【Unrevised Ver.（添削前）】What I Miss About the U.S. Food

Original ver.（添削前）

Dear Mary,

Hi, how are you doing?

It’s been ages since I was in the U.S.

I’ve settled back into life in Japan, fully immersed in it. Still, I sometimes think about my time in the U.S. even the length was within a year.

One of the things I miss about the U.S. is food.

I picked the three food that I miss and I wish I could buy in my neighborhood .

It was difficult to pick only three as there are so many of it.

添削前 (Before Correction)

You might think it is usual when you see a big vivid color decorated cake comes out at a party. The cake is usually consisted with the part of sponge and colorful frosting cream decoration on it. And it is cut to many portions for invited people and stays in a room during the party.

Here in Japan, it is a bit difficult to find the type of cake. For a typical “birthday cake”, ours is a fluffy sponge cake made by whipping egg whites or whole eggs and decorated with whipped cream. The cream is good taste, but easy to loosen when it stays in a room. So we have to come it out from a refrigerator just before dessert time. It is a good timing for a surprise but sometimes I wish I could show it in a room for a while for enjoying. The colors are usually softer (maybe because of our preferences), and the sizes are smaller (maybe because of oven capacity).

I love Japanese style of cakes, but sometime I miss colorful frosting cakes because they are very fun for eyes at a kids’ party or a event at work.

(I looked it up on the internet and the cake I encountered in U.S.was perhaps frosted with butter and cream cheese. I a kind of like the combination of thick sweet frosting and simple sponge.)

oh, I have to add that it is also very hard to find a better pumpkin pie in Japan than one I ate in U.S.

添削前 (Before Correction)

When I recall the image of “toasted bread” in U.S., I always remember the thin slice of bread. It’s usually brown (for whole wheat) and a rectangle shape and it gets crispy when I toast it. It goes well with cream cheese or butter or the golden combination of peanut butter and strawberry jerry.

If you went to a usual Japanese bakery and tried to find the same kind of bread for breakfast, that is called “Shokupan” (means “bread for a meal”). The bread is usually square and the size of 4.9 x 4.9 inches (12.5 x12.5cm) and about 0.7-0.9inches (1.9-2.3 cm) thick. It‘s fluffy texture. You can feel a slight sweetness when you chews it. It goes well with boiled eggs (egg sandwich), fried pork (Katsu sandwich) or whipped cream.

My kids sometimes ask me to toast “shokupan” until it gets crispy because they likes the toasty flavor and texture. Toasted, it‘ll get crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. It doesn’t go crispy like the bread I ate in U.S.

“Shokupan” is great but, it is sometimes I wish I could also buy a loaf of bread lined on the shelf of a supermarket in U.S.

添削前 (Before Correction)

The food I missed most is breakfast cereal. I can buy cereal here in Japan. However the variety of cereal is soooooo limited.

I remember in U.S., I could find a cereal shelves lane while in Japan the width of cereal section fits within my opened arms.

I often ate “frosted wheat”, “cheerios” or “cinnamon toast crunch” when I was in U.S. They might be not good for my health if I ate everyday as it contains a lots of sugar. But still I like them and I wish I could buy them in a supermarket for my snack time. I can buy them through the internet, but usually it costs 3 times or 5 times higher than purchasing them in U.S.

Other than those sweet cereal, once I tried to find a cereal which I like its taste and at the same time good for my health, but I couldn’t find from the limited cereal shelf in a Japanese supermarket. At the time, I thought I might be able to find the one if I could chose the wide range of cereal shelf in the U.S. supermarket.

添削前 (Before Correction)

Here that was my top 3 food I wish I could buy at my neighborhood.

There are more of it, for example, American cookies, pizza near our college, taco rice and muffins etc. Those are I could find the similar to the ones I ate in U.S. occasionally (although sometimes it looked the similar but turned out to be different for tase or texture).

What food do you think you would miss if you couldn’t have them for weeks?

Well, I’m looking forward to your answer.