You know that it's getting colder in Japan
when you start seeing Oden pop up in the local convenience stores.
Now, it's really great to have Oden from a convenience store
and to stand outside in the cold with the big warm basket of Oden
but there's something really special about going to an izakaya that serves Oden.
Come we're going to take you to a place that serves it
even though I am already eating Oden
but I'm gonna double Oden tonight.
By Thor's hammer, I decree that it is Oden Night! Get it? Cuz Oden like Thor Odin...
S- Odin..
- Ah..
S- Boo
- I'll be here all night.
S- Please no more
♪♪♪
I love spots like this that are far from the stations
where people don't actually straggle by.
These are all the bikes of the locals that are coming here.
Only we know about this place,
and we don't wanna tell you about it.
But we're gonna do it anyways.
- I'd like to mention. That I tripped on every freaking pebble on the way over here
I kicked the first one, then I kicked the second one.
First I did this and I went
Oh gee
Then I hit this one and I went
Gosh
And then I whipped around and I hit this one I just stumbled out of here
and I haven't even had a drink yet.
S- YET
S- Yet! Eh, the night's still young!
[Japanese]
♪♪♪
M- So we came to Yamachans before.
We stumbled upon it by accident
and then I saw an Instagram they started serving Oden,
and I was like by Thor's hammer
we are coming to Yamachans
for Oden TONIGHT!
S- What accent is that??
- It started out with just me, and then it turned more into like a Norse one.
♪♪♪
M- Oh these are huge.
S- Wow
So Martina began the video by introducing the convenience store kind
But this is my turn to show you a little bit we have here tofu. We have some egg
We have the money bag. We have the radish.
M- We have the money bag. You just said it so casually.
S- That's what they're called. They're called money bags, aren't they?
And then we have I don't know what this is called
It's just like a Oden just like a fish cake.
♪♪♪
- I mean it is the difference between having a store-made dumpling and
having a homemade dumplings
S- So what is this that you're eating?
M- The name of this is on the screen right now
S- Because we don't know it at the moment
M- Chiiaaahhow, chaawon, chhiiuuwann
It's like a flour a really thick flour
Mixed with a bunch of ground of things and they put it inside of a bamboo pole
and it's like steamed and then cut open.
I'm pretty sure that's right
and if it's not right there's something on the screen right now
with like a big I X going through my face being like that's not right at all.
This is the biggest boy I've ever seen.
Normally they're quite small. I mean half the size of it maybe right
S- Maybe. M- This is like wildly big. That's what she said?
- I don't even know what to compare this look to it's just so different
M- See what I mean about the dumpling?
- It feels like a freshly baked loaf.
M- You know like when you have a beef stew, and you put those dense
not the fluffy dumplings? S- Yes this tastes like
a dumpling in a beef stew. It's so hearty
M- Hearty S- Warming
S- and wholesome M- Hearty and warming is exactly the words I would use to describe it.
S- And having some with warm sake is the only way to go.
Remember cold sake for cold foods warm sake for warm foods
Oh yeah!
Did you already have your half? M- I only had a bite of it.
We could always order more
but it seemed to me that you were gonna eat all that S- We COULD always order more
We could always order more
M- He just. I mean he went for it.
S- My mom used to make these really chubby noodles, I don't even know what they were called
But they were like fat like this and there were water noodles
and she boiled them in soup.
The fat white and doughy ones.
That's what this tastes like.
*Attempts to speak polish*
I don't know. Mom, I know you watch my videos all the time.
Can you like call me and tell me mom. What are they called? Okay
[Polish]
It's Kopitca! KOPITCA!
[Polish]
KOPITCA!
[Japanese] because they're sticky [Japanese]
- Now you're just making things up
- This has a very nostalgic warm wholesome feeling.
This alone is worth the price of admission
M- It was free
It was free to get in here
It didn't cost anything
♪♪♪
- I know we're supposed to be doing a video about Oden,
but we just got their special that they brought out to us.
It's only available until 6:30. I gotta get it while it's here.
And that's what I love about Japanese izakaya,
you always have the random specials, say yes to every one of them.
Soft creamy with nice little skin on the outside
smooth pate creaminess on the inside.
We got finely chopped green onions, sesame oil, and soy sauce on it. It's just-
It's just smashing it.
Paul Hollywood would say "that's cracking that."
I noticed how in the UK they ususally start and end with the same pronoun.
That's delicious that, huh for our UK viewers and learning how to speak your language. M- Good job
M- I think what makes the Oden is having an amazing dashi
like the broth that it's soaking in has to have a lot of flavor
so that it actually soaks into all the stuff and this is a giant thick piece of tofu.
It's absorbed all the broth and it has like a non-beany taste for once.
S- Ladies and gentlemen, this here right now is the best one
Everyone always wants these. In there are these like little saggy nut sacs. Look at that
Can you can you imagine a saggy nutsack and it's full with stuffed white mochi balls?
M- Is this really the way you're describing this?
S- Yes, look this is a delicious marinated nutsack. M- dripping everywhere
S- Mmm, this is the best one so far.
It's got this beautiful really soft creamy mochi in the middle.
M-. Can I have the rest of it? S- Of course you can girl.
M- Are you sure? This might be too much mochi for me.
S- Oh, yeah
M- The mochi almost tastes like a gravy.
S- Yeah, M- I think because it's been soaking inside this like broth for so long
it's absorbed more of a beefy flavor to it.
