Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
food (Page 195)
A Yokohama area immigration office has apologized for mistakenly serving a Muslim man, who is interned there for unknown reasons, a meal that included pork, the consumption of which is forbidden by Islamic law.
For its part, the Yokohama immigration office says it attempted to accommodate the man’s requests for pork-free meals, but unknowingly served him a salad spiked with bacon pieces in an administrative foul-up.
A little while back, we brought you news of Electrical Udon developed by Kurare of Arienai Rika (“Unbelievable Science”) for an event to be held in Osaka. Well, that event has come and gone, and we were fortunate enough to be there to get a taste of his technicolor noodles along with some other off-color foods like blue rice topped with even bluer curry and fried chicken with a secret green sauce.
We also got to see some of the DIY science that made Arienai Rika a cult hit with science and tech enthusiasts in Japan.
Russia is a fascinating country for many reasons, but food tends not to be one of them. For example, how many of us have a Russian restaurant in our neighborhoods? It’s not surprising as dishes with names like “borscht” don’t exactly electrify the taste buds.
But not so fast! One Russian dish has been trending online recently not only for its delicious taste but its adorable appearance as well: Squid Piglets! As you might imagine they are little pigs made out of squid and other delicious stuff.
Or, if you’re struggling to imagine such a thing, join our reporter Meg as she shows us how to make these squiggly wiggly little squid-piglets.
We here at RocketNews24 like to think of ourselves as gurus of internet love advice. From bird boyfriends to bringing virtual girlfriends to your own wedding, one might say that we’ve got almost everything covered. But what happens when you’re hungry for something new? Well, isn’t it obvious?
When you’re feeling down in the dumps, which mass-produced wonder is always there for you? Sliced bread. Which food is readily available world-wide, and will always be there to absorb your tears? Sliced bread. Which food will never leave you for a younger, toastier love interest? Sliced bread!
Of course just like people, not all breads are created equal. We assigned our brave but heartbroken Japanese reporter to test out the top five Japanese breads for cuddling. So read on and see if your favorite loaf makes the cut!
As one of Tokyo’s swankiest neighborhoods, Ginza is home to numerous up-scale restaurants and cafes that will as much do damage to your wallet as fill your stomach with delicious food. From French cuisine to delicious brunch, you can find just about anything in Ginza—including a Vampire Cafe!
Though you might not expect to see many theme restaurants like this in Ginza, it turns out these bloodsuckers have been going strong for over a decade. If you’re hoping for a night of spine-tingles and blood-red everything, this is the place for you!
Tuna is a powerhouse of a fish which swims all over the world’s waters, and the Indian Ocean is no exception. Countless fishing boats settle at major ports such as the one in Mombasa, Kenya, providing a breeding ground for commerce, cultural exchange, and of course fresh fish.
Our reporter Go Hatori, after getting voluntarily beaten by Maasai warriors, postulated that with Mombasa’s capacity to get fresh fish, there may very well be some great sushi in Kenya as well. Go didn’t really put any research into this, but what adventure starts with careful thought and census taking?
So he hit the streets of Nairobi and started asking people “Do you know any sushi restaurants around here?” Thinking he may have found a hidden oasis of sushi tucked away on the African continent, Go was able to compile a list of three Kenyan restaurants for his sushi safari.
Last week, I stopped by the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama to try its just-released Cup Noodle Ice Cream, with its chives, shrimp, and all the other fixings of instant ramen. It was definitely an interesting experience, but I did have one complaint, which is that Cup Noodle Ice Cream doesn’t actually have any noodles in it. Technically, it should be called “Cup Noodle Topping Ice Cream.”
Thankfully, it turns out there actually is a place in Japan where you can get ice cream with ramen noodles mixed in. Since I suddenly found myself with the unlikely title of RocketNews24’s resident ramen ice cream expert, I figured it was time to go another round with this unorthodox class of dessert, and to crown a winner in this battle of the ramen ice creams.
Freshness Burger is a well-known fast food burger chain in Japan. A lesser-known fact would be that they’ve gone a little gourmet and also have a chain of cheap tapas-like wine bars called FreBar, which offers arguably even better value than Freshness Burger.
For just 500 yen (US$4) you can have as much cured ham (prosciutto) as you like in an hour courtesy of their current promotion, called nama hamu tabehodai in Japanese. Mr Sato, RocketNews24 Japan writer and food adventurer, couldn’t pass up this offer, but just how many plates could he get through?
It’s not uncommon to describe a meaty dish by listing how much beef it contains. McDonald’s has had plenty of success with the Quarter Pounder, and some American restaurants will tout their steaks as being 10 ounces or more.
