When I was little being half japanese half italian I used to go to school in Japan in summer all through like the elementary period, so first year to sixth. So one day it was lunch break (給食), and the school has a menu to follow, I enter the class after, like, being in the bathroom or something, and I see all my classmates and the teacher looking at me with their eyes glowing. "We have a surprise for you" they say, and they bring out the damn neapolitan pasta. I was sooo weirded out by that, it was my first encounter with the ketchup pasta. Futhermore, I learned that day from my mother that most japanese people don't know neapolitan pasta is not italian. Looking back to it I understand that it was such a nice thing for them to make me feel at home, so in the end it was a very heartwarming neapolitan pasta first encounter for me.

Interesting. Weird little thing I've noticed from being an Italian American whos spent alot of time in Italy and around Italians, is that Italians and Japanese people specifically have a unique fascination in each other's countries, cultural characteristics, and ways of life that I haven't really seen elsewhere. Harukichi Shimoi is a great historical example of this. I feel like a really great Japanese spin on Italian food would be to make a pasta using Japanese fish sauce instead of Colatura di Alici

There are many original recipes for pasta in Japan. One of my favourites is the mentaiko cream pasta. Japanese curry pasta is pretty good too.

Hong Kong has dishes similar to this due to it being a British colony. They opened up HK style "cafes" or cha cha tangs in order to bring affordable western style food to the general population as western food was very expensive in Hong Kong at the time. HK style cafes use ketchup in their spaghetti sauce as well.

Italians in fact do have stir fried spaghetti called in translation something like "Assassin's spaghetti", it must be fried to black a little

I heard the original napolitan sauces were made from fresh tomatoes and other real ingredients. As it spread and was served by chains, the recipe got dumbed down and made cheaper

Right now, I'm trying to get Vincenzo's Plate KZfaq channel to make a version of Neopolitan spaghetti that even Italians would approve of. Might even actually work, too.

In Nagasaki there's this food called トルコライス (Turkish rice). Being Turkish myself, as soon as arriving to Nagasaki, I saw the name of the food and said. "That'll be my lunch for today". I knew that this wouldn't be anything like Turkish food and I was right. It had pork or chicken, rice, spaghetti and salad. Kinda funny to see that.

My Japanese friend, when he came to Switzerland, said to me that he finally wants to eat real Napolitan. I was confused, he was confused, I looked it up and found that it was a Japan-only dish and he was disappointed to never be able to try the "real" Napolitan he imagined in his head.

Great stuff Matt, really effective use of motion graphics, super clean editing, and great informational content all on display here. I'm excited to see this new adventure of yours pan out! Keep it up!

Glad I found this channel. I always found it very interesting to see a Japanese spin on italian food, as someone who has family in Italy.

Super fascinating video dude, thanks for making this one!

Very impressed with your journalism and production. Keep up the great work.

I remember when I was back in the US Army during the late 1980s that what we call Army Spaghetti was no different than what was served in WWII meaning that it was just ketchup and noodles which was not the case. The US Military had the entire US economy behind them meaning that the US Military had tons upon thousands of tomato sauce and tomato products in canned goods to cook with. Soldiers of Italian American or soldiers from places like New York, Chicago, New Orleans, LA, or San Francisco would know if their Army Spaghetti tasted awful and many US Armed Forces cooks would know how to cook a generic Italian style Ragu or meat sauce for spaghetti. Otherwise there would be complaints by soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen to replace those cooks. You have to remember, American servicemen demanded good food either in combat or on occupation duties. US Commanders wanted to keep their troops happy when it comes to food.

Great video! You should be getting so much more views. I will be going to Japan later this year and will give this a try!

Great video. you’re like the Johnny Harris without the pretentiousness - can’t wait for your channel to explode !

Learned a lot from this video. Thanks a ton!!!

You do a really good job with the editing

omg more videos plz thx

I would love to introduce you guys to Wisconsin spaghetti. We make a mostly traditional Italian sauce, but instead of wine, we use beer. It adds a lot more umami to the sauce, which is my favorite way to have it.

I've tried some Japanese style Spaghetti and being used to Italian food it didn't make it for me. The one in this video looks quite nicer to my tastes than the ones I've seen though.

You can also try Japanese's Tom Yam. Taste nothing like Thai's but delicious in their own way 😅

i love how he talked about foreign cuisines adapted to a local taste while walking next to a Domino's

Yet another banger vid

I am wondering about the particular taste of the original Neapolitan. Was it more tomatoey? Herby? Was it strong in sweet? More tend to sour? Or more of a savoury?

I actually witnessed someone cooking that vile ketchup monstrosity when I was in Japan. I always wondered where they got that idea.

Great stuff here.

man, this is really good

the most suprising thing here is that this is a small channel lol dude just bust some top notch video

Some Americans think that spaghetti with ketchup and butter is wonderful despite seemingly a terrible idea. I think it’s horrible but…

I love naporitan so much! It's so nostalgic

Teach me more of the way of the food

funny that in mexico many people also do spaguetti with ketchup and suasages for home meals

Another example of a dish that has been changed according to a country's tastes would be the tacos al pastor and the Turkish or Middle Eastern dishes of Kebab, Shawarma

what's the name of the restaurant you went to at 4:00?

