Japan, end of week one--an all food blog! Part 2/3

First order of business--if you see something that you would like as a souviner or you would like me to look for something for you, let me know sooner rahter than later. Like, now.

Well, I've been remiss is some of my food picture taking. I've eaten a number of delicious meals that will remain anonymous because I forgot to record them. Which brings me to one of my favorite things about Japan--you can take a picture of ANYTHING and nobody thinks it's strange. Of course, when the Japanese travel they take thousands of pictures, so it would be pretty hypocritical for them to mock, but still...

This blog is second in a set of three BRAND NEW BLOGS! So make sure to read them all :) This is the "food blog" of the day.

So, one of my goals coming to Japan (well, eating goals at least) was to eat at a REAL teppenyaki resturant. You know--a "Japanese steakhouse"? Shogun? Ohana?

It wasn't easy to find one but I did--based on expert advice :) And it was fancy! Ladies in kimonos, the works!

First differance...you wear a giant bib. I felt like I was at a Gallagher show! But everyone else was doing it--it wasn't just a "pull one over on the foreigner" type thing. Not the most flattering picture of me but hey, what can you do?





I got Kobe beef. Wow! Look at that marbling. American Prime is just as tasty though.




The salad. It was interesting! Tofu, lettuce, see through noodles of some sort, tomatoes (safe ones!), all in a blueberry dressing. It was good! On the left you can see the appetizer type stuff--corn, squash, peppers....very tasty. Later he made some garlic--delicious! And you dip it all in sea salt. I love salt, so it was right up my alley.




The meat was great! Medium rare and delicious. The fat from the meat was then cooked up, with some garlic, and the rice--wow was that good. A delicious meal that I got absolutely stuffed by! The main difference? There was no show. No volcano out of onions. No eggs getting flipped into a hat. No fancy knifework. This lead me to wonder what Japanese people think when they come to the US and eat at Shogun...





The rest of food I have pictures of isn't near as exciting :)

I've gotten this a couple times...tonkatsu (fried pork) and a curry sauce. I like it. Strangely, the miso soup had okra in it--unexpected.




Sometimes I just read a menu until I can recognize a word that sounds good enough. In this case it was "avocado"--I like avocado's and figured that I would like whatever showed up. It was an avocado salad, corn chowder, and garlic bread. Delicious--they didn't skimp on the avocado!




One of my co-workers took me to a dessert shop when we were getting a new cord for Toby, my computer. I ordered milk snow. It was surprisingly good! I've eaten it since too...I think it has sweetened condensed milk poured on the top. Actually, this one had green tea on the bottom too.





I find this amazing. I almost have no words to describe it. If you want to know what this burger tastes like, you are going to have to wait for Josh to come...it appears to be 3 patties, cheese, bacon, an egg, and god knows what else. A heart attack laying in wait...



Also in the fast food sector...I ate at Burger King today. I know, I know, I should eat Japanese food. But I was hungry for a whopper! And I'm here for months, I don't think every meal needs to be sushi (not that I've eaten sushi yet). And what was on the menu? A BLACK PEPPER WHOPPER! I LOVE BLACK PEPPER!!! And it was every bit as good as it sounds. I should have taken the picture before removing the onions that were contaminating it.




I got a chocolate covered banana in Asakusa. It was tasty although the chocolate had a weird texture to it...it must have been cheap melting chocolate. It's a pretty shot though!





So I've been doing all of my grocery shopping at the convinence stores. This isn't really a problem because there are TONS of stores and I really like them. But I was hungry and just couldn't find anything I wanted to eat. There is a LOT of food in these stores--but something in me just won't let me get sushi in a gas station. It seems icky. Sushi with spam? Sure--but that's at the store next to work. Fish sushi? No. But then I saw it. A corn dog! But what about ketchup?

THERE WASN'T KETCHUP ON THE SHELF! I looked doubtfully at the corn dog. I'm not positive corn dogs are edible without ketchup. I took a chance on and ordered it. Out of nowhere the clerk pulled tiny ketchup packets! It was difficult to get the ketchup out without the disgusting taint of mustard, but I managed. It won't happen again because I hunted down some ketchup at another store.

So how was the corn dog? Pretty good. The "dog" was bland but the breading was thick--and that's the part I like the best anyway.

I also got some soy sauce. What are the Pringles you ask? Roast turkey Pringles. Fascinating. I haven't tried them yet though.



If those Pringles looked interesting...French Cesear Salad Pringles. I have no idea what those are going to taste like but they were interesting. Strawberry coated Cheeto's. Hmmm....fascinating. Tiny doughnuts--those I've tried tonight. Bland and they remind me of Wonder Bread...





Cake soda. Another future delicacy.


I bought these little fruits because I thought they were tiny apples. They weren't. They are really really sour plums. Tiny--but they pack a real punch. The bottom right was a strange mango custard with chocolate at the bottom--almost cloyingly sweet. I've found a lot of the sweets her are WAY too sweet for me. And the coconut pudding--I haven't tried it yet, but I have a terrible feeling it's going to taste like sunscreen.




Now here was an odd combo. Brazilian pudding pocky. Very tasty! Kind of coconut-y but really good--if you like Pocky. The bottom is a kind of cracker/cookie with chocolate on one side. They are for little kids but they are really good. On the left. I have no idea what those are supposed to taste like. They are green with green filling. I was not impressed--maybe green tea? I don't know, they didn't taste like anything really.





Panda heads on pikes!




I love Ritz crackers. I LOVE Ritz crackers. We will see about the cheese and meat...a winning breakfast!




I decided I needed something healthy in the house. So I got some sort of apple food--haven't tried it yet but it looks good. I know "ringo" means apple, so I'm good to go. The mango and apple juice was super tasty!







Little Naruto thingies were hanging on the Cokes, so I got a couple for Josh. I figure he can give the extras to his brother.




I've gotten emails about what some of the food I've shown pictures of tasted like. Well, I still haven't eaten some of it. So I've decided to add a new section to my blogs:

Food from past blogs that I've eaten but haven't blogged about:
-Giant Cokes. Delicious, but exactly like the Cokes at home. The must use tasty HFCS too.
-Chocolate mushrooms. Tasty but the chocolate is a little bitter for me. The trunk is particularly good--some sort of cracker.

Food from past blogs that I haven't eaten yet:
-Cassis and orange Haagan Daz
-Mango KitKats
-Green tea in the carton--I forgot I had it