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food (Page 232)
Although pandas originally come from Japan’s neighbors to the east, the country has welcomed the cuddly creatures with open arms, putting them on anything from clothing to cars. But we’re most impressed by the panda’s ability to assimilate into Japanese food, taking over our meals and turning them into an adorable experience. Let’s take a look at 15 delicious pandas from Japan.
While most of Akihabara’s fame comes from its anime megastores and maid cafes, there’s one other landmark in the neighborhood that people regularly make pilgrimages to. Wherever you find hordes of young men dropping their paychecks on their hobbies, you can also find cheap, tasty grub, and for years, Mammoth Curry has been the place to get your fill of the spicy stuff in Tokyo’s electronics district.
Unfortunately, much like its wooly namesake, the age of Mammoth Curry is coming to an end in Akihabara, as the eatery is closing its doors for good this month.
Hey One Piece fans! Have you ever dreamed of being able to eat some Devil Fruit and getting superhuman powers like Monkey D. Luffy?
Well, 7-Eleven still can’t do that, but they’re giving you the next best thing by releasing limited edition snack bread which replicates the Gum-Gum Fruit of the hit manga and anime series.
As the temperatures gradually sink into a chilly winter, convenience stores all across this great nation start to kick their oden pots into high gear. For those unacquainted with this Japanese dish, oden is basically any type of food soaked and simmered in a flavorful broth. The type of soup used varies by regions but is usually very savory.
Although not the only place to get oden, convenience stores are thought of as the first place to get it. That’s why Japan’s three biggest convenience stores – 7-Eleven, Family Mart, and Lawson – are all competing to find that perfect ingredient to simmer and sell to the hungry masses.
To help kick-off this year’s oden season in Japan, Excite News has released the five most popular oden foods at each of the big three stores. First up is Lawson!
Up north in Hakodate, Hokkaido, there is a restaurant chain called Lucky Pierrot, known around the country for their uniquely large hamburger and fried squid dishes. It’s absolutely delicious and a popular draw for tourists. However, this was not why our man Kuzo was sent to the town.
His mission was to track down a restaurant serving “Active Dancing Squid Rice Bowl” (Katsu Ika Odori-don). Videos of this dish have stirred up controversy around the world by using what appears to be a living squid atop a bowl of rice and other ingredients.
Apparently, when soy sauce is poured over the squid it begins to move and “dance,” much to the delight or horror of those watching.
Locally owned ramen shops can be found spread out all across Japan. In fact, some of the best flavors aren’t found at the big chain restaurants, but at the hole-in-the-wall shops that you might never even notice without a proper introduction. Hence, we’d like to make it our duty to tell you about an amazing, little ramen joint in Aomori Prefecture, which is famous for its miso flavored curry milk ramen.
When we at RocketNews24 first heard about this place, we couldn’t imagine how so many different flavors could possibly achieve good balance within a single bowl of noodles, so we sent one of our adventurous Japanese reporters, Mami Kuroi, to try it out. Here’s what she had to say about the experience.
Floresta isn’t as well known as the big chain stores in Japan like Mister Donut or Krispy Kreme, but their “nature doughnuts” deserve all the attention they can get. As a company, Floresta strives to provide customers with healthy, yet satisfying snacks, using organic local ingredients with no additives or preservatives. They are also careful to reduce waste that can have a negative impact on the environment. You would think a healthy doughnut might taste like cardboard, but Floresta manages to serve up delicious rings of environmentally friendly goodness. They also make animal doughnuts that will make you want to buy out the store.
There are a few telltale signs that winter is coming. The sunset starts to come a little earlier in the day. Christmas lights go up around town. And, as sure as Santa making his rounds, McDonald’s Japan starts selling one of its most popular seasonal menu items, the gratin croquette burger.
We realize, though, that many of our loyal readers live outside of Japan. We don’t want anyone to feel left out, so we’re explaining how you can duplicate the sandwich, mostly with ingredients you’ve probably already got in your pantry. Be warned though. The gratin croquette burger is almost entirely made out of flour, and this delicious cocktail of carbs is in no way a feasible choice for anyone following the Atkins diet, no matter how delicious it is.
When the announcement was made that Tokyo would host the 2020 Olympic Games, there was much reason for celebration in Japan. Leading up to the decision, the Japanese leader for the Olympic bid emphatically stressed that the Fukushima disaster would have no impact on life in Tokyo–a claim that was reiterated after the bid was won.
