Another realm
Miyu and I went to a couple of restaurants recently. First to a Vietnamese in Ebisu for some lunch time noodles, and secondly to a rather swish French place in Minami Azabu, to celebrate Miyu's bday and what may be our last intimate meal together.
Observations from them - in the Vietnamese place, 90% of diners were women (ladies who lunch in the main). Two of them behind us photographed every dish that was brought to them so that they could add it to their blogs (they were talking about it rather loudly). Apparantly this action, of photographing dishes in restaurants is causing chefs around the city a real headache. When they prepare the dish, up to recently, they have timed everything so that by the time the food is plonked in front of you, it is ready to eat. However, now with this extra delay, the food is no longer in prime condition by the time diners put the first bit of food into their mouths. Hot food continues to "cook" even after it's taken off the heat of the cooker. a good chef takes this into account and will, for example with pasta, strain it whilst it is still quite hard. But, it is still cooking and softening, so that by the time it has completed it's journey from kitchen to table, it is al dente. I actually tried this at home a couple of weeks ago and it really works. So, the question is, what do chefs do to counteract this? Will they ban all food photography in their establishments? Or will they have to take food off the heat even earlier? How will they measure this?
Another interesting sight was two women arriving at the restaurant, chatting, they sat down, read the menu, ordered and then fell into a deathly silence as they flipped out mobile phones and didn't speak again until the food arrived. This sort of behavior used to be considered rude, but is it now acceptable? I've seen it in other places too. A boy and a girl on a date, walking down a street but both furiously texting away on their keitais. Maybe it was a case of bad date and they were telling their friends, but I think not. Is this the norm? What is the implications on person to person, face to face communication? Why is it so tempting/easy to interface with a device than with people? Is this true in other countries or is it unique to Japan?
In the confines of the snazzy French restaurant, it was filled mainly with couples. It was an expensive place, and there seemed to be a lot of monied folk in there. It was inteesting to see how couples ordered. It followed a pattern. Couple enters restaurant, led to table by waiter, woman is seated first, menus are read, some discussion about the menu, waiter appears, and then man orders food and drink with no consultation with woman. Woman looks miffed but holds her tongue. A bit of pouting follows, but man ignores and consults his two keitai (yes, the more the keitai the more "important" you are). keitais are left on the table. Both man and woman talk with each other, but their glances always slides toward their little bundles of telephonic joys. Have mobiles become the new children of couples? They need constant attention, must be picked up regularly and sometimes rings/cries. Could Japan's demographic timebomb be reversed if mobiles were banned?
Observations from them - in the Vietnamese place, 90% of diners were women (ladies who lunch in the main). Two of them behind us photographed every dish that was brought to them so that they could add it to their blogs (they were talking about it rather loudly). Apparantly this action, of photographing dishes in restaurants is causing chefs around the city a real headache. When they prepare the dish, up to recently, they have timed everything so that by the time the food is plonked in front of you, it is ready to eat. However, now with this extra delay, the food is no longer in prime condition by the time diners put the first bit of food into their mouths. Hot food continues to "cook" even after it's taken off the heat of the cooker. a good chef takes this into account and will, for example with pasta, strain it whilst it is still quite hard. But, it is still cooking and softening, so that by the time it has completed it's journey from kitchen to table, it is al dente. I actually tried this at home a couple of weeks ago and it really works. So, the question is, what do chefs do to counteract this? Will they ban all food photography in their establishments? Or will they have to take food off the heat even earlier? How will they measure this?
Another interesting sight was two women arriving at the restaurant, chatting, they sat down, read the menu, ordered and then fell into a deathly silence as they flipped out mobile phones and didn't speak again until the food arrived. This sort of behavior used to be considered rude, but is it now acceptable? I've seen it in other places too. A boy and a girl on a date, walking down a street but both furiously texting away on their keitais. Maybe it was a case of bad date and they were telling their friends, but I think not. Is this the norm? What is the implications on person to person, face to face communication? Why is it so tempting/easy to interface with a device than with people? Is this true in other countries or is it unique to Japan?
In the confines of the snazzy French restaurant, it was filled mainly with couples. It was an expensive place, and there seemed to be a lot of monied folk in there. It was inteesting to see how couples ordered. It followed a pattern. Couple enters restaurant, led to table by waiter, woman is seated first, menus are read, some discussion about the menu, waiter appears, and then man orders food and drink with no consultation with woman. Woman looks miffed but holds her tongue. A bit of pouting follows, but man ignores and consults his two keitai (yes, the more the keitai the more "important" you are). keitais are left on the table. Both man and woman talk with each other, but their glances always slides toward their little bundles of telephonic joys. Have mobiles become the new children of couples? They need constant attention, must be picked up regularly and sometimes rings/cries. Could Japan's demographic timebomb be reversed if mobiles were banned?
posted by TOK at 11:02 am
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