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Cooking shows in Japan


Jason Perlow

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I stumbled on the Korean TV drama Dae Jang Geum, known in Japanese as Changgum no Chikai (Changgum's Promise). The season is about to finish, and I think it may have been shown on Japanese TV once before without me noticing :biggrin: , but as it screens at 11pm on Friday nights, NHK 1, I can actually get to watch it!

The cooking scenes tend to show ingredients being carried here or there, or pot-lids being lifted, rather than hands-dirty stuff, but there is plenty of interesting discussion to flesh it out!

Any other favorites?

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Was the Lunchtime Queen funny? I see the Amazon listing has rather mixed reviews, but I might see if I can find it at the rental store, and persuade one of my sons to give up Fruits Basket for a week so I can watch it...come to think of it, the heroine of Fruits Basket purportedly cooks, but you only ever see her buying nira or putting completed dishes on the table.

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Lunch no joou was very entertaining. It revolves around a yoshoku restaurant, so there are some great scenes and dialogue around things like Omu-raisu (I think from the very first scene), and attempts to make the best demi glace, among many others. Takeuchi Yuko's great in the title role, as were Eguchi Yosuke and Satoshi Tsumabuki, and one of Japan's favorite hotties, Ito Misaki. Here's a link to a Jdorama site on Lunch no Joou.

Another great food drama is Oosama no Resutoran (King's restaurant). This story is set in a struggling French restaurant, and it really goes into the culture of French cuisine. And there's plenty of food scenes to enjoy. Here's the Jdorama link: Oosama no Resutoran

Another worthwhile comedy/drama is Manhattan Love Story, which is a parody of a love story, set in a kissaten. Not too many food scenes, but there's just enough. It's more serious about coffee, actually. Here's the Jdorama page: Manhattan Love Story

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Another great food drama is Oosama no Resutoran (King's restaurant).  This story is set in a struggling French restaurant, and it really goes into the culture of French cuisine.  And there's plenty of food scenes to enjoy.  Here's the Jdorama link: Oosama no Resutoran

Thanks! I thought of this drama when I first read this thread, but I just couldn't remember the title. I'm so forgetful these days... :sad:

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I don't watch a whole lot of Japanese tv but my kids really love the Cooking Papa animated series. It is about 10 years old but they are showing it on one of our cable channels.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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"Sam Soong" was a huge hit here in Korea, where the main character, styled as a kind of Korean Bridget Jones, was a pastry chef. This generated a lot of interest and resulted in a bunch of new shows on our cooking network featuring baking, which is something Korean women haven't really gotten into until now. The baking section of my local Tesco doubled, as well!

There's a kid's show we get opn NHK that has a giant purple carrot as a character, which I find midly disturbing. Sometimes there's a cooking segment. Anyone know what it's called?

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  • 4 months later...

Does anyone know if the Iron Chef series was ever released on DVD ? I have been unable to find it on any english websites, and would love to own a copy. We get it on Television still, but often get repeats.

Cheers,

Rob.

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I looked for it in TVF Shop and never found it ... called and found it was never released. What I have been able to find is "Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters", available on eBay, in Sears, etc. Be careful, though -- there was an Iron Chef knock-off (hosted by William Shatner) on another network (Fox, I think, but I could be mistaken) that is often offered ... and reviews indicate it's not worth the money.

If you do find any real Iron Chef, please let the rest of us fans know!!

Regards,

Jason

JasonZ

Philadelphia, PA, USA and Sandwich, Kent, UK

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Yes, the horrible, horrible (did I mention horrible) version that JasonZ is referring to is Iron Chef USA and remains to this day the most wretched bastardization of a foreign TV show I have seen. While FTV's version has a tiny bit of charm from the original, Iron Chef USA had none of it. Thank goodness we were drunk when we watched it -- at least laughing hysterically at the TV set made the show move along faster.

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It kills me that I recorded YEARS worth of this show in Los Angeles when it was being shown before subtitles or any American bastardization.

Then I got rid of the tapes 'cuz I never watched 'em and DVDs became to prevalent...

<sob>

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  • 1 month later...

I showed my wife how to use bit torrent and all hell went loose. So every week we watch the following:

VV6 Ranking, I've been disapointed by vistiing their number one rankings on occasion, I went to the number 1 hamburg place in tokyo and was dissapointed

Ai no Aipron

SmapxSmap

Food Predjudice King

Tensai Shimura Doubutsu En

I'm sure if I'm allowed to post links or talk about torrents here

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If you want to see Hiroyuki Sakai in action, here is a good chance.

http://www.ytv.co.jp/docchi/dotch_set.html

In the next episode (Sep. 7) of Dotch no Ryori Show, he makes an appearance with hashed rice (?).  The opponent is Tsutomu Ochiai, who makes omu rice.

