How did I miss this, everything looks 300 kinds of delicious! A good friend of mine is about to take off to Japan and says they are looking forward to the fresh and special types of "pan" there.
I find it interesting that the placement of the food is left up to the top chef. Huh. I can see how that is a much trickier art than one might think. Truly, the Japanese still amaze me with their aesthetics, it's why I never want to see them completely merge into American culture where I often feel I'm starving for deep meaning in anything.
He said that I have the 'sense', although he looked like he was about to rearrange it himeself. What I'm not happy about: the fact that there are 4 soramame (beans), the sakura bud sitting directly on the takenoko (bamboo shoot) and leaking flavor onto it, the obscene amount of green, and the fact that there is a lot of plastic in the arrangement. Most of these things weren't really my fault though, since I was dealing with leftovers and he told me to put some items in plastic. I'm helping with moritsuke most days at my job now and trying to get a feel for how and why things work.
well it's good to critisize yourself. And obviously arranging food is an art so good luck practicing!
Btw, do you find that you have more difficulty understanding food arrangement (taste combination-wise) compared to the japanese themselves? I was wondering how culturally embedded tastes are, and the rate at which one understands what tastes go well together can possibly indicate some relation between tastes and culture.
I've been attracted to the art of food arrangement for a while and have trained at school, so it's hard to say what is inborn and what is training... But I think that the Japanese have no leg up on the Westerner except for maybe knowing if a certain food has prestige or not. For example, I didn't know for a long time that tai (sea bream) is highly regarded in Japan and so wouldn't react with the proper oohing and ahhing if it showed up on my plate, whereas even a Japanese child would probably know that. But for the arranging itself, I think we all start around the same place. Most Japanese home cooking, like most American home cooking, is just slapped on the plate.
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I find it interesting that the placement of the food is left up to the top chef. Huh. I can see how that is a much trickier art than one might think. Truly, the Japanese still amaze me with their aesthetics, it's why I never want to see them completely merge into American culture where I often feel I'm starving for deep meaning in anything.
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Btw, do you find that you have more difficulty understanding food arrangement (taste combination-wise) compared to the japanese themselves? I was wondering how culturally embedded tastes are, and the rate at which one understands what tastes go well together can possibly indicate some relation between tastes and culture.
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