Eating Japan, Part 5

Food, food, food.  Nom, nom, nom.  I've been on the other side of the world in recent weeks.  Alaska, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire.  More on that to come soon on my other blog, Where in the World is Kacey?!? Although I ate plenty of delicious things there, I have to be honest with you, my stomach wasn't too happy with the insane amounts of carbs and dairy consumed back in the states.  Sure, it was my fault, I was eating out nearly every meal.  Asides from my body going into junk food shock, I was really starting to crave my usual Japanese fair of fish, fish, fish, sushi, sushi, sushi, and curry.  The day after we arrived back home, we made sure to attack the sushi-go-round asap.

To continue on with my Eating Japan series, below is a few other things we have been consuming in the recent months.  If you wanna check to see what else we've eaten, check out the other posts Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

I have a really difficult time here going grocery shopping and NOT buying something to eat immediately.  Even if I'm not hungry, I feel it's my duty to experience all the Japanese food culture I can.  That's reasonable, isn't it? While at one of the larger supermarkets here (San-A) I couldn't hep myself by grabbing a couple of things from the bakery, including this Sakana-Fry Sando (Fried Fish Sandwich), which is exactly what it sounds like. A delicious filet of tender white fish fried in a panko coating, with a spicy mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato on this amazingly soft bread that's called a Butter Roll.  It's soft, it's crunchy, it's served at room temperature or heated, and it's delicious.  It also costs about $1.00.  Can't beat that with a stick.

Salads.  Salads are really good here. They have tons of different kinds.  One of my favorite is one of the most simple and most often consumed.  It's what I would consider the 'house salad' and is super thinly sliced green cabbage, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, corn, and sometimes a few other veggies.  It's very simple and usually topped with a sesame ginger dressing.  This one was served with what tasted like a Russian Dressing/Japanese Dressing hybrid.  Super crunchy, super simple and tasty.

A while back we checked out a popular ramen chane called Tan tan-men (Actually, I think it's called Ichibantei, but everyone calls it Tan tan-men).  Known for it's crazy spicy noodle/soup dishes, we knew we had to try it.  My mistake was wearing a white shirt.  Lesson learned.  Both of us had spicy chili oil splatter all over us, but maybe we just eat too aggressively.  The meal started out with a small kimchi appetizer, and we knew it was going to be what we expected when we noticed a box of tissues in front of every other person.  We sat at the bar with a bunch of locals on their lunch break, and we all dove head first into our bowls.  It seemed like it at least, the bowls were the size of our head.  I'm pretty sure we were tired after eating it all.  As promised, it was spicy. I could see Aaron asking for even more spice though, he likes to push his limits of the Scoville.

I've already shared my love of onigiri with you, and this just takes it to a whole other level.  This my friends is a rice ball wrapped in meat, aka, Nikumaki.  Dreamy, don't you think?  I don't need to explain much, it's a rice ball wrapped in meat slathered with a marinade.

Drinks are delicious here. Sure, they have soda products, but my favorite is the varieties of teas and juices.  My favorites are Acerola and Mango (shown below).  Legit juice.

We found ourselves at Kami Sushi one afternoon.  It's a super popular place among American's here.  The sign on the front of the building says "Los Angeles Style Sushi", and it was true to it's description.  We actually haven't been 'wowed' by any of the popular sushi places geared towards Americans.  I'm not trying to sound like a 'I'm living in Japan snob' or anything, but I believe these places try too hard to please Americans.  The food is over salted and over sweetened for my tastes.  But I have to give them credit, this place is always packed, so people like it apparently.  I'm glad that both Aaron and I got a variety of things to try.  This is a photo of his plate below, a lunch set of course! I ordered some things a la carte including a roll, a hand roll, and some umi budo (sea grapes), which has become one of my favorite snacks here.  I'll cover that later!  We sat at the bar in front of the tempura chef (tempura was pretty good here as well) and were kind of mesmerized by his oil skills and his 'seasoned' arms and hands.  So overall, we had a good experience and might go back if a group of people wanted to go, but I'll keep on trying other sushi joints for a decent meal.

Does anyone living in Okinawa have any recommendations for me?  We are constantly trying new places, and would love to find more eateries off the beaten path!  I feel like this is a great series to continue doing, after all, we are always eating!  So there's lots more to come!!!


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