☆☆ とくベつ!~~ (･ω･)

“What’s Madeline eating in Nihon?”

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: “Delicious”
Japanese: “Oishii”


      Sorry about the overly cute Japanese title. Since this is part of a mini series of special topics focusing on culture I wanted to give you all a taste of Japanese cuteness. On the board where Japanese cultural trips are advertised many of them have cutesey titles with stars, hearts, and faces. And for anyone who it’s bothering, the hiragana says “tokubetsu” which means “special”.

      Right then! Let’s talk about Japanese food!


Cafeteria meals
      I feel as though saying that I love the KGU cafeteria is not a strong enough sentiment for my undying devotion to the establishment. Not only do they have a wide range of delicious food daily but it’s all incredibly cheap; 380 to 500 yen per meal which is easily large enough to fill you up. Even better, my favourite meal served is the 380yen one, the club lunch. Exactly what it is changes slightly from day to day but on a basic level is a meat usually cooked katsu style (a kind of frying) and served with cabbage (bleh!), pasta salad, a bowl of rice, and a bowl of miso soup. All that. For about $4 USD. Also it’s amazing. Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) may be one of my favourite foods ever after eating in the cafeteria here.

      But the cafeteria’s standard of excellence doesn’t stop there! I’ve also eaten their ramen which is served in a bowl bigger than your head and is the perfect thing on a cold day. My favourite is the spicy ramen which includes bean sprouts, ground meat of some sort, half an egg (hard boiled), a vegetable I can’t recall the name of, and a ton of noodles. I’ve also heard very good things about the donburi served in the cafeteria but I haven’t gotten around to trying it myself yet. From what I recall it’s served in a bowl of rice with sauce and topped with your choice of meal (or vegetables) and finally a raw egg. The raw egg part is the reason I haven’t tried it yet, if you were wondering. But once I can muster up the courage I do intend to try it, perhaps on a day the club lunch isn’t my favourite kind. In addition to full meals the cafeteria also has small items like fruits, yogurt (I think), and onigiri for sale. Onigiri is a rice ball, usually in the shape of a triangle, that’s been covered by nori (seaweed) and has a filling inside. The cafeteria serves two kinds that I’ve tried, nori onigiri, with little bits of seaweed sprinkled in all the rice, and chicken onigiri, which has fried chicken pieces in the middle. Both are very good and very filling.

Restaurants
      Our first (real) night in Japan the usual suspects and I opted to try ramen seemed much safer than another terrifying trip to the market. In Japanese ramen restaurants you go to a bar like seating, place your order, and the cook prepares your food behind the bar right in front of you. I remember it being quite cool though at the time I was kind of overloaded with that silly “new country I know no language of” nonsense. The ramen we got was very good and, like in the cafeteria, in bowls bigger than our heads. In Japan, to drink soup you don’t generally use a spoon (unless the bowl is too big and will spill) so tipping the bowl and slurping is totally acceptable, if not encouraged. In the instance of ramen, though, the bowls are usually too big so you use the uniquely Japanese spoons you all may have encountered in Japanese steakhouses in America.

      Since eating ramen our first night we’ve explored far more and discovered much more good food and a particular restaurant we’ve come to consider a favourite. It’s a relatively small, self-owned business (like most Japanese restaurants) and is run by possibly the nicest old lady in Japan. We’ve been in three times and the last two times she gave us chocolate (it was near Valentine’s Day) and small oranges respectively. Oh, and her food is amazing. It’s another place where you get a ton of food for around 400-500yen and it tastes amazing. I’ve tried different things each time I’ve been but no matter what you get as your main dish you get a heaping plate of rice, a bowl of miso soup, and a green pepper slice cooked with your food. My favourite of the dishes I’ve had was probably a noodle plate that had 2 cooked eggs and a little bit of bacon covering the top. Oishi desu yo!

Did I mention the Japanese like frying food?

      Another place that is a favourite among KGU students is a sushi conveyer restaurant called Kappa Sushi. Let me explain everything I just said. This particular kind of eatery is one where the tables are placed along conveyer belts where sushi rides on past you and if it’s something you want you can grab it. You can also place special orders that are delivered directly to you by a tiny bullet train running atop the conveyer belt. I’m not a huge fish fan so I’ve opted to try more of the not-fish sushi they serve such as shrimp tempura, beef (in a little sheet on the rice), and takoyaki. When I tried it I knew takoyaki was octopus inside a breading shell. I did not, however, know that it was baby octopi. I was horrified when I found out. Shrimp tempura sushi was definitely the best, by the way. Oh, and all sushi (like everything else in Japan) was served with mayonnaise. It’s kind of a big deal here.

      Another very Japanese kind of meal are bento boxes; prepared lunches made to travel and be reheated as necessary. In fact, these shops don’t provide seating but merely a counter to order and a bench to wait while your food is prepared. Yes, even in Japanese fast food the food is prepared when you order not sitting in a heater. It shows. But I digress (again). There are two of these stores right across the road from one another near the school and they make for a great picnic. The bentos themselves usually contain a main meat, rice, and egg or (more rarely) vegetables to go with it. The boxes are usually cheap and very filling so I’m quite a fan.

