Tag: Sushi

(Sapporo Trip – Part 2) Japanese Fast Food

Categories Autumn/Fall, Food and Drink, Seasons, UncategorizedLeave a Comment on (Sapporo Trip – Part 2) Japanese Fast Food

Here’s Part 2 of our 5 part series about Brandon’s trip to Sapporo.

When people hear “fast food”, images of McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, Jack in the Box, and so on will more than likely pop up. Japan does have McDonald’s and Burger King, but the Japanese take on fast food is, for lack of vocabulary, awesome.

Here are a few examples of Japanese fast food:

  1. Tonkatsu Curry with Cheese from Curry House CoCo Ichibanya (aka “CoCo Ichi”)

    This slideshow requires JavaScript.

    This homemade tonkatsu curry is available for a limited time throughout the year. For those who don’t know, ton means pork and katsu is short for katsuretsu, which means cutlet in English. Brandon tried this dish for the first time during this last trip, and this is my (Chad’s) favorite CoCo Ichi dish. You can cut the tonkatsu with your spoon!

    When ordering curry at CoCo Ichi, you can choose the amount of rice (“less” 200g and 51 Yen cheaper, “regular” 300g, and “more” which has different amounts) and the spiciness of the curry (mild, regular, 1-10).

    Curry dishes with something deep fried will take about 5 minutes to prepare, if the restaurant isn’t busy.

  2. Katsudon
    7PcMciVJQLSSFsNYkHZ2NQ_thumb_34d7
    There are many restaurants that serve katsudon, tonkatsu donburi (bowl). Deep fried, tonkatsu (breaded, deep fried pork cutlet) on rice, and depending on the region in Japan, the tonkatsu is further cooked in a sweet shoyu (soy sauce) broth with egg or just has a special sauce.
  3. Tenzaru Soba (Tempura & Zaru Soba)
    KXgGT%L0ROGCLyRSGGpgPA_thumb_34f8
    Tempura, which was originally introduce by the Portuguese, is a seafood and/or vegetables that are battered and deep fried.Zaru Soba is cold soba (buckwheat noodles) with a dipping sauce.What are those three small dishes on the bottom? From left to right, dipping sauce, grated daikon (Japanese radish) with grated ginger, leek and wasabi. Many people put all of these into the dipping sauce before eating a bite, and I don’t think this is the right way to eat zaru soba. In my opinion, first, you should eat a few bites of the soba with just the dipping sauce. The water in the soba will slowly dilute the dipping sauce, so this is why you should slowly add daikon, ginger, leek, or wasabi little by little. By doing this, you will be able to enjoy different flavors. Personally, I first add a little daikon and leek, followed by wasabi, and finishing with ginger. I start with the milder daikon and leek before the bold wasabi and finish with refreshing ginger.
  4. Kaiten-zushi

    Kaiten (rotating/spinning)-zushi (sushi) is probably the most well-known Japanese fast food, and the quality of fish available in Sapporo is one of the best in Japan.

There are many other types of Japanese fast food, for example gyūdon (beef bowl), tendon (tempura donburi), and other types that are area-specific. So, don’t be afraid to go out there and explore these different convenient and ono (delicious) fast food dishes!

Coming soon:

Part 3 – Jingisukan (Grilled mutton)
Part 4 – Mt. Moiwa
Part 5 – COSTCO

Japanese Grindz! What You Should Eat for Your First Trip to Japan

Categories FAQ, Food and DrinkLeave a Comment on Japanese Grindz! What You Should Eat for Your First Trip to Japan

This is Chad! Here is a short post about three things, out of the many great food, you should eat if it’s your first trip to Japan.

Ramen

Empty beer and Ramen
otm7jRMSQn68pg74kbWmug_thumb_3068
Hot Ramen!

Most people have eaten saimin or Cup Noodle here in Hawaii, but how many people have tried authentic Japanese ramen? We grew up on eating saimin and Cup Noodle, even now! With our love of noodles, coincidentally, our first meal in Japan was ramen. Chad’s first ramen was shoyu ramen with gyoza and fried rice (sorry no picture! we didn’t have smartphones back then…), and Brandon’s first ramen was Ichiran (一蘭, いちらん). Ichiran is from Fukuoka and they specialize in tonkotsu ramen, which is a pork-based broth (to explain really briefly). Brandon’s first bowl of tonkotsu ramen (picture on the top) is in a special square-shaped bowl. The picture on the bottom, also from Brandon, is also Ichiran ramen, but it was in Tokyo. Ramen is always good for your first meal in Japan or after a night out on the town!

Sushi

Of course your are going to eat sushi in Japan!!! Japan is the place to go to have fresh, quality sushi. For those who don’t like sashimi, you can have it aburi (broiled)-style, and this gives the fish a different texture and taste, so give it a try!

Also, sushi is a lot more than just your regular maguro (ahi) nigiri sushi. Salmon, scallops, ika, tako, ikura, uni (yes, it’s good when it’s fresh!), unagi, anago, and many, many other types to enjoy!

Yakiniku

Hibachi is a favorite pastime of Hawaii, and Japan is no different because this hibachi culture came from Japan! Japan takes it step further with high quality meat and all-you-can-drink options. The better the quality of meat, the higher the price will be, but if you know where to look for, you can find reasonable prices for broke-da-mouth meat!

In future posts, we will explain more about different experiences of devouring Japanese food!