When you enter a Japanese food joint in Singapore, chances are you will be bombarded by some exclaimation deemed to be some Japanese greetings!!!
I am not sure whether they understand what they are murmuring. Definitely I don't. Then why do they do it? To create an artificial Japanese ambience that you are paying for!
In today's papers, we can read a writeup of the sushi chains, their ratings and the competitive environment in which they operate in.
There is also this method of running a restaurant nowadays. You may at first see a real Japanese doing the sushi and shashimi but that Japanese would be replaced eventually by a local.
The white radish dressing has been obseerved to have been replaced by red carrot dressing in one of this chain.
Even aunties working part-time in neighbourhood supermarkets are preparing sushi.
In last week's papers, I read about this Japanese who had been training under another Japanese for many years in Singapore. Both are now operating their respective restaurants here. The ex-trainee mentioned the many early mornings of sharpening knives. The presentation of every dish to every cut against the vein on a tuna slab are meticulously learned.
I have often asked myself who are these people manning the sushi counters in these chains.
Has Japanese food and culture been taken for a ride? Is commercialisation destroying an art form of many hundred years old?
The Japanese are not taking this lying down. I read that they are working out some form of accreditation to certify that you are operating a true "red" Japanese restaurant.
Maybe then you got to earn the right to serve "sushi, sashimi, ramen, .." in your restaurant.
Sayonara to the Land of the Rising Sun? Hope not.
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