Hey guys!
I make lots of videos about food
But I thought it would be best to compile them all into one single video
So if you guys are coming here for a trip you can kinda look through this
and get some ideas of stuff to try
I'm not gonna mention the super obvious, like sushi
So keep that in mind. It's not that I'm saying it's bad...
It's just, you guys all know about sushi
So yeah, lets get started!
The first thing that came to find when I was thinking of foods that people aren't familiar with in Japan
I thought of katsudon!
Katsudon is one of my favourite dishes
Even thought I don't like meat, I really like katsudon
It is a breaded pork cutlet, on top of a bed of rice
And they have a really yummy egg that they pour over it with onions
It is soooo delicious
So I really recommend that you try katsudon!
You can get it at any Japanese style restaurant
You can get it at super fast-food type of restaurants as well
I will list a couple places where you can get each dish down below in the description box
So check that out
But katsudon, yes #1 for sure!
#2 would be zarusoba
I bet you guys know soba noodles, they are a buckwheat noodle
They're very popular outside of Japan as well
But zarusoba is a certain way to eat it here where the noodles are cold
and you dip them into a dipping sauce called mentsuyu
It's a really great dish for the summer because they're cold
But I love them so much so I even eat them in the winter
Again, you can get these at any typical Japanese restaurant
#3 would be udon!
Udon are another type of noodle which are thick and made from wheat flour
I really like eating udon here because
lots of restaurants you can order your bowl of udon
and then you can pick and choose the toppings that you wanna put inside of it
My favourite is to put some kind of tempura on top
and an egg, and I just think it's so yummy!
Udon are really cheap and really filling
So it's a great meal if you're on a budget
Ok next would be okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake
When you think pancake, you think sweet but okonomiyaki are a savoury pancake
You can basically put whatever kind of ingredients you want inside of it
Inside of my okonomiyaki I like to put lots of vegetables
You can also put meats inside
Honestly whatever you like
so that's why it's so much fun
Many okonomiyaki restaurants in Japan you can grill your own
So they'll bring you the bowl with the batter
and all the ingredients and then you stir that up
and pour it on the grill in front of you and fry it yourself
It's lots of fun
I will list a couple okonomiyaki restaurants that I recommend down below
Another favourite of mine is fish egg pasta
Oh my god, I love it!
It probably sounds creepy to lots of you because it did to me at first too
I had the instant kind first actually
I'll put a picture here so you can see what it looks like
You can buy some in the grocery store
and bring some back with you so you can eat it in your home country as well
But it's so good, it's not super fishy
It's got kind of a spicy flavour
There's two types actually
Mentaiko and Tarako
Tarako and Mentaiko are both made from the same type of fish eggs
The are cod or pollock eggs
The only difference is the flavourings
With the tarako it's basically just salted, it doesn't have any spice to it
The mentaiko has a bit of a kick to it, it's got some chili pepper in it
They're not only used in pasta but also in other dishes such as pizza
Sandwiches, sushi...
It's a popular ingredient for onigiri as well
I prefer mentaiko usually
But a very cheap family restaurant called Saizeriya
has a tarako pasta that I really really really like
So if you go there, please try the tarako pasta!
So good omg
Next up is curry rice
When you think of Japan you probably don't think curry
But curry is actually one of the most popular meals that people eat here
It's really easy to make yourself, or you can go out and get it at a restaurant
There's a very popular chain called CoCo Curry
And again, you can choose whatever toppings you want on your curry
There'll be the base curry, you can choose to put katsu (breaded meat) on it
Or vegetables like spinach, or scrambled egg
Or eggplant
My favourite is eggplant with scrambled egg, it's so good! I recommend you try it!
Be very careful at CoCo Curry! They have different spiciness levels
You can choose
I always choose the sweetest one (amakuchi)
It goes up to level 10 I think
Basically you can choose whatever level you want
But after like 3, it starts to get pretty intense
Which is weird for Japan, so it's kind of surprising
So forget all that you know about Japanese food not being spicy when you go there
And stick with like a lower number to start with, just in case
Because it's really really really spicy
My friends I know that love spicy food, like SUPER spicy food
will only get like a 4, past that is a little much for them
Be careful!
Another rice dish is omurice
Omurice is short for omelette rice
It's a flavoured rice, covered in an omelette
It's usually served with ketchup or a tomato sauce
There are so many omurice restaurants in Japan, and they're all so delicious!
It's also really easy to make yourself!
I will be making some recipe videos soon
I wanna show you guys some of the Japanese foods that you can make at home
really simply, so you guys can try this out even if you don't have a chance to come to Japan
But omurice is so good
And there's so many different variations of it too
I went to an omurice restaurant in Shibuya recently
I will put that one down below
But there were probably 20-30 different kinds of omurice there
They were so good! I got the basic one with tomato sauce
And it was delicious!! So good.
Next is oden!
Now, oden is a winter dish
So if you come here in the summer or spring you might not see it around
I saw it come out in about the middle of September this year
So I figure if you come here anytime after that, you will see it in the convenience stores
It's basically vegetables, and fish and eggs and various ingredients stewed in a hot fish broth
It is so yummy! And you can tell the people which ones you want
So I pick out my favourites which are daikon, shirataki noodle, and hard boiled egg
Daikon is the best, just make sure you try the daikon
It absorbs all the broth and like melts in your mouth, it's so good!
Really cheap too! Each piece will be about 50-100 yen
So you can choose however many you want
You can eat them just like that, or they will give you some spicy mustard to eat with them
Either way, it's really really good
So if you guys are here in the winter, definitely check that out at the conbini
It will be up by the cash register, up at the front there
So you'll order it from the cashier and they will serve it for you
It looks kinda gross, I'm not gonna lie
But try it because it's really good!
I hope that gave you guys some ideas of things that you didn't really know about
Leave some comments down below and tell people what your favourite Japanese foods are
There are so many more that I could have mentioned, but I just picked some of my favourites
So leave some comments down below so other people get some more recommendations
I will be making another video focusing on sweets
Because I decided that that deserved a whole video all to itself
So look out for that!
And I will see you guys soon, bye!