But have you ever stopped to think about how much rice is on your plate? We recently sent one of our reporters to a restaurant in Tokyo to take on a rice omelet, one of Japan’s favorite comfort foods, made with a staggering 600 grams (1.3 pounds) of rice.
Some things are inseparable from a Japanese summer: fireworks festivals, face-melting heat and humidity, young men and women awkwardly courting in yukata, and of course the deafening roar of cicadas. Here, the vociferous critters just provide the soundtrack to summer, but did you know that in some places, they are on the summer menu too?
Our intrepid Japanese reporter Ponkotsu did and he sent off to the cicada-producing center of Lishui in China’s Zhejiang Province for a bag of bugs to taste test.
Otsuka isn’t exactly the most famous neighborhood in Tokyo. Located next to bustling Ikebukuro, it’s a quiet area and most people assume there’s not much to do. Whether or not that’s actually true, one of our Japanese writers found himself getting off the train at Otsuka Station the other day with a singular purpose in mind: He was there to eat onigiri (rice balls).
But should you hop on a train to Otsuka just for some food you can buy at a convenience store? Is this onigiri restaurant really worth a trip to this quiet neighborhood? Read on to find out!
It’s getting harder and harder to be truly original these days, and nothing much seems to surprise anymore. And then something like Curry Shop Shimizu opens in Tokyo. This is a real curry restaurant that specializes in poo-flavored curry.
The very notion of that is sure to send a flurry of questions up to the old cranium, the biggest one no doubt being “How do they know what poo tastes like?” Well, they actually have a good explanation for that, along with answers to other questions you may be pondering…
Okay class, who’s ever tried aburi sushi, or seared sushi before? Sushi prepared in this manner has its own unique savoriness that’s different from that of the raw kind.
Our Japanese reporters recently got it in their heads that they wanted to try preparing some roasted sushi for themselves…and when they do something, they go all out. In other words, forget regular kitchen tools–a flamethrower was obviously called for in this situation! Would they find that bigger flames equal bigger flavor?
You hear a lot of news about the weird foods coming out of Japan. It’s almost as if, once a year or so at one food retailer or another, the guys in the marketing department have a meeting to determine the next delicious flavor to serve up to the masses, only for the director to suffer a minor brain aneurysm and start shouting a bunch of random gibberish about soil-flavored bananas or something.
And that, friends, is probably how we ended up with beef-topped ramen ice cream.
Japanese culture has more or less made peace with the fact that the things we eat used to be alive. Part of the reason people in Japan say itadakimasu, literally “I will receive,” at the start of a meal is to verbalize their gratitude for receiving the life of the ingredients that make up the dishes. Sashimi that’s served still moving is considered a delicacy, because what’s fresher than seafood that’s arguable not even entirely dead?
Still, even Japan generally has limits of how much it wants to imagine the former life of the tasty morsels it’s dining on, which is why one startling fried chicken advertisement is drawing a mixture of gasps and chuckles.
Earlier this month, we decided to find out just how many hard-boiled eggs you can fit into a bowl of ramen/human stomach, and found out that 10 was a doable and delicious number. But while an egg is a nice accent to a bowl of Japan’s favorite kind of noodles, the king of ramen toppings is chashu, the slice of roast pork that adds some heft and protein to the meal.
Most ramen in Japan comes with a solitary slice of chashu, but some places allow you to pile on more pork. Since we’d already gone with ten times the normal amount of toppings with eggs, we decided to raise the scale to the second power and chow down on a bowl of ramen with 100 slices of chashu.
Dear Taco Bell Japan,
I’m writing this open letter to first welcome you back to Japan, but also to warn you of a great danger that lies ahead.
When you first announced you would open in Shibuya I was among those who felt that warm feeling of an old friend returning. And even though there were a few hiccups with your grand opening such as the lack of beans and “supreme court tacos” on your online menu, I had faith Taco Bell would rise to greatness in Japan.
However, since then we haven’t really heard much from your restaurant, and that worries me. So, I’d like to present you with five ideas for uniquely Japanese tacos that will not only appeal to the local crowd, but be eye-catching enough to make your brand a name to remember. I even went ahead and actually made and taste-tested them for you!
Since 1 July, a small corner of the Chayamachi district in the downtown Umeda area of Osaka has been holding a huge deal: All-You-Can-Eat-and-Drink Alley. For a flat rate of 3,500 yen (US$28) you can have three hours to run wild and eat as much as you want from eight different restaurants in the alley, going back and forth among them freely.
