From: markd@csl.sj.nec.com (Mark Dyer)
Subject: Re: Instant Foods (Re: Pre-Noodle...) [ENGLISH]
Organization: NEC America.
	<1992Jul20.084920.20474@gssm.otsuka.tsukuba.ac.jp>
	<MARKD.92Jul20095700@stallman.csl.sj.nec.com>
	<1992Jul21.015728.29744@gssm.otsuka.tsukuba.ac.jp>
Distribution: fj
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 15:51:23 GMT

In article <1992Jul21.015728.29744@gssm.otsuka.tsukuba.ac.jp> kuno@gssm.otsuka.tsukuba.ac.jp (Yasushi Kuno) writes:

   Hi, ...
Howdy!

   markd@csl.sj.nec.com (Mark Dyer) writes:
   > Maybe so, but I think TV dinners must be the original "instant food."
   > Certainly cumbersome by today's standards of what is instant, but back
   > when they were invented... (Don't TV Dinners date back to the '50s?)

       I what is the "TV dinners?"  I once heard about such stuff
   somewhere, but I'm not sure.  Does it mean a plate which you can
   put into an oven as a whole?  Isn't it a kind of frozen foods?

TV dinners are, as you have guessed, complete frozen meals. In the "old
days" they came in an aluminium tray with different compartments for
each item. Usually there was a main item (almost always a meat) a
vegitable and a dessert. Now everyone has microwave ovens, so the trays
are made of plastic or cardboard that you can use in a regular oven or a
microwave. Some things come in a pouch that you can boil in water, or
zap in your microwave.

   > Frozen things that you can pop in the microwave are pretty much the
   > standard in instant foods over here. Many brands of instant ramen are
   > also available (including nissin) but nowhere near as popular here as in
   > Japan. There are also semi-instant foods over here.

       Hm, these difference between Japan and USA is perhaps due to the
   fact that most of us Japanese do not have large gas ovens, nor large
   refrigerator in which we can put large volume of frozen foods.  Shall
   we start yet another "refrigerator" therad?  Oops, it's spelling is
   far too difficult for me to memorize!

Most of the "heat and eat" stuff over here can be cooked in a toaster
oven, like are common in Japan. You guys do have things like frozen
$B%3%m%C%1(B (croquette?) and other rei-tou-hin $B!JNdE`IJ!K(B

   > Hamburger Helper is
   > pretty common. You just brown some hamburger in a pan, drain the grease
   > then add water and the contents of the box (usually a powdered sauce mix
   > and some pasta or dried potatoes) and let it simmer a while.

       But... I feel that preparing humburger from raw fresh materials
   (that is, mince, onion, bread, milk, egg) are quite easy!  Oh, or
   is it difficult to obtain mincemeat in USA?  You have to mince meat
   yourself?

Ah! Another case of "that word means something else over here!" In
America when we say "hamburger" we mean "ground beef" or a sandwich made
of fried ground beef. We don't (usually) add onions, bread, etc. We just
form the meat into a patty and fry it.

"Mincemeat" is easy to get in the US around Christmas time. We make pies
out of it as a traditional holiday food. It is made from minced nut meats.
(the part of the nut you eat is called the "meat" of the nut) It doesn't
have any animal parts in it. What is called $B%_%s%A(B (minchi) in Japan is
called "ground" (examples: ground beef, ground pork, etc)

   > Maybe we should drop this thread, I keep drooling on my keyboard!!

       You can purchase a transparent and elastic plastic cover.
   It is used to guard your keyboard from ash (when you are a
   smoker), but you can used that for your own purpose :-)

I might need to get you to order me one of these!! :-) :-)

Mark Dyer		English: markd@tdd.sj.nec.com
NEC America, Inc.	 $BF|K\8l(B: markd@csl.sj.nec.com
Author relinquishes all rights, both real and imaginary, to the
content of this message. Drool optional.
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