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The story
Actress Naoko Iijima revealed on a late-night radio show that she “only makes curry about once a year” and “isn’t that big a fan of gyoza either.” On 5ch, comments poured in with people’s own love-hate stories about these so-called national dishes, from “why can’t shumai do the job instead?” to “when you freeze homemade curry, the vegetables go all mushy.”
8/25 (Tue) 16:39
Actress Naoko Iijima (58) appeared on TOKYO FM’s “TOKYO SPEAKEASY” (airing late night Mon-Thu at 1:00 AM), broadcast in the small hours of the 24th. She candidly admitted to not actually liking a couple of Japan’s beloved national foods.
That day’s episode also featured lyricist and music producer Yasushi Akimoto. During a chat about food, Akimoto asked, “Can you make curry?” Iijima laughed and replied, “Curry? Well, the recipe’s written right there on the back of the box,” before admitting, “Honestly, I probably only make curry about once a year.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
I guess those are the ones I'm not into either
Gyoza really isn't that tasty though
Just walking past the place the smell is already intense
Sure, it's solidly good on average, but it's not top-tier
When I see someone choosing curry while out hiking, I think to myself, 'are you serious right now?'
and every once in a while I'll have instant curry too
but when I eat out, I never order curry lol
Even the stuff at a school cafeteria or a government office canteen is good
What is that about?
I'm the opposite
Curry from outside tastes too floury/starchy for me
Maybe our home curry is the weird one, but that's what I grew up on
Curry from outside is pricey for what's usually just decent-but-not-amazing
When you make it at home you can load it with vegetables and meat and use whatever roux you like
Home wins, honestly
The national dish I can't get behind is sushi — high-end sushi especially
I can eat raw fish fine, but I'm not okay with food someone else shaped by hand right in front of me
Something about the hygiene and the look of it just doesn't sit right with me
Also, I hate hiyashi chuka (cold sesame-dressed ramen salad)
It smells, and it upsets my stomach whenever I eat it
If you check the ingredient list on the back of Japanese curry roux, it's loaded with animal fat — that's probably why it makes people feel sick or wrecks their stomach
It's a perfect match with the curry inside
You end up with a ridiculous amount of leftovers
Just freeze it
Even if you make a huge batch, it's so good it disappears fast anyway
Between the ingredient cost and the weight gain, I end up barely making it too, same as you
Careful — if you freeze curry, the potatoes and carrots go all spongy and hollow
She got flamed once for grabbing like 10 packets of pickled red ginger to take home with her beef bowl takeout, didn't she
Apparently it's the thick, gloopy texture of the roux that gets to them, so they're fine with curry-flavored snacks
Also, soup curry is okay but curry udon is a no-go, apparently
Love it (´・ω・`)
(*´Д`)ｧ━━━━!! (an exaggerated moan of delight, common 5ch reaction emoticon)
Katsu curry I had at a Chinese restaurant staffed entirely by Chinese workers (^_^;)
Why would you even order katsu curry at a place like that in the first place (´・ω・`)
but pan-fried gyoza is definitely overrated
Why can't shumai take its place?!
That's probably because people don't really make shumai at home much
Re: #102
If Kiyoken's shumai (a famous Yokohama shumai brand) counted, shumai would've been a national dish too
Background and Key Points
Curry rice and gyoza both carry the informal label *kokuminshoku* (“national dish”) in Japan, but neither originated there. Curry arrived via the British Royal Navy in the Meiji era, adapted from Anglo-Indian cuisine, and was standardized for home cooking through boxed roux blocks (S&B’s Golden Curry being the classic example) that turned a slow-simmered dish into a pantry staple served over rice in households, school cafeterias, and government canteens. Gyoza, meanwhile, is a Chinese import popularized after WWII by Japanese repatriates from Manchuria, and pan-fried gyoza in particular became a fixture of home cooking and casual dining, with cities like Utsunomiya and Hamamatsu still competing over the “gyoza capital” title. Iijima, a 58-year-old actress and former idol singer, admitting she barely cooks either dish is notable precisely because both are marketed as universally loved comfort food.
The thread didn’t really split over whether to defend or pile on Iijima — most posters used her comment as a springboard to confess their own dislikes, extending the list well beyond curry and gyoza to ramen, sushi, and yakiniku. Where actual disagreement emerged was homemade versus restaurant curry: some insisted outside curry tastes better, others called it overpriced and starchy compared to a home version loaded with fresh vegetables and meat.
What the thread never addresses is why curry disagrees with some people’s stomachs — one reply notes Japanese curry roux is packed with animal fat, which is true and a likely reason instant roux causes digestive discomfort for sensitive eaters, but no one follows up on it.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Naoko Iijima confesses to secretly disliking two ‘national foods’ — curry and gyoza: ‘I honestly don’t get why they’re so popular’.”
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