Rant... About isekai Jap creating food...

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by LysUltima, Sep 12, 2017.

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  1. LysUltima

    LysUltima Riichi! Tsumo! Toitoi! Suuankou!?

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    It's so stupid...
    In all the isekai novels, it goes
    MC makes pizza/curry/something else -> Everyone's amazed at how delicious it is

    That's so dumb...

    First of all, let's just ignore on how unrealistic these isekai are.
    A believable world really doesn't come from just coping Tolkien and some RPG game.

    Okay, our MC is from another world with ~500 years more food culture... let's eat some delicious food...
    Wait, can our MC even cook?
    Curry.
    Probably the most made dishes in an isekai.
    Also probably the most well-liked dish by Jap authors.
    Also also probably those authors don't know how to make Jap curry.
    Modern Jap curry making involves mixing in carrots, potatoes, meat, and roux into water, heating the water, and stirring.
    "That isn't so hard. Even I can do that," you say.
    So can I.
    But then, the more attentive of you notice and say, "Wait, what's a roux?"
    How would I know?
    I ain't French.
    But, from experience, I can at least say that it's a brown block, which comes in this plastic container, that tastes horrible.
    And, it's the thing that gives curry all of it's tastiness.
    There is no way that any MC knows how to make curry from scratch when all cooking experience was just grabbing a factory-made block and dissolving it in water.
    Even if he learned it someday in a Home-Ec. class, with the average intelligence level of a typical Japanese MC, it's surprising that he can remember his skills names let alone the recipe...
    Let's assume the MC somehow knows the recipe.
    ...
    Okay, I'm done laughing.

    Ingredients: a bunch of spices
    Wait, this is based on a world where there's 10 kingdoms with the exact same culture that was based off of a France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Denmark, and England all mixed into one.
    Wait, no, there's not that much thought put into it.
    Adventurer's Guild + King + Semi-English food
    Done.
    Then there's the island country off to the east that has a completely different culture to every other place yet has a decent trade relationship with said 10 kingdoms...
    Wait, I said that we're ignoring the world-building, right?
    Okay, so where do the spices come from?
    Curry is from India.

    Where is this "India" to get our spices from in a world where there's:
    10 kingdoms that are based off of Europe
    Japan that isn't called Japan but everyone knows that it's Japan
    A single elf kingdom (so elves don't have political disputes???????)
    Either beastkin slaves or a single beastkin kingdom
    A possible demon world

    ...
    Don't see India.
    Heck, there isn't even a single tropical country!
    No tropics = no correct spices.

    Let's make some more concessions, and assume that there are the correct spices in this world.
    Yeah, no.
    Where do you see in any novel a MC spending a decade to find the right spices?
    What MC takes botany?
    Are the plants even the same? Logically, no, but, well, Japanese authors don't really ha—
    Okay, you get my point.
    But, what about already made spices that are well-used?

    ...

    Etto, then they would've already made curry by then.
    In a world with 1000s of years of history, wouldn't there be one person who thought, "lemme put this spice with this spice and X liquid"
    And then, "Oh, this tastes good! I gonna share this!"
    Nope?

    The MC somehow knows a recipe that he normally would never use, there's spices that shouldn't exist, and nobody ever thought to use said spices = MC makes curry and surprises everyone

    Also, even for other foods, with the same ingredients, why wouldn't a world with 1000s years of history not have the same or just as good tasting foods??

    Well, I lied about not talking about horrible world building, didn't I?
    But, seriously, even if an author can't bother to think of a good world, can't they have some common sense???????

    tl;dr
    MC dumb and should know no recipes, but somehow does
    MC with no cooking background can somehow cook from scratch well
    Isekai with 1000s years history has no good food even with all the ingredients there and 100s of generations
     
  2. Deleted member 43009

    Deleted member 43009 Guest

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    It's a secret technique used by shitty Japanese novel authors called ass pulling
     
  3. ScipioM

    ScipioM :D

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    I still like curry
     
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  4. LysUltima

    LysUltima Riichi! Tsumo! Toitoi! Suuankou!?

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    So do I...
     