Around that time, a cartoon appeared in a French newspaper depicting mutating sumo wrestlers in front of radiation suit wearing spectators. The Japanese government took issue with it and angrily reaffirmed the safety of the rest of Japan. Still, among many of the citizens, there is sneaking yet widespread suspicion over how safe the Tohoku and Kanto regions actually are, especially with regards to their food products.
Whether you love it or hate it, Japanese pizza exists. McDonald’s manages to provide homesick foreigners in Japan with a similar (and arguably better) product from back home, but somewhere along the line, chain pizza stores in Japan got it all wrong. We’re sure there are those who enjoy the typical Japanese-style pizza, but after reading through internet forums of hungry foreigners, those who joyfully eat a slice from Japan are in the minority.
Let’s take a look at 10 pizzas that can be purchased in Japan, some sprinkled with corn, others topped with seaweed and many of them drenched in mayonnaise, so much mayonnaise!
Oh boy, look at that thing. Just, wow. What is even happening here? There are so many colors, and this Escher-esque perspective trick where you’re looking down at the sushi conveyor belt but seeing the customers head-on all at the same time…
As the title of this bizarro infographic suggests, this is ostensibly a guide to using a kaiten conveyor belt sushi establishment. We’re actually very appreciative someone took the effort to make this since it’s pretty easy to accidentally commit a crime if you don’t follow the kaiten sushi rules perfectly.
Look at those little guys! They’re so small, you have to carry them all together in a bucket!
If you’re looking for a miniature treat, look no further than Mister Donut’s winter offering of bite-sized doughnuts. With six new flavors and three shareable container sizes, they’re perfect for snacking with friends and family while snuggling up under the kotatsu…or eat them all yourself, we won’t judge.
Rumor has it that in Aomori Prefecture there exists a soft-served ice cream made with the flavor of hotate (Yesso scallop), a widely eaten shellfish in Japan. While hotate goes great with a little dab of wasabi, it’s hard to image the scallop’s taste blending well with ice cream.
Without hesitating, our reporter and food lover Usagi caught the next northbound train to the Aomori Prefecture Tourist Center ASPM to see what scallop ice cream had to offer.
An advance word of warning: this recipe seems both extremely difficult and extremely time consuming, so we’d advise you only try it if you’re a master chef or incredibly bored. Or if you need to consume a disgusting amount of calories in a short space of time.
Still, in the spirit of Halloween, this sweet cake and gelatin “Ramen Cake” masquerading almost perfectly as real ramen, is a clever, cute substitute for the usual chocolate eyeballs, brain Jell-o and other grotesqueries of the season.
If you’ve ever visited the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, there’s a good chance that you went through New Chitose Airport. Being the largest airport on the island, it serves as the gateway to Hokkaido for the numerous tourists that visit both from within and outside of Japan. Yes, when it comes to Hokkaido, we Japanese are just as enthusiastic about the beautiful snow, fresh seafood, tasty ramen, delectable sweets, relaxing hot springs and scenes of vast natural beauty as visitors from abroad.
But did you know that New Chitose Airport, which you may only briefly pass through as a traveler on a tour, could be a destination all on its own? After undergoing some expansion work in recent years between 2010 to 2012, the airport is now a seriously impressive shopping, dining and entertainment complex. Here’s a look at just some of the things you can enjoy at this airport that looks and feels like a theme park. If you thought that airports were nightmarish places where you want to spend as little time as possible, this may change your mind!
It would appear that Japan is getting more and more firmly entrenched in the euglena craze. These little algae (particularly those from Ishigaki Island) have been determined to pack a nutritious punch carrying around 59 different kinds of nutrients from vitamins and minerals to amino acids.
We recently sampled these little guys in a cup of delicious yogurt, which was creepy at first but not a big leap since yogurt is all bacteria-y anyway. But would the public also go for these little microorganisms being added to a patty of grilled red meat? American diner chain Denny’s is wagering “yes” with their euglena hamburgs only available in Japan from the end of this month.
The Japanese have a strange love for sinking their teeth into their favorite characters. We’ve seen Rilakkuma cakes and Hello Kitty doughnuts, next in line appears to be good-old Snoopy and his little yellow friend, Woodstock.
