NOM O’CLOCK: 10 TASTY JAPANESE FOODS TO TRY

We recently went through our photos and we both could not believe how many food pictures we took! Kenny loves trying new food and I love taking pictures of them, so I guess that makes us a good match 🙂 If you are planning a trip to Japan, we want to inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and try a more diverse range of Japanese food (other than sushi). Let us take you to our top 10 favorites!

I am usually not a fan of bread, nor honey. However, when you put them both together into this honey toast goodness, I AM SOLD. If you are not familiar with honey toast, it is brick sized milk bread pieces toasted with a generous amount of butter, stacked into a tower and topped with drizzles of honey and scoops of ice cream. It is so simple that you can probably replicate this treat in your own kitchen if you have the right kind of bread. Nevertheless, my favorite cafe to get my honey toast fix during my time in Japan is at Honey Toast Cafe at Akihabara. It is generally not crowded and the place has a very nice ambiance. The three of us (mom, Kenny and I) shared one honey toast and left the place very full. It was a definitely a 1000 Yen well-spent.

Japanese crepes are very similar to French crepes, however, they offer more toppings. We had our first Japanese crepes experience at Harajuku where most of the crêperies are located on the famous Takeshita Street . We went straight to Marion Crepes because this crepe stall was opened in 1976, making it one of the first crêperies in Harajuku. Kevin had the custard and whipped cream crepe and Kenny and I had the brownies fudge crepe. We loved our crepes but wished that we also tried the matcha (green tea) crepe too just because it is so authentically Japanese! Price ranges from 300-500 yen depending on how many toppings you have.

Literally meaning “fried pork cutlet”, this delicacy is a common one in Japan. Whether it is in a fancy restaurant or in a take-away bento box, you will never miss the sight of its golden brown skin. It is usually accompanied with rice and some vegetables. Furthermore, there are many variations that mixes well with the crispiness of this pork dish. A famous combination includes putting the cooked Tonkotsu into a pot of boiling egg on top of plain rice. There are also other variations of katsus that you should definitely try!

A traditional Japanese confectionary, Dango is basically a dumpling made with rice flour and often filled or covered with a certain sauce or paste. There are many flavors to this sweet and the most common one is the Anko which is dango with red bean paste (Azuki). We tried three types of dango, the pink is with sweet Sakura sauce, brown is with salty Teppanyaki sauce and the special minion dango was from Universal Studios. I can say that my favorite was the Teppanyaki one!

I don’t know how many times I have professed my love for ramen, but here we go again, I LOVE RAMEN! Ramen has been gaining more popularity in the States that you don’t have to fly all the way to Japan to enjoy a good bowl of ramen because they are plenty here. If you’re in NYC, please check out my NYC Ramen Guide!

I love all kinds of soft serves. From Momofuku Milk Bar’s cereal milk soft serve to McDonalds dollar menu vanilla soft serve. Although we can get soft serve ice cream practically everywhere, there is something different with Japanese soft serves. The top one is Yuzu lemon flavored ice cream with a topping of Sugi honey which we found in Kamakura. The bottom two are green tea and vanilla with a cinnamon stick for a spoon. These ice cream really made the summer heat much more bearable.

Takoyaki, or octopus balls, is also one of Osaka’s great delicacies. It is basically made out of wheat flour batter with (usually) an octopus filling. They are usually served in a set of 5 and is topped with the succulent takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise, sprinkled with aunori (seaweed), and katsuobushi (Bonito flakes). They are best enjoyed when they are fresh from the pan and can be eaten with a single bite (not recommended). As a popular dish, you can find this anywhere! Don’t worry, all of the restaurants or shops sell the same Takoyaki so they all taste alike.

Made from pancake batter, this all-time favorite snack is literally called baked sea bream. It is usually filled with red bean paste but over the years, many different fillings can be used; ice cream, cheese or custard are often used as fillings. It is relatively cheap and easy to make. Think of it as making a waffle using a fish mold. Nevertheless, it tastes great!

Ahh, Okonomoyaki, the delicacy of Osaka. You can call this as a Japanese pancake but, as its name suggests, has the freedom of putting in any topping you like. Trying an Okonomoyaki in Osaka is in our bucket list and by chance, we stumbled upon an okonomoyaki restaurant and decided to stop by while waiting for the rain to stop on our first night in Osaka. The restaurant looked pretty traditional like a Japanese bar. We were seated on seats that had its own Teppanyaki grill. After attempting to understand the menu with pictures. we ordered a Yakisoba (Fried noodles) and two types of Okonomoyaki, original and modern. The “modern” Okonomoyaki had the ingredients of an original one with an additional topping of Yakisoba. If I was not mistaken, the price of one Okonomoyaki is around 800 Yen; its price increases as more toppings are added. It was a very delicious and authentic meal which I definitely miss from Japan.

You cannot say that you have been to Tokyo if you have not tried eating around the streets of Tsukiji. Despite the smell of fish in the air, it really is a paradise for seafood lovers. With so many food to choose from, we could only eat some that we really wanted. My advice, go there with an empty stomach (and a large wallet). So the first thing we ate was grilled Unagi (eel) and scallops. The unagi taunted me as we were walking around. I had been wanting to eat unagi since I came to Japan and where can I get it better if it is not in Tsukiji. We then found a shop that sold grilled scallops. We were immediately attracted by the large scallops sizzling on the grill. Kristie was not a huge fan of seafood but scallop was an exception and we decided to get two. The scallop was dressed lightly with lemon zest and it was also torched on the top. It only cost 500 Yen for two!

So tell us which food you have tried or which food you are actually dying to try!
​Stay tuned for more adventures that are coming soon!