3 Weeks in Japan - Food Highlights and Takeaways

I just got back from an impromptu 3-week vacation to Japan! Besides being a much-needed reset from the monotony of working life, it offered another opportunity to experience and learn from Japanese food culture.

Regional Cuisine

Japanese cuisine can be broadly categorized based on where it’s from, and to an extent, its target audience. For example, when I think of Osakan food, I think predominantly of street food like okonomiyaki and takoyaki. When I consider the many wards of Tokyo, I think of a more international mixing pot of cuisines, as well as many hyperspecialties - think 10+ local varieties of ramen. So when I went to Osaka, toured Hokkaido, and stayed in Tokyo and Sendai, I was sure to look up the local foods and try each one at least once.

Osaka

Osaka is known for its street food and nightlife - for this reason, Osaka is a personal favorite of mine.

Okonomiyaki

One of the greatest street foods of all time, okonomiyaki. I really ought to write my own recipe on this one - Okonomiyaki is a cabbage pancake, and it’s simply heavenly. To me, there’s no canonical “best way” to make okonomiyaki - it’s all personal preference, as long as you’ve got the basics down. For me, that’s slightly chunkier cabbage, a healthy amount of batter to keep it stuck together, “okonomiyaki sauce” and Kewpie mayo, green onion, lots of katsuobushi - ultrathin wisps of simmered, smoked and fermented skipjack tuna that “dance” atop the steaming pancake, and pork belly.

The recipe is fungible to a degree - use a different kind of cabbage, slice it thinner, use a different wet-dry ratio in the batter, use more or less batter with the cabbage. Add seafood, beef, or use bacon instead. The sky’s the limit here.

Yakisoba Baby in Dotonbori makes wonderful okonomiyaki, and the chef owner is an energetic delight to boot. It’s standing room only though - be aware if your feet are tired from a long day touring Japan!

Takoyaki

Takoyaki are batter spheres containing delightfully chewy octopus pieces in the center. They typically have similar toppings to okonomiyaki, and are served half a dozen at a time with toothpicks. Unless you’re dedicated enough to own a takoyaki (or æbleskiver) pan, these are tough to make at home, so be sure to try them when you’re out and about.

Hokkaido

Hokkaido is the island to the north of Japan’s main island, and it’s big - really big. It’s a bit of a disservice to talk about it as one singular monolith, so I’ll be sure to point out the specific region of Hokkaido that the following foods originated from.

Jingisukan

Jingisukan was definitely a new discovery for me on this trip. While the specific city that it originated from is debated - all 3 contenders seem to be on the main island of Japan - it’s become well known as one of the regional dishes of Hokkaido regardless of the specific city of origin.

It’s more appropriate to consider jingisukan as an experience (like yakiniku or hotpot) rather than just a food. Raw sliced mutton is served alongside vegetables and a piping hot, convex iron pan. Diners are typically also served a piece of fat used to oil the pan. Oil the pan, get the bean sprouts and other veggies cooking at the base, and place your thin slices of mutton along the top of the dome. The juices from the meat will gather at the bottom, seasoning the veggies. While this time I visited in August (a mistake I won’t make again), one can certainly imagine how hearty this meal would be in the depths of a Hokkaidan winter. I found it to be hearty, nutrient-rich, and delicious.

You could certainly make an approximation at home using a simple cast iron pan, but there is something to be said for the experience of the grilling on the unique jingisukan pan!

Miso Ramen

My favorite style of ramen - imagine my delight when I discovered Sapporo developed it. A thicker broth, wavy noodles, unctuous pork chashu slices, corn, and green onion are all mainstays of this ramen. There’s not much I can say about this hardy ramen that hasn’t already been said, but I will at least mention a great restaurant to eat it at - Sumire in Sapporo makes a solid bowl of miso ramen; their wavy noodles have a fantastic bite.

