Japan loves its rules and regulations. Of that there is little doubt. And yet oddly, when it comes to kitchen cleanliness, it almost comically seems like it really couldn’t care less.
Photographs from a small group of islands
Japan loves its rules and regulations. Of that there is little doubt. And yet oddly, when it comes to kitchen cleanliness, it almost comically seems like it really couldn’t care less.
Linda says
Good for the immune system.
Lee says
Yes. Couldn’t agree more. From experience I’ve never had any trouble at all eating at such places. I have, however, had food posing twice in Japan. Both times from clean, rather fancy places…
Denton says
I’m not a fan of cleaning, but that’s been left a long long time! 😮
Hans ter Horst says
More yucky-tori than yakitori 🙂
I love this ongoing series about Japanese kitchens, oh, how i wish I could visit them all 🙂
cdilla says
Lol, nice one. Thanks for raising a smile on a difficult (workwise) morning.
Lee says
Haha, indeed!
Cheers. Yes, so many to visit, and sadly so little time…
cdilla says
Woah, that’s grim. Is that an actual takeout window, or a rear kitchen window not generally on show? I dare say the interior is actually a lot better, but someone really should take a sandblaster to that exterior.
In general I accept that commercial kitchens are not necessarily as clean as I would like, though I don’t subscribe to the adage that the dirtier a kitchen the better the taste.
One of the places I ate at when in Tokyo had a glass-walled kitchen where we could see our meal being prepared. The starter was duck carved at the table by one of the chefs after which he took the carcass back into the kitchen and held it up to show us he was using it to create the stock for the next course. How they kept the acres of glass so spotlessly clean I cant imagine. Though given the cost of the meal I imagine they can afford a few cleaners 🙂
Lee says
The window is on the side of the building, but it looks not a really quite busy street. The entrance to the restaurant itself is just round the corner too.
I think you hit the nail on the head there: cost. Whether or not they are completely clean or not, the image of the pricier places is that they are. When it comes to the cheap and cheerful, however, there is often no pretence or even great effort at cleanliness. Such places are what they are, and they are either enjoyed or avoided because of it!
Matt Talbot says
The very best meal that we had on a recent visit to Japan was in a tiny ‘restaurant’ (I use the term loosely) which looked like the place grime went to die. The owner was unfriendly to the point of resentment, every surface was covered in a layer of pensionable grease, the tiny TV on the wall may have been one of Logie Baird’s prototypes, and the ramen we ate was so delicious, so perfect in every way that, as soon as I’d finished, I immediately wanted another bowl.
However, I thought that might be pushing my luck.
Lee says
Apart from the unfriendly owner, that sounds absolutely perfect!
Squidpuppy says
Pretty much a perfect shot. No one’s eating off that window sill, right? No problem, then. Happy happy.
In my ten years in Japan, I never once got sick from food – that I can recall; and I ate in just about every kind of eatery there imaginable. Including grotty tachigui under railway overpasses with traffic running full blast behind me. I can’t say the same for any place else. That just might be me; I dunno. One of my fave go-to joints was a Chuuka shop, older than dirt and more grime than building, and the food was delicious. All my pals went there; no one ever got sick.
Still, we were all raised in an era when a bit of dirt (maybe more than just a bit) was considered normal, and even healthy. As a kid, if I didn’t come home dirty, my mom thought there was something wrong with me LOL I just have to think that in societies today where spotlessness is next to godliness, the immune system must become totally wimpy from lack of use.
Lee says
Thanks. And no. Happy to confirm it’s just a window. Oh, and it might please you to hear that this is a Chinese restaurnt too.
I have been sick twice here cos of food. But both times in quite fancy places. But never in those like the one above.
And yeah, being exposed to nothing is surely asking for trouble. And if it requires avoiding places like this, it always means missing out on a lot of fun too…