Food, Glorious Food!

By far, the thing people back home are most curious about is whether or not we like the food here. Not surprising given that we eat roughly three times a day and meals and mealtimes are such a huge part of any culture. We have had some really good meals here and some disappointing ones. Any parent can tell you eating out with kids is always an adventure. Eating out in Japan takes that to the extreme. Not every restaurant has a high chair so you have to consider that you might be feeding your 15month old rice on your lap and though many restaurants have elaborate picture menus, the smaller mom and pop shops do not so...you take your chances.

For instance, today we went out in search of breakfast, a meal that is very different here than in the states but, not far down the road from our house is a coffee shop that has pictures of waffles on their menu so we felt we'd have a pretty good chance at getting what we were looking for. Not so my friends! Turns out, waffles are only available after 2:30pm. Silly Americans! Waffles are not for breakfast. No egg/bacon/toast combo here. Instead try this odd assortment of food:

Red bean sticky rice, some sort of soupy egg, sausage and cheese dish, green salad, potato salad and a bowl of onion laden vegetable soup.

This was actually quite good, but not exactly what I'm looking for at 9:30 on a Sunday morning. Especially not when it comes with a side of shirasu; boiled and dried baby anchovies which, Mike and Reese gobbled up by the way, one benefit (or disadvantage depending on how you look at it), to not knowing what is on your plate.

I guess that's the thing, Japanese tastes are very different so they think nothing of eating this for breakfast. At Halloween Burger King and McDonald's both offer black burgers; with a charcoal smoked bun and sauce made from squid ink. Mike tried it and couldn't even eat the whole thing. He said it was disgusting. If you know Mike at all, you know it has to be pretty bad for him to let part of a burger go to waste. 

Japanese snacks might be flavored with edamame, green tea, fish, seaweed, red bean paste and other oddities. There are a dozen flavors of Kit Kat here from strawberry to pumpkin to wasabi.

But most of the food here is good and certainly edible. I have talked about sushi before so I won't go into that again. Besides, there is a lot more to Japanese cuisine than sushi. Some other examples of "must try" dishes are ramen, okonomiyaki and curry.

ramen

Ramen does not refer to the freeze dried packets of noodles with the envelope of MSG seasoning that you stock your house with when you are fresh out of college, broke from spending most of your money on student loans and beer. It refers to any number of savory bowls of broth, fresh noodles, vegetables, miso, meat and other surprises like a hard-boiled egg. I think it's delicious but Quinn likes to fling noodles around so we don't get to have it often.

okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a savory pan fried food that consists of batter and cabbage; "okonomi" literally means "to one's liking" so toppings and ingredients vary. Unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of trying this yet. The restaurants where they serve this usually cook it right in front of you on a griddle built right into the table. We have a very handsy toddler so we avoid this unnecessary danger. Mike has tried it though and says it's very good. 

katsu curry (breaded pork cutlet)

We did recently try the curry after avoiding it for weeks. The thing is, it doesn't look very appetizing to me, just a thick brown sauce with some sort of meat and not many vegetables to speak of. In actuality it was pretty good, very different from Indian curry... not as spicy and not as heavy as you'd think. 

We have tried food that caters to tourists which is very greasy and not appetizing. We have tried very traditional Japanese meals with a variety of things to sample. 

But, ironically, our favorite restaurant so far in Japan is an Indian one. Delicious creamy curries with flavorful basmati rice and just look at that piece of naan! Some of the best I've ever had and I grew up a mile away from Chicago's Devon Ave.

The best part is, this is one place where Quinn will happily eat. 

...providing he gets his own piece of naan!