Shio Ramen

I was also surprised to learn that Hakodate is the city which claims credit for shio (salt-based) ramen. Hakodate is the southernmost city of Hokkaido, and it has a slightly warmer climate compared to the rest of the island. This lends itself to the idea that Hokkaido is typically known for hardier foods. As a warmer city, Hakodate ramen could have a cleaner, more delicate style to it.

I only discovered this on my way out of the city, so I scooped up a quick bowl at the Shinkansen station before heading down south to Sendai. If you’re into the classics, it’s hard to beat shio ramen.

Sendai

Gyutan

Gyutan is beef tongue, and Sendai claims to be the nation’s capital for it. The beef tongue is thinly sliced, scored to reduce chewiness, and grilled over charcoal to perfection. It can then be served with typical Japanese accompaniments - sauces, rice, pickles, oden, etc. While delicious, I didn’t find it to be anything too extraordinary - give it a go if you get a chance, but don’t expect it to shatter your expectations!

Zunda!

It’s really just a delightful word. Zunda is a paste made from edamame beans, and people in Sendai just go crazy for it. Zunda can be found in some form in many dishes, but by far the most renowned of them are zunda shakes. For me these were reminiscent of peanut butter and banana milkshakes my dad would make for me - emphasis on the peanut butter. I’m definitely interested to learn more about this preparation, so I’ll be experimenting with the creation of zunda myself here at home - I think the paste would go great in many baked goods. Stay posted for a recipe!

Tokyo

Tokyo’s a massive city - it’s really a megacity, comprising many different subcities. I wasn’t there for too long, but I did try a couple different items.

Tendon

No, it’s not the tendon you’re thinking of. Tendon can be thought of as tempura-don - or tempura on rice. For me, this is right up there with the greats of Osakan food like okonomiyaki. Delicious, ridiculously unhealthy, and best eaten in a restaurant or street food vendor style. Tendon is typically served with a massive piece of shrimp tempura, several pieces of veggie tempura, and maybe the restaurant’s signature tempura item - for the vendor I went to, that was a large piece of white fish I can’t recall the name of. These fried items are then typically coated in a rich, thin soy-based sauce and placed atop rice. It’s a heart attack on rice, and I’m here for it.

Oden

Oden is an extremely popular side dish native to Tokyo. It’s a rich, thin soy-dashi-based broth containing hearty stew ingredients, such as potato, fishballs, daikon, and tofu. Many restaurants I went to across Japan served oden as a side to the main dish.

Fun fact - Oden has its own Unicode code point, U+1F362: 🍢

Overall Learnings from My Trip

A couple of things made an impression on me on this trip. First, there’s the sheer variety of cuisines across regions that are, ultimately, geographically small. The second, just how good we have it here in Vancouver for international foods.

Japan is an ancient amalgamation of different cultures, spreading back well over 10,000 years ago to the Jōmon period to the modern day. Throughout history, it’s been a uniquely insular, yet still technically and socially advanced society. Dynasties rose and fell, native peoples were assimilated and had their own small cultures erased. Kingdoms came and went, outsiders were rejected then reluctantly accepted, and fortunes changed for Japan on small scales and larger ones like WW2. All of this has led to many different varieties of regional cuisine across areas tens, not hundreds, of kilometers removed from each other. To me, this is quite amazing coming from Vancouver.

On that note, Vancouver: We’re quite lucky here to have access to so many great options for food! Not just the choices themselves, but the quality of our food stands up to even the country of origin. I found in many cases, the Japanese foods we have here in Vancouver - while certainly more limited in scope - are of equal and sometimes greater quality for the price point. And similarly, I’m quite fond of Vancouver’s take on sushi! In a typical Japanese sushi restaurant, the “average” roll might be a tuna maki or a tuna nigiri. In Vancouver, it’s undisputedly a California roll. We have our own regional preferences here in Vancouver, we have a considerable range of options for Japanese food, we do it all quite well; for that, I’m thankful to live here.