Convivial Dishes: Italy vs China vs Japan

[Anonymous]

Every country has their convivial dishes and their traditions. Here I will focus on Italy, China and Japan.

Italy4 different Italian pizzasItalian convivial food for excellence is pizza. Our pizza differs a lot from American pizza and it is much lighter. This leads to a paradox which brings our pizza to a smaller conviviality atmosphere than that of American pizza. In fact by ordering American pizza, you usually order a very heavy (and let's face it, most often unhealthy) pizza to share with other people. Instead in Italy everyone orders their own pizza and everyone eat an entire pizza, being a very light dish: conviviality is just made by the fact people sit at the same table. In a convivial atmosphere it is not uncommon (but neither common) to share the pizzas all together, despite the idea of "one food for more people" is basically sacrificed. Pizza still remains the convivial dish for excellence in Italy, even if it can be also eaten as a fast food option (still healthier than American pizza).

China

The convivial food for excellence in China is hotpot. It is not a dish exactly, but a way of cooking and eating which is also common in other parts of Asia. You put a pot in the centre of the table, then all the raw ingredients in various dishes surrounding the pot. Ingredients are various: meat, fish, fishballs, tofu, Chinese vegetables of all kinds... Everyone put raw ingredients in the pot (made of different kinds of sauces, being the spiciest sauces the most popular option). Sometimes the pot can be divided into two parts in order to have two sauces or to accommodate vegetarians who may not feel comfortable at cooking their ingredients where other people also put meat or fish (but the pot is always the same, but divided inside). In this way of cooking people sit around the pot, which is the common element of conviviality: in this case one element makes everyone united.

A hotpot and a Chinese barbeque

 Another Chinese convivial food (despite not as much convivial as hotpot) is Chinese barbeque. Basically the same ingredients of hotpot, which are instead frilled and served all together in a central recipient.

JapanSashimi, Tempura & Sushi Rolls (nigiri, hosomaki, futomaki)Most of the food we know and eat in Japanese restaurants are appreciated by Japanese people as convivial dishes. Sushi, sashimi and tempura are maybe the most popular example of convivial dishes, everyone with their specific name and individual relevance for Japanese people, despite in the Western society is not uncommon to just use the expression "eat sushi" in order to say "eat Japanese food" in general, including also tempura, sashimi and other dishes. We don't have an element of union like the pot in China, but Japanese people tend to put all the food at the centre of the table and to share it all together (the same thing Chinese people also do in an ordinary dinner).

Three different convivial food from different countries show us how conviviality can be obtained by sharing something (like the Chinese hotpot), by eating all together even if we deal with different dishes (like still in Chinese culture and also in Japanese one), or just by sitting all together even if eating their own food (just like it happens with Italian pizza, despite sometimes also pizza is shared among everyone).

[MoniDi]

Hey @Anonymous,

Thank you for sharing this useful information. It was interesting for me to read and learn about the differences between cultures and their traditional dishes.

Can you share which is your favourite dish? Do you have a preference as to how it is prepared or how it is cooked? I am sure that other Local Guides will be interested to hear your opinion. 

Most people in my country prefer to eat their sushi with cream cheese. It is one of the ingredients and it goes well with salmon, cucumber and avocado.

I am sure that @Sorbe can share some more tips on how to make the Italian pizza close to perfect. 🙂

[Sorbe]

Thank you for tagging me in this delicious post @MoniDi. 

To have the perfect pizza you need three simple things: genuine ingredients, a slow leavened dough and most importantly a wooden oven for the baking. Never try to propose to a Neapolitan pizza with pineapple and ham if, or you will face some troubles. 

I know that @sonnyNg has some good knowledge in Asian food culture, and maybe he could add some useful information. 

[sonnyNg]

Hi @alessioganci,

It is really interesting to see and understand ones perspective regarding the culinary diversity!

Thank you for mentioning me, @Sorbe. 

In most Asian culture, it is common to have dishes that may require everyone in the table to huddle up, in a way to have the comfort of sharing warmth for dinner. 

P.s: Kudos to the great photos of those dishes!

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone and thank you so much!

@MoniDi I honestly love all of the three dishes as they are what I commonly with my friends (mostly of which are Chinese, and it seems hotpot is not often eaten by Western people, especially because not everyone here seems to love so spicy dishes).

