Here comes another food post.
Let me start by saying that we would not be having a conversation about food in Japan without mentioning 7-Eleven. I love 7-Eleven, and somehow there’s less shame implicated when I refer to a convenience store in Asia, versus its American Big Gulp counterpart. Anyhow. The convenient foods in these stores are incredible, and we’d happily skip hotel breakfast to eat breakfast on the side of a street. Cold sandwiches, onigiri, and an assortment of hot and cold drinks make the tummy happy.
That topic also happens to be a good segue to bring up the work ethics commonly observed in Japan. It’s no secret, and I’m sure I’m not the first or second person you’ve heard this from, but the average Japanese takes their work very seriously. A perfectly assembled McDonald’s burger; a shop employee wiping dust off the stairs by hand; a train operator repeating certain hand signals even when nobody is watching… and the easiest place to witness consistent execution of menial work is at 7-Eleven. Buy a bunch of edible items and watch the cashier in action: a straw for each bottle of tea, a mini spoon for the pudding, a pair of chopsticks and a package of wet wipe for the bowl of instant noodles. Then he or she would, carefully and in a logical order, place the items in a plastic bag before thanking you for the purchase.
It’s impossible to not feel a strong sense of respect for that level of focus and dedication. Then it makes us ponder on our own work ethics, which, well, is more spirited.
Simultaneous to being impressed, though, we were also taken aback by the amount of waste generated in the process. The chopsticks came with a plastic wrapper (and a toothpick), the spoon came with a plastic wrapper, and each napkin came with a plastic wrapper. And of course there was a plastic bag with each purchase. I grew up looking up to Japan as one of the most modern, advanced, and efficient countries out there, so it was rather hard to witness all this waste when much of the developed world has begun banning single-use plastics. We accumulated more plastic bags over the four days in Osaka than we’d normally go through in a month. I guess it’d be difficult to maintain the fancy packaging culture without using massive disposable materials…
Oh well, let’s now talk about food. For a small and culturally homogeneous country, I consider it intriguing that Japanese food is so varied.
ICHIRAN RAMEN 一蘭拉麵
Ichiran is one of the highly popular ramen chains that has a location as far as NYC. We had looked forward to trying it out and, unlike Ippudo, we loved it. We ate there twice and it was easily my favorite food on this trip.
Here’s the thing: Ichiran is the introverted nerd paradise. You select, buy, request a bunch of customization, slurp, and leave, without making eye contact with anyone. How cool is that??? On top of that, while the Millennial in me thinks of that description to mean iPad ordering and robotized service, this place is way more old school than that.
First, you buy what you want from this conventional ramen vending machine… and get a handful of paper stubs
Then, in your personal partition of a countertop, you specify your preference of noodle firmness, broth saltiness and richness,
and levels of green onion, garlic, spiciness. Extra toppings are also available for an extra cost
Turning around to smile at your neighboring diner is, probably, not an acceptable behavior
Wait for your noodles to be delivered! Shown here includes paid extra green onions
Lastly, the courteous server (whose face you never see) closes the blinds so you can bury your head like an ostrich and enjoy the noodles!
Ichiran is fun, and the customization allows for accommodating a wide range of taste buds. Those aside, Ichiran does make some really delicious ramen that I would not mind eating regularly.
ZUNDOYA RAMEN
Within hours of trying Ichiran, we also checked out Zundoya, another ramen chain. Hong preferred this place but, to me, the broth was excessively rich. While the flavor was honestly good, I didn’t enjoy having my mouth coated in lard after every bite.
Zundoya ramen. If we didn’t share a bowl we’d both have cholesterol problems now
The main reason that we came here was that a vlogger we follow gave high praises for its… fried rice. We had a general trust in this guy’s taste so, when he made it sound like the world’s best fried rice and ate four plates in one sitting, we were intrigued. Let me tell you what – it’s always a bad idea to go somewhere new with excessive expectations. The fried rice was good, and perhaps better than average. But it was hardly worth going out of the way for. In case you’re wondering, our #1 favorite fried rice in the world is still Hong Hong Fried Rice in Xian.
