youshoku

youshoku　【洋食】

it means "western foods" -- which is a term that might be somewhat confusing.

western? what, like what cowboys eat? 

...chili?

what i should say is that it means "western-style japanese food" ---

okay, that probably doesn't help clear anything up. 

let me try again.

youshoku is a broad term used to describe foods that aren't originally japanese in origin (i.e. came from europe or america). so for example, french cuisine. that's considered youshoku. but here's the tricky part -- youshoku has become so ingrained in japanese culture that they started to put their own spin on it, creating these foods that they don't have in europe or america, but are still lumped into the youshoku catagory, like omurice.

still with me?

okay, good. 

some classic examples of youshoku are:

hamburg steak 【ハンバーグ】

omurice 【オムライス】

you-fuu curry 【洋風カレー】 

steak 【ステーキ】

fried shrimp (oysters, etc) 【エビフライ、カキフライなど】

stews (tongue, cream, beef) 【タンシチュー、クリームシチューなど】

pilaf 【ピアフ】

parfait 【パフェ】

napolitan spaghetti 【ナポリタン】

hayashi rice 【ハヤシライス】

chicken escaloppe 【チキンエスカロップ】

sandwiches 【サンド】 

i'm probably leaving out a lot of others, but these are pretty much the core of youshoku culture. while things like pilaf and steak are easy to understand, things like hamburg steak, omurice, napolitan, hayashi rice... not so much. that's because these are those tricky japanized versions of western foods, or foods that the japanese simply created with western ingredients.

let's start with hamburg steak -- this is basically a hamburger patty (ground beef, onions, nutmeg, salt, pepper, eggs, possibly some bread crumbs or panko) served on its own, often with a demi-glace sauce. 

oh, should i explain demi-glace? some of you may know about this wonderful sauce, but for those who do not -- it's like a beef gravy made from the marrow of cow bones, vegetables, red wine, and beef stock. it's a rich, auburn-brown sauce that is pretty essential for youshoku.

this is hamburg steak, smothered appropriately in demi-glace.

moving right along to omurice. this is a mash-up of the words "omelette" and "rice", which should give you an indication as to the identity of this delightful dish.

that's right. it's an omelette and rice. together.

the rice part is white rice or butter rice (jeez, that's another youshoku thing! white rice that's steamed together with butter, chicken stock, and bay leaf) that is sauteed with chicken (or ham in really old-school places) and sometimes onions and/or mushrooms, and finally ketchup is mixed in at the end until it's a nice orange colour. this is called chicken rice (and yeah, that's another youshoku thing).

what you do next determines what style of omurice it's going to be. there are two styles of omurice at current: classic and dandelion (tanpopo).

if you wrap the chicken rice up in a thin sheet of egg, that's classic.

if you put a lightly scrambled omelette on top, that's dandelion. the name dandelion comes from the way it's eaten: the top layer of the omelette is cut open, revealing a runny, fluffy center that folds over the rice, creating what looks like a yellow dandelion on the plate.

both are traditionally topped with ketchup and eaten with a spoon. however, there has been a move away from the ketchup tradition, and most places top theirs with demi-glace instead.

napolitan spaghetti is a pasta dish that has in interesting back story. first, on to the explanation. it's a simple dish consisting of thick spaghetti and ketchup, sauteed together with onions, ham/bacon, and green peppers, and topped with parmesean cheese. this is a staple at kissaten as well, but has recently gained popularity once again in the realm of youshoku.

there are many conflicting stories as to who actually came up with the dish, but mostly all stories point to the same thing. they had a lot of pasta, but no tomato sauce. on the other hand, they had ketchup. so one day, the cook sautees the cooked spaghetti with ketchup and voila, napolitan is born! the name "napolitan" comes from the italian town of napoli, famous for tomatoes.

this is a classic example of napolitan.

finally, we get to hayashi rice. the name supposedly comes from the words "hashed rice" which...i gotta say, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but bear with me.

the dish is composed of thinly sliced beef and mushrooms in a demi-glace based sauce. it's served over rice, like japanese curry. often red wine and onions are also added to this rich, almost beef stew like dish. there are variations to this as well -- using beef tongue (gyuu-tan) or beef tendons (gyuu-suji) instead of thinly sliced beef (in fact, you see gyuu-tan ALOT in youshoku, such as tongue stew -- delicious, mind you, just time-consuming to do right).

ah, gyuu-suji hayashi... melt-in-your-mouth meat with gelatinous and gooey tendons... it's a beautiful thing.  

 

so i suppose you're starting to see a trend? the use of ketchup or demi-glace = youshoku. 

 

if it's got demi-glace, it's fairly safe to assume you're eating youshoku. the same can be said for tartar sauce (served with fried shrimp and fried oysters), and for things sauteed with ketchup. but see, here's the thing: not many non-japanese are familiar with demi-glace. it's a classic french sauce, no doubt, just likely not used all that often outside of france (correct me if i'm wrong). be that as it may, it's a cornerstone of japanese youshoku and the pride of chefs at youshoku-ya or western restaurants. demi-glace sauce is often something that has been made in the tsugitashi style, which means that they'll use half and then make another half, use half, make another half and keep mixing the older flavors with newer ones, creating a richer, more flavorful demi. these sauces can have origins up to 40 or even 50 years, if that shows the dedication chefs show to the sauce.

 

so the next time you're in japan, try the sushi, the sashimi, tenpura, and the whole nine yards of traditional japanese foods, but also be sure to check out some youshoku too! because in all honesty, it's pretty much just as japanese as the sushi.