Usually, the kitchen is of such tiny proportions that it is a marvel to foreigners how a meal can be prepared there. The cook-stove, or range, will probably be a plaster contrivance of only two holes, upon which the pots and pans rest, and under which are poked short pieces of wood or small pieces of charcoal. The rice is boiled here, and the fish fried or broiled, the vegetables cooked, fish-soup made, and also delicious omelettes; but no bread or butter, milk, cream or cheese ever enters a Japanese house. The few cakes and sweets used, and dainties such as eels fried in “shoyu,” and sweet potatoes, are always bought at the public shops, and “sembe,” or biscuits of various sorts, also come from the manufacturers. The sweet potato is to the children what candy is to the foreigner. There are shops that sell nothing but boiled sweet potatoes, and a Japanese would as soon think she could cook a sweet potato at home as a foreigner would think she could make French candy.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
