Foods of Japan

As anyone who has met me should know, I'm rather fond of food. Fond is an understatement of epic proportions, but the fact remains that eating is a very pleasurable activity - and trying new foods out here could be classed as a full-time job if you let yourself go!

Contrary to popular belief that all the Japanese eat is raw fish (sashimi or sushi), Japan has a wealth of different types of cuisine. They range from the evil that is natto, to the joy that is okonomi-yaki, from the healthy goodness of tofu to the heart-attack inducing yaki-niku (thats cow on a stick to you and me!)... All this can be served with the ever present slightly-sticky rice, one of a multitude of different types of noodles (ramen, udon and soba to name but a few), japanese pickles, furido-poteto (chips) or some (probably better left unknown) Japanese alternative.

This page could so easily be devoted to how to navigate a menu in Japan, or the finer points of tuning your rice cooker to get the perfect stickyness factor. Relax... It isn't! . Instead it will be a gallery of rogues - those foods that I'm going to really really miss when I leave this place, those that I tried once and will throw at anyone who tries to feed me more, and those that are simply sooo random that they must be documented for the world to pay homage to!

Please enjoy this little feast, and if you stumble across any foodstuffs that you think may be worthy of a place among their hallowed ranks - e-mail me the details and I'll be sure to check it out.

Tako-pan

Take one bread roll... Look around for some ham or something simple to make a good sarnie... Sod it... Grab a tako-yaki ball and stuff it in the middle... Sprinkle with seaweed and serve cold. Given that the Japanese have a tendancy to cook random things into bread, this shouldn't have surprised me. Anyway, I found this one in a little bakery near Kri-chan's place, and I will be returning for more yeasty-octopus goodness soon!