Spaghetti & Buttered Toast
Every week, NTV’s “Kenmin Show” presents viewers with segments that teach them that each prefecture in their country has its own unique & weird cultural practices that would shock mainstream Japan. On last night’s episode, they revealed that it is very common for Okinawans to eat buttered toast with spaghetti. Apparently many restaurants in Okinawa serve spaghetti & toast sets. When Okinawans make spaghetti at home, they also serve it with toast. The practice even applies to spaghetti with non-tomato-based sauces.
An expert says that the practice began in the decade after World War II. In those days, American military bases on the island served spaghetti with slices of French bread. Some Okinawans who worked in base kitchens later opened their own off-base restaurants, and they decided to emulate the American practice of serving a side of bread with spaghetti. They weren’t able to obtain the exact kind of bread the Americans ate, so they just used normal white bread. The practice of serving buttered toast with spaghetti then spread all across Okinawa.
The program visited a restaurant at Kadena Airbase to see if the American military still eats bread with spaghetti. Their order of spaghetti marinara comes with a couple small slices of garlic bread. They ask a couple of Americans about it, and they say it’s common to eat that kind of bread with spaghetti in America. When shown a typical Okinawan spaghetti & toast set, the Americans laugh about the huge toast. [Their reaction seems overblown. I'd be willing to bet the whole situation was scripted.]
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