Enough about snacks, it's time to talk about the main event :-D
One of my favourite Japanese dishes is ramen. The combination of delicious broth, noodles, chatsu (pork slices) and soft boiled egg is irresistible. Of course we sampled a few ramen joints during our trip.
Ippudo in Osaka - the super rich tonkotsu soup base was awesome. I ordered the "red" ramen which came with chilli paste, I like a bit of spice :-D
Most ramen noodles in Australia are the same - thick and chewy. In Japan there are many other varieties. The noodles at Ippudo were much finer and closer to Chinese noodles.
We also went to a small ramen shop in Namba, Osaka which had an amazing ramen featuring a tonkotsu soup base that takes 8 hours to make, and melt-in-your-mouth pork with cartilage. There was a cute little sign at the counter. I wish I know what it's saying!
And here's the bowl. The meat was SO GOOD.
In Tokyo we visited Kyushu Jangara. It featured soup based made with pork, chicken and vegetables, and chunky and super-juicy pieces of pork. Yum.
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| Photo: Kyushu Jangara |
Ramen is not the only type of noodles I had in Japan.
In Hakone I had a bowl of "snow" soba noodles. For those who haven't tried soba before, it is a made with buckwhea an has a firm texture.
I also had udon in a hotpot. The udon was so soft and chewy.
One of the must-visit places in Osaka is Kani Douraku, The Fabulous Crab. You can't miss the store with the giant crab outside.
The restaurant menu consists of crab, crab and more crab. The Duke is not as obsessed about seafood as I am so we didn't eat at the restaurant. Instead I bought some crab claws/legs and crab sushi from their takeaway counter and had a feast in the hotel room instead.
The crab claws/legs came with a sweet tasting dipping sauce that really enhanced the flavour of the crab. It was messy to eat but so worth it!
Tempura is a staple of Japanese cuisine and we went to a tempura specialty restaurant in Tokyo called Tsunahashi
The set course was good (light batter, fresh ingredients) but it wasn't enough for us. The rest of their menu were in Japanese only so we couldn't order anything else. It was a bit of a bummer.
On some days we ended up buying a bento box from the food store at the basement of department stores and eating at the hotel. This was a typical offering.
We had dinner at Negishi, a restaurant that specialises in beef tongue. Now I know it sounds a bit bizarre to eat a tongue but I can assure you that it was very tasty. The Duke has the grilled beef tongue set.
And I had the beef tongue stew set. I don't think I've ever eaten meat that was that tender and juicy!
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| Photo: Negishi |
Tuna toro was da bomb! I have a soft spot for prawn sashimi too :-D
The highlight of our foodie experience in Japan was no doubt the kaiseki cuisine at Kichisen in Kyoto. Kaiseki is a Kyoto specialty, a degustation menu with emphasis on seasonal produce and artful presentation. The owner and chef of the restaurant has been a contestant on Iron Chef and was actually victorious! You can check out the episode here.
Here are some of the courses.
Chilled onion soup - complete opposite of French onion soup, with very delicate flavours.
The sashimi box. The chef was standing behind the counter with a pair of long chopsticks guiding us on how to eat - which piece to eat first, what sauce to use etc. I had one of the pieces wrapped in a leaf which was surprisinglyy nice! It was quite an experience.
When this dish was presented to us we didn't know what was in store - it was actually two grilled fishes on sticks. It freaked The Duke out a bit (he was not a big fan of cooked fish to start off with), so I ate both of them. His loss!
The freshness of the simmered bamboo shoots signified springtime to me.
The eel rice with shredded egg and fish roe was awesome. I'd have easily eaten another bowl (or two)!
We had 3 desserts! A perfectly skinned tomato that was unbelievably sweet, an orange jelly served inside an orange, and this lovely piece of yam cake.
I hope you're enjoying my Japan snapshots post. The next one will finally be on topic - shopping!