The Stone Bridge Podcast

Tabemasho! Let's Eat! Japanese Food in America with Gil Asakawa

Episode Summary

A discussion of ramen, sushi, and more with Gil Asakawa, author of the just-published Tabemasho! Let's Eat! A Tasty History of Japanese Food in America.

Episode Notes

Stone Bridge Press publisher Peter Goodman discusses ramen, sushi, and more with  Denver-based writer and renowned foodie Gil Asakawa, author of Tabemasho! Let's Eat! A Tasty History of Japanese Food in America.

Gil was born in Japan and grew up in the USA, where he experienced the evolution of Japanese food from sparse offerings to the explosion of cuisines and styles that are available today.  The discussion includes:

• Where did your interest in food come from?
• Were there many Japanese restaurants around you growing up?
• Ugh, you eat raw fish? What did your non-Japanese friends think of Japanese food?
• When did American culture shift from confusion and trepidation to interest with Japanese food?
• What's the strange history of the California roll and did an aversion to eating seaweed play a part?
• Ramen: once a cheap street food, now very chichi. What's up with that?
• What's the next big Japanese food trend? Probably not fermented soybean natto, so what is it?
• Racial stereotypes and food packaging: "wonton font" and exotic geisha on snack packages

Gil Asakawa is author of Being Japanese American (Stone Bridge Press, 2004) and co-author of The Toy Book (Knopf, 1991). He is a nationally known speaker and commentator on Japanese American and Asian American identity and issues. He writes a blog, Nikkeiview.com, about pop culture and politics from an Asian American perspective. He lives in Denver.

Peter Goodman is publisher of Stone Bridge Press in Berkeley, California, which for over thirty years has specialized in books on Asia, especially Japan and China. For a complete list of Stone Bridge Press books, visit www.stonebridge.com.