Introduction to Japanese Food – Tonkatsu

It was during our last visit to Japan that I came across the wonders of tonkatsu. The first time I had it I was hooked and it became my comfort food of choice. If no one had any suggestions for where to eat, it was tonkatsu for me!

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Cute Stuff From Japan: My First Bento Part 1

Photo by aJ GAZMEN ツ GucciBeaR on Flickr

We have had a Japanese friend visiting for a week. And what better time to make bento! I put her right to work =) This was my first time making bento ever, so I was pleased to have a guide. We based our bento on ideas from this book, which I reviewed earlier.

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Cute Things from Japan: Bento

Photo by Wendy Copley on Flickr

So I think for my first few articles, I will write about the few things I purchased in Japan and brought back. Seeing as they are all I can thing about right now, I might as well talk about them on the site and spare my husband a bit of various obsessions.

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Interview with an Osakan – What to Eat and What to Buy in Osaka

Photo Credits: by bruceley on Flickr

We earlier had a interview with a friend who is from Osaka, lived for some years in Canada and has now returned to Osaka. This is part two of the interview.

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Japanese Restaurant Review – Royal Host

Last week we had the chance to drop by one of Japan’s well known family restaurants – Royal Host. Here’s what we thought.

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Beyond Ramen – Some Other Japanese Restaurants

Photo Credits: by jonny taise on Flickr

So in interviewing my Japanese friend currently in Canada about ramen, (link to) she also added a bit more info on other restaurants and a bit on grocery shopping too.

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Japan’s Ramen Restaurants

Photo Credits: mdid on Flickr

The one food in Japan I could have eaten until I split was ramen noodles from the noodle shops. So delicious. So I decided to interview a Japanese friend currently living in Canada for a year. Her first words:

I like ramen too, but !! It has very high calories as you know. Be careful for eating ramen too much !

No surprise there I guess. Anything that delicious has to be bad for you.

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Japan & Chocolate – An Addict’s Research

Photo Credit: CookieM on Flickr

I like chocolate. It’s not a strange thing and I wouldn’t say I am any worse than your average chocoholic. But the fact remains that I need a certain amount of chocolate. The trouble with this is that Japan isn’t big on treats. (I haven’t tried the sweet bean treats yet, maybe this visit. I’ll report back) And there was a scarcity of chocolate bars for a quick hit. How am I going to cope?

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Introduction to Japanese Food – Takoyaki

What comes to your mind when I say balls of flour wrapped around chewy octopus? Don’t feel bad if the first word out of your mouth is “Yuck!”

While western pallets may find the idea of takoyaki a little hard to swallow, it’s actually a very popular treat in Japan. In fact, it’s one of Osaka’s greatest specialties.

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Introduction to Japanese Food – Okonomiyaki

I know what you’re thinking. What the heck is okonomiyaki?

Although being a Japanese comfort food, it’s less likely that you will run across okonomiyaki outside of Japan. While you may come across it on a menu at a North American Japanese restaurant, okonomiyaki can be a strange sight to western eyes.

So let’s shed some light on the mysterious okonomiyaki.

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