Japanese food, with pictures

[starlady]

So marina asked about Japanese food recently, and qian posted not one, but two epic posts of Japanese food, and I thought…I could do that too! 

I used to have many, many more food photos, but I lost about 6000 photos the day after I got back from Japan in 2008, and I've been much less photo-happy on this trip & haven't been eating out as much, so I don't actually have that many. But! I am dragging showing around some friends next month, and we are going to go to many great restaurants including a place that serves "punk" kaiseki cuisine, so there will certainly be a follow-up to this post anon.

I should explain that I have several guiding principles for eating in Japan. One: I tend to prefer Japanese or Japanese-style cuisine rather than futilely seeking pizza or Mexican food, particularly this time since I'm only here (*sob*) for 2.5 months. (That said, I enjoy Japanese pizza quite a lot. In fact, I've had some amazing Italian food in Japan.) Two: whenever you can, eat the local specialty (often called meibutsu); eat local in general. Three: whenever there's anything that says "limited time only" (gentei kikan), get that. Four: I refuse to eat whale (or dolphin), but everything else is on the table, literally and metaphorically.

All these things being said, a preponderance of these photos are from cafes. YUM.



This is sobameshi, a Kobe/Hyogo thing (as you can see, it's yakisoba mixed with fried rice) and Kansai-style okonomiyaki, in Takarazuka. Yum.



Viennese coffee and a salt caramel damand at Cafe Saryo in Omotesando Hills, Aoyama-ku, Tokyo. Oh my god so good. (Salt caramel was the hot flavor here three years ago; it'll be interesting to see what's tearing up the Tokyo cafes now when I go next week.



Soup Stock, a Kanto chain, is one of my favorite places to eat. In the summer they have an amazing cold purple sweet potato soup, but this is from their winter menu.



This is my sandwich at the Ghibli Museum cafe in Mitaka, Tokyo-to. I loved that place.



Dessert at the Toraya cafe in Omotesando Hills--the little pot contains Earl Grey-infused zenzai, which I poured over the ice cream and mochi in the bigger bowl.



New Year's cuisine (osechI ryôri) made by my host mother.



Kyoto-style white miso, made by my host mother. I actually prefer the Kyoto-style to the normal (red) miso.



Our Christmas cake. It's not possible to get more Japanese than this, I swear. Also, the strawberries are essential.



My Sasebo burger at the Harbor Cafe in Kobe. There's a U.S. naval base in Sasebo, and the burgers take their name from there. So good.



This is my friend K with her bread cube, a common thing at mixed cuisine restaurants in Kansai, usually just called honey bread. It's delicious.



Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (usually just called Hiroshimayaki) in Hiroshima, as you might guess. Note that the place all the guidebooks swear has the best Hiroshimayaki is not the place the locals will tell you to go.



This is my oyster rice bowl (kakidon) on Miyajima in Hiroshima, where oysters are a local thing. Oh it was so good.



Some kind of potato thing, if I recall correctly, at a mukokuseki restaurant in Nara. Nara has a lot of really good restaurants, actually.



Speaking of Nara, now we're in pictures from 2011. This is our Nara cuisine-ish fancy dinner at Happô in the Nara shopping arcade.



So my friend H and I got a free tea service when we went to Yakushi-ji for no particular reason; this is the Yakushi-ji meibutsu, a kind of tea sweet.



This is one of my favorite fucking things in the world and I've only found it two places: at Mimuroto-ji in Uji during the ajisai (hydrangea) season, pictured above, and at Mii-dera in Shiga. It's hiyashiame, i.e. ginger juice. SO GOOD.



I never used to like parfait, and now I'm obsessed with them, and I'm far as I'm concerned this restaurant, Tofu Cafe Fujino in Kyoto (right next to Kitano Tenman-guu) has the best parfait in Japan. This is the June special parfait--it has tofu ice cream, green tea ice cream, warabi mochi, baked yatsuhashi, an (red bean paste), whipped cream, corn flakes, and many other delicious things. That's iced green tea next to it, which is another of my favorite things.



The first half of my set lunch at Graf in Osaka. That tako (octopus) was some of the freshest I've ever had.



The second half of my set lunch: Japanese-style pasta. I actually almost started eating before I took this picture! And yes that is XMFC fanfic in my notebook.



Dessert for dinner at Cafe Bibliotheque in Osaka.



