more instruction, try
this link to eHow: eHow-
How to Eat with Chopsticks.
Q. How do you pronounce the Thai food, 'satay'?
A. There are
two ways to pronounce this delicious meaty appetizer:
sa-TAY, and SA-tay. Both seem to be used in Asia,
but the first one is more common, whereas the latter is
a bit more European/American. For more Thai food
pronunciations, check out the
Thai food page.
Q. What are the
effects of eating too much Japanese horseradish?
A. Umm...
breathing horseradish breath on your date?
Japanese horseradish, also known as 'wasabi', does have
some useful properties. It is used with sushi to
help kill any bacteria that might remain in the raw
fish. The real question is, why are you eating too
much wasabi anyway?
Q. What's the
bread that goes with Indian food? It looks like
pita bread, but is longer.
A. You probably
mean naan (pronounced with a long 'a', similar to 'non'
as in 'nonsense'). You can get it plain, with
garlic, sometimes even with cheese. Use it to
scoop up your curries. We also like pappadums,
which are the Indian version of crackers, served at the
beginning of the meal. You can dip pappadums into
mint sauce, mango chutney, or other condiments brought
out with them.
Q. There are a lot of dips and sauces on
the table for Indian food. We've ordered samosas
before, and are confused- which dip goes with the
samosas?
A. Samosas are
a great Indian food appetizer-- potatoes and other
ingredients deep-fried in a triangular pastry packet.
Typically not too spicy, they're good for newcomers to
the cuisine too. Perfectly spiced as they are, you
don't need to dip them in anything. If you want
to, though, take a spoonful or two of chutney to your
side plate (or main plate if there's no side plate), and
dip your samosas in that. Some recipes you'll see
suggest mango, mint or tamarind chutney. These are
all good choices.
Q. How
do you pronounce 'wasabi'?
A. 'Wasabi',
the popular, green, Japanese version of horseradish is
pronounced 'wah-sah-bee'. Normally, in English, we
have emphasis on one syllable in each word more than the
others, but with Japanese it is less so. Put a
little emphasis on the middle to make it easier for you
to say, as in 'wah-SAH-bee'. In Japan, they say it
slightly more like 'WAH-sah-bee', but it might be
over-emphasized by an English speaker that way.
Check back soon for our easy audio guide to hear the
pronunciation of key words for each cuisine that we've
written up.
Q. How do you pronounce 'edamame'?
And why not eat the pods? We eat the pods of snow
peas, after all.
A. I can see that we're
going to have to put up a pronunciation page for our
Japanese Food Virgins. 'Edamame' is pronounced,
'ed-a-MA-MAY'. To find out how to eat it, read our
article on
Japanese Sushi. As for eating the pods,
technically, they won't harm you if you do decide to eat
one, but edamame pods are nowhere near as chewable as
snow pea pods. If you put one in your mouth,
you'll be chewing, and chewing and chewing... long after
the sushi chef has packed up his knives and gone home.
Make life easy for yourself-- pop the beans out into
your mouth, and enjoy.
Q. After a sushi meal, is it normal in
Japan to drink coffee, like we would after an American
meal?
A. Coffee drinking isn't a
traditional end to a Japanese meal, but these days in
America, you could probably get a cup. Remember,
most people choose to drink green tea with Japanese
food, so it would be strange to switch to coffee after
that. That said, coffee drinking is popular in
Japan throughout the day, found in offices and homes,
and with cans of it available from vending machines
offering both hot, and cold coffee (yes, cold, with
milk, if you want).
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