Fast food in Tokyo, Japan - Noodles

Why can't we have cool "fast food" places in the US, like the ones in Tokyo?! I was walking around Akihabara at 9 am, waiting for the stores to open, when this poster grabbed my attention



380 Yen! That's like USD$3!! So I walked in, sat down, and waited... and waited... and waited. Then I noticed this funny machine in the corner



On closer look:




Thank god I can read a little Japanese. Inserted my money, pressed a button and a ticket came out. Handed the ticket to the staff, and less than 10 minutes later...



How cool is that!? How were the noodles? Surprising good. Silky and slighty chewy. The tempura were crisp and the broth was not too strong. At 9 am in the cold crisp morning, it was the perfect way to start the day.

edit: I really should tell you what was in the noodles, right? I blame the jet lag... Tempura lotus root, smelt, seaweed & spring onions, fishcake; and a slight sprinkle of togarashi (japanese 7-spice seasoning) for a little heat...

I believe this was a noodle chain restaurant, and of course, I forgot to take down the name...

Tokyo was terrific for street food. Since we knew we'd be paying through the nose for dinners, breakfasts and lunches were usually quick grabs in the train stations (usually Shinjuku) or in a depaato basement food court. Ramen, tonkatsu and other croquettes, french pastries... delightful, fresh and cheap.

Notable street fun that we didn't partake in: McDonalds offering a burger with seaweed on it, a TGIFriday's that couldn't have had a storefront more than 20 feet wide, and a kiosk in Harajuku selling crepes with ice cream next to one selling condoms.

JoelF wrote:McDonalds offering a burger with seaweed on it,

Actually, when I was growing up in Hong Kong and Singapore, McDonalds would have these little packets of seasonings that you would toss with your fries. Curry, Seaweed and a ranch-type powder.... It was pretty good...

JoelF wrote:a kiosk in Harajuku selling crepes with ice cream next to one selling condoms.

I saw this in Harajuku, but there was a long line, and I did not feel like waiting. Harajuku made me feel old....

CrazyC wrote:

JoelF wrote:a kiosk in Harajuku selling crepes with ice cream next to one selling condoms.

I saw this in Harajuku, but there was a long line, and I did not feel like waiting. Harajuku made me feel old....

I hope you still practiced safe crepes if you weren't able to wait in line.

Harajuku, especially near the train station, has this wonderful slapped-together randomness that is completely different from the wabi-sabi just-naturally-out-of-square you'll see in other neighborhoods -- it's almost a shanty town in places. I didn't feel so much old as Godzilla-sized. MrsF dragged me into several thrift shops looking for costumes, and between hitting my head on low-hanging pipes in basement warehouses and kimonos that wouldn't have fit MrsF since she was 9, I felt like I should be stomping buildings flat. She finally found a nice wedding robe in the Harajuku shrine flea market the Sunday morning we left.

Actually, except for the guy I surprised as he exited the subway car, nobody goggled at my 2-meter height, they were all extremely polite.

CrazyC wrote:So I walked in, sat down, and waited... and waited... and waited. Then I noticed this funny machine in the corner

Hilarious. Not just for noodles, but for ice cream, crepes, dining in cafeterias and more. What blew me away was the french fry, fried onigiri & other hot foods dispensing vending machine I saw this past November at a rest stop; This vending machine actually dispenses hot food (not just takes orders). Crazy... Then again you can buy alcohol, underwear, live seafood and DVD porn via vending machines in Japan as well... (Quite an evening 'eh?)

