And Now We Come to the Part of the Show Where Liz Rants About Food

First: I'm sorry for the few weeks of absence and the lack of Facebook photo updates. As I explained to a friend back home yesterday, the longer I'm over here, the less "new" stuff I see that I haven't shown you guys yet. I'll hopefully do a photo dump of my trips to Miyajima and Tokyo/Yamanashi from spring break at some point, and I have a lot of pictures of cherry blossoms to post now (we're now just at the very end of the peak cherry blossom season). The lack of blog posts is just mostly due to general business now that I'm about halfway through the third quarter of my semester here. But here I am, and as the title probably indicates, this is going to be quite a long post.

Alright. This is going to be a bit different from any of my previous posts, as I'm going to be rating several different kinds of food I've tried during my time here in Japan. And yes, by the end, you're probably going to be very hungry.

You have been fairly warned.

The listing is arbitrary and the order in the list doesn't indicate how much I like/dislike a particular food. (Read: I'm basically ranting about foods as they come to mind.)

1: Tonkatsu

Tonkatsu is pretty similar to the Iowa dish known as (Pork) Tenderloin. It's tender pork meat dipped in a thick, crunchy breading, deep fried, and covered in a soy-based sauce. It's amazing. Best served with shredded cabbage and white rice, in my opinion (but that's partially because practically everything goes really well with shredded cabbage and white rice). In Yamanashi Prefecture, sister state to Iowa, the tonkatsu is known nationally to be especially famous/good--all because their hogs are descended from the Iowan hogs shipped over during the great Iowa Hog Lift of the 1950s. So yes, America, Iowa really does have the best pork, and we've shared it with Japan, too. Be jealous.

Tonkatsu gets a 10/10 from me. Crunchy, flavorful, reminds me of home.

2: Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is sort of like a potato pancake, but not exactly. It's basically potatoes mixed with eggs and shredded cabbage, cooked as a pancake, oftentimes with several slices of bacon covering one side. It's eaten as hot as you can stand it (as a lot of Japanese food tends to be), with tonkatsu sauce and Japanese mayonnaise (aka Kewpie Mayo) drizzled all over the top. It's incredibly filling--two big ones and you'll feel stuffed. It's so good, though, that you'll crave it constantly. At home, it's often cooked on a little plug-in grill thing.

12/10. I love okonomiyaki. I'd eat it every day if I could.

3: Takoyaki

Takoyaki is often translated as "grilled octopus balls," but I swear it isn't what that makes it sound like. ~yaki actually means a food that is grilled/fried, and tako just means octopus. These things are basically like hushpuppies with a bit of octopus meat (usually from the tentacles) in the center. They're cooked on a special grill with little round molds used to help form the food. Like okonomiyaki, they're served drizzled with Japanese mayo and tonkatsu sauce. These, too, are also super filling. A big serving is around 8 takoyakis, and once you eat that many, again, you'll be stuffed. The octopus meat has a bit of a weird texture to it at first, but takoyaki is super flavorful and really delicious. It's not my absolute favorite food here, but I'd happily eat it once a week or so.

9/10. Not as good as some other foods, but still delicious.

4: Natto

I wanted to like natto. I really did. I was so excited when my homestay dad said he was going to let me try a little. But I was barely able to finish the bite, which is fairly standard among foreigners (and even many Japanese). Natto is a divisive subject even among the Japanese. One camp can't understand why other people don't like it. The other camp still demands to know why it was ever even created in the first place. While I'm okay with letting people enjoy things, I can't really see how anyone could like natto.

Natto is fermented soybeans, often served with mustard to add flavor. In my opinion, it tastes like how I'd imagine battery acid would taste. It makes your mouth feel weird, and has a sharp zing to it, and not in a good way. I don't like it at all, unfortunately. I don't really plan on ever trying it again.

0/10. I'm sorry, natto. I went in expecting to like you. I just can't.

5: Oden

Oden is a one-pot dish made of fish cakes, a bunch of different things I'm fairly sure are made out of eggs, hardboiled eggs, vegetables, eggs stuffed with mochi, and probably some other stuff--I'm not sure--all boiled in a light fish broth. It's basically the Japanese winter comfort food. I'm not a huge fan of it, because in comparison to other Japanese foods, it comes off as a bit flavorless (just in my opinion). Who knows; maybe one day I'll have it again and like it better that time. I don't hate it, for sure. I just don't like it as much as other Japanese foods.

