Oishinbo - Vol. 37 Ch. 340 - The Children Who Seek Authenticity
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I was studying like that too during high school and I can't even touch the top 20 ranking in my school
Hm…mixed feelings here. On the one hand, it’s a really strong chapter on its own, with a good message and good research. But on the other hand, it’s weird seeing Tomii’s son being this articulate and well-reasoned given what we’ve seen of him previously. Plus, Yamaoka has in several chapters talked about the pure taste buds of children, so seeing him be caught flatfooted is a bit strange. And the ending felt really abrupt, almost like there was a page missing. So yeah, complicated feelings here.
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I ate cottage cheese a lot when I was a kid. Still do. Although I’d take a pass on the tofu and the liver shit.
Problem is that they are both unfamiliar and they are an acquired taste. No kid gonna suddenly eat liver cracker.
Anyhow, with liver you can easily turn it into paté, it's real good.
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My younger brother likes that shit. Personally, I can't stand the metallic taste.
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Bro's too caught up in being preachy that his logic went flying out the window AGAIN. Like his preaching mood for this chapter is "Yay home cooked meal", so he forgot that some of those healthy meal flops can still be reworked to make the kids find them interesting. Alas this is not a "make food good so people who don't like it change their mind" chapter.
Like, yeah, I do agree the liver crackers is weird, but the omelette sandwiches should've been fine. Like what the hell, LOL. Even in the 80s and 90s sandwich shouldn't be weird anymore in Japan and kids would not be averse to those. Whole wheat bread might be dry for the kids (even I still hate whole wheat bread because it's too coarse), but cutting it into smaller pieces helps to overcome that texture. Or, if it's still too rough for the kids, use one white bread and one whole wheat to soften the texture a bit more. Better yet, bake the bread into shapes to begin with. You can make bread look like soccer ball or animals by using coloured dough and arranging them using a method similar to making "kintaro-ame" candy. Use all-natural food colouring!! They exist!! People use them to colour dango and daifuku going all the way back to the Edo period!!
Giving the benefit of the doubt that the last one I mentioned might be too avant-garde for the 90s, cutting it into shapes with cookie cutters should help at least.
And the Japanese style pilaf. That's literally no different than the rice ball that the kids ended up liking. It's just maybe a bit more "Western" in terms of seasoning, like using consomme instead of dashi. There's nothing wrong with that, unless it's the packaging box that just looks too dull and uninteresting. Nothing to do with the food itself. Heck, the fix for this is easy, just roll up that very same pilaf into rice balls then.
And what kind of kid says stuff like "junk food are tricking us"? I don't care about none of that when I was a kid. If it taste good I eat, who gives a hoot about nutrients?
This is another one of the times when I'm just like "If you know nothing about food, please shut up or actually hire a chef to make you sound less stupid, and for the love of everyone's sanity, you have to actually talk to real humans". Books about how to make decorative bentos already exist SINCE THE 70S. Japanese people are not stupid. The concern of "making sure kids eat healthy" is something people have had for a long time, and they sure as hell had invented methods to fix it, including devising methods to make the food look attractive.
Like, yeah, I do agree the liver crackers is weird, but the omelette sandwiches should've been fine. Like what the hell, LOL. Even in the 80s and 90s sandwich shouldn't be weird anymore in Japan and kids would not be averse to those. Whole wheat bread might be dry for the kids (even I still hate whole wheat bread because it's too coarse), but cutting it into smaller pieces helps to overcome that texture. Or, if it's still too rough for the kids, use one white bread and one whole wheat to soften the texture a bit more. Better yet, bake the bread into shapes to begin with. You can make bread look like soccer ball or animals by using coloured dough and arranging them using a method similar to making "kintaro-ame" candy. Use all-natural food colouring!! They exist!! People use them to colour dango and daifuku going all the way back to the Edo period!!
Giving the benefit of the doubt that the last one I mentioned might be too avant-garde for the 90s, cutting it into shapes with cookie cutters should help at least.
And the Japanese style pilaf. That's literally no different than the rice ball that the kids ended up liking. It's just maybe a bit more "Western" in terms of seasoning, like using consomme instead of dashi. There's nothing wrong with that, unless it's the packaging box that just looks too dull and uninteresting. Nothing to do with the food itself. Heck, the fix for this is easy, just roll up that very same pilaf into rice balls then.
And what kind of kid says stuff like "junk food are tricking us"? I don't care about none of that when I was a kid. If it taste good I eat, who gives a hoot about nutrients?
This is another one of the times when I'm just like "If you know nothing about food, please shut up or actually hire a chef to make you sound less stupid, and for the love of everyone's sanity, you have to actually talk to real humans". Books about how to make decorative bentos already exist SINCE THE 70S. Japanese people are not stupid. The concern of "making sure kids eat healthy" is something people have had for a long time, and they sure as hell had invented methods to fix it, including devising methods to make the food look attractive.
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