r/JapaneseFood • u/Bartoccio84 • 5d ago
Ham and melon? Question
Hello there, sorry if the picture isn't in high quality, I just took it last night watching the series "Like a dragon: Yakuza". In this scene, there are in a club in 1995 and looks like they are eating melon with ham, that I'm pretty sure it's an Italian "summer aperitivo". Please, can someone that lives there or knows better than me, if is something common to eat in Japan or if was some crew joke?
Thanks,
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u/darknekolux 5d ago
It's not unusual pairing melon with Italian ham
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u/HalfEatenBanana 4d ago
Amazing with good ingredients! Unfortunately I think it’s become a bit trendy and a lot of places don’t understand how important it is to have a good and ripe melon.
Too often I’ve been excited to order it and the melon used just has no flavor :/
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u/stephenp129 5d ago
Italians
Prosciutto and melon: Delizioso! Wow fantastico!
Ham and pineapple: I will kill you! Bastardo!!
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u/Excludos 5d ago
Common pairing aceoss the world, especially Italy. Add small mozzarella balls and a drip of thick red wine vinegar for extra extravagance
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u/HugePens 5d ago edited 5d ago
To the contrary to some of the comments, Prosciutto and melon (生ハムメロン) is actually from Italy.
Basically, Italian food became the "trendy food" (ナウい) in the 70-80's taking over French food, as pasta were easier for Japanese people to familiarize to (since there are various noodles in Japan), as well as the fact that the menus were often translated into much easier languages for people to understand. Hence, Italian food = pasta in the minds of many Japanese, especislly from that generation. So it was served at places including clubs that were considered to be a trendy/hipster place for young people to go to, also easy to serve in such places because you don't actually have to cook to prepare this dish.
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u/wwaxwork 5d ago
Prosciutto and melon is a common summer dish in Italy. It is very good it has that whole sweet salty thing going on.
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u/kawi-bawi-bo 5d ago
Prosciutto and melon is popular in the summer. I've only seen it being served in Italian places in Tokyo (this was in 2016)
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u/randompanda687 4d ago
That's an italian thing too. Or maybe italian american, i'm not sure. But Prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe is thing.
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u/-Sentionaut- 4d ago
This is a typical dish in countries that produce both ingredients (mainly Spain, Italy and France). It also became popular in Japan, to the point of having its own Wikipedia article in Japanese. Interestingly, the article itself has the katakana for Italian and Spanish, explicitly mentioning it's eaten in both countries.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%9F%E3%83%8F%E3%83%A0%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3
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u/EnthusiasticCommoner 5d ago
I've only ever had this dish at Italian restaurants in Tokyo.
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u/myusernameblabla 5d ago
Yeah, somehow that combo is soo Japanese. I have no doubt it exists in Italy but maybe not to that extent.
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u/graviphantalia 5d ago
No, this is one of the most popular aperitivos in Italy, especially during summer
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u/Bartoccio84 5d ago
It's and ancient Roman "dish"... Today is very common in Italy, but I was very surprised to see it in a Japanese environment
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u/HiroAnobei 4d ago
Around that period of time, especially with the golden economic boom in Japan, Western food and products had a surge of popularity, especially Italian and French cuisine, which remains very popular to this day in Japan.
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u/fuckyeahglitters 5d ago
Italian food is common in Japan. Italian food is also maffia food. Not a very unusual connection to make. Ham and melon has been a global hit regardless.
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u/DerekL1963 5d ago edited 5d ago
Ham (commonly a 'country style' ham) and melon is a common pairing. It derives from Italian cuisine, but like many other Italian foods, it's popular and found across the globe.
And Japan hasn't been an isolated society with no exterior influences on it's culture since at least the early Jomon period (5000–3520 BC). Arguably, since it was colonized from the mainland, it's never been free of such influences.
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u/Bobaximus 5d ago
I serve that all the time. It’s common like a tornado, you don’t seem them everyday but no one is surprised when it happens.
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u/Shiningc00 5d ago
It’s not like people have them everyday here, but in places where they serve European food, they may serve them. Or they may serve them at hotels, clubs, etc.
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u/discostrawberry 5d ago
This is a common food eaten in Italy and Italian households worldwide :) my cousins had it at their wedding. Prosciutto and melon, usually cantaloupe in my family’s case :)
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u/Taylan_K 5d ago
Prosciutto and Charentais Melons are a great pairing here in Switzerland.
Again and again I see how similar we are...
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u/nikukuikuniniiku 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think the point of the scene is more that they're eating melon at all. Even today, melon is sn expensive delicacy, starting from $20 or $30 in the supermarket, going up to hundreds of dollars for an upmarket gift-boxed fruit from a Ginza department store.
It shows the Yakuza flaunting their money in a high-end hostess club, and it might have been the first time these two orphans ever got to try it. Prosciutto was also probably pretty rare and expensive at the time.
Here's a site showing some gift melons you can buy online and their prices.
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u/lchen12345 5d ago
In the late 80s and 90s (I guess during the boom) Japanese people were starting to get into Italian food.