Nakashoku and store-bought sozai

[Squeat Mungry]

I happened across this article in yesterday's Baltimore Sun (free registration required), and it caught my interest.

As fewer women marry, more mothers enter the workforce and the population ages, the Japanese have become increasingly dependent on nakashoku. Translated as "home-meal replacement," nakashoku includes sozai, an industry that is reaping tens of billions of dollars in sales despite Japan's recent recession.

Since the mid-1990s, a staggering variety of sozai has become available in Japanese food courts, cafes, restaurants, specialty shops and convenience stores.

Have eGulleteers living in Japan noticed this trend? Do you agree that the younger generation are afraid of cooking? Do you avail yourself of the commercial sozai available?

I have sampled the offerings at Delica rf1 here in San Francisco, and they are beautiful and tasty:

The salads and other offerings of Delica rf1, a leading sozai purveyor in Japan that recently opened an outlet in San Francisco, have been described as a "fusion of the Western deli with Japanese attention to presentation in creating a new understanding of the food as accessible and beautiful."

Has anyone been to a Delica in Japan?

What is the quality of these commercially-prepared "home-cooked meals"? The article implies there is a wide range of prices and quality.

Anyway, I'd love to hear opinions on this phenomenon, if it really is one, and not just media hype. Is it really a serious threat to the tradition of home-cooking in Japan?

Cheers,

Squeat

[torakris]

buying pre-made sozai has been quite popular in many urban areas for quite a while now, 15 yeras ago my ex-boyfriends mother used to buy almost every dinner at the basement of Takashimaya (department store). This is a trend that is definitely on te up though. Department store sozai can be very pricey and it is actually cheaper for me to take my family of 5 out to eat! I have never used them for dinner, but I often buy a lunch just for myself.

I have started noticing trends in cooking magazines/cookbooks on cooking with convenience store foods, they buy sozai from the convenince stores and then sort of tweak it. As convenience stores are cheaper they tend to be more popular with the younger crowd.

I have also noticed that in recent years all of the supermarkets in my area have redone/expanded their sozai sections and are now othering a much wider selection.

the only things I really buy from here are corroke, when I have had a busy day and just need one more thing for the table or some kind of tempura when I just want a piece or two to stick on some noodles.

[Hiroyuki]

the only things I really buy from here are corroke, when I have had a busy day and just need one more thing for the table or some kind of tempura when I just want a piece or two to stick on some noodles.

←

Same here.

I must admit that this is really the first time I have ever heard of such a strange term as nakashoku. "Nakashoku??," I thought.

http://www.jekai.org/entries/aa/00/np/aa00np64.htm

Maybe I've been here in this rural town for too long, or it may be simply because I don't watch TV as often as I used to.

[Squeat Mungry]

Thanks for the thoughts and the links, folks! I guess 'nakashoku' is a fairly recent term, according to Hiroyuki's link. Is that a fairly accurate translation, "somewhere between eating out and cooking at home" -- and does it sound strange to a Japanese ear?

As for Delica, I've only literally had samples of their food, which they were giving away when they first opened. I've been meaning to go back and try their salads and 'deli' stuff. It all looks so pretty!

Cheers,

Squeat

[helenjp]

Japan loves new words...in the 20+ years since I came, there have been numerous efforts...ita-meshi for casual italian, soto-meshi for eating out, uchi-gohan for eating in...etc.

Sozai have been big in Japan for a long time, 25 years ago my first FIL used to buy almost everything from the department store basement on his way home, on the pretext that MIL had a weak heart...but in fact, she just hated to cook, and had never learned, because she grew up during the war.

Lots of young people never cook anything more than soup and rice, if that, and many people seem to regard quite basic Japanese favorites as "too hard to cook at home". They are the children of my first parents-in-laws generation, and for them, bought deli items have gone from being an indulgence to a normal part of everyday eating.

To cater to this generation (or to CREATE this generation as a market!), the sozai outlets have expanded from the Mom and Pop shop selling rice-balls, packs of rice, and a small range of nimono sold by weight, situated in some low-rent out-of-the-way backstreet (next to the tofu and the old ladies' dress shops), and the department store basements, and are now found in supermarkets and convenience stores. Supermarkets in particular have been rearranged so that the sozai are mostly closest to the entrance, and always a long day's march from the vegetable and meat sections favored by the DIY shoppers. Convenience store sozai tend more to the bento type.

