~ Oishinbo ~ 🥘 🍙 🍱

It seems that Jeff was referred to Tanimura by the Tozai News branch in Los Angeles, whatever that means. I’m more disturbed by the fact that Kurita (who is a reporter) was reduced to serving drinks for that scene. Has the treatment of women in the workplace in Japan improved since the 1980s?

I totally missed that. Tozai news is huge!

I sure hope so. Content warning for Oishinbo: working women should serve tea when there are visitors.

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Yeah, workplace Japanese can get bureaucratic. In the scene, Tanimura is shown reading a letter, then said 「 なるほど、ロサンゼルス支局長の紹介か。」 (“I see, letter of introduction from Los Angeles head of branch.”) They seem to call their supervisors by their titles, such as 部長 or 副部長. A bit too formal for my taste, but I have never worked in Japan :sweat_smile:

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Ew Tobacco fish

I was able to understand a lot of the plot and dialogue. This is very rare and should be celebrated

Kanpai

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That chef clearly had never heard of soap, which makes him a failure as a chef more than anything. :sweat_smile: (not that it might help against tobacco, ugh, but hygiene is pretty important…)

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Ew was your hands with soap

Also it is becoming increasingly strange for me to see people without masks.

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btw: you should check the vocab sheet for this episode. I think I looked up lots of stuff for the latter part of it, when it might get harder to keep up with the vocab. ^^

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Dang dang a new opening for episode 21

Missed a lot of this episode but got the general idea.

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I’m a little bit early, but here goes next week’s episode thoughts!

Week 13 30th August Episode 33-35 新妻の手料理 & あわび尽くし & トンカツ慕情

Episode 33.

Kurita decides to help out a friend of hers that’s despairing since she thinks her new husband is cheating on her: he doesn’t come home until late after work, after being out for drinks, and doesn’t eat her food. Of course, that means Yamaoka gets dragged into playing detective as well. :female_detective: :grin:

They stalk the husband after work and follows him to an izakaya. When he leaves, they again follow him.
back to his own house. So much for having an affair.

Of course, the main issue is food related. Gasp!When talking to the newlywed friend she serves them a microwave dinner (well, not really premade food as it’s her own dishes, but she’s reheating all dishes that way). Yamaoka is seriously distressed! lol and apparently the husband was as well, since what he wants to eat is not Western style food that his new wife learnt from cooking classes, and reheated to boot, but simple Japanese food that goes well with a drink. What is it with these spoiled men and their food preferences - and their complete inability to talk to their wives about anything? :woman_facepalming:

In any case, all things ends well, once Yamaoka teaches the wife how to make some simple Japanese food, that’s great after having had a drink.

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Episode 34

There’s trouble brewing at Tozai News! They’ve got a new editor-in-chief (?), and he thinks the paper is lacking appeal to younger audiences. The fault it laid at Tanimura, who’s to be removed from his post. Yamaoka to the rescue! :superhero:

Apparently Koizumi, the new editor-in-chief is a big fan of abalone, so Yamaoka brings him on an abalone cuisine exploration trip. The final stage really pushes it, as he convinces Koizumi to join him and Kurita to a trip to eat abalone “steak”. It’s all a ploy to get Koizumi to realize that he had seriously misjudged abalone (originally he thought sashimi was the only way to eat it).

The point being: just as abalone has many sides to it, so does Tanimura, who is not a one-trick pony and who should be given a chance to lead the Tozai team also in the future. Koizumi is seriously angered, but in the end, relents and Tanimura can remain at his position.

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Episode 35

This is another food memories episode. Nostalgia is the main flavor of Oishinbo!

Well, Tozai news have been receiving lots of correspondence from readers. Yamaoka and Kurita is assigned to follow up on it, which brings them to seek out a now successful Japanese-American businessman, now back in Japan. He remembers eating tonkatsu to die for, but has not been able to find anything like what he remembers. Yamaoka is on the case! :female_detective:

Turns out, the tonkatsu in question was served after a really rough day. The man had been working a blue-collar job back then, and going home he had been mugged and beaten. :frowning: A kind soul gave him shelter from the rain at his restaurant, his wife fixing his torn clothes while he served up tonkatsu.

Still, how to find a specific restaurant? Well, Yamaoka beeing someone that apparently has contacts everywhere, lol, manages to get ??? to ask for clues from the public. They get a tip about a home for the elderly where the restaurant owner is now.

Kurita and Yamaoka goes to visit them and the old man and the businessman is reunited at last! <3<3<3 The old chef is asked to make tonkatsu again for the man, and he’s led into an empty restaurant. Yamaoka has ensured the best ingredients are available (having correctly guessed that the man had used kurobuta/Berkshire pig).

