Dining in Japan: Foodgasams Galore

Andrew is much more of a foodie than I am, in the sense that he likes to plan out his meals and document them.  As for me, I certainly enjoy food and trying new dishes, but I'm often content with eating whatever I happen to stumble upon when hunger strikes.  Of all the things about Japan that Andrew was looking forward to, food topped the list.  Predictably I was less enthusiastic (that's not to say I wasn't excited about it though).

Thinking back on all the meals I had in Japan, it's hard to overstate just how good the food was.  Before our trip Japanese wouldn't have cracked my top list of cuisines, but now I'm not so sure.  Sushi was never my favorite - I mean, I liked it from time to time - but I was never crazy about it.  There's just something different about it in Japan, however.  The first time Andrew and I tried it there, in downtown Osaka, the fish seemed to melt in our mouths (yes, that's a good thing).  The sushi back home will never taste the same again!

Typical sushi bar in Japan, where the chefs work right in front of you

You'll often see sushi rolls in the US, but in Japan  nigirizushi,
 meaning "hand pressed sushi," is more common.  It's a rectangular 
ball of  rice with a variety of toppings (typically with wasabi in between).

Common types of nigiri sushi; they often come in pairs, and at a standard sushi bar one order (two pieces) can
run you anywhere from one to five dollars.  The specialty stuff, like extra fatty tuna, can be more expensive.
Dinner sets will start in the $15-20 range.  For the quality, it's actually cheaper than the back home, but if you
are a big eater things can still get pricey!  

Take my food review and amplify it by a factor of five to get a sense of how Andrew felt.  After so many good meals we had to come up with a name for such an experience: a foodgasam.  It may sound over the top, but there were several meals there when I think Andrew came pretty close to soiling himself.  Fond of hyperbole, Andrew liked to throw in pleasure moans and groans; the thing is, I don't think it was actually faking it.

Our first meal in Japan, near Tengachaya station in Osaka, was actually Japanese curry.  Before seeing it in the restaurant window I don't think I even knew such a dish existed here.  I was familiar with Indian curries, Thai curry, and even Korean curry, but this was new to me.  This new kind of curry turned out to be one of my favorite dishes in Japan.  It's one of the few spicy Japanese foods (many restaurants allow you to choose your heat level), flavorful, hearty, and usually very affordable.  Many curry joints cater to businessmen or students on the go who need a quick meal; not bad for standard fast food!

Menu at Coco Curry, a common chain in Tokyo (they have over 10 pages,
and you can adjust for size, spice level, and extra meat).  With today's favorable
exchange rate (for Americans) 600 Yen is about $5, although when I went to
Japan the first time it would have been closer to $8.

The sushi experience was our second evening in Japan.  We ended up eating sushi three times, once each in Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, and every trip was high quality.  Some people are sushi fanatics, while others can't stand the stuff.  I don't fit in either category; it's not a meal that I'd love to eat every day, but once or twice a week it makes for a good meal.  Andrew was a fanatic, no question about that.  If he had his way he'd be dining on it nearly every day.  On the flip-side though, there's lots of other good Japanese food and sushi can burn a hole in your wallet, especially for someone with an appetite as large as Andrew's.

Another Japanese classic that made the highlight reel was ramen.  For those few of you who have been living under a rock, ramen is a noodle soup dish popular among penny pinching college students here in the U.S.  Don't judge it based on the 30 cent a pack blocks of dried noodles you'll find at Wal-mart though; that would be like equating aged French cheese with slices of Kraft Classics.

Many restaurants in Japan exclusively serve ramen, which typically comes in a rich, flavorful broth and is accompanied by a variety of sides, inlcuding sliced pork, dried seaweed, egg, green onions, and dumplings.  Some shops even have themed ramen, such as Thai, which comes with shrimp and a curry broth.

Don't confuse restaurant ramen in Japan with instant noodles. Check
out this link if you want to get a feel for the variety of ramen
 available in Japan (and just how hooked some people are on the stuff).

