Although I am an asian who eats rice on a daily basis I fail to understand isekai mcs obsession with rice.
Let's not forget soy sauce. Maybe the isekai MCs' obsession with JP food stems from the need for familiarity and comfort (through food/eating) in a strange new world.
Nope, i'm in a new world. i'll try to eat the most common and edible food i'm being transported from instead.
I say bullshit. No reason to obsess over rice when I would be glad as hell to even see anything remotely familiar like an apple. Hell Lemons and Oranges are far better than rice, God knows how many diseases this two fruits can help avoid. As for rice, the hell can it prevent??
I'm an asian. I don't eat rice every day since we normally have a bunch of variety like noodles/western food as well, but I do get a craving for it if I haven't eaten it in a while so I can understand a little of isekai MC wanting to eat rice. I tend to get a craving for many foods that are a regular part of my diet that I don't eat for a while. I feel it's kinda like missing your parents' cooking when you're away from home, so basically like a form of homesickness? Edit: I'll also add on, but whenever we are in a different country and eating their food, my mom will always have a VERY strong craving for chinese food. Like we were in Italy for a week eating pasta and pizza and stuff and every day when asked what she wanted to eat my mom was like "chinese food" and we were like "we're in italy and you want chinese food??" so yeah I definitely think it makes sense that isekai mc crave japanese food like rice/soy sauce/miso.
probably a way to express the common under those mc view that the jp culture is in every way better then the native one apparently starvation ?
My favorite food is rice, fried rice especially. So if i got isekai'ed i would find rice though i doubt every isekai mc favorite food is rice.
Agreed. If I got transported to a new world I'd be too busy trying not to die to bother looking for rice. I've never seen a single isekai mc that doesn't love rice. Please tell me if you find one.
Speaking as an asian who went to a western country to study, I was fine with eating the stuff normally eaten there (mostly bread, potatoes and cereal). My impression of eating those were that they were tasty at first, but after a long time without eating rice they start to taste more and more bland. I'd get used to it after a long time though and I think I'd be completely fine if I don't get to eat rice for the rest of my life. But then, when I ate rice after a really long time, it tasted really nostalgic and nice. I'd never even thought that rice could taste so distinguishable. Some of my friends who were from the same country have really intense craving for rice too every now and then. Edit : I dunno. In isekais, I've never seen protagonist that really really prioritize rice over everything else. I know that a lot of them would ramble for pages about rice, but those characters don't... for example, actually stop eating if they can't have any rice. I know of an isekai story where the character made an excuse to save an elven kingdom of "they have rice, so I must save them!". But I think that the character was just making an excuse for himself, and he is actually just a nice person who doesn't want to have an elven village be destoryed.
well the ones that jump for rice immediately confuse me but I can see why someone would have homesickness after a while and food is one of those things that can just take you back to a time or a place you feel safe and comfortable. trapped in an unknown world with threats around every corner? monsters, brigands, and the such can stress you out. seeing a familiar food could be all you need to feel some semblance of safety. it doesn't have to be rice. what are the foods you love from your childhood? what's something your mom or dad used to make you that if you eat it now after years of not having it just whisks you back to a time when you were weak but protected. I think that one portion of it is marketing. "oh we need to hit the right demographic add in these things." but a good portion of it is "what familiar thing from home would or could make you feel safe for even a little" and for most of these authors, it's Rice, Soy sauce, and the such.
It's pretty common to want your home good after not being able to have it for a while. Lots of expats and people who travel to foreign countries Express how much they crave a hamburger the moment they get back to the states. there's also a big difference between being able to and not eating it unless you feel like it and never being to eat it at all. all of us have momentary cravings but if you can't get it, then it slowly fosters and becomes an obsession, esp the longer it goes and the more stress you're in. A momentary thought of, I feel like having rice with my dinner or this dish could use some rice quickly becomes way worse when you can't satisfy it and you end up thinking it more and more like an itch you can't scratch
I always joke how an MC will take down an entire country for rice if need be. I think maybe they sprinkle some highly addictive drugs in their rice. Rice has Arsenic in it, one of the most toxic poisons. How about that?
The weird part is more the fact that any japanese dish (or anything else from this world for that matter) is suddenly super amazing and better than anything anyone has ever eaten in that world. When magic processing and different ingredients are likely to yield equal, if not superior results. Also affecting nobles, which are likely used to 10 times better food than what an average japanese can whip up.