Chuka (food)

Chuka ("Chuuka" 中華, or 中華料理） "literally Chinese food" is an adjective for "Japanese" style "Chinese" dishes, or the restaurants in Japan which serve them. They are "dishes" or "noodles" that have originated in China (as opposed to simple foods like "tofu" which originated in China), but have become modified over the years to suit Japanese taste, often with Japanese or even Western foods. They have changed enough that they are not identified as Chinese dishes by the Chinese themselves, nor as Japanese dishes by the Japanese. Japanese mistakenly consider them "Chinese", though the dish of origin in any Chinese restaurant would never be made in this way. In some cases, Japanese foods have been added, such as in the case of miso-ramen. In other cases, only the noodles are "Chinese", as in the case of hiyashi-chuka, which was invented in Sendai in 1937, and uses Western food influences such as sliced cured ham. Often, katakana is used to denote their "foreign-ness", and hiragana is purposely avoided, as in the case of ramen (ラーメン).

Examples

* Chahan, or Japanese fried rice
* Gyoza (餃子)
* Ramen (ラーメン) aka Chuka soba (中華そば)
* Hiyashi-chuka
* Mabodofu