- Hi, I'm Beryl, (upbeat music)
and this is another episode in our delivery series.
The theme today is Japanese food.
I teamed up with Grubhub, (logo popping)
and three of my subscribers,
Remi, Jennifer, and Akari,
to help me order off a Japanese menu.
Grubhub did give me a special code, which is BERYL,
and that will give you $5 off an order of $15 or more.
So, if at the end of this video,
you are inspired to try some new Japanese items,
you can do that with a little discount.
I'm really excited for this episode
because I talked to the girls,
and we all agreed no sushi and no ramen,
because there is so much more to Japanese food
than those two things.
(door knocking)
Food's here!
(upbeat music)
- Hi, Beryl. (gentle music)
My name is Remi.
I'm from Tokyo, Japan,
big robot city and flashy lights.
From the starters, I have chosen takoyaki for you to try.
It's a bite-size food
that has small pieces of cooked octopus,
topped with bonito flakes, aonori,
Japanese mayo, takoyaki sauce, (gentle music continues)
or tonkat sauce, your choice.
You can't really tell the taste of octopus,
once everything is in there,
with the combination of the sauce,
and all these other toppings in it.
Plus, it's a great way to try octopus
without actually looking at the octopus,
'cause some people can be turned off by it.
- This is a dish (gentle music continues)
that I actually have had once prior,
when I went to Japan.
I had a really nice little honeymoon there.
I'm leaving a link to that video if you wanna see it.
Shameless self-promotional plug.
But I have not had takoyaki here in America.
It's not something I ever really think to order
when I'm ordering Japanese food.
But it actually came looking pretty good,
so, we're gonna do this in one bite.
(gentle music)
It's a big bite.
These are really nice actually.
The dough tastes really good.
All the sauces are really good.
I did like double up on it just for the presentation, but...
I would say that the octopus is a little harder
than the ones that I've had in Japan.
Maybe it's just cooked (gentle music continues)
a little longer.
Maybe it's been sitting a little longer.
You know, it's not fresh in a market right now.
Octopus may be something
that a lot of people have never tried before.
And I think that Remi made a really great point
that because of the way that it's served here,
like, it's covered in sauce, there's ginger in here,
there is tempura flakes in here,
there's like a crunchiness, (gentle music continues)
the dough is soft.
It's kind of like a Dunkin' Donuts Munchkin,
only there's octopus inside, that kind of size.
And there's so much flavor going on,
that it's a great starting point, I think,
if you're afraid of what the experience might be like,
because to be honest,
you're mostly getting the sauces,
which is a good thing.
I'm just gonna have one more,
and then we'll do the next dish,
'cause these are really good.
- Hi, my name is Akari, (gentle music)
and I was born in Mie Prefecture,
which is about two and a half hours southwest of Kyoto,
but my home base is now Ontario, Canada.
From the starters,
I have chosen hijiki salad for you to try.
- Hijiki Salad or hijiki no nimono
is known as brown root seaweed.
(gentle music continues)
I know, the sound of that actually is a turn off,
but it's actually really good.
- It is like a twig-like black marine algae.
And once it's simmered in the soy-sauce-based sauce,
it has a sweeter flavor.
Growing up, I actually didn't like this dish very much,
but as an adult, I have grown to love the flavor,
and love the taste. (gentle music continues)
And it is definitely something that I look forward to,
for my mom to cook for me,
and I like to enjoy it with rice.
- When I think (gentle music)
about getting seaweed from the Japanese restaurant,
my mind immediately goes to the seaweed salad,
which uses wakame.
It's kind of like chewy,
and has like a really nice crunch to it.
This is extraordinarily different from that,
and I'm so intrigued.
And I always love it when more than one person
recommends the same dish. (gentle music continues)
It makes me kind of think like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that means it's probably really good."
I'm gonna try it on its own first.
Ooh, that's really good.
There is so much flavor in this.
I feel like, so the wakame seaweed salad
has like a citrusy flavor to it,
and maybe it's like a little bit sweet.
This has so much more umami, (gentle music continues)
and there's so much more depth.
And I know that Akari was saying
that this gets cooked with soy sauce,
and there's all these vegetables in it as well,
so there's a lot of different textures happening.
I'm gonna have some with the rice,
like Akari recommended.
Mm, that's good.
The rice helps kind of balance out the flavor a little bit.
I think that this seaweed (gentle music continues)
is less textured than the wakame seaweed salad.
So, if texture is a thing that's turned you off from seaweed
in the past,
this might be the one for you.
As somebody who loves seaweed all the time,
I'm definitely adding this to the rotation,
'cause I really, really, really like it.
- I'm Jennifer (gentle music)
and I'm a Japanese American,
from Los Angeles, California.
And from the sides I have chosen hamachi kama
for you to try.
I feel like this dish could be easily overlooked,
since it's just a broiled piece of yellow tail,
but it's crispy on the outside,
and juicy and flaky on the inside.
- [Remi] When it's paired with ponzu sauce and soy sauce,
it is incredible.
- Hamachi Kama literally means yellowtail collar,
which is the fattiest part of the fish.
(gentle music continues)
- It was always thrown away at the fish market.
And when my family was lucky to snag one,
it was a treat.
- It's just one of those really simple dishes
that highlight the flavors of the fish.
And I feel like a lot of Japanese dishes are like that,
where they're very minimally flavored
to allow you to taste and appreciate the main ingredient.
- I feel like hamachi collar (gentle music continues)
is something that I've been seeing more and more on TikTok.
I don't know, I mean, that's the TikTok that I live in.