This was my dinner Friday night: chilled ramen at a place in Kyoto. It was pretty good. Note how I nearly started eating it before I took the picture.

Comments

[marina]

OM NOM NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM *__________*

[starlady]

It makes me hungry again too! But I am trying to stick to a budget, and also there is a typhoon outside, so no fancy eating out for me, at least for the next few days.

[eccentricyoruba]

These look so delicious and I am hungry right now. Seeing these pictures I can't believe I had a less than stellar Japanese food experience last year...I am seriously taking notes.

[starlady]

I have had bad meals in Japan, but they are the exception to the rule. Outside of Japan is a different story, sadly. (Ramen and sushi being notable exceptions.)

[meloukhia]

Om nom nom. This was not a good thing to look at early in the morning because now I am going to be hungry all day.

[starlady]

If it makes you feel better, I made myself hungry too.

Of course, I also made plans with a friend to go for modanyaki at some point soon.

[epershand]

Omnomnomnom.

[starlady]

One of the many good things about San Francisco is that there are some restaurants that can do this kind of food well.

[epershand]

And the South Bay is even better. Alas, one of the bummers of my dietary weirdness is that while this all *looks* incredibly tasty and would *taste* awesome, experience tells me that my body would reject it--most Japanese food is too rich for me. I pretty much have to stick to sushi and Japanese Buddhist stuff.

So I'll just gaze at the photos, because they *definitely* give me a lot of pleasure.

[starlady]

This sounds to me like you should come visit me next time, I've never actually had temple cuisine (shojin ryôri). *schemes*

[via_ostiense]

Really? WHERE!

[starlady]

One of my favorites is Izakaya Sozai, out in Sunset. I also know several good ramen places…in San Mateo, now that I think about it.

I'm sure there are other restaurants, but I haven't made a thorough exploration of them yet.

[rodo]

For some reason, Japanese desserts always manage to look so tasty. I had green tea mochi for the first time last month, and they were a revelation. I didn't think I would like them, but I did.

Also, your post reminded me of the world cup final last Sunday. Now I'm grinning and I can't stop.

[starlady]

They look tasty because they are tasty! And also the presentation is uniformly amazing.

The World Cup was awesome, gotta say. :D

[oyceter]

HUNGRY!!!!

The parfait! The pasta! The cake! The yakisoba!!

[via_ostiense]

The hiroshimayaki looks delicious! That huge pile of scallions, om nom nom

[starlady]

I think I might have specifically gotten the one with lots of onions. Though I have a picture of another Hiroshimayaki from a different place, also with tons of onions…but I really like onions.

[(Anonymous)]

In the new year's set your host mother made, what is in the bowl besides omelette in the lower left?

It looks kind of like sweet potato wrapped in something, which seems like it has to be wonderful :)

[starlady]

I don't think it's omelette--iirc, it's tofu (yuba actually I think), carrots, and fish paste (kamoboko). Again, Kyoto things; I don't think I've ever seen carrots in miso anywhere else.

Note my host mother was from Shikoku, she had to learn all the Kyoto-style things when she got married.

[jesse_the_k]

Words fail me. Drool a-plenty

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

mmm. hungry now.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[loanwords.livejournal.com]

We are gonna take you to THE most epic Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki place when we go to Tokushima. It's a hole in the wall for real. CHEESE FLAVOR IS THE BEST.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD YES.

My favorite okonomiyaki in the world is actually at a place in Nara called Okaru, I always get the cheese pumpkin one, it is SO GOOD. I need to eat there again before I leave.

[spaiku.livejournal.com]

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OMG THIS ALL LOOKS SO GOOD. I AM EATING LUNCH RIGHT NOW AND IT STILL MADE ME MORE HUNGRY. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH JAPANESE FOOD IS MY FAVORITE. I WANT IT ALL.

also, I am going off my antidepressants, so hopefully the next time I come to SF I can gorge myself properly in Japantown.

There was something else I wanted to say, but my desire to engulf all of these pictures has made me forget.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking last night about you visiting for Thanksgiving.

Though, most of the good Japanese food isn't actually in Japan town. It requires Adventure to get there.

I want you to come visit me next time I'm here, you can be my excuse to try some of the really fancy vegetarian things. :D

[laurashapiro]

How can I eat all of this? I WANT TO EAT ALL OF THIS.