Plottwist: the restaurant the old man is now cooking in, is a gift from the businessman to the old couple (as thanks for that plate of tonkatsu all those years ago)! :astonished: Great: rather than retiring after an already long life of hard work, he can now work until his death! :coffin: Thanks! :woman_facepalming:

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Episode 22

The worst episode! It features my least favourite character, the balding one with the annoying voice.
Annoying voice guy has a meltdown tantrum and a building catches on fire. Yamaoka makes nabe and feeds everyone takenoko

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Episode 33: 新妻の手料理

I’m not a big fan of microwave myself. Did not have one until my Japanese language tandem partner (who was moving back to Japan) gave me one for free. Even then, I used the microwave perhaps once or twice a month. Usually to make microwave popcorn :sweat_smile:

Episode 35: トンカツ慕情

I agree with you, @ekg , if I were that old man, I would be so annoyed. First, two strangers show up at my retirement home just while I’m chilling out with my wife. Then, they kidnap me to Tokyo. Then they make me cook and serve this guy I saved 30 years ago. And the cherry on top is that I can’t refuse his gift of a new restaurant because that would be rude. I just want to go back to Chiba dangit! :rofl:

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Seriously, I hope he just sells the restaurant and upgrades his retirement home! :joy:

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Week 14 6th September Episode 36-38 スープと麺 & にんにくパワー & ビールと枝豆

Epiode 36 スープと麺

I honestly can’t remember now what lead up to this, but basically Kurita and Yamaoka help out another reporter who’s interested in a Japanese dish with chilled Chinese noodles, a dish usually eaten in summer. This reporter is going to interview a food connoisseur who of course turns out to be Kaibara! dun dun dun

Kaibara is being his usual disagreeable self, and doesn’t consider hiyashi chuka to be a real dish! Que Yamaoka wanting to prove him wrong! :joy:

So, Yamaoka gathers the best possible ingredients and enlists help to make high quality noodles. Time for tasting. It’s great, but Kaibara find fault still. He actually does a bit of cooking of his own this time. Bringing out a dish that looks just like the one Yamaoka mad - except for it being better. :rofl: Basically, Kaibara made a better soup, using Chinese ingredients rather than high grade Japanese ones, making for a more cohesive dish. End score: Yamaoka=0 Kaibara=1

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Episode 37: にんにくパワー :garlic:

The Tozai news team is going to a baseball game! :baseball: Yamaoka is clearly one of the more fanatical fans! :rofl: Well, he’s about to get much closer acquainted with the game…

…when a foul ball hits him right in the face! XD :face_with_head_bandage: :hospital:

The player responsible for the foul ball visits Yamaoka in the hospital. He’s been in a slump lately, and the Tozai news people discuss why that might be. Turns out the player is aware of his slump and is attempting a garlic diet to improve power. Yeah, eating loads of raw garlic! :nauseated_face:

Yamaoka decides that the man needs a lesson in proper preparation of garlic! So, he uses he never ending list of acquaintances among restaurant owners and chefs he has, lol, and arrange for a crash course in how to prepare and eat garlic.

As for the dishes, they’re all basically garlic cloves prepared in different ways. o_o No matter cooking technique, but that’s not something I’d wanna eat - I like having friends and work colleagues that don’t avoid me! :sweat_smile:

We’re also treated to a chemistry/botanical lesson by Yamaoka on why raw garlic isn’t all that good for us. You should cook garlic and onion (alliums). I didn’t really get all the technicalities of the explanation, but yeah, cooking onions etc is better for the body?

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Episode 38: ビールと枝豆 :beers:

Tozai news is going out for after work. Yamaoka insists everyone go to a specific beer hall (apparently a thing in Japan, I wonder if do they still exist?), where there’s a bartender he favors due to his skills a pouring a beer from tap.

Well, turns out the man isn’t working when they arrive. In fact, he was fired! Oh noes, Yamaoka to the rescue!

Yamaoka seeks out the man to hear what happened. The old man doesn’t really know himself, just thinking that his feelings didn’t come across to the new boss after serving him beer and freshly prepared beans. Yamaoka, decides to confront boss man! :triumph: According to him, the bartender served him rotten edamame beans! In fact, he thinks it was a way to harass him, as he took over as owner of the beer hall.

With two very different stories of what happened, Yamaoka lures the boss away with promises of delicious edamame. They travel to a field and boss man happily picks beans. Yamaoka prepares them (boils) at the field and serves up cold beer for them.

Oh, noes, the beans are rotten! (spoiler: no they aren’t). They’re just black, since this is a variety of soybeans that are black. ^^; The mystery rotten beans turns out to be a delicacy! Boss man, realizing his mistake, rehires the bartender (who frankly should retire already! :sweat_smile: )

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Episode 23 Sumo with gangstassss

What???

Well unfortunately I’m watching the oishinbo episodes twice while I prepare things for work.
I switched to watching pokemon intensely which is more my level.

So I miss a lot.
That being said…
What the heck? Was this episode even about food?

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Actually when we vvisted Kagawa we went to an Udon class. They had us jumping on the dough

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Can’t believe that was over 2 years ago

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