This is a hidden street food spot in Tokyo
So the spot I am today at,
not a lot of people know about it
It's kind of a very, very local spot
It's called Oyama Station
It's about five minutes away from Ikebukuro
What's interesting about this spot
is that it's a shotengai or a shopping street
with a covered roof
So, basically, if it's raining outside,
you can still enjoy this area
The name of this shopping street is called Happy Road and
it was built just after World War II,
but it wasn't called Happy Road when it first started
It was called Oyama Ginza,
but it was later changed, I believe, in 1977
So this place does have some history
If you look around just through the shops,
you can see that there's
a lot of mom-and-pop stores
which is super cool
and I'm super excited to show you today
But, before I start, if you wanna see
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That all said, let me take you on this hidden street food tour
Happy Road Oyama runs in two directions
from Kawagoe Kaido to Oyama Station
and from Oyama Station southward
This nostalgic shopping street
has more than 400 stores in the arcade
and more than 25 000 locals coming here every day
One thing I love about this area too
is they have some back alleys
that you can explore
Number one - Yakitori Honpo Hamakei
You can find this takeout yakitori shop
on the outside of Daruma Ichiba Market
The shop sells 100% Japan-made chicken
but today I'm sharing with you my own secret favorite -
their fried beef and pork Menchi
We are doing some street food today!
Look at this Menchikatsu
I'll explain more, let me just take a bite,
because I am hungry
Oh, that is so delicious,
got crumbs all over my face
Look at all of that juicy juice
coming straight from this menchikatsu
Just a lot of meat juice
And it is so crunchy!
What is going on today?
I gotta take another bite
Like Ice Cube said, "Today is a good day."
Let me just open this up and show you
what we are dealing with
You can see all the onions
There's just so much flavor in there
It has a little bit of that savoriness and sweetness at the same time
Man, the flavor is popping
This is like some of the best menchikatsu I've ever had
like I've had a lot of menchikatsu
and this is pretty good
What's also cool about this shop
is that they have not only menchikatsu,
but they have different yakitori,
all sorts of different meats that you can buy,
but if you do want some chicken yakitori,
then I'm gonna show you
another spot in just a little bit,
so just hold on, we're gonna get there
I just really love walking around this place
Just walking around you really feel you're in Japan
You kind of get a sense of, you know, all of the culture
and everything that's cool about Japan -
all in this street
What's also interesting about this spot
is they have a lot of shops
that have really, really cheap products
Look at these masks
they're only 191 yen, less than $2 for 50
Number two - Watanabe Sengyo
Inside of Daruma Ichiba Market,
hidden behind the vegetable shops and butcher,
you'll find a straight from the ocean fresh fish store
I've got the Moriyawa set
which has two different types of fish
This one I chose - Chutoro, which is tuna
and it also has some Hamachi [yellowtail]
You can see it right there,
it is so beautiful,
nice and luscious, fresh in the morning
Get a little bit of wasabi right there
That is so fresh,
you can taste all of the fat coming from the chutoro
That's really nice
And then here you go
Here's the hamachi
Whoa, look at that piece
Throw a little bit of wasabi on there,
wasabi just like that
This truly puts a smile on my face
See how beautiful the colors on that fish,
the hamachi is just glistening with beauty,
saying "Eat me, eat me!"
Okay
So what I love about this place,
it has all different types of sashimi
You can choose from all different assortments
And they also have rice bowls in the front,
so if you want your carbs for the day,
you can also get it there
Number three - Shugetsudo
This Japanese shop has been in business since 1948
and not only does it have sweets,
but it offers yum-yum rice dishes like
Inarizushi and onigiri
I've got my Sakura Mochi!
This one is pretty awesome
because it came straight out of the kitchen,
it is still warm to the touch
This is a real cherry blossom leaf
that they prepare with and you eat it just like so
The mochi itself has been kind of like smashed down
into like a little pancake,
then wrapped around the anko [red bean paste]
Oh, it smells so nice
It almost smells like a cherry blossom tea house
Let me take a bite of this
Wow, you can taste the spring in there
The sweetness coming from the anko
and the mochi itself is soft
and has a playful texture
The leaf itself has been kind of like marinated in the salt,
it just blends so well with that sweet anko
The anko is pretty smooth,
it has a little bit of texture
and the mochi just wraps all of this
in like a nice little package
Just a great blend of sweetness and saltiness
I can have another one,
but there's other places to show you,
so let me show you that now
Number four - Yanaka coffee
If you need a quick pick-me-up during your adventures,
I recommend Yanaka coffee
It's a small hole-in-the-wall coffee roaster that will for sure
get you back on that yellow brick road
or whatever color the road is
So I've got a milk coffee,
it says Yanaka coffee right there
So cute little straw cap on top
So today I've got the Café au Lait
also known as Milk Coffee
That is a delicious cup of coffee
If you get the iced coffee,
then you get like the blend of beans,
but if you get the hot coffee,
then you get the select beans
What I love about this place
is that they have all of the beans
just right behind me
In fact, you can hear that slight humming noise
they're roasting the beans right now,
they do everything just right here
Everything is freshly roasted
and you get a nice cup of coffee
and it's just, kind of, off the main street,
so you do need to go
outside of the shelter
Number five - Funachu Oyama
This shop is a yakitori chain
