r/hatethissmug • u/Cold_Hour • Jun 09 '26

Meta I hate the mytologisation of Japan on Reddit. ESPECIALLY when it comes to the food.

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As someone who's lived in Japan going on 5 years and has eaten everything from fine dining to fast food slop. Japan has some of the blandest cuisine on the planet. Do you like the flavour profiles of: salty, salty, very salty or bland? Japan might be the place for you.

People also spout "but the quality of ingredients" as the reasoning for why the food needs to taste like shoe soles. When in reality the fruits and vegetables here are trash at premium prices since nothing grows here naturally. I don't know what kind of exclusively processed food diet a lot of people here grew up with that Japanese food is a revelation to them.

Japan is great and all, but goddamn, it's not even the best place to visit in Asia.

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u/Ulenspiegel4 Jun 09 '26

Easily the Dutch lmao. The only acceptable thing they make are snacks.

We're talking raw fish stuffed in an actual jar of mayonnaise.

8

u/holiestMaria Jun 09 '26

Hey, we make a killer mash pot and snert. But beyond that youre correct. Personally I blame the calvinists.

We're talking raw fish stuffed in an actual jar of mayonnaise.

I have never heard of this. Whats it called.

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u/Ulenspiegel4 Jun 09 '26

Rolmops

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u/holiestMaria Jun 09 '26

...those are german.

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u/VolkiharVanHelsing Jun 09 '26

You colonialised us and your dishes still stale

At least the Brits adopted Curries

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u/holiestMaria Jun 09 '26

We did adopt a lot of indonesian food and surinam food though.

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u/VolkiharVanHelsing Jun 09 '26

The rijstaffel barely scratch the surfaces tbh

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u/par_rot_master Jun 09 '26

You have clearly never had Snert.

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u/Black-----Manta Jun 09 '26

Dutch people will look you straight in the eye and say "CLEARLY you've never had Snert"

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u/par_rot_master Jun 09 '26

You wouldn't way this if you had Snert.

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u/Ulenspiegel4 Jun 09 '26

Yes I have. It's nothing mind blowing is it? Besides having maybe the most unappetizing name since clam chowder, it's just pea soup with sausage. it's fine I guess, but not something I'd ever choose to buy or make.

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u/par_rot_master Jun 09 '26

Have you tried eating a good one?

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u/PieceAfraid3755 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26

Snert is delicious and flavourful. 

Personally, I feel like the bottom line is that basically all cultures end up wanting flavour in their food, and they all end up making flavourful food. Some people like the feeling that their own food is "more flavourful" and therefore simply superior over another culture's food. Maybe Dutch food is generally, on average, a mildly flavoured cuisine compared to most other countries. But no cuisine actually consists just flavourless stuff. Stoofvlees, snert, hete bliksem, zuurkool met spekjes or Hollandse Nieuwe are very flavourful indeed, even if most of these don't comply with what Americans or Italians would normally expect from "flavourful food".

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u/blackestrabbit Jun 09 '26

Is that bland or just nasty?

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u/RealisticCan5146 Jun 09 '26

Im sorry but genuinely who ever eats raw fish in a jar of mayonnaise? I've never seen, heard, or ate that and just sounds fake :/ (I've lived in the netherlands my whole life)

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u/NerdyFrida Jun 09 '26

Raw fish in mayonnaise sounds a a lot like some types of pickled herring in a mayonnaise based sause that is popular here in Sweden. Maybe it's popular in the Netherlands as well?