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Japan: alternative places to eat
Emmanuelle Jary-2009-11-24
Japan has a number of restaurants that specialize in a particular type of cuisine. Examples include:
Unagi (freshwater eel) restaurants
Typical of Tokyo and serving eels that are blanched and then grilled, coated with a sweet tare sauce and presented on a bowl of rice.
The izakaya
An isakaya is a type of bar where you can head for a beer or saké and where you can eat small dishes such as edamame (young soy beans cooked in salted water) of tsukemono (Japanese pickles - very often vegetables). These accompaniments can, nevertheless, be transformed into a proper meal.
An isakaya is a type of bar where you can head for a beer or saké and where you can eat small dishes such as edamame (young soy beans cooked in salted water) of tsukemono (Japanese pickles - very often vegetables). These accompaniments can, nevertheless, be transformed into a proper meal.
In Tokyo, near Shinjuku train station, a small area known as Golden Gai (the gold quarter) is where you will find a small gathering of izakayas, former travelling drinks salesmen, now settled, with four or five bar stools to each for customers.
Yakitori restaurants
All kinds of skewered meat, vegetables, fish grilled over a wood fire. They will sometimes offer some more surprising options such as skewers of cartilage.
Sobaya restaurants: literally translated as Soba House and offering thin noodles made from buckwheat flour that can be eaten hot or cold. They may be accompanied by tempura (fried) vegetables but also fish. Seasoned with curry or added natto, fermented soya beans.
Sushi Restaurants: the best are all located around the legendary fish market in Tokyo’s Tsukiji district. We enjoyed an early morning offering at the end of the market (5am). Fish of all kinds (tuna, mackerel, squid, sea urchin, eel, salmon, etc) are usually raw, but they can also be cooked. The sushi is sometimes topped with a thin slice of sweet omelette.
Kitchen shojin: originally prepared in Buddhist temples. Presentation is very precise. It excludes fish and meat and consists of boiled vegetables, pickled or fried (tempura), miso soup, tofu and rice.
Street food
Particularly widespread in Osaka, where we find takoyaki (fried or baked octopus dumplings), okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes stuffed with thick meat, seafood, vegetables, etc). Across the country, you’ll find onigiri, small portions of rice decorated fish eggs, salted plum ... surrounded by dried seaweed.
Teppanyaki restaurants
Teppanyaki restaurants
Aprocess that involved the grilling of food on a hot plate in view of diners. Since the 19th century, the Japanese have adapted this method to cook Japanese wagyu beef (highly marbled meat), sometimes referred to as Kobe beef that, contrary to popular belief, is neither massaged nor fed beer.
Fugu restaurant
Fugu is the Japanese word for pufferfish fish that contains a deadly poison in its stomach. Only state licensed chefs are authorised to prepare it. The flesh is served as sashimi with the skin boiled or seared.
Although the Japanese themselves accept that the fish has a very delicate texture and taste, it attracts a huge cult following. Half the fun, in all honesty, is in the thrill of the perceived risk, actually imaginary. More people die each year through choking on Mochi (a sticky rice cake) than fugu poisoning.
