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Japan: Lost and Found – Episode 5: Itadakimasu!

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I was recently talking to my roommate from my grad school days, and was gushing about all the great food I was able to get in Japan.

His response? “I dunno. I love sushi and ramen… but I need a little more than that for good cuisine.”

Um….say what??

To be fair, people judge according to what they know. And he’s never been to Japan, so he only knows about Japanese food from what he can get in a PA college town.

Japanese food options are much more popular in the States today compared to when I was a kid.

I always think back to the sushi scene in The Breakfast Club and marvel how much has changed.

But compared to other world cuisines, the options are usually still quite limited.

So what do people eat in Japan?

Let’s start with the most popular items that people in the US might name:

1: Sushi. 

I like California rolls, dragon rolls, and all the other weird, elaborate constructions that are available in American sushi restaurants.

But people from Japan tend to say, “that’s not sushi.” American sushi is a valid cultural mutation, one that can be quite tasty. 

But let’s be honest, the chili aioli and cream cheese and tempura flakes and other wacky mixes of ingredients—they’re not included to accentuate the flavor of the fish. They’re there to hide the flavor of fish. American sushi is made for people who don’t like fish, or to compensate in regions where the seafood isn’t all that fresh. That’s fine, but it’s the opposite of what sushi is supposed to be about.

The staple sushi in Japan is nigiri zushi, the type with a big slab of raw fish over a small mound of rice.

Sometimes there’s a little wasabi, and sometimes not. Some people dip their sushi into soy sauce before eating; some do not. 

If you want to test out how good a sushi place is, see how the chefs fare with nigiri. It’s ultra-simple, so the ingredients need to speak for themselves. If your eyes don’t roll back in pleasure after eating a big slab of raw salmon, well…then switch back to the elaborate rolls and special sauces for the rest of the meal, then keep your eyes peeled for better sushi restaurant options.

Like this one!

Here’s a pic of some great sushi I had in Yokohama on our first night back in Japan.

Also, Boston folks: the sushi I had at Douzo Sushi was some Japan-grade goodness.

2. Hibachi (?)

Simply put, Japanese people don’t eat hibachi.

In 1945, a man in Kyoto started a steak restaurant. He used a hot plate to cook the steak, and so it was called a teppanyaki (iron plate grilling) restaurant. Thing is, his steak teppanyaki didn’t do so well with Japanese customers, but it started to take off with tourists visiting Japan. The restaurant then started to make a spectacle of the cooking process, lending an exotic “Eastern” feel to some standard Western fare. 

Steak teppanyaki restaurants took off in Okinawa due to the large American military presence there, and they eventually found their way in the US.

At some point someone misnamed the grilling style “hibachi”—which is a traditional bowl for charcoal grilling—and for some reason the name stuck.

So if you ask a Japanese person if they like hibachi, they will be thinking of something quite different from what you mean. If you take them to a hibachi place in the US, they will say, “Oh, teppanyaki. I like it, but isn’t this really American food?”

3. Ramen

When most people in the US hear the word “ramen,” they think of cheap instant noodle cups with flavor packets.

That is a minor tragedy. 

Ramen is one of the great restaurant noodle soups, to rival pho and laksa lemak. Most US cities nowadays have at least a few ramen restaurant options. I’ve had some truly excellent ramen in NYC and San Francisco. 

And I can get some pretty good ramen here in the National Capital Region. Why just pretty good? Mainly due to the broth. The best ramen is served piping hot. Maybe US restaurant chefs fear a lawsuit due to burned mouths or spilled broth? I don’t know the reason. I just know that tepid broth does not a great ramen make.

If you’re ever in Yokohama, I highly recommend a visit to the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum.

Below the museum section, there are seven restaurants serving unique regional variations of ramen. You can get half-sized bowls in order to try a few different styles.

Really, really good.

4. Tempura

Tempura is like the fish and chips of Japanese restaurants around the world.

It’s simple, hearty, and fairly common as an option. And just like fish and chips, most places in the US don’t get it quite right. Tempura is deep fried, but it shouldn’t feel heavy or greasy. Nothing beats some perfectly cooked tempura with soba noodles on a cold winter day.

5. Takoyaki

When I was studying in Tokyo, a fellow student asked me if I wanted to go get some takoyaki.

“What was that?” I asked. 

“Well, it’s balls of grilled batter filled with chunks of octopus and smothered in sauce and mayonnaise. It’s from Osaka.” 

Honestly, it sounded rather wretched to this Philly redneck, but I went with him anyway.

And damn if those little octo-balls weren’t delicious. 