originating in Asakusa
The founder started the business post-war,
specializing mainly in eel and river fish
but since they could only be caught in the winter
he started to sell chicken on skewers
So this place just has so much different chicken:
it has fried chicken,
it has chicken skewers
In fact, they even have some like tempura
So whatever you want,
they pretty much have it
It's pretty awesome
I wanted to order everything,
but I couldn't,
so I stuck with the yakitori
And the three pieces that I got
was the Negima, Piman
and I got the Nankotsu
I'm gonna just start with the negima
which is chicken
and it has some onions in here as well
When you take that first bite,
you can definitely taste
the charcoal grill from that
The chicken is marinated,
it's a little bit on the savory side
Usually, these yakitori places
are meant for people to buy
and then take home
and then heat it up in the microwave
but we're doing it
street food style
So it is a little bit cold,
but who cares if it's this good
Let's do this piman right now
You can see the green bell pepper on there
and then this is kind of a minced chicken,
it probably has some onions
and some other little goodies inside
Wow, bell pepper taste is really strong
and then the minced meat
there's just a lot of flavor in here
It is thoroughly grilled right there
Looks like a little bit burnt,
but it's really perfectly cooked
Finally, I got that nankotsu,
which is chicken cartilage
Some people don't like it so much,
I love the crunchiness to it
Hear the crunch, I could be the crunch
or the old people shuffling their shoes right behind me
Crunch test number two
The nankotsu itself
has been salted quite a bit,
so you definitely get
a lot of savoriness with this one
I am quite happy with this
and, in fact, we are on Happy Road,
so it all makes sense right now
This spot behind me right here,
I definitely wanted to show you,
but today it is closed
It's called Pierrot,
a crepe spot that's ultra popular
It has more than 200
different types of crepes
but they're closed today
so I can't show you
but if you do make it out here,
definitely come, check out this place
Let's go on to the next spot
Number six - Bakery&Cafe Maruju
Maruju is definitely the number one hitter
for bakery shops at Happy Road
It offers a variety of unique breads
that has a home run written all over it
So this spot is right next to the station
It has one of my favorites -
Curry Pan
In fact, curry pan
is one of their bestsellers,
I think it's number two,
just behind their shio pan -
which is a salt bread roll,
but this one is a little bit special
It's not curry pan per se,
but it has a little bit of extra,
it has the cheesy of cheesiness
Look at that crispy outer shell
and this like a fried bread
Let me just open this up
in front of you guys
How amazing is that
That is rich
I'm gonna be honest,
taking a bite of this
you feel just a little bit guilty
you know, you are taking down some calories
because there's a lot of cheese,
there's some mayonnaise right here
and this curry is thick
So the curry does have some beef in it,
but it doesn't have
those really big chunks
that you sometimes get in curry,
so it's all mashed into the curry
and on top
look at all of this
cream cheese loveliness
You think it'd be a cheddar cheese
or something like that,
but it is a straight up cream cheese
and it has a crunchy, crunchy
fried outer bread shell
Just finished! Let's go to the next spot
So I just crossed the train tracks in You-za Oyama
and this place doesn't have a covered area,
but it's still worth taking a look
And number seven - Ikkon
This place does meat,
it just a little bit different
and that's why I took you to this place
You can get a beer or whatever drink you want
and some pretty interesting food
First of all, let me show you this
This is straight up intestines
I don't know if you're gonna like it,
but the whole thing is, when you're in Japan,
you might wanna try something new
This is Senmai, which is leaf tripe,
Gatsu which is pork stomach
and Kobukuro which is the womb
On the menu it's called sashimi,
so you might think it's raw,
but it's really boiled
It's accompanied with a sesame oil
with roughly ground salt
and sumiso which is usually
a mix of vinegar, sugar and miso
Flavor me up!
Just try the guts,
interesting textures all over
In general, it has kind of
a chewy gristle texture
More than the meat itself,
I am really digging the sauce,
this sumiso is so good,
has that like tangy taste to it
Whatever the meat is,
whatever you put on,
when you dip it in the sauce,
it just picks up all of the flavor of the sauce
It is so flavorful,
I love it so much,
I'm digging like I'm almost done
with all these intestines
It is so good
This video wouldn't be complete
if we didn't add some Karaage to it
This place is a little bit interesting,
because it adds some shōga to it
Looks like it has some spicy flakes to it,
but in fact it is red ginger
We can dip it into some mayonnaise,
That is crunchy AF
Wow
Super moist in the middle,
still has all of the juiciness of the chicken
With the beni shoga ginger on the outside
to give that extra flavor
I know that some people don't like beni shoga,
kind of half and half on it,
sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't,
but, you know, if there's a court, we're gonna ball,
and if there's a fried chicken, we're gonna eat
That's just how it is
Oh man, I already drank a little bit of beer
I forgot to record because I got so excited,
but that's just how it is
It's been such a good day,
take another drink
This is what it's all about, coming here and like
getting a little piece of Japan,
kind of getting away from the big city
and enjoying kind of just the simple things of Japan
And I know that a lot of you
can't come to Japan right now,
so I'm having this beer for you
and then when you come to Japan,
you can come here and have a beer for me
So these are my favorite food spots at Happy Road
I hope you liked the video
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