MN: a day in the life: What's for lunch? Seriously...?!?!

Wednesday, February 15

What's for lunch? Seriously...?!?!


Hey folks, I found this cool site online tonite (click on the link above for an english publishing of one Japanese junior high school student's diary. It's pretty fascinating to read how differently Japanese students view school, sports and life.) I decided to post some info on school lunch scene over here. I found a copy of a lunch menu for a typical junior high school in Japan on this same site. I haven't been able to eloquently describe the "variety" of foods that are served each day. I usually can't tell what it is and surely would never ask! The truth is too scary. Students in Japan haven't any choices. No accessories is rule and everyone must wear the same school uniform/which includes matching white sneakers w/ different colored laces to designate their grade. In America, we would say that's shoelace discrimination, but in Japan maintaining harmony is priority number one...so it goes unchallenged.

Oops.I've derailed, let me back up and say that students in Japan also haven't a choice when it comes to school lunch. There are no "lunch lines", no "bag lunch" options and usually no lunch rooms. Students serve lunch to each other in their set classrooms (they are even required to put on really tasteless white hospital scrubs and chef hats while serving)...they must take everything that's served and while not mandatory--it appears that 99% of the students will leave NOTHING left on their plate (in doing so would be disrespectful, wasteful and in poor taste...no pun intended). Please read on for the menu! Bon Appetit!

Public School Lunch Center: The site where all of the town's schools lunches are "manufactured". The food is then catered out to each school, so it only need be dumped onto the plates

and served usually tepid-cool
(they despise hot foods for some reason.)
that has been sitting on a tray
for 40 minutes in the teacher's lounge.> something should also be said for portion control. as i've hinted at many times before--the portions are always 1/2 the size back in America. a "salad" is about 4 tablespoons, the rice is always served in tin canisters---maybe 1.5 cups? and the fruit is always cut into some ridiculous odd-fraction, a 1/3 of an apple or a 1/4 of an orange. it may be small, but it's familiar and that makes it greatest thing on the menu!
CHECK OUT MY FRIEND ERIN'S WEBSITE WITH MORE ON THE SCHOOL LUNCH SCENE...ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE WILL ONLY FURTHER VALIDATE MY JUDGEMENT. YOU GUYS THINK I EXAGGERATE...have a looksey:


JAPANESE JR HG SCHOOL LUNCH MENU

April 8 Boiled rice, milk, Japanese soup, pot-boiled cutlet, cucumber mixed with sesame dressing

April 9 Boiled rice, milk, broiled beef, vegetable salad, mayonnaise, custard pudding

April 10 Boiled rice with barley, milk, fish flour with beefsteak plant, egg soup with dried bean curd, caramelized sardines

April 13 Rye bread, milk, salad with macaroni, mayonnaise, hamburger with tomato sauce

April 14 Boiled rice, milk, seasoned laver, cooked vegetables, caramelized tuna, chopped pickled radish

April 15 Sliced bread, milk, sliced cheese, Chinese-style dish with meat and vegetables in dogtooth violet starch, ham

April 16 Boiled rice with brown algae, milk, fried melt, sauce, pickles salted overnight, orange

April 17 Roll bread, milk, orange marmalade, spaghetti napolitaine, potatoes

April 20 Boiled rice with barley, milk, curry stew, cooked chicken, jelly

April 21 Boiled rice, yogurt, tuna flour, pork soup, sauted crab soup with scrambled eggs

April 22 Roll bread, milk, margarine, broiled buck wheat noodles, Bavarian cream with fruit

April 23 Boiled rice with barley, milk, fish flour with eggs, soybeans and tangles boiled thickly with sugar, fried fish, navel orange

April 24 Milk roll bread, milk, corn potage, fried fish sauce, lettuce

April 27 Boiled rice with seaweed, milk, cooked tuna with vegetables, pork cutlet with miso sauce, pine- apple

April 28 Soft-cooked wheat noodles, milk, seasoned soybeans, meat sauce, tuna salad

April 30 Boiled rice with vegetable mixtures, milk, bean curd cooked in Chinese style, steamed shao-mai, yogurt

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