Japanese standard

This Standard of Japan is very interesting. They show the results of Questionnaires, "simple questions about various topics of our daily life". This type of Questionnaire will show the real Japanese life For me this is a good resource when I can not find a good topic to write about too :-)

These results seem quite natural to me, When asked, "What do you use to clean your ears?" 46 people/120 use Mimikaki!, 20/120 use Mimikaki and Q-tips, Only Q-tips is 30/120. Since most Japanese have the dry type earwax, this is very natural. We have a Q-tip which has a sticky head. This would not work as well for the wet type earwax.

"If I were to say Cake! What cake do you imagine first?" for this question 111/136 answered "Strawberry shortcake" 6 people said Chocolate cake, 4 answered cheese cake. Overwhelmingly Strawberry shortcake is the exactly the cake for Japanese. BUT! Here is the point. Short cake was originally a crispy pastry made with shortening that came to Japan from Europe. However in Japan this fresh cream & puffy sponge is more typical of our strawberry short. I heard that sweets maker FUJIYA changed their strawberry cake like this first, and on the other site I read that this old cafe made this type of shortcake first in Tokyo during the 60's. I don't know which is the original, but in the 50's or 60's, there were not a lot of varieties of cake in Japan. Now there are many many many cake shops, and we can enjoy a wide assortment of cakes. There are many good Patisseries like as I've told you in this Jiyugaoka post. But still our cake is strawberry short. Now that is funny. When I searched for image files of strawberry short on Google and Yahoo, there were many cream and sponge cakes, so I wondered if this type is called strawberry short in North America too.

"How do you address your mother?" 43/142 answered "Oka-san", 18/142 replied "Ka-san". O is the polite prefix attached to the beginning of the word, so Osakan is more polite than Kasan. Then 11/142 replied "Mama" ( I call my mom, Mama), 10/142 replied Ka-Chan. San is polite and Chan is casual. In the Osaka area, Oka-chan is much popular than in the Tokyo area I think. Usually we have this kind tough image for Oka-chan.

Comments

[Ms. Ngamta Praphanakpitak]

please you inform for food and cake
in TV CHAMPION . because we want to take
eat. thanks you every much
Ngamta

[Danielle]

What Mari said can be true but it's not usually the way I have seen it. I live in West Virginia and the way we have always made strawberry shortcakes is on spongecake.

Usually you buy them in packs of four small round cakes like ">http://www.epicurean-traveler.com/Website%20Articles/SpongeCake.for%20web.DOC/Basic-Sponge-Cake-tiff.gif"> this but without the topping and much smaller. I would say that they're about three inches in diameter. You can also make your own but usually we do it the quick way of buying :). We don't usually eat elaborate ones. We just put some strawberry glaze on the mini-cake, put some chopped up strawberries on it, and top it off with whipped cream. For me and my relatives such an elaborate cake isn't the norm.

When watching anime I saw those yummy looking Japanese strawberry shortcakes. I would loooove to try one (strawberries are my favorite fruit). They look so tasty! I want to be able to make a pretty cake like that.

[Mari]

Hi Libby
Thank you for the cake link, I understand strawberry cake in the U.S.
Yes me too, I did not know well about shortening. and I was surprised to know short cake came from shortening. It would be good to challenge the U.S strawberry cake.
Thank you for your good information.

[Libby Cone]

The older version of strawberry shortcake uses biscuits (American biscuits are different from English biscuits. A "biscuit" in England is a "cookie" in America. A "biscuit" in America refers specifically to a roll that is made with baking powder instead of yeast; its texture is halfway between cake and bread. It is more popular in the American South than in the North. The word "short" is used because the biscuit is made with "shortening," a term for any butter or other solid fat that actually keeps the flour from forming long strands of gluten. I didn't know this technical meaning of the word "shortening" until recently. This is a recipe for the older version of strawberry shortcake: http://www.alanskitchen.com/DESSERTS/Print/p_Strawberry_Short_Bisc.htm

It uses Bisquick, a popular American baking mix that contains flour, baking powder, and shortening. You can still find the older version of shortcake in restaurants that make old-fashioned foods (and probably more in the American South), but the cake-type is more popular. The last cake you showed would probably be called "strawberry cake" because it looks like the strawberries are only on the top, and the cake has a more elaborate frosting.

Now that we have had dessert, let's talk about main dishes. In the late winter in America, a freshwater fish called shad is briefly available. The fish and its eggs, or "roe," is a delicacy in the US. It is available only briefly, unlike most foods that are available for long periods of time. My husband does not like it, so I either make it for myself or I have it in a restaurant. We went to a restaurant last night; it was on the menu, so I ate it. It was delicious!

Libby

[Mari]

Hi Cecile
Please visit Jiyugaoaka, that town has many good cake shops. Anyplace would be nice and delicious.

[cecile]

hi mari! i love strawberry shortcake!! i might visit tokyo soon. where can i find the best shortcake? thanks =)

[gleek]

yep.. got it. since i never get to practice japanese with my mom, i never get to call her "haha" :) thanks for the clarification.

[Mari]

Gwen
Hi Gwen, for me strawberry short is too sweet. I am Japanese sweet lover, I need natural sweet. :]

Hi robert
You are funny anyway.

Hi Gleek
When I talk about my mother to others, I will say my Haha to them, but when I talk to my mom, I never say Haha to her. I hope you understand this.

[Gwen]

Strawberry cream cake
おいしい～　；＿；

[robert]

HA HA!!! :) But then my mom would think I was laughing at her all the time....oh but wait, I do. Ha! Ha!! perhaps I have been simply speaking Japanese all this time and I was unaware..or just criminially insane with a cruel streak. BWAHAHAHAHA!! ( does that mean dad?) |*_*|

[gleek]

no one calls their mother, "haha"? or is that old fashioned? that's what we learn in japanese class. you call your mother "haha" and other people's mothers "okasan".