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food (Page 283)
Since September 5, Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan has started selling what they call a “corn potage fritter.” It sounds fancy, but when you really get down to it, it’s just deep-fried soup. To our Japanese reporter who hasn’t been versed in the wide variety of bizarre things Americans manage to fry up at county fairs across the United States, the very idea of fried soup was quite surprising. Half-convinced that such a snack even existed, he went down to his nearest KFC and gave it a try.
Ekiben, or “station bento,” can be found on train station platforms across Japan, conveniently packed for travelers too busy to prepare their own meal. They usually come in plastic or styrofoam containers wrapped with a decorative paper cover. But this ekiben is a little different. Found in Kochi Prefecture, this on-the-go bento is packaged in clear plastic wrap to display the goods inside, and what seems like merely a fish sitting in a white supermarket tray is actually sushi. Let’s take a closer look at this bizarre whole fish sushi ekiben.
One of our reporters recently drew the enviable assignment of visiting this year’s Nippon no Umai, an annual event sponsored by Kirin that brings the best of Japan’s regional delicacies together under one roof. With so many tasty options on display, those of us not lucky enough to attend the tasting session, held at the super swanky Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, would have to settle for living vicariously through our correspondent’s report after he returned.
We were a little underwhelmed when we asked what he’d eaten, and his answer was “white rice with salt!” but we soon came to understand why he was looking quite so content.
During the height of summer, we’ve been known to plonk ourselves down in front our home-made air conditioner with a pile of sliced watermelon or even chilled soba noodles and mentsuyu dipping sauce as a way of keeping cool while engaging in our favourite pastime of filling our faces. But we never imagined for a second that someone would put noodles, yoghurt and fruit together in one dish.
Tokyo and Osaka-based noodle chain Tsurutontan, specialists in udon wheat-flour noodle dishes, is currently offering patrons something rather tropical with its Mango Yogurt Udon. The very thought of eating a cold, sweet version of one of our favourite kinds of noodle at once excited us and made us feel a little bit queasy, so we sent one of our bravest reporters over to try it out. Find out what they thought after the jump.
Earlier this month, the Katamachi branch of the Chinese food restaurant Gyoza no Osho (King of Gyoza) in Kanazawa City, Japan, shut down after a group of men decided to drop in on the royal dumpling restaurant dressed in nothing but their birthday suits.
Fall is right around the corner, and winter is around the corner after that, and after that… wait, back up, you’re just going to end up in the same place you started. Let’s focus on fall.
Fall in Japan, like every season in Japan, is a chance for companies to come up with new seasonal convenience store items with fancy color-coded packages. And in summer’s case, tons and tons of salt. In the fall, especially, manufacturers gear up with all kinds of crazy concoctions because it’s (probably) a verifiable fact that everybody eats like a damn starved pig in the fall and they know you’ll eat or drink just about anything if they put some pretty fall leaves on the package.
It’s no secret that the RocketNews24 team is pretty enamored of life here in Japan. It’s hard not to have a good time in a country with such deep traditions and cultural events throughout the year.
That said, I always get just a little homesick when autumn rolls around. As great as Japanese festivals are, they simply can’t match American county fairs in terms of fried food offerings.
Thankfully, KFC Japan is ready to take a little of the sting out of fall this year with a new menu item: fried soup.
Tokyo is a massive, sprawling metropolis. There are so many twisting back alleys that by the time you’ve convinced yourself you’ve seen it all, something new has popped up back at the start of your route
Presented with this limitless variety, you could easily eat at a new restaurant every single day and never go hungry. So why did we go back to Fukugawa Tsuribune just two months after our last meal there? Because like handguns in the US, one of their tempura bowls is so serious there’s a waiting period to get your hands on it.
So you’ve slain the mighty King of the Sky Rathalos in one or all of the Monster Hunter series of games, and you probably felt pretty satisfied the first time you did it. But something was missing, wasn’t it? Being simply a mere video game you couldn’t feast on the dragon’s meat like a true hunter should.
Now website Premium Bandai and cake maker Chara Shoku Net are offering monster hunters a chance to live that dream with the King of the Sky Rathalos Cake which comes with a knife in the likeness of the Epitaph Blade.
In the never-ending debate about which country makes the best cars, it’s common to derogatorily refer to a Japanese automobile as a “rice rocket,” “rice burner,” or “rice runner.” Really anything with rice.
But with a new product from Saitama-based company JPN, you can own that insult, and turn it into a positive.