Our fist experience with ramen in Japan was at the infamous Ichiran, a chain store with several locations in Namba (an area of Osaka).  Ichiran may be a chain, but it still delivers on quality; when we arrived on Saturday afternoon the line was out the door.  It's become a touristy place to eat, not just for the food.  While waiting in line an employee gave us an order form, which was a sheet of paper listing all the options and add-ons available.  We chose our level of spice, richness of the broth, amount of garlic, and how long our noodles would be cooked (if we wanted them firm, medium, or soft).  We also had the option to include sliced pork, a soft boiled egg, green onions, seaweed, or extra noodles.

Instead of handing in our slip of paper to a server, once inside the restaurant we were greeted by a machine.  No, not a robot waitress (although that kind of restaurant does exist in Tokyo); a machine to place one's order.  It took me a minute to figure things out - it was, after all, my first time ordering from a machine - but once I did the process turned out to be simple.  The biggest hurtle was realizing that you have to insert the money before placing an order.  Thankfully many other people were encountering this technology for the first time, and we weren't the only slow pokes.  Once our order was placed a hostess came to seat us upstairs, although not in the standard table setting I was expecting.

Say hello to your server; ordering from a machine is common at ramen
joints, but not many other restaurants.

At Ichiran patrons eat in individual booths, separated from others by a wall on either side.  In front of your small cubicle is a curtain; on the other side is the kitchen, and quickly after being seated a pair of hands reaches through the curtain to grab your meal ticket (which was printed by the machine).  Within a few minutes the hands reappear with a delicious bowl of ramen soup.  If you ordered extra noodles (which both Andrew and I did) you can press the call button in your booth at your discretion; the instructions plastered on the wall advised me to place the order for extra noodles when I was half way though with my first batch.

Booths at Ichiran; they also have tables in another room, if you actually
want someone else to get in the way of your one on one food experience.

bowl of Ichiran ramen

As expected, Andrew instantly fell in love with Ichiran, one of his many food crushes of our two weeks in Japan.  Before we left Osaka he had eaten there three times.  We ate at another famous ramen shop in Tokyo, but Ichiran will always hold a special place in our hearts as our first ramen experience in Japan.  On Sunday we tried Donkatsu, or fried pork cutlet, which was also an amazing meal, but it didn't quite fill us up.  Before long we found ourselves back at Ichiran for round number two.  I could barely finish my bowl, but Andrew had no problem finishing his, plus extra noodles, plus the last bit from my bowl.

Our best meal, however, was still to come.  In Tokyo Andrew and I went out with Alex (his friend from Seoul happened to be in Tokyo on business), and Mari, Alex's family friend, to a restaurant called Champion.  Champion is known for yakiniku, which translates simply to "grilled meat."  The style of cooking at yakiniku restaurants resembles Korean BBQ, with small grills at each individual table.  Actually it's still unclear whether or not it came from Korea or was a home-grown creation.

Yakiniku is similar to Korean barbecue, with a grill
in the middle of each table.  Once Andrew forwards
me the pictures I'll put more up of Champion.

Regardless of where it originated, the food was amazing.  We ordered several cuts of beef which came from different parts of the cow.  The meat was presented, uncooked, in bite-sized pieces which were put on the grill in the middle of our table.  Depending on the cut of meat, each piece cooked for a few minutes at most (some were less than a minute).  As soon as it was finished one of the servers took it off the grill and we ate it straight away, the fresher the better.  I've never tasted meat that soft before - some of it nearly melted in my mouth without even having to chew.  This meal was actually where we decided to call the experience a foodgasam, and the four of us took turns trying to make our best "o" faces, both to the amusement and bewilderment of our server.

Supposedly the cows used by Champion are raised similar to those labeled Kobe beef; maybe that's why the meat is so tender.  From a quick perusal of Wikipedia (here) I gathered that cattle turned into Kobe beef live, on average, much longer than their US counterparts, and that Kobe beef fat has a lower melting point than common beef fat.  I'm not sure if that's what made the difference, but we certainly could taste it.  We could also see it in the check, too.  A meal for four plus a couple drinks ran us close to $60 a person!  Our friend Alex, who apparently is doing quite well at his job, picked up the check.  He refused to split it, although we were able to pay for the drinks as a small thank you.

USDA Prime Choice (left) compared to Kobe Beef

I wanted to mention a bit more about Osaka (aside from food) before I moved on to Tokyo, but that will have to wait till next post!