I’ve had takoyaki in the States, and so far no place I’ve been to has gotten it right. It’s a fast food and isn’t complicated as long as you have the right ingredients and grill. But if it’s your backup dish rather than your main focus, your octo-balls will go from a delicious novelty to a barely passable curiosity.

6. Oden

I spoke before about the wonders of 7-Eleven and other konbini (convenience stores) in Japan.

But one thing that seemed odd and somewhat gross to me whenever I went there was the vat of broth they had at the counter, with these weird spongy things floating around like some shared embryonic space. 

A Japanese friend informed me that it was “oden,” and that it was really delicious. To be honest, I’ve never tried the konbini version of oden, but I can confirm that oden as a food is indeed delicious. It’s now one of my favorite winter dishes. 

It’s somewhat like a soup, except the broth is mainly there to keep the other contents warm and to enhance flavor.

The stars of the show are the dumplings, tofu balls, fish cakes, eggs, daikon slices, and other treats served in the broth.

Oden was actually one of the first fast foods in medieval Japan. It dates back to the 14th century, though it was originally grilled and skewered chunks of tofu. The simmered variety emerged in the late Edo period (late 19th/early 20th century), once restaurants began to serve oden options.

It’s most common to eat oden at home though. The nabe pot is placed on the table, and family members pick what they want out of the pot.

7. Yakitori

Skewers of grilled marinated chicken. So simple, and yet so delicious.

This place we went to in downtown Yokohama was so good, we went two nights in a row!

8. Teishoku

Teishoku is just a set meal, with a main dish and some small side dishes.

The most common is some sort of grilled fish, rice, pickled veggies, and miso soup. But there are endless varieties of teishoku sets to get.

We got a few on our last trip. Aside from the excellent buckwheat noodles, this one here featured tonkatsu, or breaded pork cutlet. Tonkatsu was this restaurant’s specialty, and my God, it was so delicious that I brought it up every subsequent day. “Sorry, I’m just thinking of that tonkatsu again.”

This one featured a fish stew that simmered for two days before being served. Absolutely delicious. Also, some excellent fried chicken pieces and miso soup to make it all magical.

(Miso soup is a food I’ve had many, many times in American restaurants, and yet have never been impressed. The best miso soup uses the best quality ingredients, most important of which being the best dashi stock to give a complex, smoky flavor. Using cheap dashi that looks and tastes like fish food is…yeah)

The best US teishoku I’ve had was in New York City. They even have a Japanese teishoku chain restaurant there: Ootoya. It’s a swankier and more expensive experience than the family chain in Japan, but the food is great, so I won’t complain.

I can talk about food forever, but it’ll have to wait until some other time!

Who’s hungry?

More to come later!

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Phylum of Alexandria

Committed music junkie. Recovering academic. Nerd for life.

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cstolliver
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cstolliver
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March 21, 2023 5:00 am

Yum! A little something for everyone. Thanks for this culinary education.

JJ Live At Leeds
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March 21, 2023 7:13 am

Very informative, good to get a better understanding of the delights on offer. Tends to be the same here in terms of how Japanese cuisine is seen; basically sushi with a growing ramen trend in the last few years.

The other element that some people will know is Fugu, the deadly puffer fish dish. I’ve read of how highly trained the chefs need to be to prepare it, is it something that is actually popular and readily available or is it a niche thing just for thrill seekers with money?

Seen quite a few articles lately about ‘sushi terrorism’ affecting revolving sushi restaurants with younger diners filming themselves interfering with the food on its way round, like drinking from soy sauce bottles or licking plates as they come past. Hope you didnt indulge!

thegue
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thegue
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March 21, 2023 9:27 am

This is great!

Growing up I do not remember anything about sushi – however, there was a hibachi place located in New Market called Kanpai, and our parents took us there for every birthday.

When I got home from Syria in 1997, I began to work as a stock broker/financial planner while taking care of my father. I dated the college intern at the firm who introduced me to sushi, and I’ve never looked back.

There’s a few sushi places in Philly I’ll swear by (Zama #1, Sagami in Collingswood #2), but living in Sydney spoiled me: I’d take supermarket sushi in Australia over almost anything on the East Coast…and don’t get me started on Thai food.

thegue
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March 21, 2023 9:28 am

By the way, has anyone seen the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi? One of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen.

Pauly Steyreen
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March 21, 2023 10:14 am
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Best… and tastiest!

Pauly Steyreen
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March 21, 2023 10:22 am

These days it’s not hard to find an izakaya in larger coastal cities. But 15 years ago, they were not so common. Back then, my wife and I discovered a small izakaya in San Diego. Everything — the door sign, the decor, the menus– was in Japanese. They had English translation menus available. This place was awesome and we went back frequently.

