Japanese original western food

I wrote about Japanese original foods with foreign country names.

Turkey rice : It is fried rice with pork cutlet and spaghetti. There are several stories about the origin of this name. Some said it came from Turkey, but I don't think a pork cutlet food came from an Islamic country. Some said fried rice meant China and Spaghetti meant Europe. Pork cutlet is the bridge between Western and Eastern, so that the meal was called Turkey. Hmm, it sounds reasonable but it's too much. Some said Spaghetti was red, rice was white, there are three colors on the dish. So the meal was called "tricolor" first. This sound very true for me. There are many such stories for that name, and we don't know the truth actually.

American dog : I tried to find why we call it American dog sometimes but I couldn't find any information. Maybe it came from the U.S simply.

Napolitan : Long pasta with Tomato Ketchup or tomato-based sauce, onion, button mushroom, green peppers, sausage, bacon and Tabasco sauce is called Napolitan. It was made at Hotel New Ground in Yokohama. After ww2, the hotel was used by GHQ and there is still a room where Douglas MacArthur stayed. The hotel must have cooked some western-like food for GHQ. That would be the reason why Napolitan was made there. This blog is a Napolitan blog, he eats napolitans almost everyday.

Siberia cake : This is sponge cake with sweet beans cake "Yokan". I read the name comes from the fact that it looks likes a railway or the frozen ground of Siberia.

All foods are Japanese original but look like some western foods. We call such food "Yoshoku". Here is the typical Yoshoku menu.
Curry rice : Of course, the original is Indian curry. Japanese curry is more sticky and heavy. Like wiki said, it is arranged into curry udon"" or "curry pan". My Indian friend said, Japanese curry is completely different from India but he likes Japanese curry too.

Korroke : It's a deep fried dish originally related to a French dish "croquette". Popular korrokke is mashed potato and mince meat. I loved the one with crab meat and white cream. In Japan, Korrokes are sold in the meat shop, freshly-fried ones are so delicious.

Hayashi rice : It's a kind of stew that contains beef, onions, and button mushrooms, in a thick demi-glace sauce which often contains red wine and tomato sauce. We eat it with rice. The name would come from hashed beef.

Cutlet and fried : Pork, chicken cutlet is typical menu item of Yoshoku. Actually an assortment of fried dishes (this would be shrimp, oyster, crab and cream) was my favorite menu when I went to yoshoku shops.

Omuraice : It's fried rice covered by omelet. If you watched the Japanese movies Tampopo, you would remrmeber the Omulet.

Yoshoku restaurants were popular after ww2 because people sensed some western mood there, but the number of Yoshoku restaurants are declining. Maybe it is easy to try original western and ethnic foods, and most yoshoku menu items are possible to cook at home because we don't need to use any special seasoning for them. But still people love those "original Japanese western foods" :-). In Tokyo, Yoshikami in Asakusa, Taimeiken in Ginza are well known. (Taimeiken serves that Tampopo omurice). Here is an English menu of Yoshoku restaurant in Yokohama.

Comments

[mss @ nipponDAZE]

In America, the corn dog is a popular food at County or State Fairs (which are the American agricultural equivalents of a matsuri 祭り). They are served on a stick, so you can eat them while walking around the festival.

According to one source I found, "The corn dog was invented by Neil Fletcher in 1942 for the Texas State Fair."

[bb]

apparently japanese curry is based on british curry. and according to an old respectable restaurant in Osaka that claims to have invented Omurice, it was based on the chef's experiences studying in France and then trying to make a hybrid french/japanese dish.

[KG]

An American dog is from the US and it's called a corn dog because the stuff around it is made from Corn Meal (like corn bread).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_dog

[Su-Lin]

What a wonderfully informative list - I'd never heard of a few dishes (like the turkey rice!).

[stuz]

oups didnt see u listed the 洋食 only .. my bad

[stuz]

you forgot tempura ‐ all time westeners favourite - introduced by portugese.. :)

then there are all kinds of メン from china