Perhaps its because of my exposure at a young age to 'real' Spanish food that I've never found any Japanese food to be that strange - and I've eaten pickled entrails, small fishes that seemed like nothing more than a crispy and bone ridden shell for a cache of termite eggs, all kinds of dried sea flesh and egg pouches, gelatinous beans and root vegetables with threads that extend for metres, musty pickles that I've picked out myself from a jar of fetid ricebran that's been fermenting for generations, etc, etc, etc... Believe me, when you stay with an 86 year old woman in a home she's lived and worked in for well over 60 years, you get to taste authentic Japanese food. Heck, she even makes preserves and pickles from plants she grows in the 30 cm wide 'garden' that surrounds her house - the most delicious yuzu tea I've ever had came from a tree that grows on her balcony... in a flowerpot about 20cms diameter! Even her wasabi is home grown, she grows it on her kitchen windowsill.

The reason I'm saying this is that most of these 'delicacies', or at least commercial variations of them, are easily accessible. I know you're the sort of person who will visit a department store in Japan, or take pleasure in visiting grocery stores in downtown areas.

I wonder, just because of the social structure of Japan, if it isn't much easier to just 'stumble' on the majority of authentic foods of Japan - taking into account the regional variations.

I always got the impression that a different approach would be needed in China... this thread has kind of confirmed this.


As for the best international food being available in the USA... The food I had in Poland recently was incomparable to the Polish I've eaten in New York. Far, far better.

EDIT TO ADD: Just spoke to MrLapLap about this thread. His comment was that most Japanese townies would balk if confronted with many of the regional and rural delights you can get in the countryside. I'm sure this is the same in China. It's certainly true for France & Spain.