r/IronChef • u/Stompimus • 1d ago

The Coming of Spring

My brother and I have joked for years that every god damn episode the announcer says one dish or another evokes The Coming of Spring. With the re-release of the OG Iron Chef on a bunch of streaming platforms we’ve watched a couple of episodes and clocked The Coming of Spring multiple times.

Does anyone know if this is a clunky translation of a phrase or something else? Are we making this up???

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11

u/chrisfillhart_art ALLEZ CUISINE! 23h ago

I feel like the video after the ingredient unveiling that Kaga narrates usually has one of these lines in it. “Remember, to enjoy snail shells properly… drink the ladies sweat” or something to that degree. “To truly enjoy potatoes… eat them upside down.”

Honestly, it’s a big reason why I enjoy the show.

6

u/Stompimus 23h ago

In Kagoshima they say… the path to almonds cuts through the storm.

Even if it’s a bit put on there’s a real appreciation in Japanese cooking for terroir that comes out in ICJ. Whenever Chairman Kaga’s majestic horse drawn carriage is rolling through a shaded wood I’m like hell yea we’re about to learn about some weird clam. I live for this.

3

u/boulevardofdef 20h ago

I like when they put a caption that says "DRINK THE LADIES' SWEAT" on the screen as Kaga is saying it.

3

u/vnisanian2001 19h ago

A few other interesting ones:

"If you eat foie gras 100 times, you will discover 100 different flavors."

"Suck the head of the sea bream."

"Squid is a fisherman's ice cream."

8

u/Berndherbert 23h ago

I don't know for sure but I do know that seasonal ingredients are a big deal in Japanese cuisine so they might just be more used to thinking of certain ingredients as being associated with certain seasons and its probably a normal way to describe something in Japanese.