Maybe about a year ago I started hearing this expression WAKEARI Gourmet.
The expression WAKEARI Gourmet is applied to food products that do not meet "visual" quality standards, but otherwise are perfectly acceptable. Crabs, Cookies, Chinese dumplings, apples..., you name it.
These products, as you may guess, are priced much lower than their counterparts which do meet the quality standards. That is why, in this recession, they are attracting the Japanese consumers' attention.
I have heard many foreign visitors to Japan say how impressed they are with the aesthetics of supermarkets in Japan. Perfectly shaped fruits and vegetables which are neatly packaged and beautifully displayed... Supermarkets in Japan are like food galleries!, they say.
Being a Japanese expat in LA, I find the uniqueness of Trader Joe's and the airy open market feel of Whole Foods more exciting than the cleanliness of Japanese supermarkets. In my opinion Japanese people culturally are a bit too obsessed with how perfect their food looks. I remember working at Mister Donut one summer while I was in college. They had employees like me survey the display shelves one by one, screening out the baked goods that are misshapen and throwing them away. It worked to my advantage though, because we were allowed to eat them if we liked. Today they would be sold as WAKEARI donuts.
Personally I am hoping the current trend of WAKEARI Gourmet will change Japanese people's mind about how their food should look. I hope they will learn not to be so concerned about visual perfection. That way we may be able to stop wasting food and may be able to purchase them much cheaper at stores. (But then, some producers will no longer be able to make money off WAKEARI Gourmet???)
If you are curious, you may check out WAKEARI Gourmet News. http://www.gourmet-digest.com/
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Thoughtful piece, Misako. Wakeari sounds like an interesting trend for such a visual food culture.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in China where, of course, the look of the food is not usually a concern. France is the only European country I can think of where this has been such a high visual emphasis in food preparation. And France has always been interested in Asian food and culture, particularly Chinese and Japanese.
Hi Mark!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. An interesting sequel to this piece, though... Recently when I was in Japan and having a casual conversation with a business associate, the subject of WAKEARI Gourmet came up. Her (the business associate's) opinion on the matter was; "Well? What's wrong with it!?" ...Nothing, I guess. She was looking at WAKEARI as a whole new category of food products. Therefore, from now on, there are two kinds of crab (for instance), usual, visually pleasing crab and WAKEARI crab. Her opinion was that the WAKEARI category would stick and be a part of the Japanese food culture. I have lived in the U.S. for the past 20 years, and then I really felt like a foreigner listening to her words... What would happen to the WAKEARI category is to be seen.......
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ReplyDeleteI think this is a question of market drivers. If WAKEARI have always been here (or here for a moment then passed on to the tasty delight of the food prep person) than the place is assured already. The trick, though is relevance and traction.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion your blog and the website address you gave show WAKEARI gaining traction. Also, given these are getting more attention because of the economic condition then I think you will find the relevance is quite high. It meets a need, has an audience, and was already being produced (just not always consumed *pun intended*).
Will it emerge into a common food category? That is probably up to pop culture and foodies and folks like you. If more people write about it, look for it, and share it, it'll probably stick (for awhile atleast).
Nice post Misako.
All the best,
Justin
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