Soup-Nazi Reich Japan

After I mentioned the sitcom "Seinfeld" here, I had a stimulating discussion about the program with a friend of mine, which led me to feel inclined to watch the show once again. So I did it on the YouTube. Then I found a quite bizarre fact in my country, inspired by a famous episode of a tough, kicking ass, discipline fanatic, my way or highway otherwise broadway chef, so-called "Soup Nazi". The guy is just an epitome of discipline, order, concentaration and dedication to his job as a soup chef with a few emotional expression that are left for yelling and so forth.

To make my point here as quick as I can, let me say this; a guy like him is everywhere in Japan. In fact, many of Japanese LOVE a guy like the Soup Nazi chef. Although I do NOT like the way they treat their customers at all, many of people make a long que lining up in front of the restaurant talking about how good their dishes they serve are, how long they have been waiting for, how different magazines put their advertisement for the restaurant with different compliments and so forth.

One of the most typical one would be a Ramen shop. Ramen, that came here originally from China a long time ago, has been modified to fit the tongue of Japanese people thus now became a part of Japanese food consisted of noodle component and soup component. That's right, a yelling Ramen chef is The Soup Nazi in Japan. "Hey ... Welcome !". A typical chef would shout, followed by his workers under him yelling even louder than him. It does not matter whether you have money to eat or not. A ramen soup-nazi chef will decide if you are ALLOWED to eat his masterpiece or not. You would rather avoid any soup-nazi entanglement. In fact, yes, No question asked. You line up, wait for up to an hour, allowed to get in, sit down, sip a glass of water, waiting for a young apprentice coming to you to ask your order, wait another 5 minutes or so, then the masterpiece might be yours if not doing anything wrong or offensive against the head of the shop, Der Fuh:rer of Ramen Nazi.

I sometimes wonder why Japanese would go to ramen shop or many other places with the same psycho-social structure, willingly, just to be scolded by this kind of authoritative, blunt, rude, dominant type of professional including Taxi driver, Sushi chef, Driving School instructor. Soup-Nazi might be funny for you, but if you see real Soup-Nazis in Japan, you would probably want to get out of the place for sure.

Nowadays, things are changed and there seem to be lesser Soup-Nazi type of ramen shop or Sushi restaurant in Japan. However, this type of ramen shop still is, somehow, popular among people here. Many of them have something that they stick to, called "Kodawari", meaning having no spare, having particularity, to make their dishes just unique and special. Usually most of Japanese do not care about uniqueness or originality, since many want to be as normal as everybody else not to be standing in a closed community. Nevertheless, a Soup-Nazi shop owner, is different. He (mostly a male person) is the one who has been devoting his life thus energy into the pursuit of The Ultimate dish that you could ever dream of. He is the connoisseur that can tell which one is the Real McCoy and which one Bullshit. He is the judge, the king, self-proclaimed achiever in the process of on-going, never ending achievement, and most importantly, he is the head of his own clan that should be succeeded by the successor, the heir to the throne.

A Soup-Nazi chef could look harsh and tough, but he lost everything redundant in order to pursue what he believes is important. No smile nor any fancy service at all just because those things would ruin his career and the pursuit of the ultimate taste he has been searching for. Therefore, at least I can say this. A real Japanese Soup-Nazi is trustworthy in his judgment of the taste; his dedication and training in the judgment of taste is more than you could imagine. A real one smokes nothing, drinks few, seldom talks with full of concentration on freshness of fish, vegetable, pure water, fine salt and so forth. It can be compared to a sort of Martial Art or something. Oh by the way, a real Soup-Nazi type of Japanese chef does not like fancy advertisement at all. So I hope you make good friends here in Japan and ask them if they know any Soup-Nazi Sushi Chef or Ramen Chef nearby...

Now, your journey in the hunt for the Japanese Soup-Nazi has just begun ...