The yellow stuff is egg, by the way.

       While out and about in places away from our usual haunt we’ve also found good food. Melissa and Lulu took us to a wonderful Italian restaurant in an Osaka outdoor mall when we were there. We ran into other students that had just eaten there so I gather it to be quite popular among the international students. This is probably because not only is it reaaaally good Italian food but it’s cheap. But honestly, it could probably be pretty crappy Italian food that was cheap and we’d love it. Not cheap, however, are the plethoras of dessert restaurants we’ve seen in department stores, malls, and generally all over Japan. I’ve also heard rumors of a dessert all-you-can-eat buffet where you pay a fee and get to eat for an hour and a half. I hope I do not get the chance to go there.

Fast Food
      As a developed national Japan is also home to fast food restaurants with a few familiar faces like McDonalds and KFC. I personally like going to these restaurants just to see how they view American dining habits. Did you know that on Christmas day in Japan you have to have a reservation to get KFC? Apparently, someone mistranslated something and the Japanese seem to think that in America we celebrate the messiah’s birth with some home-style fried chicken and buttery biscuits. Jesus would be proud. McDonald’s also released a line of “Big American” burgers, a total of four burgers styled after American locations (Texas, Idaho, Manhattan, and Miami). I can’t be bothered to type a description of the burgers when there are perfectly good pictures online so here’s a link to the Japanese McDonald’s website menu. It’s also worth noting that with the exception of the American burger series most Japanese fast food still comes in reasonable sizes. Like a small fries means 10 fries not 9,001. I’ve only had KFC since coming here and it was pretty standard tasting but served with melon soda. If only we could get that in the states! My friends have eaten McDonalds and say it’s about the same as well.

 But fear not, Japan has its own version of fast food burgers: Mo’s Authentic Japanese Burgers. … I don’t think there’s too much more to say about this, just that they sell burgers except with a Japanese twist like putting cabbage (blegh!) on them instead of lettuce, etc. There are also a lot of fishy burgers but I lack the desire to try them. Here’s a menu (in English this time how exciting!) if you want to look.


Vending Machines
      I’ve already mentioned the range of vending machines in Japan so I’ll make this section brief, presuming I’m capable of such. Like American vending machines, drink machines here sell the usual range of products based on whatever franchise owns the machine such as Coke (which exists in Japan). However, Japanese vending machines serve both hot and cold drinks allowing for products like hot coffee to be sold. The coffee from vending machines is actually really good (it beats Seattle’s best and it’s like 1/3rd the price). In addition, there are some machines that dispense and fill cups allowing you to add cream and sugar in specific amounts to your coffee. I haven’t tried doing this yet but the boys have and said when you get it right it’s quite good. In vending machine alley (behind the cafeteria) we have a row of about 8 vending machines, one of which sells ice cream which like coffee was surprisingly good and cost effective. As far as food vending machines go, the only other variety I’ve seen so far was a ramen machine that also gave you hot water for you ramen.

The stuff to the left of the pancake drink is a red bean drink. I think.

Market
      As some of you may recall, a few hours after arriving in Japan I went with a group to a local market (Top World) to get some food for dinner. You may also recall me saying it was a horrifying experience that scarred me deeply and made me veer away from markets for as long as possible afterwards. This was mostly due to massive culture shock of being suddenly flung into another country with entirely different eating habits, another currency, and no knowledge of ‘real’ Japanese food.



Exhibit A.


      Face it, if you’d just come to a new country and seen that first thing while desperately seeking food you’d probably need a new pair of pants. I’ve since mastered the currency conversion (which is very helpful in knowing just how much that carton of milk costs) and learned which foods make for a good, relatively inexpensive meal. One thing that you may not realize offhand is that fruit is very expensive in Japan. Being an island Japan has to import most of its fruit meaning a carton of strawberries can range from 300 to 780 yen. I’ve also seen 2000yen melons! To counter balance this, Japan sells amazing breads most of which are pretty cheap. You can get a bag of rolls for like 100-200yen that will last for a week of breakfasts. Japanese bread is also pretty sweet by itself, in my experience. Bread is also commonly filled with things (I’m sure there’s a word for this…) making it capable of being a standalone meal. The bakery in the market is also absolutely amazing. After about 5:00 in the day they put everything on sale for 105yen and I’ve many time snapped up a tasty treat such as a bread conch shell filled with custard. Another good thing is a toasted bread cheese, egg, and ham sandwich. Did I mention they put egg on everything in Japan? Also mayonnaise is everywhere. No seriously, everywhere.

      Since you survived my massively long post on Japanese food here’s a picture of the breakfast dinner my friends and I cooked a few weeks ago!


 

Mmm, carbs.


Ja ne!