6/10: It's definitely a warming food, and it smells pretty good. Just not as flavorful as other things I've tried.

6: Yakisoba

Yakisoba is fried noodles (similar to Chinese lo mein) cooked with a soy/ginger-based sauce, cabbage, carrots, and peppers, and often served with aonori (powdered seaweed) or shredded ginger sprinkled on top. This stuff is, in my humble opinion, the holy grail of Japanese cooking. It's even better than okonomiyaki, and that's saying something. I wouldn't just eat this every day; I'd eat it every meal. Maybe it's just the carb addict in me loving the pasta, but this stuff is just absolutely superb. It's flavorful, filling, warming, and just all-around a perfect food. I adore it so much. My homestay mom has figured this out and loves offhandedly mentioning to another member of the family that we'll have yakisoba for dinner just so she can watch me light up like Christmas with an excited question of "Yakisoba??"

20/10. All hail yakisoba. Try it and never be the same.

7: Calpis (Calpico in US markets, nowhere in Iowa though as far as I know T-T)

Alright. If yakisoba is the holy grail of Japanese food, this stuff is the holy grail of Japanese drinks. There are tons of varieties, so I wanted to post a picture that reflected that, but wasn't really able to find one online. The stuff pictured above is called Calpis Water. It's basically a sweet yogurt-water. Yes, I know that sounds awful to American tastes, and I was really hesitant to try it. Actually, the only reason I did was I accidentally bought a yogurt soda (yogurt with carbonated water, basically) because the can looked cool, and loved it. Honestly, if it wasn't so high in sugar, I would chug Calpis Water several times a day. It's one of the smoothest beverages I've ever had, is perfectly sweet without being too sweet, and is so so so good cold. I'd love to try it as a slushie, though I haven't seen that anywhere yet. Apparently a couple years back, McDonald's Japan had Calpis shakes, which I also wish I could have been here to try.

Similar to natto, Calpis can be quite divisive. I haven't met a single non-Japanese yet who actually likes it. When one of my South Korean classmates discovered I like the stuff, which he had just decided to try, he tried to get me to accept his still-mostly-full bottle. If it hadn't been flu season, I probably would have accepted, but oh well. I also haven't met any Japanese yet who don't like it, so go figure. We'll just keep happily enjoying our nectar of the gods while the foreigners around us shrug and make faces.

As stated, Calpis Water (and by extension, Calpis Soda and the other-flavored varieties, like Orange Calpis, etc), is pretty high in sugar, so it's got a fairly-high calorie count. Luckily for me, there exists a zero-calorie version known as Karada Calpis (Body Calpis). This version isn't quite as sweet, and is heavier on the dairy flavor (because it has a higher dose of the dairy-enzyme-stuff that makes Calpis, well, Calpis, mixed in). It's considered a health drink because studies have shown that drinking one every day for 12 weeks tends to correlate to a measurable amount of body fat loss. I'm not complaining that's one of the side effects; I'm mainly just glad I can drink Calpis every day without feeling guilty at all. I still have the normal version around once a week, though; Karada is good, but the original is even better.

Karada Calpis: 8/10. A lovely, refreshing, delicious beverage.
Calpis Water: 12/10. If it wasn't so relatively high-cal I'd drink it all the time.

Eguchi (Egg Cheeseburger):

This is a McDonald's Japan exclusive, which you can get as a medium meal for ¥500. I usually only go to McDonald's once every other week or so, but this is usually what I get. It's a hard-boiled egg patty on a cheeseburger, which is a delicious combo I can't believe the US has never considered. I wish this was available in the States. It's definitely my favorite McDonald's food here.

That said, the fries at the Mickey D's here put the ones back home to shame. They have a sort of almost meaty flavor to them that surprised me the first couple of times, but now I love it. According to my mom, she seems to think this is because Japanese McDonald's still uses beef tallow to fry their fries, which the US stopped doing a couple decades ago. I'm not certain one way or another if that's the case (Google research has been inconclusive), but they're amazing, that's for sure.

Eguchi gets 9/10. Fries get 9/10 too.

Karaage:

From what I understand, karaage (similar to the word Oosaka, the double A is sort of two syllables slurred together) is a blanket term that refers to several different kinds of fried foods. It can also be understood to just mean deep fried chunks of chicken, which are pictured above. There are also korokke (croquettes; fried potato patty things), poteto (french fries), fried fish, and cheese bite things (I'm not sure of their Japanese names), among other varieties.