It really tastes like a gravy that is so great. S- That was lovely
M- You really got to go to a place that actually makes good Oden
to realize that Odin is awesome when it's made right.
S- So we found this place one night when we were just wandering by
and we saw the outside and looked really inviting
So we came in, and it happened to be their anniversary at the time.
So none of the owners we're wearing pants.
M- You heard that correctly everyone.
S- Yes, supposedly that's a tradition for Izakayas if it's the anniversary don't wear pants.
M- no, but they were wearing the traditional Japanese sumo coverings.
S- Covering themselves up, but just no pants.
I mean, have you ever been to a restaurant with no pants? Come to Japan?
And go Ja-pantless
M- oh BOOOOO
*maniacal laughter*
M- I've been waiting to eat this piece.
This is actually my favorite thing to eat almost all the time
this is just a gigantic daikon like a huge radish and
when it's soaked in broth, it becomes like a magical potato.
I don't know how to explain it.
Like we have a really good baked potato or fried potato
it's got all those flavors soaking in it and it's so low-fat.
You can just eat so many of them
and then not be hungry and then not gain weight.
You know and the sweetness from the radish still lingers a bit it
So the saltiness of the broth like really bounces up beautifully the texture falls apart.
Oh man. Hey vegans. This is for you
soaked in fish.
S- I guess...
I mean we're thinking about you were trying.
Oh my god, this was supposed to be about Oden.
Why do we have the fried mushroom tempura? Who knows?
They said it was a special, so M- It's for science.
- we got to keep trying everything.
oh yeah!
- You know what this is?
S- What is it?
- Milt, do you remember?
S- Here we have grilled fugu Milt, this is the perfect season for it right now.
If you don't know what Milt is, look it up.
- It's a sperm sack mate! It's delicious, but so creamy and milky
that you don't expect it. You bite into and you're like
this just tastes like an egg yolk.
I guess technically it is an egg yolk like a delicious soft egg yolk.
- Ooh, are you ready to try some deep fried sperm sac>
So creamy, if you didn't know that it was sperm sac,
I think that tasted would be a lot better.
They just need a whole new branding campaign because it's yummy. Sperm sac is delicious.
M- It just tastes like egg yolk.
- Yeah, it just tastes like a very creamy yolk with a nice crust around it from the tempura.
It's just sperm sac.
You know what when you come to Japan eat some sperm sac god damn it.
Go to the sperm sac shop and see the sperm sac specialist
and get yourself some special sperm sacs.
They're yummy.
Oh yeah, take that fish sperm and dip that.
Yep. Just yeah, just keep dip. Yep. I think you're stalling at this point
That seems like you dipped it more than enough you're going for it.
No, you're putting it in the salt now
I see you're still stalling. Okay, you could yep dip that. Okay, finally
- Honestly guys, I was having a really rough morning
the past couple two days have been pretty tough ones for me.
I've be trying to build myself a ladder and I really wanted to share a video about Oden.
And I said, Simon, let's go out there and let's do something to build a ladder.
So I'm not my complete enthusiastic self I think
because I'm still working through it like a lot of pain right now.
You know, I came here just thinking that I would have some Oden and talk to you guys about it,
but they surprised me by offering all of these different things that they have on the menu,
and it was so nice to try all these different kinds of fried mushrooms
And to have some you know
Liver chicken liver that haven't had before ,
so leaving yourself open to this kind of thing will give yourself some more
experiences that you can use for building or ladders,
so I'm happy we came.
S- Yeah, you did it girl. Yeah is difficult for me to know where to touch you
when I'm behind the camera
- I'm like uuuhhh S- Oh yeah
- Shoulder pats
S- You know, I think Martina is definitely right if I didn't come here
and leave myself open to new experiences
I wouldn't have had a hot mouth full of sperm sac, and this little
Tanuki nut sac filled up with these white chewy balls
Like these are all experiences that I had to leave myself open to by coming to Japan.
Good words of advice love.
Thank you for motivating me.
M- No problem.
- to eat balls...[Martina laugh]
I like how we're outside now,
we have so much more room but we're even snugglier than before
It's because it's somewhat cold outside is just a good excuse for hugging.
- I need your body warmth give it to me.
- So that's it for our video on Oden and more importantly sperm sacs.
- No that wasn't the point of this video. - I was not expecting this video to go that route
- The video has nothing to do with sperm sacs.
- We want you to come to Japan and I definitely want you to try Oden
It's a tremendous winter food, and you really feel the warmth and the love.
- Everything's fine. - And sperm sacs.
-No, that was an additional thing - I mean you can tell your friends back home,
I went to Japan and I had a mouthful of warm sperm and that's what Japan is.
Come to Japan . -I feel like you've missed the mark on this one, I'll be honest
*tries to sing Tomorrow from Annie*
- How much sake did you have? I thought you only had a little bit..
- I don't know the words to these white people songs.
- I know you really don't. - I really don't
- if you guys want to come out to Yamachan
we're gonna leave information in the info box below on how you can get here because
even if it's not worth your time it's just a tremendous place to visit.
- They had the Somen noodle slides in the summer we missed out on that.
- I know we miss out on a lot of stuff.
-That's really upsetting. - Yea, they're really fun.
- Come here you're gonna love it. Thanks for watching Martina eat a whole bunch of sperm.
This is great. Goodbye everyone! -So did you!
*hums Tomorrow from Annie*
I'm so confused right now, he's never sung white people musicals in his life
I don't know what's gotten into him.
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Mmmm so hungry