About daily Meal

When I had the first opportunity to join normal supper at home with a family in Germany, I could not stop feeling a surprise. Those served to all of us were only slices of several kinds of bread, cheese and ham: the style they call “Kaltessen”. It was start of autumn, already being quite cold outside but none of the meal was warm. I soon noticed that this is standard and traditional way of their supper. Are Germans special in Europe? Not entirely. It did not take too long for me to learn that normal supper at home in other European countries are quite simple as well from perspective of Japanese (scene on the table may be slightly different in Mediterranean countries, though). Here in Japan we expect two-three warm “dishes” (Okazu) that require some cooking elaboration together with rice (Gohan) and miso-soup every day.

My next finding was that many Europeans do not hesitate so much to eat same food consecutively, while that being avoided in Japan.

Similarity can be seen meals in offices especially in downtown. Many office workers take “simple” lunch such as sandwiches, and it is not exception even for executives. The simplicity may be more extreme in USA…Donald Trump’s lunch is said to be always huge hamburger with huge amount of ketchup. In Japan, if you prepare sandwiches or hamburger for lunch after board meeting of a big firm, those who arranged the meal will be fired…it must be nice luxurious lunch box(“bento”)!

(Don’t misunderstand. Business executives in Europe do take nice lunch time to time…but not as frequent as those in Japan)

Yes, it is one example of small but remarkable cultural difference.

A lunch dish at a restaurant in downtown Aachen (Germany).