Shortcake
Shortcake Today I found out that shortcake in Japan means "a slice of cake". Not knowing this I thought it meant shortcake as in the those small gold cakes you put strawberries and whipped cream on top of. I have a song that mentions shortcake too and I assumed she was singing about American style shortcake but it turns out she's just singing about cake in general. Of course cake in Japan is generally far better than any cake in America and there are cafes all over the place that serve no end of varieties. It's a common pasttime for women in particular to visit one of these cafes with a girlfriend and have a shortcake or "shore toe kay kee" as it's said in Japanese.

There are a few issues other issues like that. One similar issue is there is Hamberger (ham baa gaa) and Hamberguu (ham baa guu). The first is a regular Hamberger like you'd get at McDonald's. The second is a hamberger patty, thicker than normal, cooked and served like a steak, by itsself with sauce.

Another, Ice (eye sue) in Japanese is short for Ice Cream. Ice, like the kind you put in a drink usually is called Kori (co-ree) note: Japanese R is pronounced halfway between R and L so it sounds like a rolled R except it's rolled only once.)
Comments:

shortcake [ e ]

shortcake in Japan means "a slice of cake"?  who told you that? or where did you get that idea from?  the concept of shortcake in Japan is "sponge cakes covered with whipped cream, generally with strawberries.  So your original impression was correct.

posted by anon_rrAugust 9, 2002 at 0:10

shortcake revisited [ e ]

a bunch of my co-workers told me that.

I got the email from someone asking how to count slices of cake.  I asked my coworkers.  They told me ikkou, nikkou, sankkou etc.  Then they told me that a slice of cake is called a shortcake.  I verified with about 6 other co-workers who were all amazed and surprised when I told them shortcake in English means a specific kind of cake and I showed them pictures.  They never knew that and verified again that a shortcake in Japan is any slice of cake.

I suppose I can ask a few more people.

posted by greggmanAugust 9, 2002 at 10:35

can't be any slice of cake [ e ]

cheese cake is still "cheese cake" whether it's sliced or not.

chocolate cake is still "chocolate cake" whether it's sliced or not.

sponge cake covered with whipped cream is "short cake" whether it's sliced or not. it can be called, like, "ichigo no shore toe kay kee", "melon no shore toe kay kee", depending on the fruit on top of it.

nobody says "cheese no shore toe kay kee" or "chocolate no shore toe kay kee" in Japan - at least Japanese people I know in Japan don't.

I am Japanese female, by the way.

posted by anon_rrAugust 9, 2002 at 15:46

Shortcake yum [ e ]

Okay, you are correct.  Even American's do not consider Cheesecake to be cake.

But, I typed in ショートケーキ in google.co.jp and these things came up

one, two, three, four, five, six, seven

You'll notice some of those pages list all the stuff on the page under "shortcake".

None of those things are shortcakes in America.  Go to an American super market and look for shortcakes and you'll find something that looks like this

If you put strawberries on it it becomes strawberry shortcake like this.  You can also use a biscuit.  According to the dictionary:

shortcake:

1 : a crisp and often unsweetened biscuit or cookie
2 a : a dessert made typically of very short baking-powder-biscuit dough spread with sweetened fruit

As you can see, none of those things shown on the Japanese pages are shortcakes by the American definition.

But, regardless of of what they are called I want to eat them all

posted by greggmanAugust 10, 2002 at 3:02

yes [ e ]

the concept of shortcake in jp is different from the one in the US (actually in most of the western countries), I realized it when I was living in the UK and, now I live in the US (CA). But yes, regardless of of what they are called I want to eat them all too!!

posted by anon_rrAugust 10, 2002 at 9:46

Shortcake Samba [ e ]

Here is one of the shortcake songs I was talking about.  It's by Mayumi Kojima from the Album: Me and My Monkey on the Moon.

I was hoping I could just link to some page with samples of her music but it seems like Japan has no sites like that.  American Amazon.com and CDNOW.com have samples for most CDs.

I found this CD about a year and a half ago, one of those CDs that happened to be on one of the listening stations and I immediately bought it.

Maybe anon_rr can correct me but I think this is what the sample above says:

I'm going to keep this shortcake stuff a secret.
  There's only one left so later I'll eat sugar.
I'll have it with coffee from Africa
  By night it will be in my tummy.

With Jumbo Strawberries
  That beautiful triangle, I gobbled it up in one bite.

I'm going to keep this shortcake stuff a secret.
  There's only one left so later I'll eat sugar.

posted by greggmanAugust 12, 2002 at 9:09

Another translation [ e ]

I got that word "satou" mixed up with "satto".  The first one means sugar.  The second means quickly/suddenly

so, a better translation according to my friend Hiromi is

I won't tell you about the shortcake (which is in fridge??)
gonna eat it quickly later...cuz it's the last one..

posted by greggmanAugust 13, 2002 at 0:39

Yep [ e ]

Hitomi san's translation is correct. That cute song makes me miss Japanese shortcake...

(rr in berkeley)

posted by anon_rrAugust 13, 2002 at 17:51