Lol @3:21 🥲

As an Italian American in New York City, I must admit I have never even heard of Yokohama's "Neapolitan Spaghetti." Now I think I should try it, but I must attempt to do so without thinking about it too much, because honestly, the thought of ketchup on spaghetti sounds repulsive. For those who were not raised in Italian American culture, that must sound strange, since both ketchup and marinara sauce are tomato based...but to Italians, these two things, ketchup and pasta sauce, taste so extremely different from each other, you might as well be putting mayonnaise on pasta, which is something we'd also never do and which sounds almost as equally disgusting and offensive to someone from our culture. So, for me to even attempt to eat this Neapolitan Spaghetti dish, I'm really going to have to force myself. Nevertheless, if you say it's very good, and there's a first time for everything. Perhaps the taste will pleasantly surprise me. There is occasionally an Asian street food festival here in my neighborhood in the summer, so that would seem like as good a place as any to seek "Neapolitan Spaghetti" in New York City. The last time it was here, I saw similarly unknown foods being sold. Foods such as: chicken and cabbage dumplings, tea dumplings, sesame rice ball, jianbao pan fried bun, black vinegar chicken nanban, okonomiyaki, candied fruit skewers, Osaka fries with gonori, wheel cake, soursop plumpy, sakurajima tonkotsu, onigiri, and other dishes I do not know about.

I am sorry but my American sensibilities simply can not see the fact that the US and the West in general have "inauthentic" Eastern food and the East has "inauthentic" Western food as anything other than awesome. Inauthentic is in quotes because it is a lie, the California roll is authentic Western sushi, it is not authentic Japanese sushi, its authenticity is American. This is true of a lot of food. Spaghetti and meatballs and Crab rangoon both come to mind. They are authentically American food, they are not authentic to the supposed country of origin, they can't be. That does not make the food bad, weird purity tests try to claim otherwise but I think such an argument is just fundamentally flawed, people love them because they eat the food and they love the food, they think it is good and they are axiomatically correct.

It's not silently suffering when the first thing you do is complain.

This reminds me so much of that quote: "Women don't want to hear men's opinions. They want to hear their own opinions in a deeper voice" "Americans don't want to experience foreign culture. They want to experience American culture in a foreign country.

Ketchup "茄汁" literally means "茄" Tomato "汁" Sauce, ie Tomato Sauce. It may have just been a loss in multiple translations. Plus nothing wrong with improvising ingredients even if they use vinegar-based ketchup, that you imply there is something incorrect to prepare pasta with. Bro, you know how difficult life was immediately after the war in Japan? Just to have a squeeze of ketup is LUXURIOUS comfort food. What do you expect, they cook and serve their pasta with fresh mozzarella cheese up to modern day Italian gourmet standard?.

Weirdly interesting

This is quite misleading, and your end point counters earlier points in the video. While the particular dish in the restaurant may have been served for Americans, Youshoku is primarily for Japanese audiences and palettes. War rations like curry and potatoes and cream stews? That's not a Second World War development. Post-war American occupation caused a sudden local demand for Western style foods? There was long preexisting and widespread demand for Western food. Youshoku was a Meiji development, and early on it may have been mostly enjoyed by the elite and aristocratic class, but by late Meiji to Taishou, western style food was already becoming very popular even with the common peoples. Before the Second World War, curry was already becoming popular and accessible. Affordable meals in department stores, even some home cooks would make it, like navymen who were introduced to curry when the navy was adopting methods from the British. The Youshoku phenomenon should not be understood as something "fake" made for Americans. It's something Japanese made for Japanese. This is also when coffee or jazz really catches on in popularity. It was fashionable and enjoyable for ordinary Japanese, not just mimicking, but developing something entirely for themselves. Early "western cuisine" may have been "authentic" in nature when it tried to cater to aristocrats that wanted a genuine sense of modeling off of Euroamerican standards. But as it became popular and more accessible, the methods were adjusted to common palettes with what was workable instead of elite ingredients and methods. What is important with the American occupation and reconstruction is mass importation of American foodstuffs. Bread, ketchup, mayo, corn, that's how our modern understanding of Japanese cuisine really has developed. Bread for breakfast became the standard, usage of mayo in salads, corn like in Sapporo ramen, and of course, ketchup for things like Naporitan. Of course, the American authorities also had incentive to promote their foodstuffs. The idea being that the resources and habits of the Americans were legitimized in occupation, the caretaking just, and America as the leading superpower worthy in their reconstruction efforts. But ultimately that Naporitan is distinct from the original restaurant dish, since it was made for Japanese. Demand wasn't something new from the American occupation, it was a re-access and expansion to what was suppressed and rationed during the wartime years. Youshoku became everyday and common thanks to Americans and American importation of foodstuffs, but it wasn't for Americans. Ketchup was affordable and accessible instead of fresh tomatoes or tomato puree. With the spread of appliance culture, families also saw tv programs on how to make youshoku dishes, so that's how Naporitan really spread. Common kissaten dish too, alongside pizza toast but that's another thing. A lot of important history and context worth talking about that you've neglected to cover.

Neapolitan has 5 syllables, not 4.

I don't see the problem talking about the American occupation of japan. now the Japanese occupation of china. That is a spicy topic. When the Japanese go to war they go full on "what are human rights?" By ignoring history you disrespect that history. Just don't judge the history by today's standards. Most of American sports teams are named after groups of people we respect. For example the red skins.