5 More Eats in Japan!
We are back with 5 more eats in Japan! I wouldn’t say these are top 6-10 following my last post but more like 5 more things you should try when you go to Japan. There is so many different things to eat and try in Japan, despite already having travelled there twice now, I feel like there are so many more things I haven’t had the chance to try.
BEEF
I think everyone knows about Wagyu and Kobe beef but you don’t have to buy 100$+ steaks to eat good beef in Japan. A lot of places well serve up really great cuts of beef for a reasonable price. There are also places with a set menu showcasing different cuts of beef. Gyudon is a really popular fast food chain that serves up beef and onion on top of rice - really, really affordable. Many restaurants actually serve up beef BBQ or grill style, so you can cook it the way you like! Lastly, there’s also raw beef sushi - I’ve personally never tried it but my sister says it’s pretty delicious.
Gyukatsu is pretty popular - there’s been gyukatsu restaurants opening up in Canada - but the beef comes out semi-grilled and you are given a hot stone to finish it off to your liking. I got the basic meal which came with rice and soup. The beef was so juicy and soft, this was a great meal for under $20. You’ll be able to find many gyukatsu restaurants in Japan - some extremely popular ones will have LONG lines so be prepared to stand in line (or go really early)!
Wagyu beef is really well known because it’s extremely soft, juicy and fatty. These types of beef only come out of Japan. I ate at an all you can eat wagyu beef restaurant which costed just over $120, so obviously it wasn’t the top tier of waygu but this was tasty nonetheless. You were served a couple of set dishes before the all you can eat portion. We got to pick between two types of meet: one that was much fattier and one that was more lean. I loved the fattier one but you wouldn’t be able to eat much of it before getting sick of it. Overall, it was such a great experience.
DANGO
If you’ve ever eaten mochi, you probably know what dango is. Dango is make of mochiko, which is rice flour, and it gets pounded into this chewy substance. The mixture itself lacks flavour so it is usually made sweet with things like red bean inside and is served with green tea, however, there are savory options as well.
You’ll probably come across many shops selling dango. You’ll often find them in areas with tons of street food vendors like in Asakusa or Dotonbouri. The one's I bought were grilled and covered in this sweet and salty, soy sauce like glaze. The flavour with the texture really makes a great combo! I also tried the tri coloured dango, which is really well known, and that one is really good too.
SOFT SERVE & ICE CREAM
Of course you can get ice cream anywhere but there are a couple things that Japan does really well with the ice creams I’ve tried so far. They kill it with their green tea/matcha flavours. There is a well known ice cream shop called Nanaya Suzukien that sells varying intensities of matcha ice cream. So if you’re looking for just the perfect level of sweetness along with the bitterness of matcha, you will definitely be able to find it there!
One of my personal favourites is Cremia. The ice cream from here is very smooth and very milky - it’s nothing like I’ve had before. You have to really try this one out! Cremia also has matcha soft serve but I went for the vanilla/chocolate mix. The vanilla had this amazing milky flavour to it, probably because of the quality of milk they use and the chocolate had a great chocolate flavour that wasn’t overly sweet. In addition to the cookie biscuit cone? The combo can’t be beat! One thing to watch out for is that it melts quite fast and it can be messy, so eat fast.
There are also a lot of shops selling sundaes. This one in particular that I got had: mochi, chestnuts, red beans, sweet beans and a green tea rice cracker served with green tea soft serve. There were these jelly like cubes that were near the bottom that had this strange texture to them. I forgot what exactly they were called but they weren’t really my cup of tea.
BENTO
Bento’s are prepackaged meals with multiple different components and compartments to them. I often hear people having them for lunch or if you’re like me, I bought them for the train ride from Tokyo to Osaka (which is about 2h 30mins). Tokyo Station has a lot of shops that sell bento’s, grocery stores and many other stores do as well. There are also a variety of different bento’s: meat, seafood, vegetarian, and there might even be vegan ones - you’ll have to do your research beforehand!
Honestly, I enjoy the experience of eating bento on the train - it’s like the whole experience. My sister on the other hand, doesn’t really enjoy it. She would rather buy something else to eat on the train. But honestly, the bento’s I’ve bought for the train aren’t amazingly delicious or anything, maybe I just haven’t found the right one for me.
This bento box’s main feature was the unagi over rice. There was also some marinated fish and small clams. Everything on the left was actually very tasty! I’m used to warm rice so I wish the rice was warm… On the right, there was a couple of assorted pickled vegetables, which I don’t typically mind but there was something about the texture of these that I just didn’t enjoy.
This bento would probably be my choice from the two. The main star was the salmon over rice. There was also some pork cutlet, chicken, pickled vegetables and a small mochi dessert for the end. The fish was not try at all and I really liked how they included 2 other sources of protein. The pickled veggies in this one was much better. BUT the texture of the mochi… was a no for me (LOL).
CHEESE TARTS
I’m not quite sure why cheese tarts are so popular in Japan - Pablo which is a popular chain has opened stores in Canada. There are a lot of different shops that sell these. They aren’t overly cheesy or anything, the flavour sort of reminds me of cheesecake. Subtly cheesy, a bit of sweetness and crumbly yet dense?
Sorry, I don’t remember what store the picture below is from but you can find them located in Tokyo Station and the second photo is from a shop in Kamakura, they cost about $3-$5 dollars each. Some places sell different flavours like matcha but I suggest you at least try the original before venturing off to try a different flavour.
I hope you enjoyed my 5 extra eats from Japan. Let me know what are your thoughts on my picks if you’ve ever tried them or let me know which one you are most excited to try!
Thanks
-Thomas