I was in Japan myself a a couple of months ago, and I too loved the fast food places, as well as the wonderfully quaint ones. Fortunately, as I don't read Japanese (other than recognizing some of the characters from having been to China a few times -- nice thing about a borrowed alphabet), almost everything you'll ever want to eat is rendered in plastic form at these small places, so you can pick out what you want and just remember the number when you face that little coin-operated machine. The nice thing is, not only do you not have to be able to read Japanese, you don't have to worry about pronouncing what you want, as the ticket the machine gives you lets the waiter know what you hoped to get. Of course, one picks up the words for a few favorite dishes, for those times when plastic food and little machines are not available -- such as gyu-don, also called gyu donburi -- which became one of my favorite dishes while wondering the streets of Japan. It's a dish of sliced beef and onions in a savory sauce served over a bowl of rice (donburi refers to the bowl of rice). So here's my question -- anyone out there have a good recipe for bee and onion donburi?

Unfortunately, all 16 rolls of film I shot in Japan have vanished (the place I sent them for processing is still searching for them), so I won't have a nifty photo of the dish, like the photo that started this article. But I'm grateful for the picture in the initial post, because I can direct people to that when I try to explain what these restaurants were like.

I was also surprised to find out that curry is one of the top dishes in Japan, but not curry as we know it, rather a dark brown curry that looks rather like beef stew. That's why, if you go to a Japanese grocery store, you'll find almost a whole aisle given over to curry mix. (No one makes their own "curry roux," which is what is in the boxes -- oil, flour, and curry powder, pretty much. I have not been able to find a single recipe that doesn't include "curry roux of your choice" as one of the ingredients.)

Japan is definitely a food-obsessed country, with markets everywhere and glorious food floors in every major department store. Great destination for a foodie. (And did you get to Tsukiji?)

Yep... I made it to Tsukiji. My plane landed at 6:30 am and I was chowing down by 9:30 am... =)

Here are my Tsukiji pics. I did not take pictures of the sushi tho.

I also made it to Sensoji for the New Year Eve festivities...

I am afraid that Tokyo has spoilt me... I had tempura soba today for dinner, and it was disappointing after Japan...

Very cool pics, the black and white was really nice. Everyone should go watch the slideshow!

Yeah, Natsukashii, na.

I miss Japan. Seeing all the changes -- you used to have to have someone take your order at the fast food noodle places -- makes me want to go back.

I've been contemplating taking one of Elizabeth Andoh's week long crash courses in Tokyo this year -- anyone else have interest? The more people attend (up to 5, I think) the less it is - about $1000 per person if you put together a group of 5.

here's more info: Taste of Culture

Lucky you . That sounds like great fun. I've been eyeing Andoh's Washoku since I first saw it listed a few months ago. Maybe once I get through my Christmas reading load I'll put in an order.

Washoku is pretty good - definitely worth adding to the collection, no matter how many japanese cookbooks you already have. I've been using Eliz Andoh's cookbooks since I first lived there, in '85 -- good, authentic recipes that taste great. I especially enjoyed the Kimpira recipe that I made the other night.

CrazyC -- thanks for the Tsukiji photos. They bring back good memories.

And Queijo -- I don't know if I'm ready to go back to Japan quite so soon, but let us know if you do decide to do that class. I might be interested, depending on finances and schedule.

And thanks for the tip about Andoh. Time to add some Japanese cookbooks to my collection.

Not noodles, but beer.

E.M.

I did not see the beer pouring machine in Japan! I wish I did tho... maybe that justifies another trip in the near future...

But as I was waiting for the Narita Express train, I made my first purchase in Japan. And of course, I had to commenmerate it with pics... =)



All these choices! But this one caught my eye.



How could I pass this up? Will I ever find "Fire Only One" coffee in the US? Plus after a week in the boonies with no decent coffee, I needed my fix.

Oh! And I also bought a Starbucks latte from the local combini (7-11). Things in cute Japanese containers tastes so much better than the real stuff... =)

they are selling fire at mitsuwa now -- I was there the other day and admired the can...

Re: Andoh's class - it may be in the distant future, within the next year. I can't plan anything for right now. I'm wanting to take the 5 day class with her - the intensive. I'm a professional chef, so I'm hoping to take the class with people who already cook at the same level - or passionate amateurs who want to learn a lot about japanese cooking.

Vending Machines Offer Plenty in Japan [Fort Wayne News Sentinel] @ Agenda Inc.