Did you watch it? I did! Sakai won with a score of 7 to 1.

Sakai's demi-glass sauce looked delicious, and his choice ingredient was gorgeous - chou super jumbo mushroom!

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/motoseika/604998/689707/609815/

14 to 18 cm in diameter and 280 to 330 g in weight! Wow!

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If you want to see Hiroyuki Sakai in action, here is a good chance.

http://www.ytv.co.jp/docchi/dotch_set.html

In the next episode (Sep. 7) of Dotch no Ryori Show, he makes an appearance with hashed rice (?).  The opponent is Tsutomu Ochiai, who makes omu rice.

Did you watch it? I did! Sakai won with a score of 7 to 1.

Sakai's demi-glass sauce looked delicious, and his choice ingredient was gorgeous - chou super jumbo mushroom!

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/motoseika/604998/689707/609815/

14 to 18 cm in diameter and 280 to 330 g in weight! Wow!

I watched it. The chou super mushroom segment was amazing. "'is this the chou super jumbo mushroom?' , 'no THIS is the chou super jumbo mushroom'" :biggrin:

Also the color of the losing chef's egg yolks was amazing. Such a dark orange. Hiroyuki did you catch the name of those eggs? I didn't.

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If you want to see Hiroyuki Sakai in action, here is a good chance.

http://www.ytv.co.jp/docchi/dotch_set.html

In the next episode (Sep. 7) of Dotch no Ryori Show, he makes an appearance with hashed rice (?).  The opponent is Tsutomu Ochiai, who makes omu rice.

Did you watch it? I did! Sakai won with a score of 7 to 1.

Sakai's demi-glass sauce looked delicious, and his choice ingredient was gorgeous - chou super jumbo mushroom!

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/motoseika/604998/689707/609815/

14 to 18 cm in diameter and 280 to 330 g in weight! Wow!

I watched it. The chou super mushroom segment was amazing. "'is this the chou super jumbo mushroom?' , 'no THIS is the chou super jumbo mushroom'" :biggrin:

Also the color of the losing chef's egg yolks was amazing. Such a dark orange. Hiroyuki did you catch the name of those eggs? I didn't.

Sorry, I missed that part. Maybe Kefir eggs. Just a hunch.

By the way, this show ends this week (Sep. 14) with oyako don vs. katsu don. :sad:

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  • 1 month later...

Now that Dotch no Ryori Show has discontinued, have you found any other TV cooking show worth watching?

Here is one:

Bishoku Kessha WONDER KITCHEN

This show is unique in that it is broadcast first on B.S. Nippon Corporation on Sundays from 8:00 p.m. and then a Web digest version is distributed on the Web.

It's worth watching if you have a command of Japanese.

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Ai-no-Apuron, or "Love Apron" is still on I think. I like that show in that even though the celebrities on often suck at cooking, they do show the proper way to prepare the dishes that are featured. Although I must admit, it looks like it might be running out of ideas, so it might go the way of "Docchi" as well.

I like to watch "Oshaberi-Cooking" hosted by local Kansai yenta Kaminuma Emi-chan. The dishes are quite creative and simple to prepare. Plus, the chefs who are regulars on the show are my ex-professors who I got along quite well with during my culinary school days, so its a little plug for my alma-mater.

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  • 1 month later...

Er I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to ask. But I'm at my wit's end.

I'm (fan)subbing the latest Mago Mago Arashi episode (Kodomo no Bangohan) for a friend but I'm stuck at this one part. Ouda-kun says he wants to make aji-no-tataki but then says that he's never actually made it before. Then the voice over says of Ouda-kun, 「魚を裁いたこともないのに…」 so I was wondering what exactly does "sakana wo sabaku" mean? I'm really confused. Thanks for all your help, I hope this is the right place.

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Er I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to ask. But I'm at my wit's end.

I'm (fan)subbing the latest Mago Mago Arashi episode (Kodomo no Bangohan) for a friend but I'm stuck at this one part. Ouda-kun says he wants to make aji-no-tataki but then says that he's never actually made it before. Then the voice over says of Ouda-kun, 「魚を裁いたこともないのに…」 so I was wondering what exactly does "sakana wo sabaku" mean? I'm really confused. Thanks for all your help, I hope this is the right place.

sakana wo sabaku means to to clean/gut/cut up a fish.

The character you used is also sabaku but it means to judge (like in a court), sabaku for cutting fish is usually written 捌く. This could be some sort of play on words that I am not familar with though.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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