I have surely my preferences. Pizza is the best for me when wood oven baked and topped with just mozzarella and tomato sauce, otherwise basil pesto and "stracchino" cheese (which is a particular Italian creamy cheese typical of my region), or also mozzarella is fine. I tend to avoid adding more ingredients. Obviously, wood oven baked is the best and the nearest to Neapolitan tradition.

I love hotpot with the spiciest sauce, as I really love spicy dishes. My favourite raw ingredients to cook are tofu and Chinese vegetables.

Talking about sushi, also here rolls with creamy cheese are common, and even with mayonnaise, despite I don't like them: to be honest I barely make use of the same soy sauce, I tend to eat sushi without sauces at all! In general I like taste of many food without the needing of adding further topping or sauce, especially sushi. My favourite sushi is black roll rice maki.

I confirm what written by @Sorbe: pineapple on the pizza is something tabu in Italy! In general, our pizza is just a different dish, which seems reasonable for the fact cuisine is often adapted to other people tastes. In Italy food tends to be generally healthy and light, that's why a Neapolitan pizza is not usually high in calories and that's why in Italy it is normal to eat an entire pizza. It's just dough, some tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. There is never abundance of ingredients, mozzarella is just on the top of the pizza. We have various pizzas with also addition of many ingredients, but it is still far away from the pizzas with cheese and wurstel inside the crust! The trick is to just consider American and Italian pizzas two different dishes: they are all good and bad depending on personal taste, they are just two dishes with two different and nice stories. I honestly prefer Italian pizza, but just because I don't like too much heavy food in general (I don't even eat fast foood)!

[Anonymous]

Thank you @sonnyNg, this is actually one of the most aspects of Asian culture I love so much. As most of my friends are Asian (especially from China and Philippines), I tend to enjoy my meals the same way, so even when we eat a pizza all together, we tend to share all the pizzas instead of eating on our own. But surely the conviviality of a centered hotpot is unbeatable!

[sonnyNg]

That sounds great, @alessioganci! 

It is great to mix things up from time to time. : ]

P/s:All the food talking is really increasing my appetite.

[davidhyno]

Hi @Anonymous! 

How are you??

You made me still hungry even though I just had dinner!

I, not because of part, but I feel like I select pizza as a favorite dish!
My great limitation in food is that I can not eat any type of fish: the scent and the look is inviting .... I try every time to taste it but I just can not get it down! Total desperation!
However it is true: the pizza here in Italy is so common and informal a dish that puts everyone on the same floor at the same table. And often in the family we share the pizza in half and then we exchange it ... so we also have the opportunity to taste different flavors!
And I confirm what said by @Sorbe   ... do not dream of putting the pineapple or ketchup !

Bye,

David

[Anonymous]

I'm fine thanks

It's always beautiful to try different tastes so I really approve the fact of sharing pizzas all together, even if this is still a personal choice we do, but not something automatically part of our culture (there are still common situations - even our local Just Eat TV commercial - in which you see everyone eat their own pizza).

Despite not being completely part of our culture (maybe because just sitting at the table all together is enough here to create a convivial atmosphere), we are still many people to share pizzas all together and it seems a nice choice for many people.

For people who love to share pizzas and even try different flavours the all you can eat pizzerias are maybe something even cooler, even if this means eating pizza at the restaurant and paying attention to the quality. I remember some good all you can eat pizzerias (serving classic wood oven baked pizzas, am not talking about the pizza fast food AYCE options) in which several pizzas arrive and everyone can try different tastes, but this can be done only with large groups of people if entire pizzas are served (for fast food pizza AYCE this does not apply). With small groups of people it is much better to order specific number of pizzas and share them all together. Some local pizzerias here even divide pizzas in slices and top them differently so that an entire pizza can be made even with 4 different topping (more or less like eat happens in the USA), so it is a signal more and more people are loving to share their food all together.

We also share pizzas in our family, sometimes we also order an additional pizza in order for everyone to have an additional slice of something different pizza!

[Sorbe]

Years ago I lived with roommates that were cooking pasta with ketchup, and after seeing that with my own eyes I decided to change house @davidhyno.