While driving with my family, we had a conversation about Far East Asian (i.e., China, Korea, Japan) foods, and where those foods originated from. (We didn’t include Taiwan, but we could for this discussion. Same with Mongolia.) After the discussion, I thought of looking up some of these, particularly the ones I wasn’t sure about. For example, I would guess yakiniku actually originated in Korea and then Japan just adopted it. In general, assuming that most foods originated from China is a safe bet, but I don’t know of any Chinese restaurants that feature customers grilling food. (Actually, come to thing of it, I can’t think of a lot of grilled food in Chinese cuisine. I’m sure Chinese cuisine does have grilled foods. Indeed, I believe they do grilled skewered proteins.) And for some reason, I assume that Japan adopted Korean bbq–primarily because Japan usually is the adopter, not the “adoptee,” if you get my drift. But is this correct? I could search online for the answer, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss this with you all–maybe some of you already known the answer. (Question: What foods, indigenous to Japan has China and Korea adopted? Are there any foods? Did Taiwan adopt kakigori (shave ice)? Or did shave ice originate in China? Korea?)
Now, I’m going to list below some of foods and their countries of origin–at least based on what I believed to be true. If I’m wrong, please let me know.
- noodles, noodles+soup, and dumplings (China)
- sashimi (Japan)
- tofu (China)
- tempura (Portugal)
- tonkatsu (?)
- okonomiyaki (Korea)
Questions
- Does Japan or Korea have a version of roasted meats–e.g., roast pork/duck, cha siu? If not, why not?
- What foods developed independently in each country? For example, perhaps each countries developed their own form of pickled vegetables on their own, instead of adopting it from another country.
- Did deep frying originate from outside of Asia (Portugal?), or did China create this cooking technique? I suggest a non-Asian source because deep fried Chinese food seem like geared to Western palates. I could be totally wrong, though.
When it comes to Korean and Japanese cultures, don’t forget the Japanese occupied Korea for decades, forbidding Koreans to speak their own language or practice many of their cultural practices. Korea adopted and modified a lot of Japanese stuff during this time, which is why we have kimbap, among others I can’t think of right now. And so soon after the Japanese left, other nations fought over Korea, leaving a lot of other cultural adoptions, such as army stew from American rations.
You make a valid point, but do you think the Koreans adopted yakiniku from the Japanese, versus the other way around? Kimbop seems like that would originate from Japan because it’s essentially a maki sushi and as far as I know, Koreans don’t have anything equivalent to sushi or rice ball-ish type of food. (Same with the Chinese.)
Do you know the origins of kakigori? I’m wondering if the Japanese first made this. I know Taiwan and Korea have a version, but the Japanese occupied both. Moreover, as far I know, mainland China doesn’t have a version of this, or do they?
I would only be speculating with no food history knowledge at all, except (because of AANHPI Heritage Month just ending) I know kimbop is an adaptation of sushi. I didn’t even know what kakigori was until I looked it up just now.