Still not enough? Okay picky pants, how does also having all-you-can-drink of any drink from coffee to wine sound? We thought that would convince you! Let’s take a quick look at what’s in store (or stores rather) for you there.
Japan never ceases to be the country of making something taste exactly like something it shouldn’t. In the land where you can get kimchi-flavored soft drinks and spaghetti-flavored ice candy, it would seem food companies are really just drunk with power when it comes to what they can and will make stuff taste like.
And now we have “the perfect snack cake for any meat-lover,” Momotan Aged Meat Flavored snacks. It’s in the form of a typical Japanese confection called manju with a cake-like outer coating and sweet been paste filling. However, these Momotan manju are heavily seasoned to make you swear you were eating a morsel of month-old meat instead!
So, you like eggs, but with all the conflicting research about the little balls of protein, it’s hard to decide if you should be eating zero eggs, an egg a day, or as many as you can stuff in you face. Sadly, we’re not entirely certain either, but if you simply don’t care about what’s good for you or not, we’d like you to meet your comrade-in-shells, P.K.
Our clothes-hating Japanese reporter P.K. is a huge fan of the unfertilized bird babies, and he recently read that all that research saying you shouldn’t eat too many eggs is bunk. So he decided to make up for lost time and headed down to Ramen Kagetsu Arashi to get a bowl of noodles with more eggs than a chicken coop. Egg lovers, get ready to hear your stomachs growl!
FUK COFFEE?!? Japanese cafe has a perfectly innocent reason for its startling-looking name
Two things to do, and two things not to do, when leaving a traditional Japanese inn
Orange Juice Crisis ’24 – Japan’s OJ supplies drying up
Studio Ghibli unveils new goods that tip the hat to The Cat Returns
Seaside scenery, history, and so many desserts on Yokohama’s Akai Kutsu【Japan Loop Buses】
McDonald’s Japan’s new pancake pie is a taste sensation
Foreign traveler caught trying to sneak into Japan by climbing down rope from cruise ship
Starbucks at Shibuya Scramble Crossing reopens, but is it really bigger and better than before?
Bad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screens
Pizza Hut releases a turtle pizza that looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of societyBad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screensMcDonald’s Japan’s new pancake pie is a taste sensation
Japanese city loses residents’ personal data, which was on paper being transported on a windy day
One of Japan’s oldest castles now lets travelers spend night on the grounds, drink in its keepTwo things to do, and two things not to do, when leaving a traditional Japanese inn
Ghibli Park now selling “Grilled Frogs” from food cart in Valley of Witches
Red light district sushi restaurant in Tokyo shows us just how wrong we were about itStudio Ghibli unveils new goods that tip the hat to The Cat Returns
Studio Ghibli unveils massive T-shirt collection featuring top anime movie characters
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goodsForeigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
New definition of “Japanese whiskey” goes into effect to prevent fakes from fooling overseas buyers
Our Japanese reporter visits Costco in the U.S., finds super American and very Japanese things
Japanese ramen restaurants under pressure from new yen banknotes
All-you-can-drink Starbucks and amazing views part of Tokyo’s new 170 meter-high sky lounge
More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
New Pokémon cakes let you eat your way through Pikachu and all the Eevee evolutions
Disney princesses get official manga makeovers for Manga Princess Cafe opening in TokyoBad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screensMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Sales of Japan’s most convenient train ticket/shopping payment cards suspended indefinitely
Sold-out Studio Ghibli desktop humidifiers are back so Totoro can help you through the dry season
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950sForeigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Doraemon found buried at sea as scene from 1993 anime becomes real life【Photos】
Tokyo’s most famous Starbucks is closed
One Piece characters’ nationalities revealed, but fans have mixed opinions
We asked a Uniqlo employee what four things we should buy and their suggestions didn’t disappoint
McDonald’s Japan’s new pancake pie is a taste sensation
Foreign traveler caught trying to sneak into Japan by climbing down rope from cruise ship
Starbucks at Shibuya Scramble Crossing reopens, but is it really bigger and better than before?
Bad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screens
Pizza Hut releases a turtle pizza that looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
New keyhole lingerie sets feature cats, bears, rabbits, hearts, maids and sailor uniforms
Dozens of new photos of Japan’s miraculously romantic Sailor Moon wedding dress line【Photos】
Harajuku Station will be demolished after the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics
Seiji and the spirit of Yngwie Malmsteen barely interview Andrew W.K.【Video】
Japanese children surveyed to find the most popular characters
Manga artist Kenya Suzuki convicted of child pornography charges, given suspended prison sentence
We talk about everything except music with visual kei rock legends Fantastic Circus【Interview】
