December 11, 2008
Omunomunomu
This, rather than being an outline of what Japanese food there is, will be more of a description of what I ate/ food things I saw.
So, I will skip the plane food
Drinks! Cold tea is my drink of choice in Japan. Oolong, green, and houji tea are the most common. They are available for 120-150 yen at any vending machine.
Green tea and/or water are offered as a service when you sit down in any restaurant
Ice coffee does not mean what it means in Australia. It means straight coffee, on ice. Ice milk coffee （アイスミルクコーヒー） is more like the ice coffee in Aus.
Hot, loose leaf tea of many many varieties are on offer, mainly in department stores and other food establishments. My personal favourite is Kaga Bou Cha, tea made with tea plant stems.
Readinf up on your katakana will help you successfully read and order from the menu of most coffee/tea places. One acception to this is 抹茶, which is green (ie unfermented) tea. It is pronounced Ma(slight pause)tcha. A common form of this, found in coffee shops and the like, is Matcha Latte, where milk and green tea are mixed. This is slightly sweetened and generally quite delicious.
Coke and all those other soft drinks can be found in Japan, of course. They come in cute bottles that are made of the same thing as cans are. Vending machines are your friend; take a few minutes to look at the ones that will inevitably be on the end of your street or in the lobby/basement of your hotel.
I can’t really help you with alcohol, though I can recite a few facts. The Japs invented dry beer; Amie will tell you that Asahi Super Dry is quite nice, and should be tried if you are a fan of beer. There is also sake, which is generally made by fermenting rice. Shochu is also popular and can be made by fermenting just about anything; most prefectures have their own special type made from local produce. This ranges from citrus to various tubers to other fruit.
Now, food is not restricted to raw fish. Japanese food has many many layers, and it would take a lifetime to describe them all fully.
Fish- Being a small, island nation, Japan has always loved fish. Fish is more commonly consumed than steak, and steak is very expensive. Handy tip: if you want to order a steak in a restaurant in Japan, remember that any steak you order will cost a lot more than it should, and will be half the normal thickness. Sushi and sashimi, though cliche, are good if you know where to go. Sometime next week I will probably be going to Tsukiji fish market, where tuna are bought for millions of dollars. Fresh fish is, surprisingly, hard to come by at times. Sushi comes in a number of types, such as nigiri (slice of fish or other sea creature on top of a small portion of rice) maki (seafood, rice and sometimes some sort of vegetable wrapped in nori (roasted seaweed) and also temaki (the roll, as above, but done yourself; the ‘te’ means hand). Other types include chirashi (where a number of vegetables and plants and herbs are mixed with seafood and egg and spread over rice, often in a round bamboo container) and oshi (vinegared fish is put on rice, in the nigiri style and then pressed for a period of time). The rice in all these is vinegared.
Fish is also grilled on a wire net and can be mushed.
My favourite type of sushi is with Ikura (salmon roe).
Also: the mystery of toro.
The Japanese love their fatty fish. Especially the fatty part of tuna, and it is found in the belly and tail of certain fish. It’s delicious flavour is sought after by restaurants and shoppers, and ou toro (literally: big toro, meaning it is very fatty) is considered a delicacy and is very expensive, followed by chu toro (middle toro) and toro.
Up until a short time ago, tuna toro could be bought in Australian fish shops for approximately $2 a kilo, such was the ignorance of Australian fish shops. Those were good days.
I will write more, about noodles, tomorrow
There will also be a recount of my trip to Harajuku
‘night folks