Zundoya fried rice. Better than Panda Express fried rice
7-ELEVEN
You thought I was done talking about 7-Eleven but I wasn’t.
Ippudo instant ramen. Not my favorite ramen restaurant and not my favorite instant noodles
But it was cool to have six separate packages of condiments (the orange stuff had two compartments)
Ready-to-eat cold noodles. It was a bit tricky to mix all the toppings sitting on the side of a street
A healthy breakfast with fruity drinks, onigiri, and mango lassi flavored Haagen Dazs ice cream
KUSHIKATSU
We looked up some popular kushikatsu restaurants and found them, but it was on the same day we waited 90 minutes for sushi. We weren’t in the mood to get in another line for food. So we found a random little place nearby, that appeared to have been passed down from the owner’s grandparents and the interior never got updated. Throughout the meal, the two of us and two restaurant workers occupied the entire space. Probably a little sad for the owner, but the relaxed and intimate atmosphere delivered to us a nice experience.
Kushikatsu are deep-fried skewers of random things that you dip in a sweet and savory black sauce before eating. I don’t like deep fried stuff in general and therefore had zero expectations, but I turned out to enjoy it. Probably could have ordered more than we did.
The thing that makes absolutely no sense about the kushikatsu culture is the dipping sauce. It sits in a communal tin container, roughly large enough to hold two iPad Minis. Because it is communal, there’s a risk of contamination. Everywhere you look – on blogs, in vlogs, on the door, and on the menu, you see front and center warnings about how you should dip each skewer ONLY ONCE. Your waiter would probably, like ours, personally stress this rule in your face, with an index finger firmly pointing up. Yes the rule makes sense – double dipping is disgusting and can be a health hazard. That’s true to your meal companion, and even more so to the 5th diner to come in after you and still eating from the same dipping sauce. But but but… why is this thing communal to begin with? In this country where every toothpick comes plastic-wrapped, it just blew my mind that people eat kushikatsu that may or may not contain random strangers’ saliva.
Kushikatsu
A slice of lotus root
COCOICHI
Cocoichi was a random dinner spot that we found near Osaka Station. It appeared to be a chain (?) restaurant serving fast food-styled curry & rice. Options and customization was plenty. The food was surprisingly yummy, but be warned… it gave me major stomach problems afterwards.
Cocoichi menu
My spicy vegetable curry with sides of poached egg and corn. Dish placement was mine
MISCELLANEOUS
Hong had to get some tonkatsu, the deep-fried pork cutlet, while in Japan. We came across one on an upper floor in Namba Parks. They served some fancy (and expensive) breeds, and it’s hard to imagine such juicy pieces of deep-fried pork. As usual, I wasn’t a huge fan of deep fried stuff… but I really liked the cabbage slaw that was served on the side. This restaurant’s dressing wasn’t as amazing as the citrus-based version we had in Odaiba, but was still nicely refreshing.
The fancy(ier) pork got a flag on it
The peasant pork did not get a flag. Whatever, I was there just for the cabbage
Here’s a random takoyaki vendor
Here’s a random unagi don. We last had this in Singapore
Here’s a random plate of sashimi
Here’s a random cup of coffee
FINAL SUSHI
No idea what this place was called, but our last meal in Japan was at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant in Grand Front Osaka. It had a slightly more modern setup than the Tokyo restaurant, having a touch-screen ordering system. The food was very good – my untrained palates can’t tell you if it’s up to par with the highly acclaimed restaurant from a few days ago, but we enjoyed it equally.
Conveyor belt sushi!
We ordered something just for the sake of trying out the touch screen
Beef, anago, and whatever the third plate was
Pacific Islands 2018 Index
- Hawaii Four-O
- Surf & Turf Adventures
- Island Eats
- On To Japan
- Osaka via Shinkansen
- Castle Day
- Deer & Whale Shark
- Osaka Urban Hangouts
- Tasty Japan
- Japan Favorites
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