Whether the blooming of the cherry blossoms in spring or the chirping of cicadas in summer, in Japan there is always a herald to the changing of the seasons. As incorrigible carnivores, for us fall begins when McDonald’s tsukimi burger returns to the menu. Tsukimi literally means “moon viewing,” a popular autumn activity in Japan, but in this case refers to the lunar-looking fried egg the sandwich contains. The tsukimi burger also comes with bacon. It has no linguistic reason to be there, but if you really need an explanation as to why someone would add bacon to a burger, we’ll be happy to explain after you finish your quiche.
Of course, the full moon has been known to do strange things to people’s minds, and we wondered if we couldn’t scavenge components from McDonald’s tsukimi burger to make something even better.
As part of our quest to get paid for eating as many desserts as possible, we recently shared our impressions of the Suica Penguin cake, modeled after the popular mascot for JR East’s prepaid IC card train pass system, Suica.
But sometimes loveable mass transit mascots are like hardcore gangster rappers, and it turns out the Suica Penguin has a cross-country rival, in the form of Ico-chan, the spokes-platypus for JR West’s ICOCA train pass system. Not wanting to be shown up by the Suica Penguin’s foray into the world of cake, the only thing for Ico-chan to do was to transform himself into a tasty treat, too.
Among the many colorful expressions in Japanese you’ll find kuwazu girai, which is used to describe a knee-jerk dislike to something unfamiliar before you’ve given it a fair shot. Kuwazu girai literally translates to “hating it without having eaten it,” and it was exactly the problem restaurateur Himi Okajima was having at his eatery, called Hakata Tonton, in New York’s Manhattan.
Okajima is a native of Fukuoka in southern Japan, and orders weren’t exactly pouring in from American customers for two of his hometown’s favorite dishes that were on the menu: pigs’ feet and cod roe.
Has Hello Kitty finally buckled to hipster fashion trends? Has she been tapped to replace the aging Harrison Ford in an upcoming new Indiana Jones movie, under the logic that if the franchise can include aliens, why not anthropomorphic cats, too? Or has she simply decided to make a living as a hard-boiled private eye?
That third theory actually isn’t so far off the mark, but as with any good mystery, the real culprit behind Kitty-chan’s throwback headgear is someone, or in this case something, you’d never expect: custard pudding.
Fall in Japan is a very special time of year. The leaves go from green to a plethora of gorgeous colors, the hellish summer heat and constant cacophony of cicadas finally relent, and the legendary McDonald’s Tsukimi Burger becomes available to stuff into your eager face by the sack full. This year, fall is even more special, as McDonald’s is expanding the Tsukimi Burger lineup to four different delicious sandwiches. Be still, my tightening arteries!
In the crowded Japanese fast food burger industry, a chain has to establish an identity to be successful. McDonald’s is the place to go to fill up as cheaply as possible. MOS Burger is for people willing to spend a little more time and money for a sandwich made from higher-quality ingredients. And Lotteria is the place to go for a side of craziness.
While Lotteria occasionally goes completely nuts and has iconic horror movie characters work its registers, the chain’s eccentricity is primarily confined to the menu, with items such as the side-by-side double-patty twin burger and colossal Evangelion cheese burger with roughly a week’s worth of meat. The chain’s newest offering reimagines the savory Japanese crepe okonomiyaki as a burger.
Shingen mochi – a relatively common wagashi Japanese sweet similar to the more well-known warabi mocha – is a treat made from pounded rice lightly coated in roasted soybean flour (kinako) meant to be drizzled with syrup before consumption.
It comes in a plastic container which is then wrapped in a decorative plastic sheet and sealed with a small, flat spear-like utensil meant to skewer the mochi with while eating. That plastic sheet is also the key to the “proper” way of eating shingen mochi.
Unfortunately for anyone who has consumed shingen mochi until now, the manufacturer’s marketing department decided not to tell even one single person how to properly eat their product. Thankfully, a helpful YouTuber here in Japan has shared a video showing the correct way to eat this traditional sweet. Find out after the break.
Imuraya Confectionary is a Japanese sweets company that specializes in the sale of adzuki (sweetened red bean) products. They pride themselves on sticking to traditional Japanese flavors and sticking to their strange marketing strategies just as hard.
Recently, Imuraya made a pair of official Twitter posts cautioning people against the stiffness of their top-selling Adzuki Bar! This frozen slab of bean paste is a summer favorite across Japan, but according to Imuraya’s own assertions, they can crack your teeth!
RocketNews24 reporter extraordinaire Kuzo was feeling a little at half-mast recently and was looking for some ways to put some lead in his pencil, and fast.