But I haven't had it.
So, actually I'm gonna go with a fork.
I'm very excited for this sauce,
because everyone everyone said it was so great.
Oh, ooh, this is soft.
Maybe I can use a chopstick.
(gentle music)
Oh, whoa, that is so soft.
It's like crispy on the outside,
and then the inside just like, melts in your mouth.
(gentle music continues)
Buttery was definitely the correct adjective.
That was the right adjective.
I think the only thing is I'm not totally sure
how to eat it.
Like, where do I go?
Oh, okay, there some.
This tastes indulgent almost.
It is so rich.
I think it's always really interesting
how there can be parts of an animal
that are undesirable, (gentle music continues)
and then somebody figures out how to cook them,
and then boof, they become super desirable.
I think about oxtails all the time like that.
And the idea that the collar was thrown away at fish markets
but now everyone's like, "Yeah, we wanna be eating that
'cause it's so delicious."
I see how this could be a main meal.
This could be a side if you split it,
but I do think this could be (gentle music continues)
like a really, really, lovely dinner.
Pair it with some rice, dip it in this sauce.
Mm.
If you can get this, get this.
This is spectacular.
Truly.
- From the main, (gentle music)
I have chosen oyako don,
chicken and egg on rice for you to try.
In Japanese, oyako means parent and child,
so the chicken is the parent and the egg is the child.
Dons are usually rice-based dishes,
just as this one is.
It is a sweet and salty dish,
with the umami from the dashi.
It is commonly eaten as a lunch menu,
and it is a comfort food for a lot of household,
as it is easily thrown together.
(gentle music continues)
- Ja jang! (laughs)
I've never seen oyako don with broccoli.
I have actually made this dish before for an egg episode.
It was very easy to make.
And I also filmed a documentary about this dish
when I worked at Great Big Story.
So, I'm close to this dish, you know? (laughs)
(gentle music continues)
I think it's such an interesting combination.
It kind of is like a chicken omelet.
I've ordered this once before,
and it was like, okay,
but this version is still really moist.
The chicken isn't dry.
Let's see how the broccoli is.
What's happening here, broccoli?
(broccoli crunching) (gentle music continues)
Mm.
(Beryl laughs)
The broccoli is really good.
It's absorbed all of the flavors from the sauce
that you cook this in.
The other really nice thing about oyako don
is that it keeps actually relatively well.
So, you can definitely have this as a leftover dish
the next day.
You know, like certain foods,
just like, they're not as good the next day,
I think that this one (gentle music continues)
is really good the next day.
The flavors of this dish are simple
but they're also complex.
You know, Japanese food has the ability
to really highlight the ingredients,
and you don't necessarily always need to overwhelm them
with tons of additions.
So, this tastes like chicken and egg.
And so there's something (gentle music continues)
like really nice about that,
like, elevating these two ingredients,
which oftentimes can be seen as maybe a little bit plain.
It's like a celebration of chicken and egg. (chuckles)
- From the mains, (gentle music)
I have chosen unagi don,
which is just grilled eel,
with a thick, sweet, soy-based sauce served over rice.
This one is one of my personal favorites
because the eel has an extremely mild flavor,
so it's really all about that delicious sweet sauce
that goes over it. (gentle music continues)
But do eat it carefully though,
because eel usually has a lot of small thin bones in it.
- Holy smokes. (gentle music)
I mean, she's a beauty, huh?
I don't think I've ever had this much eel in my house ever.
It's truly gorgeous.
(gentle music continues)
I like can't even stop looking at it. (laughs)
Okay, let's be careful of the bones.
Ah, I think I'm okay.
(Beryl laughs)
Eel is just...
I have no words.
To be fair, the sauce that goes on top of eel
in Japanese cuisine, (gentle music continues)
is just sweet and sticky,
and like, it's indulgent.
Like, this meal feels indulgent.
There is a restaurant in New York City
that specializes in just eel boxes,
and now I'm like, extraordinarily intrigued to go to there.
I don't think I would ever think
to order a piece of eel (gentle music continues)
if I was ordering Japanese food,
because I think I'm always so caught up in the idea
of like, if I'm eating Japanese food,
I wanna get sushi.
But now I'm like, "Man, this delivered so well."
And it, I mean it looks, it looks amazing.
(food crunching)
Mm, radish.
(gentle music continues)
Daikon?
What is this?
It's really good.
Very crunchy.
One of the things that I really like
about these delivery episodes,
is kind of learning the terminologies.
And so now I understand that a don has rice on the bottom,
kind of like a rice bowl.
These are things that are helpful to navigate a menu
when you don't really know what you're reading.
My ultimate takeaway (gentle music continues)
from this experience
is that I'm definitely a little bit of a lazy orderer
when it comes to Japanese food,
'cause I do, I always order the same thing.
But this has really opened my mind to the idea
that Japanese food delivery
is definitely more than just sushi.
These foods all delivered really, really well,
and tasted awesome. (gentle music continues)
In the description,
I am leaving the recipe to the oyako don,
as well as the video of me making it.
So, if you don't have a restaurant that can deliver it,
and you wanna try to make it,
it's honestly very simple.
I am also going to leave all of the other dishes
that everybody recommended to me.
As a reminder, (gentle music continues)
Grubhub gave me a code, which is BERYL,
and that will give you $5 off an order of $15 or more.
So, if any of these dishes have struck your fancy,
and you wanna give them a go,
you can use that discount code.
We have one more delivery episode left.
I hope that you are excited
for the grand finale of this series,
and I will see you all in my next video.