what japan taught me about...FOOD pt 2

Onto the middle-range foods.  These would be the better izakayas, restaurants, and cafes.  This price range would be around 800-1200円, about $8-12.  These are the places you go for dinner or for a nicer lunch, and are typically sit down restaurants.


My staple 'nice meal'?  RAMEN!!  It's hard to go wrong with a big bowl of ramen.  Unlike its college dorm counterpart, ramen in Japan is loaded with flavor and is delicious!  Depending on the type of soup base you get the calories can run fairly high, but those calories are from real food that wasn't mass produced or flown in from the other side of the world.  

Most ramen will have seaweed, pork belly slices, onions, fish cake, and some variety of cooked egg (variety depends on the chef).  Don't let those ingredients fool you, they blend in perfectly with the hearty flavors already present in the broth.  And the noodles are nothing short of perfection!!  They're the same long wheat noodle that comes in instant ramen, but fresh and chewy.

 

My first ever bowl of real ramen!!

My favorite, tonkatsu ramen, is made by boiling down pig legs until all of the collagen and fat and nutrients dissolve into the broth.  It's about 800-900 calories a bowl, but let me tell you, after walking 3 miles to get back to your apartment those calories are needed!  Don't forget to slurp it up!! (It's good manners to slurp!)
 

There are many European style cafes and restaurants in Japan, especially Italian and French cuisine.  The absolute best Italian food I've ever had was a $12 bowl of crab alfredo in Nagano.  The Japanese execute everything to such a high degree of quality that no matter where you go, you will not be disappointed, no matter the ethnicity of the food.  In addition to European food, there is a plethora of Indian/Middle Eastern food available. And a heaping bowl full of buttery Indian chicken masala with naan is exactly what hits the spot after walking around Tokyo for 7 hours.

 

Indian curry in Ikebukuro

Even izakaya food is high quality.  They're ordered tapas style, and typically are salty to complement beer (an izakaya is essentially a bar).  The ingredients are incredibly fresh and go together in a simple manner that boasts complex flavors.  My favorites are cheesy potatoes, fried lotus roots, and karrage (fried chicken).  And no izakaya trip would be complete without a big bowl of salted edamame :) 



What are your favorite foods in Japan? Let me know in the comments, and check back later for my next food related post!!

what japan taught me about....FOOD

I apologize in advance for the length of this post.  Now that I've returned from my time in Japan I thought it would be a good idea to do some reflective/informative posts.  I spent such a long time planning and preparing for my move, and I hate to see all of that go to waste.  Thus, my idea for my 'What Japan taught me about...' series that I'll be doing.  I hope to combine these posts with a video or two to either expand on ideas or present them in a different way, but we'll see.  In addition to my own research and experiences I'll be adding links to helpful sites and other blogs/vlogs.  Hope you all like it, and as always feel free to leave your feedback below in the comments!!

Food

I'm going to begin this series with something near and dear to my heart...FOOD. And after I wrote down all of my initial thoughts into one blog post, I decided to break this up into pieces.  I had written about 3000 words so I felt that maybe not posting it all at once would be better for everyone.

To be completely honest with you, us Westerners know very little about what good food is nowadays.  Almost all of our food is mass produced, flown in from South America, or genetically altered.  And the majority of it isn't even that healthy.  I grew up with fresh cooking in my home, and for America that's as good as it gets.  I know many families who have gardens or visit farmers markets to get truly fresh produce, or buy meat from individual farmers who raise their stock in great conditions.  But living in a fairly affluent area, I wouldn't say this is the norm for America.  You've all seen the documentaries, so I won't harp on the poor state of our country's health and food.  All I'm saying, is that if you want to change your perspective on what food should really be, head on over to Asia.  Or Japan..since that's the focus of this blog :)

I'll be exploring the levels of food 'quality', which is a very relative term as you will see.

Let's start with the lowest of the low for food quality in Japan.  Take one look around any average street in Japan and you will see at least 2 convenience stores.  These are a world away from the ones in the States and offer a huge variety of essentials in a small area.  Look around a convenience store and you'll notice that the food offered is about 100x better than half the 'fast sit down' restaurants in America.  For 400円, or about $4, you can get a bento (lunch box) that looks like this:

 

nomnomnomnom

What do you notice? Fresh fish. Rice. Protein. Veggies. And a great serving size.

Keep in mind what I said earlier, that THIS is the lowest.  And it's still amazing.  It's cheap, healthy, and most of all yummy!  Now of course there are unhealthy snack foods, we've all seen Pocky sticks, but there are plenty of healthy and yummy options.  For the price, the equivalent in America would be a McDonalds value meal.

In addition to pre-made bentos like the one above you can get an insane amount of different pre-made foods at convenience stores or the pre-made section of the grocery.  There's everything from pasta to fried chicken and a ton of things in between that are all healthy options at great prices.

My all-time favorite convenience store food was nikuman (肉まん) and all of the good variations of it.  Nikuman is a handful sized dumpling typically filled with pork and onions.  However, you can also get it with pizza filling or even cheese curry!!  They're about 110円, around $1, and fill you up nicely for a quick snack or a small lunch.

 

best lunch/snack around!!

That's it for this blog, next time I'll be exploring the mid and high levels.  Food is one of my favorite things, so I apologize for the lengthy post, I have so much to share about it!!

Bento Love

A 'bento' is simply a small portion meal or lunchbox here in Japan.  I am sure that many of you have seen how 'kawaii' or cute these can be made, even if you didn't know what they were called.  Here are a few examples of the adorable ones:

As you can see...NO ONE HAS TIME FOR THAT. But it's adorable.

A much simpler bento is extremely common here in Japan, in fact finding a bento box was super easy.  I got mine at the local 100yen ($1) store along with all of the accessories needed.

 

Here is my bento (beige), disposable chopsticks with pink wrappers, and panda elastic

A bento consists of one or two compartments that are easily closed up, just like a Tupperware.  You also need an elastic to hold it together, as the pieces don't snap closed.  Without the elastic they could pull apart mid-walk to work and your lunch is ruined :(

So with my bento in hand I set off for the grocery to the pre-made food section and got several small tasty looking things to put into my bento for tomorrow's lunch at work.  Total food cost was around $6, and not all was used for this one lunch.  Photos begin...now!!

 

The two large compartments, and the small one on top...which is so small I don't know what you can even put in it besides a packet of soy sauce.

 

Another angle of the two compartments

 

What it will look like when closed and ready for transport

 

Little cupcake holders, which are actually used for bento here! You divide food with these to keep flavors from mixing

 

My array for this bento making session (not all food was used)

From top to bottom starting at upper right:

Tuna maki roll

Japanese grapes (DELICIOUS)

Yakisoba

Rice onigiri (rice ball)

Steamed veggies

Some sort of fried something (later turned out to be rice wrapped in batter and deep fried)

 

My bento for tomorrow's lunch!! I had over half of the yakisoba and veggies left over, so that will be dinner.  And only 3 grapes, so I can munch on them more tonight and tomorrow night :)