Luckily he heard about some Taiwanese dishes that promise to boost stamina and went out in search of them. What he found was some snake, softshell turtle, and Asian ginseng soups. Par for the course for our gourmet reporter but these soups were also served with the bodily fluids of the animals such as blood and poison. If that doesn’t get Kuzo up and going we don’t know what will.
Pixar’s highly anticipated Monsters University finally opened in Japan on July 6, and to celebrate FamilyMart have launched an edible collaboration of delicious pork buns. We rushed out to buy a few and put them to the taste test, all for the benefit of our dear readers, of course!
Pokémon and Ikea Japan cross over into each other’s worlds with collaboration events
Tokyo teahouse serves up a sakura matcha dessert you won’t find anywhere else
A Kyoto factory vending machine sells gourmet mystery meals at bargain prices
Starbucks Japan unveils epic Frappuccino hunt with five to find in new Star birthday campaign
Welcome to Hell…Hell’s Dandan Noodles Tenryu in Kanagawa
Studio Ghibli passport cases are here to keep you company while you travel
Tokyo turns its phone booths into free Wi-Fi hotspots, and here’s how to use them
Hayao Miyazaki gifts autographed Ghibli anime cel to president of France[Photo]
Famichiki Pancake Steamed Buns take Japanese convenience store food to a whole other level
What is a Butter Manju? We try one from this mega popular Tokyo dessert shop
Japan now has a special desk for people who work at home with a pet cat[Photos]
Famous Tokyo cherry blossom spot installs view-blocking screens to fight overcrowding[Video]
Uniqlo announces new T-shirts for One Piece, Naruto and more for manga publisher’s 100th birthday
Tokyo’s best museum for foreign travelers finally reopens after being closed for four years
Totoro and Calcifer become little light-up lanterns for Ghibli-style excursions or at-home decor
Pokémon lacquerware series expands for Year of the Horse with new handcrafted design[Video]
Krispy Kreme releases Super Mario doughnuts in Japan for a limited time
Picturesque Tokyo park plays host to millions of flowers and soap bubbles this spring
Tokyo subway and almost all Tokyo train lines now accepting credit card tap payments
Final Fantasy invites you to adventure in Fukushima with Fukushima Fantasy Chocobo fun[Video]Japan now has a special desk for people who work at home with a pet cat[Photos]
Starbucks Japan unveils new sakura cherry blossom collection for hanami season 2026Famous Tokyo cherry blossom spot installs view-blocking screens to fight overcrowding[Video]Uniqlo announces new T-shirts for One Piece, Naruto and more for manga publisher’s 100th birthday
Train station platform ramen store closes its doors on half a century of history in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new My Fruit³ Frappuccino at only 34 stores around the country
Studio Ghibli releases Catbus pullback keychain that runs like the anime characterKrispy Kreme releases Super Mario doughnuts in Japan for a limited time
Japanese onsen egg maker from 100-yen store Daiso needs to be on your shopping list
Nine great places to see spring flowers in Japan, as chosen by travelers (with almost no sakura)
Survey asks foreign tourists what bothered them in Japan, more than half gave same answer
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan releases new drinkware and goods for Valentine’s Day
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
Starbucks Japan releases new sakura goods and drinkware for cherry blossom season 2026
Japan’s newest Shinkansen has no seats…or passengers [Video]
Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Studio Ghibli passport cases are here to keep you company while you travel
Tokyo turns its phone booths into free Wi-Fi hotspots, and here’s how to use them
Hayao Miyazaki gifts autographed Ghibli anime cel to president of France[Photo]
Famichiki Pancake Steamed Buns take Japanese convenience store food to a whole other level
What is a Butter Manju? We try one from this mega popular Tokyo dessert shop
Fading Tokyo – Searching for signs of the Showa era as local neighborhoods evolve[Photos]
Electric conveyor belt sushi kit brings the fun of a revolving sushi restaurant into your home
We tried Tokyo’s “rent a middle-aged Japanese man” service, and it was awesome!
Starbucks Japan adds new Sencha Matcha Tea Frappuccino to its menu, but only at 28 locations
Float all of your troubles away with a boat ride down the Shimanto River in Kochi Prefecture
Two food hacks take Japan’s convenience store fried chicken to amazing new sandwich heights
McDonald’s Japan debuts new anime girl mascot character with incredibly long name
Ikea Japan closing two downtown Tokyo flagship stores — Why couldn’t they make it in the big city?