If there was one highlight of the entire trip during our stay in Japan, it was the food. Hands down. No objections. No second guesses. The food. Even from a 24 hour convenience store with a delectable array of already made meals, or a section of different flavored puddings (coffee being my favorite), our foodie adventures never ceased to please my taste buds and belly. Hence why I've made an entry page separately reviewing the meals and snacks experienced in Japan - the first one being in Tokyo.
Soba - Yabu Soba
Located close to the Ueno station, we searched for Yabu Soba, a popular restaurant for tourists who were vying for a taste of Japan's soba noodles. If you're looking for a warm, cozy, almost tranquil place to relax and sip and slurp on some hot broth and fresh chewy soba noodles...well this is it. Consisting of 2 levels, the restaurant also had a handy 'international' menu with sections translated into various languages, including English. It's amazing how tourist friendly Japan has become, particularly in the main cities. The were only a few variations of soba to choose from, and many were quite simple and light. My bowl consisted of a fish cake, egg roll/tamagoyaki, mushroom, and dried tofu shaped like a bowtie. As simple as it sounded this really hit the spot, especially after escaping the cold dreary rain outside. The tamagoyaki was soft and lightly sweetened, and the mushroom really packed a strong juicy sweet taste. I gladly finished the bowl from top to bottom, leaving no scrap untouched.
Gyoza - Shinjuku Kakekomi Gyoza
Passing through Kabukicho we stumbled upon this little bar like restaurant that served Japanese dumplings / Gyozas (plus they had an English menu). Unlike the soba restaurant, the atmosphere was a lot more casual and customers weren't afraid to talk and laugh out loud. The air smelled of a mixture of gyozas, beer, and a dash of cigarettes.
We picked four different types of pork gyozas prepared in the following ways: skillet (the dark brown ones), deep fried, steamed, and pan fried. They were served with either a sweet hoisin-like sauce or soy sauce. The skillet prepared gyozas were quite unique as I've never tried these versions before. They had a crunchy golden exterior but a very juicy and sweet meat filling, served best with the sweet sauce. The deep fried versions were softer and more crumbly, whilst the steamed and deep fried weren't any different from what I expected but still delicious to try.
Bento - from Tokyo Station
Finally I got to try the nutritiously packed and mouth watering bentos that I've heard so much about. I basically devoured the entire contents of the box as we took the bullet train heading towards Kyoto. As shown below, the bento contained quite a variety of of meat and vegetables, including fried eel, octopus, egg, rice, mushrooms, and a deep fried meat patty. To finish it off I had a cup of coffee pudding and some red tea to wash it all down.
Dipping udon - food court at DiverCity, Odaiba
The udon noodles were chewy and fresh, and worked very well dipped into the thick pork soup on the left which also had a boiled egg and some fish cakes.
Udon noodles with sausage tempura and inari - restaurant in Sunshine City
For a quick bite, this fast paced restaurant specialised in simple udon meals where the customers were given the bowl of udon of their choosing and continued down the line where they can purchase additional add on's such as sushi, salads and tempura. I find that the tempura in Japan are much less lightly deep fried (thinner batter layer) compared to the ones back at home.
Chicken and Olive Pizza, Spaghetti Carbonara, Milk and Mango Pudding, Sparkling Cocktail (orange jelly and green apple flavour), ice tea - Zambini Brother's Ristorante, Disney Sea
Being the time of Easter, the restaurant had a special Easter menu that included everything below aside from the pizza that was ordered from the main menu. Located on the harbour, this would be a good place to have dinner before the evening Fantasmic show (well it would've been if it wasn't for the annoying weather conditions). Starting from the cocktail (top left), I really enjoyed the fizzy green apple portion, but add the soft orange jelly on top and I wonder why no Bubble Tea company has made this combo before. It had a nice refreshing tropical character to it, which would actually make for a popular summer drink too. The ice tea wasn't anything special from any ice tea. The pizza and the pasta didn't have any striking flavours that stood out. The carbonara I found was less creamier in texture compared to the Western counterparts, which actually wasn't a bad thing since I'm not a fan of the heaviness of the cream. Finally for the dessert, the soft pudding with a mango center also came with a strawberry sorbet that complemented the sweetness of the pudding quite nicely.