[Hiroyuki]

Is nakashoku equivalent to home meal replacement?

http://www.wordspy.com/words/homemealreplacement.asp

According to this site (Japanese only), the term nakashoku came into 'relatively frequent' use in the 90s.

http://www.nodai.ac.jp/nyusi/campus-life/a...l13/vol013.html

[torakris]

Yesterday i erceived a flyer for this company in my mailbox:

http://www.dinnerservice.co.jp/

you need to click around to see some pictures....

They offer various types of food, from prepared bento style, to fully cooked homestyle that you just need to heat up, to sending all of the ingredients for the meal with recipes and you just put them together. There are various plans, weekly (5 or 6 day) plans or various price ranges, montly plans, occasional plans, special sets for women, or those with health considerations, etc. The prices depend on the type of plan and the number of people you want to feed.

[shelora]

Hi all,

Are small plates of food in Japanese callled sozai? Is this the correct spelling? These would be small plates of fish or vegetables, perhaps onigiri, that type of thing. I guess sashimi would be included in this category?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Shelora

[Hiroyuki]

Just a quick reply.

http://www.jekai.org/entries/aa/00/np/aa00np62.htm

I'll provide more info later.

[torakris]

sozai can be translated as little dishes, but don't think of them as really little dishes like the Korean banchan.

The sozai are the dishes that together with rice (and probably soup and maybe pickles) make the meal.

It is often said that an ideal meal should consist of 一汁三菜 (いちじゅうさんさい ichijuu sansai), i.e., one bowl of soup and three 惣菜 (sozai) dishes in addition to rice.

[shelora]

THanks Torakris,

This really helps. Would be say that this is healthy form of fast food?

Shelora

[torakris]

THanks Torakris,

This really helps. Would be say that this is  healthy form of fast food?

Shelora

←

well...

I don't think I would call it either health food nor fast food.....

In the US people tend to eat a main dish, usually a meat/protein or pasta and then they may have a side dish or two (maybe even 3), think about the rice and soup being the main and then a couple of side dishes of similar proportions. These sides can be anything grilled/simmered fish, sauteed/grilled/deep fried meats, vegetables either hot or cold, etc

[torakris]

here is a picture of a typical Japanese meal, just add rice:

http://www010.upp.so-net.ne.jp/lelelenolen/bangohan5-151.jpg

from a link in this thread on what Japanese people eat daily:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=20784

[Hiroyuki]

Hi all,

    Are small plates of food in Japanese callled sozai? Is this the correct spelling? These would be small plates of fish or vegetables, perhaps onigiri, that type of thing. I guess sashimi would be included in this category?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Shelora

←

Sozai is the correct spelling just like Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto are the correct spellings, but I would prefer souzai because this is how it is written in Japanese phonetic characters and because sozai can be taken for another word meaning material.

(Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto are written as Toukyou, Oosaka, and Kyouto in Japanese phonetic characters.)

Souzai can mean both home-made and store-bought okazu (side dishes), but the word has come to mean store-bought ones specifically.

>perhaps onigiri, that type of thing. I guess sashimi would be included in this category?

Onigiri (rice balls) are usually not considered souzai. In Japan, rice is regarded as the staple food, and souzai and okazu are considered something to eat rice with. Sashimi is usually not considered a souzai, either, because it is not prepared in such a way as to be called a dish.

In the souzai industry, however, the term souzai has been broadly interpreted to mean dishes containing rice, bread, and noodles.

From here http://www.souzai.or.jp/2.html

(Japanese only)

If you decide to stick around the Japan Forum for a while, why don't you install a Japanese character set?

The following link may provide useful information:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...825&hl=Japanese

Edited November 10, 2004 by Hiroyuki (log)

[smallworld]

I've always considered souzai to be take-out side dishes. To be eaten as part of a proper meal. The fact that they may be served in individual little side dishes is unimportant; most Japanese food, from snacks to components of a regular meal, are served in individual little dishes.

Western food is also served as souzai, in which case it would likely be served on one big plate.

So no, souzai are not the same as tapas.

I think the closest word to tapas in Japanese is "kozara ryouri", literally "small dish cuisine". This style of eating is rather expensive and is meant to accompany sake.