Anyway, that’s where we discovered takoyaki. We always ordered that (plus the negi chasyu, kind of a fried pork with green onions — yum!). Now these days you can find takoyaki at boba tea shops around town, on the snack menu… I always heard the original Osaka takoyaki was served so hot, it was like accepting a dare to eat it. Like excessive panting with steam coming off of your boiling-alive tongue and palate was part of the process.

Thanks for sharing this culinary journey Phylum!

thegue
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March 21, 2023 11:14 am

One final comment (if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you…):

Has anyone read The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy?
It was written by a Penn grad I met back in 2007, right around the time when looking at a particular item to explain world history was popular. Think: Salt: A World History, Around the World in 6 Glasses, etc.

I’d recommend all of them.

LinkCrawford
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March 21, 2023 11:33 am

I’m not the most adventurous eater…I’m happy to eat to live rather than live to eat. Part of it is my upbringing…my mother was a very conservative cook. I don’t think I tried rice till high school.

That being said, I love sushi…or what passes for it here in flyover country. (I love being mid-continent, but there are disadvantages.) I’ve never tried any that I don’t like, so I’m sure the good stuff out there is great. It’s making the (room temperature) leftovers in my lunchbox seem very, very mundane. I should have read this after lunch.

cappiethedog
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March 21, 2023 11:44 am

Jiro Dreams of California Rolls, Then Screams

cappiethedog
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March 21, 2023 10:51 pm

JPO(Junior Police Officers) trip to California, we’re ordering breakfast at the hotel next to Knots Berry Farm. Like a bunch of provincials who never left the islands, one of us(that would be me) asks the waitress for “shoyu”, which is the local slang for soy sauce. Fast-forward to adulthood, I’m at work, and somebody stole my food, again. “Oh, thanks, whoever, you saved me the soy sauce.” Everybody looks up. “Brah, you local, or what?” a coworker asks, incredulously.

I’m amazed that they let eleven and twelve-year-olds control traffic. Unsupervised. I don’t think that’s a thing anymore.

And how do you describe the flavor of konnyaku? It really doesn’t have one.

Tim Heidecker is The Popular Island. Interesting career. Legit singer-songwriter.

And my favorite thing about Jiro Dreams of Sushi are the apprentices who are forever on rice detail.

dutchg8r
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March 21, 2023 11:32 pm

MrDutch and I joke how if we found ourselves stranded on a desert island and all we had was the fish in the surrounding waters to eat…. We’d both be dead within 4 days. Ha! He’s allergic to shellfish, but has learned the hard way to just stay away from eating any and all creatures that swim in water, so he’s screwed there. Me? I find all seafood quite revolting, from the smell to the texture.

So sushi and I are not on even passing acquaintance terms. I chalk it up to my British lineage – adding salt and pepper is my level of exotic spices. Very plain and boring food for plain boring me. I will say this though – one of the places I worked in North Orlando had a couple of Japanese restaurants nearby some of the folks loved to frequent. I took a huge leap the first time I went and got some type of tempura bento box, and was very pleasantly surprised at the whole experience. Cute presentation, like I was served an artist’s creation that should be in an art gallery, the tempura was this lovely airy crunchy freshly hot bliss, a lot of variety of little bites to sample for a lunch. I wound up going with my coworkers often to these places for lunch after that!

It’s been quite awhile since I ate Japanese that wasn’t a Japanese steakhouse – those I know!! But Japanese food is just like Chinese, or Italian, where it’s probably been so bastardized Stateside to cater to American tastes they barely resemble what they originally were.

So I definitely enjoyed your Anthony Bourdain-like travel through authentic Japanese cuisine, Phylum, nicely done. 🙂

dutchg8r
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March 22, 2023 9:02 am

Wow, you really know how to make sea urchin sound undeniably appetizing! 🙃

cappiethedog
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March 22, 2023 1:23 pm

“You almost got me to watch Superbabies: Baby Genuises 2. Who knows. You may be right. But I simply don’t want to know. It’s entirely up to you. You can either accept this C+ or pick a new topic.”

This is my favorite thing a professor wrote on a paper. I saw a Neverland Ranch subtext in the 2004 sequel to Baby Genuises.

This is how I snuck through the backdoor of next-level academia. Swing for the fences. I lasted a semester.

I envy people who can talk in front of groups of people. I’m a little less tortured about it. I really would have loved to teach and stay in school forever. Because out in the real world, you will bore the crap out of people with your minutiae.

Virgindog
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April 7, 2023 1:07 pm

And now I want ramen and Pringles.

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