Whenever my homestay mom fixes karaage for dinner, I can't help but be a bit excited. Sure, it's not as healthy as other Japanese foods, but when paired with cabbage and rice, I don't feel quite so bad. It's so good by itself, but also good with tonkatsu sauce, or teriyaki sauce and Japanese mayo. You can't go wrong with deep fried foods, after all.

10/10. Equally amazing as tonkatsu.

Miso soup:

Miso soup (miso shiru here) is as ubiquitous in the Japanese diet as rice and cabbage. I don't think I've gone a whole day without eating it at least once in all the time since I arrived at my homestay. At its most basic, miso soup is just a broth made from hot water and miso (a soybean product). It's commonly served with seaweed, tofu, green onions, little spongy things I'm not sure what are but are really good, and/or shiitake mushrooms, in basically any combination of the above. I can't even define a specific standard combination, because you really see all kinds at all times.

This stuff is super low-calorie, high-protein (because soybeans), and oh-so-savory. I'm going to miss it as much as Calpis when I go home. It's eaten hot, and you can feel it warming you up right down to your toes from the first sip. Like most Japanese foods, it's eaten with just chopsticks--you sip from your bowl to get the broth. Like many other Japanese foods, it encourages you to use both hands to eat (as is polite; if you have one hand in your lap it's generally assumed you aren't particularly enjoying the food, as I was kindly and very gently informed by my church family here the first time I ate lunch with them after church).

10/10. I'm going to miss miso so much. So filling, so warming, so healthy, so good.

Anko:

Anko is, put simply, just a slightly-sweet red bean paste. It's essentially the most basic Japanese dessert, sometimes eaten as a soup with mochi, sometimes eaten as a filling for mochi, sometimes eaten as a filling in pastries. At first, I wasn't too enthusiastic about it. It didn't really seem like a dessert-y food to me. It's not very sweet, and it was weird for me to think of beans as a sweet/dessert, I guess.

Then I discovered anpan, and my perception totally changed (at least when it comes to anpan; I'm still not a huge fan of anko in general). Anpan is basically a donut, dusted with powdered sugar, and filled with anko. And the stuff is pretty darn good. I can see why the most-recognized character in Japan (Anpanman; last I heard Hello Kitty is in second and Pikachu is in third) is just a superhero with a head made of anpan. Anpan is great.

Anko: 4/10. Just not my favorite thing, and definitely not a dessert from my point of view.
Anpan: 7/10. I wouldn't eat it every day, but it's a delicious occasional treat.

This probably won't be my only post about food. First of all, I'm sure I've forgotten some foods I'll want to go back and rate later. Second of all, food culture here in Japan is so different from in the States--portions are smaller, but more filling, fruits and vegetables taste so amazingly much better here, eggs can safely be eaten raw, you have so many more types of food at the average meal, and yet despite all of this, Japan is one of the healthiest nations in the world. Beyond basic common sense, I haven't been restricting myself or "dieting" during the time I've been here, and yet I've lost around 4.5 kilos since I left the States. I feel like I'm eating more, and more often, than I normally do back home, and yet I feel, look, and am becoming so much healthier. I know part of it is lower salt and sugar levels (Japanese cake tastes so much better than its American sisters; it's not overpoweringly sweet in my opinion like American cake tends to be), and the general low-calorie status of the standard drinks (like water and green tea), but it's still amazing to me how few overweight people you see here, and yet how clearly everyone eats plenty of food without guilt or trepidation. If you ask for weight loss advice here, rather than being told to diet or exercise, you'll probably be advised to drink fermented milk drinks (similar to Calpis, oftentimes, and also really good), take a hotter/longer bath every night, and to drink more green tea. The concept of diets exists, but they're not a super common thing.

All of this makes me wonder, why is it so different here? Why can we all eat so much, including the occasional trip to McDonald's or Lotteria (a Japanese fast food place), and still be at (or be making progress towards, in my case) a healthy weight/BMI? Why do the vegetables and fruits look (and taste) so much better here? (I'm half-convinced this part is because GMOs are banned here--produce hasn't been hybridized to the point it doesn't taste anything like it's supposed to anymore.) How come can I eat bread, and rice, and noodles, and pastries on a daily basis and still be consistently losing weight?

Well, I don't really have answers to these questions, and I probably won't anytime soon. I just know I love the food here, I love the culture around food here, and I love the fact that I can basically eat whatever I want and still be losing weight.

Man, it's gonna be hard to leave next month...