It is now the end of the third week. Wow. That went by fast. Since talking about my lab is boring, I will dedicate this week’s post to all the delicious food I’ve eaten so far!
The picture on top is of a couple of my lab members. I’m still having a hard time remembering their names, but from the right to left, these guys are Mitsunari (my mentor), Yutaka, Shun, and Yoshikawa.
The food here is absolutely amazing. I’ve always enjoyed Japanese cuisine back in the states, but once I ate the food here — the authentic food here — there is no contest in how much more delicious it is here in Japan. Japanese cuisine, or rather 日本料理 (にほんりょうり）, is filled with many familiar dishes we all know as well as some very interesting foods that few of us have seen before. For example, the picture below was taken at a grilled-chicken store (やきとりや）and is ground meat wrapped with friend chicken skin — a chicken-skin gyoza. This was one of the first dishes that I got to eat here where I was absolutely mind blown. The taste of the skin, despite being fried, was extremely juicy. The filling inside contrasted the oily skin with its light and sweet taste. Once you squeeze some lemon on top of it, a whole new world is opened for your tastebuds as the acidity of lemon enhances the salty sweetness of the whole chicken-skin wrapped gyoza. Truly delicious. This dish was eating at a somewhat nearby restaurant by the school called 六, which literally translates to “six”. Below that are some chicken skewers eaten at the same place. I don’t really remember which is which part of the chicken, but trust me when I say Japanese yakitori servers many, many different parts of chicken. I have eaten skewers ranging from chicken skin, to chicken bone, to chicken butt, to heart and liver. All of them are amazing and should be tried once before you die.
Cafeteria food. Oh my god. Cafeteria food. Coming from UCSC, the cafeteria food is notorious for its horrible, inaccurate imitation of any type of cuisine. Ever. Needless to say, my school’s food is horrible. We get to enjoy things like canned-sauce pasta, overcooked/undercooked rice, “sushi” (rice wrapped with green onions, I’m not kidding), Pho made with lukewarm broth. Besides our crappy cafeteria food, the other cafes we have are overpriced or just unhealthy. Osaka University, on the other hand, has the most balanced, delicious, and affordable food I have ever seen while also having a big variety of cuisines. So far I have eaten at 4 different places for lunch and each of them are amazing (including the 7-11). Most meals you eat in the school cafeteria comes with soup and rice and some sort of entree. The bigger cafeterias have a grab-and-go style set-up where they have a bunch of dishes made already and you grab whatever you want and pay. Besides this, there is always a place to get a bunch of small appetizer dishes, like potato salad, grilled fish, meatballs, yam, etc. And this isn’t even the best part. Depending on how hungry you are, your lunch meal will usually come out to be roughly $5-7 dollars USD. The picture below was roughly 5 bucks. That’s it. I got a large bowl of rice, miso soup, shrimp tempera, chicken teriyaki, and some pork katsu. For just 5 dollars!
The dish below is a roast beef dish over rice with this demi-glace sauce poured over it. Oh, it also had a soft boiled egg on top as well. The total of this dish with the soup was $5.50 USD. I’m actually in heaven.
These are also food that aren’t necessarily Japanese. The roast beef dish is considered American, and the noodle dish below is of Chinese origin. The dan-dan mien was also delicious. It consisted of Japanese ramen sitting in HOT broth (no way!) with some sort of spicy, numbing meat sauce and chili oil placed on top, garnished with green onions and leek. おいしかったです。
I’ve also got to do some traveling this weekend and went to a nearby city, Nara! This place is known for the bowing deer and their giant park filled with shrines and temples. I will probably save this for my week 4 post. But, we went to a cafe to rest (it is VERY hot right now) and we ordered some coffee and some sort of mixed fruit juice. The store was very chic and was decorated like a stereotypical European cafe. What was cool about this place (aside from everything) was that they grew their own spice-plants outside. That’s where the mint on top of the juice came from! The coffee was super delicious and came with a Nilla-like cracker. かわいい！
Below are some other foods I got to try!
Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki! This is a Japanese-style pancake filled with udon, cabbage, a meat (this one is seafood), an egg on top and drizzled with okonomiyaki sauce. The usual style most okonomiyaki restaurants (especially those in the states) make are Osaka-style ones. The main differences is that Hiroshima style okonomiyaki usually layers their ingredients, which you can kind of see in the picture above. Osaka style okonomiyaki usually mixes their ingredients together and cook it (except for the egg). 
Taiyaki! Grilled-fish-designed-sandwich-thing with red bean paste in the middle! One of the most traditional Japanese desserts/snacks that you can find pretty much anywhere along the streets of the city. They are also very popular to eat during festivals and such. Crispy on the outside, but soft and moist on the inside. Sooooooo good. Probably one of my favorite Japanese snacks.
Of course, sushi. The fish in this picture look kinda of dark and may make you think that they were not fresh, but let me assure you that the fish was definitely fresh and that it was the lighting’s fault!
Some delicious mochi. The outside is powdered with mung bean powder. Is it mung bean powder? I’m not sure, but I’m certain it’s a type of bean’s powder. This was eaten at Nara and was definitely worth the 15 minutes we had to wait for it! This place is very popular so make sure you try it whenever you go.
Goal: Get fat in Japan –> in progress.
Michael Tang 