00:02
Welcome to Kevin's English Room Podcast.
Hello.
You good?
Yeah.
Good.
Did you spill some water?
Yeah, I think so.
Okay.
You know, that painting already looks likesomething's been spilled, so...
Good.
I don't think it is.
Blood.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So...
Oh.
No name on it.
Okay.
Yeah.
I would love to have a name on it.
What happened, man? What happened to you?
No, I mean, whatever is fine.
Just put some A or B, C, everything is fine.
You don't like no names?
No.
I really want something on it.
Oh, what happened, man? What happened?
It's okay.
What's the matter?
Just put something.
You want something?
Yeah, just numbers, like 1, 2, 3, fine.
Everything is fine.
Anything like a symbol?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
So...
What happened to you, man?
Hi, everybody.
Hello.
I'm writing to share a fun topic about my absolutefavorite food, sushi.
All right.
I actually just wrapped up my life in Denmark andmoved back to Japan.
While I was out there, I worked at a local sushirestaurant for a couple of months.
Okay.
Our star menu was a roll literally named Yabai Sushi.
Oh, okay.
Wow.
It was a roll stuffed with avocado and shrimp fry.
Like a California roll?
Yeah, which they insisted on calling tempura forsome reason.
Okay.
Shrimp fry.
All right.
With chili mayo topping on it.
Yeah.
Sounds like a classic California roll?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Danish people are obsessed with chili mayo.
Oh, really?
Okay.
They put it on absolutely everything.
Their menu was almost entirely rolls.
And while they had nigiri, it was sadly onlysalmon and tuna.
Okay.
Okay.
Plus, by Danish law, they aren't allowed to servecompletely fresh raw fish.
Okay.
Everything has to be frozen first.
Oh, not cooked but frozen?
Yeah.
Okay.
In my opinion, Danish sushi is different fromAmerican sushi too.
If you go to a proper sit-down sushi restaurant inthe US or Canada, it's actually similar to whatyou get in Japan.
Okay.
Well, okay.
Okay.
There's things we want to say to that, but okay.
I lived in the US and Canada when I was ateenager.
03:01
Especially the salmon nigiri in the Canadianrestaurant was so incredible that I honestly thinkit was way better than sushi roll.
Okay.
Sure.
Okay.
Okay.
On the other hand, the tuna was not as good.
I believe tuna from my hometown, Shizuoka, is theabsolute best in the world.
So, question for you too.
To Kevin-san, how do you feel about sushi in theUS?
Did you actually enjoy it?
To Yama-chan, have you ever been to a sushirestaurant or tried any Japanese food when youwere in France?
Thank you so much for bringing up my message onyour podcast.
Your podcast makes my life funnier.
Please stay healthy and take care of yourself.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You know, is it really that different like theDanish sushis?
Yeah.
I mean, I'm looking up Danish sushis right now onGoogle Images.
You know, it doesn't look, you know, it looks justas bad as American sushi.
So he says American sushis, sometimes he feelsbetter than sushi doughs.
Well, I mean, it is true that the quality of thefish is getting better.
Oh, really?
Compared to like...
It is getting better.
Okay, okay.
Wow.
That's a good news.
Good news.
Good news.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But the way they cook it, how they prepare it, youknow, like, you know, how they do it, you know,with the Californian way.
You know, that's a, you know, big culturaldifference right there.
So if it's like a nigiri, then, you know, thatcould be, you know, that's a possibility, youknow.
There's not much, you know, California rolling todo there, you know, with the nigiri.
It's just, you know, plain old, you know, sushi.
Meshi.
Yeah.
Right.
Especially if there were Japanese chefs.
Yeah.
It's not, I guess, it won't be that terrible.
If those, like, fishes are fresh.
Right, right, right, right.
Yeah.
But other than that, it looks kind of, you know,it looks really similar to like a California roll,how the Americans sort of like fuck up the sushi.
I mean, I'm feeling a very similar vibe.
Right? It looks like a California roll.
Yeah.
Because California roll has so many variations,right?
There's one that uses avocado, one that uses likean eggplant broth, you know, like a cutie.
Many sauces.
Yeah, so many sauces.
Like, yeah, even like the spicy mayo, too.
That's there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah, so how was sushi in Paris, man?
Yeah, so I...
In France.
I remember my host family brought me to a Japaneserestaurant.
06:05
Very interesting.
They thought that I wanted, you know, my home...
Yeah, I missed them.
Like hometown foods and everything.
Very kind.
Yeah, so they were very kind.
So they tried to bring me to a Japanese restaurantin a big city.
We drove by car, hour and a half.
It's pretty far.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And they introduced me.
Oh, here we go.
This is the best Japanese restaurant in the city.
The store clerk was like this.
Well, obviously, they spoke French.
Yeah.
Obviously, they were French.
You can't complain.
Yeah.
It's France.