  5. Asf

    Asf 《《The aria of souls》》

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    Idk..
    But if theres ever an isekai'd person comes to my frontyard and introduced a delicious enough isekai world food/cooking, Id be praising him/her with worship too..
    And maybe make a new business out of the recipee.
     
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  6. zhainan2157

    zhainan2157 『Villager No.2157』『Kawaii Connoisseur』

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    Well everybody likes a good ole chill MC amirite? Like Death March, I ain't mad about the ways things went in that story. But I guess I do agree that it is getting a little overused. But did you not see an earlier thread? It was literally about a novel of an 18 year old with a 8 year old's mind. And his "nice" childhood friend cousin having "fun" with her. You want that or more cliche cooking novels. Up to you man, but dem Japs are running out of ideas.
     
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  7. Phantom Starlight

    Phantom Starlight The Guiding Light

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    I sometimes feel I am the only one with issues when some random kid becomes a 5* chef just because he knows how to make intant ramen while in japan.

    You didn't even touch on the quality of the ingredients. Like the pure white sugar we are so used to wouldn't even be available in most of those isekai worlds. And how many kids would be able to cook anything well with log fires? (or "magic" as the case may be) I know I for one, while not a bad cook, would be terrible without my stable heat and thermometer to help me


    Also, Mayo. I never knew how addicted to the stuff japanese were.
     
  8. LysUltima

    LysUltima Riichi! Tsumo! Toitoi! Suuankou!?

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    It's the problem with what people are translating.
    There's plenty of good novels out there that haven't been translated...
     
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  9. Alchemist_God0

    Alchemist_God0 Well-Known Member

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    Roux is flour and fat equally mixed together to thicken sauces. So i don't think most of the other world have it yet or hasn't discover it at all.
     
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  10. LysUltima

    LysUltima Riichi! Tsumo! Toitoi! Suuankou!?

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    It's a fantasy world.
    There's "magic"
    Apparently, the quality is good, even in commoners' meals...
    That's Jap isekai for you
     
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  11. Noche

    Noche New Member

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    What do you expect ja
    Its called demand and supply....and license
     
  12. Sherrynity

    Sherrynity I see no God up there… other than the chaotic void

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    There's actually this isekai novel where the MC, through trial and error for years, finally made a passable curry.

    And there's also another MC from different novel that took years to make a miso.
     
  13. Yukkuri Oniisan

    Yukkuri Oniisan 『Procrastinator Archwizard Translator and Writer』

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    Curry cooking?
    That's something new...
    What series is it?
     
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  14. LysUltima

    LysUltima Riichi! Tsumo! Toitoi! Suuankou!?

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    I mean curry roux...

    That's roux + curry spices (I think)

    And, yeah, they definitely wouldn't have it, especially in the nice cubes at HMart.
     
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  15. Xilphidae

    Xilphidae ⚔Swordfish⚔

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    it's prob cause truck-kun was carting recipes on its back when he hit the MCs before they reincarnated therefore they were able to obtain all the knowledge about everything truck-kun was carrying as yet another bit compensation

    ...........or something
    even more ass pulling, check.
     
  16. LysUltima

    LysUltima Riichi! Tsumo! Toitoi! Suuankou!?

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    Nope.
    Just that people aren't looking through Syosetu hard enough.
     
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  17. ZeroDelta

    ZeroDelta Well-Known Member

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    Curry is a blend of spices, not just a single spice.
     
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  18. Phantom Starlight

    Phantom Starlight The Guiding Light

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    Never really looked at the site much cause I can't read kanji, but aren't most of the things that end up translated on the "top" 10 or whatever it is list?
     
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  19. Noche

    Noche New Member

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    Thats one point. But people sometimes like stupid and addictive stuff. An example would the movie Sharknado. There are few translators too who do quality work and are consistent. Tried learning japanese through Doulingo but i gave up on it. Maybe choose a group of committed people have them undergo translating training?
     
  20. Seraphic

    Seraphic Uncomfortably close

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    I think my favorite portrayal of cooking is Main Character Hides His Strength, where the main character keeps making Korean food and the system consistently rates it poorly because it's food-elitist or something.

    Anyway, I think the answer lies with the "Semi-English" setting; if it's anything like actual English food, they'd be ready to praise a salted rock, much less curry ;)
     
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