Mister Donut (or Misdo for short), the confectionary maker who brought us the jack-o’-lantern Hello Kitty doughnuts for Halloween, is already in the midst of preparing for the Christmas season, and boy does it look tasty!
As one of Japan’s northernmost prefectures, the majority of regional delicacies in Akita are things to warm the body up. For example, Akita’s most famous dish is kiritampo, a hot-pot with chicken, vegetables, and unique cylindrical rice cakes. In recent years the prefecture’s inaniwa udon noodles, thinner than those common in other parts of Japan, have also been steadily gaining fans, as well.
But while there’s nothing wrong with some piping hot chow to fortify yourself with on a snowy night, what about dessert? Sure, you could make do with a plain old pack of cookies from the convenience store, but if you want to satisfy your sweet tooth like the locals do in Akita, you need to get your hands on the pastry known as milk yaki.
When dining out in Japan, there is a commonly accepted truism that you get the tastiest example of a particular type of food by eating it in a restaurant that specializes in it. For example, if you want good ramen, you go to a place that serves that and little, if anything, else.
Speaking of Japan’s favorite noodle dish, popular wisdom also holds that the dingier the ramen restaurant, the better-tasting the food.
So imagine our surprise when we discovered that the Yona Yona Beer Kitchen, a classy restaurant with a full menu in Tokyo’s swanky Nagata-cho neighborhood, can also whip up a bowl of ramen that’s as delicious as it is visually striking.
Reports out of China have revealed that two restaurants in the Guangzhou area were found to be using ground up poppy seeds in some of their dishes. The reports allege that the businesses were “using the seeds of addictive poppies in an underhanded way to get repeat business.”
“Mt. Fuji convenience store” issues apology for bad tourist manners, adds multilingual signs
Tokyo sweets store sells beautiful soft serve ice creams that look like works of art
Godzilla leather wallet will make you feel like the King of the Monsters and lord of fashion
Kyoto government worker assaults coworker for spoiling popular manga series at the office
Cheap Japanese ryokan at Kusatsu Onsen is hidden at the back of a traditional store
Japan has nearly 4 million abandoned homes, but where and why?
Starbucks Japan sells a paper tote bag that looks like a free bag…so should you buy it?
This is Japan’s, and the world’s, first capsule hotel, and you can still stay there
All-you-can-drink deal for US$4 in Shinjuku is one of the best finds in Tokyo
Awesome new Gundam manhole covers coming to Japanese prefecture for first time
McDonald’s Japan’s new pancake pie is a taste sensation
Bad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screens
Foreigner’s request for help in Tokyo makes us sad for the state of society
FUK COFFEE?!? Japanese cafe has a perfectly innocent reason for its startling-looking name
One of Japan’s oldest castles now lets travelers spend night on the grounds, drink in its keep
Two things to do, and two things not to do, when leaving a traditional Japanese inn
Studio Ghibli unveils new goods that tip the hat to The Cat Returns
How to make a secret rice bowl at Ichiran ramenJapan has nearly 4 million abandoned homes, but where and why?
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
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 loungeBad 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
More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
New definition of “Japanese whiskey” goes into effect to prevent fakes from fooling overseas buyers
Disney princesses get official manga makeovers for Manga Princess Cafe opening in TokyoMcDonald’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
Japan has nearly 4 million abandoned homes, but where and why?
Starbucks Japan sells a paper tote bag that looks like a free bag…so should you buy it?
This is Japan’s, and the world’s, first capsule hotel, and you can still stay there
All-you-can-drink deal for US$4 in Shinjuku is one of the best finds in Tokyo
Awesome new Gundam manhole covers coming to Japanese prefecture for first time
Kumamoto Governor embroiled in flower scandal
Shinkansen station platforms now have…Baskin Robbins ice cream vending machines!
Man arrested in Japan for selling overseas bootleg anime DVDs
Samurai chick pudding cake is Japan’s newest hard-to-buy, delicious-to-eat treat【Taste test】
Bad tourist manners at Mt Fuji Lawson photo spot prompts Japanese town to block view with screens
Burger King’s new all-cheese The Real Cheese Burger looks crazy, sort of makes linguistic sense
Mikado Coffee is a 76-year-old coffee chain with a major celebrity connection
Nintendo DS on the menu as Japanese prisons get creative to keep ageing prisoners’ brains active