Depachika is a food paradise?
Posted by: kirin on
Aug 26th, 2010 |
Filed under: Japanese foods, Rambling
Basically Japanese people who work in the city have to spend a lot of time at work and less time at home. Overtime work is very normal. I’m afraid there are not many workers who can leave office at 5pm everyday. Most of full-time employees would work 9-7 or 9-9 or they may have to work on weekends too to cover their workload. This happens because work sharing has not become popular in this country. Each employee has to cope with the workload of 1.5 people, for example.
Well that’s not the main topic in this post. Reflecting such background, delicatessens are very popular. When we finish work at 7 or 8pm and take 1 hour to go back from the office to home, (Spending nearly 1 hour for commuting is quite normal in Tokyo area. Some even take nearly 2 hours!) do you think we feel like spending another 1 hour for cooking? If we did that, the dinner can be 10pm or something and that’s too much of labor and no free time left!
That’s why depachika, or department of delicatessens is popular. Delicatessens from depachika are not expensive compared with eating out at restaurants, but require no need of cooking, and they tast good. It’s called Nakashoku. “Naka” means something in-between. “Shoku” means meals or foods. Delicatessens from depachika are considered meals between eating-out and home cooking. It’s also true that we want to eat relaxed at home rather than at a restaurant outside especially after working 10 hours, for example. If we buy only main and side dishes from depachika and prepare rice at home, we can even save some money. haha…^ ^;
Depachika usually has variety of cuisines and sweets. But the difference is that their foods must be easy to be carried away and still taste good after hours later. Thus, basically they don’t have noodles. Well, they may do but I’d avoid it anyhow. ^ ^;
The pictures are from the depachika in Lazona Kawasaki.
Delicatessen is called “Osouzai” or just “Souzai” in Japanese. (“O” is added to make it sound more elegant, but it’s actually “souzai”.) Here are some souzais. (It sounds weird to make a Japanese word plural form because we don’t have this notion. Am I supposed to write “bentos” and “sozais” as plural form of “bento” and “sozai”? )

Tonkatsu special corner

Sushi special corner. We can eat sushi a lot cheaper than we do at authentic sushi restaurants. Actually most of us rarely can go eat at authentic sushi restaurant. We may get these affordable packed sushi from depachika or supermarket or Kaitenzushi (sushi-go-round restaurant).

Chinese special corner. We love Chinese food just as much as you! I think Chinese and Italian cuisines are most popular among other foreign cuisines in Japan.

I found kawaii set of Butaman (steamed pork buns).
Don’t you think they are too cute to be eaten? XD

Don’t forget to get some vegetables or Japanese pickles, too.

You can get delicatessens at local supermarkets cheaper, and it does not always mean deli from depachika tastes better than that from supermarket only because it’s more expensive. I had experiences that deli from depachika tasted terrible for the money I spent!
Anyhow, I have two contradicting thoughts:
1) I want to have a free passport to my favorite depachika!
2) I wonder how the unsold food is treated. Sometimes even after time sale (to reduce the dead stock of food) is over, there are still some left. These must be consumed in the same day. I wish they were not just dumped as garbage. I wonder if the unsold food can be given to homeless people or homeless dogs…This is my strongest concern. When people are dying from no food on the other side of the globe, how can we waste food if it’s still edible?
Every time I walk around depachika, I am suffering from those 2 complex feelings. How about you?
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