Yeah.
But all of them, they looked Asians.
Oh, okay.
And I knew that they were not Japanese.
Okay.
But for them, I guess.
For them, they all looked Japanese or whateverAsians.
Like Southeast Asia?
I guess they were Chinese people, I guess.
Okay.
Because they spoke Chinese actually in thebackyard or something.
Oh, really? I see.
Yeah, but...
I see.
So, I instantly understood the situation.
Oh, okay.
And they have Japanese menus.
They have Japanese, I don't know, tapestry things.
Some, I don't know, konnichiwa written inJapanese.
All right.
They're faking.
Okay.
They're faking Japan.
I see.
You can tell that the konnichiwa, the text isn'tvery authentic.
Okay.
So, and all the menus were Japanese, like nigiri,like sushi.
I don't know, whatever those, everything.
And so, the host family, they didn't understandwhat the situation was.
So, they were like, hey, Yama, let's just speak inJapanese.
And you can have conversation in Japanese.
It will be fun for you, you know?
Oh, no.
And then I was like, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I don't know, guys.
Yeah.
But I tried.
Oh, you tried, okay.
Because I, you know, it's not a good thing thatyou just see them and just judge them.
Maybe they can speak Japanese.
Maybe.
It's true.
So, I tried to speak them in Japanese.
And I go, 何がおすすめですか?
And they were like, shit.
Okay.
You can see the look on their face?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
And then they spoke in French to me.
Okay.
And then I explained to my host family about thesituation.
09:00
Ah, I see.
Yeah, they're not Japanese and they're, I guess,Chinese and they're speaking Japanese andeverything.
Okay.
That, I remember.
Oh, God.
Yes.
What about their food, though?
I mean, so, first of all, it wasn't Japanese food.
Okay.
It's like, yes, you have nigiri.
Yes, you have, I don't know, you have seaweed.
Yeah.
Yes, you have something, I don't know, Frenchpeople think what Japanese foods are.
But like, you know, like soy sauce are different.
Sauces are different, like dashi is different.
I see.
Yeah.
I see.
You have like chopsticks, but it's not somethingthat we see in Japan.
It's like, more like plastic and a bit longer thanwhat we usually use.
It's like, you know.
I see, yeah.
And, yeah.
Overall, it wasn't that Japanese.
Taste, well, not that bad, but it wasn't Japanese.
So, like overall, as an experience, it was good.
It was fun.
It was fun.
It was culture.
Yeah, it was funny.
Yeah.
But, yeah.
But I guess, you know, that was a really long timeago.
Yeah.
It was more than, how many, more than 10 yearsago.
Yeah.
Hopefully, right now, France has a much higherresolution of Japanese food.
I guess so.
And also, the place I was in was very, verycountryside.
Okay.
Like, so in Paris, maybe they have top Japaneserestaurant.
Oh, it was in Paris.
Yeah, it was very, very far countryside.
They must do.
They must do.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I believe so.
And I remember the store clerks explained me aboutthose menus, which I didn't know.
Oh, because, okay.
But they say it's a Japanese cuisine andeverything.
I see.
What is it?
They say to you what their Japanese food was.
Yeah.
That's funny.
Yeah.
The taste wasn't that bad.
I see, I see.
For us, you know, many of the Japanese that are inAmerica, we use all of our energy to find theright sushi shop.
We go to, like, you know, we go to Japaneserestaurants every week.
Okay.
And then, like, just try to, like, yeah, we havethis whole database.
Like, the Japanese community in there have, like,this whole database of, like, which store is,like, authentic Japanese and, like, which storecan you go to get some, you know, Japanesegroceries, right?
And, right, we found one in Atlanta.
We have this one place that we always go to.
12:01
The best sushi.
In Atlanta.
Okay.
According to our database, yes.
Yeah, okay, okay.
And, yeah, I mean, we were dealing with it, youknow.
It wasn't like we can never meet our sushi, like,desires.
It wasn't perfect.
Okay.
I think that Sushiro is better.
I see.
But, you know, if you wanted sushi, we would gothere.
Okay, okay.
Sort of, you know, be kind of satisfied.
I see.
Yeah.
So they had sushi at least.
Yes, they had sushi and, you know, the employee,they were Japanese.
Oh, really?
Yeah, so they would talk to us in Japanese.
Okay.
I guess it's more like the quality of the fish,you know, that the Japanese are skilled.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think the presentation, like how they prepare itand how they, like, assemble it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess it's like gokaku.
I see.
It meets the standards.
So, yeah, I guess it's just the quality of thefish.
Yeah.
In America.
I see.
Right.
I can imagine it's very far from the oceans,right?
Oh, yeah.
So, right, right, right.
You have to, I don't know, how many hours, like.
Yeah, many, right?
Many, many.
So, right.
I understand.
All right.
Thanks for sitting, guys.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
