I’ll Make It Myself!: Add a Dash of Cultural Imperialism: Japanese Food and Cooking (1956), Part 3
L.M. (CIR Ishikawa-ken, Anamizu, 2009-11) is the editor of The Ishikawa JET Kitchen: Cooking in Japan Without a Fight. Ze works in international student exchange; writes I’ll Make It Myself!, a blog about food culture in Japan and the US; curates The Rice Cooker Chronicles, a series of essays by JETs and JET alumni on the theme of cooking/eating and being alone in Japan; and admins The JET Alumni Culinary Group on LinkedIn.
Part 3 on a series about Stuart Griffin’s Japanese Food and Cooking (1956).
Ch. 2: Rice Dishes
Griffin’s writing style reminds me of culinary gaslighting. He bounces between extolling the deliciousness of Japanese food and calling it gross; he urges his fellow expats (or, rather, their wives) to keep an open mind and expand their palates while simultaneously telling them that foreigners don’t like this food or that food, implying that American cuisine is normal and Japanese cuisine is a curiosity.
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