E.M.

Queijo wrote:they are selling fire at mitsuwa now -- I was there the other day and admired the can...

So I had to try one.
There were three varieties (I can't remember the names, one was a Japanese word that began with an "m" and the other I think might have just been "milk"), I chose the basic one.

$1.59 for a 6.7oz container (1.9 servings - hah!). Nice deep toasty coffee flavor, with a hint of artificial vanilla and a good dairy level. Much better coffee flavor than a Frappucino.

The thing I really loved about those vending machines -- besides their convenient ubiquity -- was that they had both hot and cold items (not the little labels beneath each item on the first vending machine photo). You could get iced coffee or cold water, but could also opt for hot tea or soup. And because sightseeing is thirsty work, I found myself frequently drawn to these machines. (Though if you found a conbini -- i.e., convienience store -- the price would be a few cents lower.)

And the best Jasmine tea I've ever had came out of a plastic bottle from on of those conbinis!

I remember when everything cost a single 100 Y coin....those were the days!

Actually, 100-yen only vending machines are popping up here in Tokyo. It's a bit of a trend though not pervasive. Look for a big red sign slapped on the side of the machine advertising it as all-100 yen.

My favorite, though, is the 12 ounce can of Coke for 120 yen sitting right next to the 16 ounce can of Coke for . . . yes . . . 120 yen. I'm waiting for the stumpie 6 ounce can to join the lineup.

when I first went to japan (in high school in 1985) the exchange rate was $1=250Y. The next year the rate had slipped...the golden era of endaka began!

What else has been trendy food-wise in Japan? Which foreign foods have taken hold? What are people obsessed with?

The ramen boom continues! Tantan ramen is especially popular. The broth is tonkotsu style (cloudy from pig bones) made hot and spicy with chiles. It can be too much; it's very rich.

What else? There seems to be a bit of a natural foods movement. Even one of the big chain convenience stores, Lawson, has opened stores with that theme: Natural Lawson. And brown rice is becoming more popular. One can now find onigiri made with it.

And . . . oh yeah . . . I almost forgot: lamb barbecue is everywhere. The Japanese quantly call it Jingiskan (Genghis Kahn). It's billed as the "healthy" meat.

That's wild that brown rice has finally mainstreamed. In '89 when I was in school there, we begged the cooks at the cafeteria to serve us brown rice -- they thought we were insane. They occasionally did it for us - begrudgingly.

What is Natural Lawson stocking? Is there any way you could post some pictures?

I wouldn't get too excited--Natural Lawson is more a gimmick than anything else: flashy packacking and some salads thrown into the usual mix of junk food and feminine products.

Here's an interesting take on it:

http://joi.ito.com/archives/2003/05/09/ ... awson.html

And it's still very difficult to impossible to get brown rice at a restaurant unless it dubs itself as a "healthy" or "organic" restaurant.

But . . . it's pretty easy to come across a nice (and expensive) natural and organic food shop in most neighborhoods.

There's also Alishan, a wonderful organic foods store/commune/call-it-what-you'd-like in Saitama. They provide a great delivery service:

http://www.alishan-organic-center.com/e ... index.html

Yeah, I did some research on it yesterday after I saw your note -- all the copy (in japanese) on the Natural Lawson website indicates exactly what was in the Joi Itoh blog - it is a female-friendly c-store, no more no less. I found some funny blog entries about people interacting with staff at Natural Lawson as well (getting the cashier to admit there is really nothing special about Natural Lawson except the friendly-to-women angle). I read that the products at lawson and lawson natural aren't that different - and the environment appears only marginally 'better' at Natural Lawson.

Here's a good article on organic and all-natural in Japan: http://metropolis.japantoday.com/tokyo/ ... beauty.asp

Where in Saitama is Alishan?

good link. alishan (aka tengu) is mentioned. go to its website for location, etc.

http://www.alishan-organic-center.com/e ... index.html