Tsukemen - Akihabara
For the life of me I don't remember the name of this place but it was the last restaurant we visited before flying back home. The place specialised in ramen, which had a vending machine with an English menu at the front where we ordered our meal. Tsukemen involved dipping the ramen into a bowl of thick pork soup. The ramen also had some pork belly and menma (bamboo shoots). The soup was very rich and salty, so there was no need to drench the noodles into the soup too much.
Sushi - Fish market
The fish market at Tsukiji is a popular tourist destination. It's a place where people can watch the tuna auction very early in the morning or line up for hours to try the "best sushi in the world" in a little tiny restaurant by the bay. We did neither of that. We rocked up in the morning and sampled the sushi and sushimi at the various stores in the market. No matter which store we chose, the sushi and sushimi was in no way comparable to what we had back home. One thing stood out - Freshness. This made the meat a lot more juicy, sweet, and soft. And they had a much larger meat:rice ratio. Plus I got to try the famous fatty tuna...and it tasted heavenly. Literally melted in my mouth.
Snacks
Sakura flavoured mochi wrapped around a leaf of some kind and deep fried. Strange yet satisfying texture that started off with a soft crunch and ends with a soft, chewy sweet center. These were sold in a variety of flavours at a large food stand outside Asakusa Temple.
How could I not leave a convenience store without purchasing a cup of Nissan instant cup noodles? And look at the size of the toppings! The prawns and the eggs were huge. A great midnight snack washed down with a hot glass of green tea =3
DisneySea snacks
There were plenty of snacks and food choices to choose from at DisneySea, so these were the ones I read up and were recommended as they were unique to DisneySea.Tropic Al's Sweet Fried Burrito - @ Tropic Al's in Lost River Delta
Situated in a tiny outdoor eating area, great for a food pit stop. Not the typical burrito that I'm accustomed to, more like a crispy pastry with a sweet banana and caramel filling inside. Mmm-hmm, would love to get my hands on those again.
Gyoza Bun - @ Nautilus Galley in Mysterious Island
This fancy looking braided bun (similar to Rapunzel's braid no?) can be found in a cove-like restaurant that looks out into the rest of the island and the passengers that ride the transit steamer line. The filling inside had a mixture of pork, mushroom, and spring onion - typical gyoza fillings. Taste wise, just like any regular pork bun with a light and soft bun texture.
Alien Mochi heads - @ a food stand in American Waterfront
These mochi balls were both cute and delicious. They came in 3 different flavours - chocolate, strawberry and either green tea or vanilla, don't actually remember...
Sakura flavoured beer and a sausage - @ Barnacle Bill's in American Waterfront
Never have I ever tasted such a beer like Barnacle Bill's sakura beer. Only found on the Easter special menu, it's a light beer with a nice added sweetness that would make any hater of alcohol or beer to love this beverage. And a great quencher on a hot summer day. The sausage was otherwise mediocre.
Spicy Chicken Nugget- @ Lost River Cook House in Lost River Delta
Probably bigger than what I expected to be a nugget, this chicken thigh had a nice spicy and sweet tang to the soft tender meat. Pretty much devoured in seconds.
Changu Tail - @ Sultan's Oasis in Arabian Coast
Changu is a tiger cub character residing in the Arabian Coast section of the park, and he has his tail made into a curry bun. It was getting dark and cold by the time we came here, so the added spices in the filling helped warm up our bellies. This bun was just cute to eat (alongside the Alien mochi balls).
Desserts
One of the things the Japanese are crazy about - Parfaits. They're delicious, fun to eat, and nicely decorated. This cafe we visited was called Nana's Green Tea found in Ueno, and they served up many different styles of parfaits and desserts. The parfait we tried had icecream, red bean, green tea jelly, mochi and cereal..yes strange to have cereal in a dessert but it does add a nice texture to it.
Combined with the parfait we also ordered a macha latte, or what essentially was sweetened milk with green tea.
Best season to come to Japan is strawberry season. They're huge, red and very, very, juicy and sweet. Hard to pass up on strawberry waffles. There were many fancy looking dessert/cafe bars around the streets and inside shopping centers so they're hard not to miss.
Again with the strawberry theme - strawberry shortcake. And not just with whole strawberrys on the top, but also in between the cake layers =D No I could not contain my excitement when I bit into this wonderful, heavenly piece of baked goods.
