Dango - だんご３兄弟

Mmm…. Dango.

Three individually flavored balls of sweetness.

There was a Dango 3 Kyoudai (The 3 brothers Dango) song made popular years ago in Japan. Thanks to the wonders of youtube, you can enjoy it over and over again today!

Check out the Dango 3 Kyoudai video on YouTube.

Also, if you are into cute school supplies, you can get a dango shaped eraser set from The Japan Shop.

You know. I just noticed that even the eraser set has the dango in order, pink, white, green. It just occured to me that all dango with these flavors all over Japan are ordered the exact same way… I wonder how that got started…

- Harvey

Negiyaki at Yamamoto in Juso

I “found” another incredibly famous and non-hidden negiyaki shop in Osaka.

Pretty much every Japanese person in Osaka knows about the Negiyaki shop named Yamamoto. Negiyaki is very similar to Okonomiyaki, except it has tons of green onions inside, and usually not as much sauce.

We ordered the deluxe negiyaki, so it had pork, squid, and beef, if I remember correctly.

Hey, on a side note, apparently in the world of otaku, these negi (leek / green onions) are popular due to a certain anime in which a “leek spin dance” is featured. They actually sell a “soft leek replica” on JList imported straight from Japan. So.. Uh… If you’ve ever wanted a soft leek replica… To spin… You know where you can get it. Apparently, the original leek spin dance song is 17 hours long!?

Hey, what is this leek spin!? I’m completely out of the loop.

Yamamoto is located right in the heart of Juuso, so it’s pretty easy to find. It’s near the 7th Art Movie Theatre in case you’re looking for it! It gets crowded around dinner time, so show up a little early.

The Negiyaki at Kuishinbo in Shinsaibashi is also delicious. You can get it with ponzu sauce which is another unique and wonderful taste!

MMmmm…. Osaka food.

- Harvey

Vegetable Cutters for your Bento

Ever wonder how they get those cute flower or leaf shaped vegetables into the bento lunch boxes in Japan?

You can get those special food shape cutters straight from Japan on JList.

I’m surprised to see so many food-shapers for wiener hot dogs!

If I ever become a bento making parent, I’ll have to get an arsenal of these things to always keep the kids on their toes.

“Wow today’s carrots look like roses!”

“That’s right kid. Eat em up.”

- Harvey

A Final Meal at Kuidaore

Well, I decided to eat at Kuidaore one last time, considering the fact that they’re closing in July.There were even more people than usual snapping shots of the doll this Saturday night. So many cameras…The sign announces that they will be closing July 8th.This is what it feels like to be famous. No escape from the Paparazzi onslaught.The food actually isn’t very good at all. At least, in the “Western” section. The 1st floor is Western, and they have other floors for other types of food, including noodles, and I believe sushi “hot pot” (なべ) and whatnot.Omu-rice.This is funny. Takoyaki-gratin. My wife described the tastes as…. “regular takoyaki are better”.I agree.We got this awesome pack of free tissue that says, THANKS from Kuidaore. I guess if you’re going under, you can’t afford to give out much more than tissue huh.And that’s a wrap.- Harvey

Simply Ramen

It’s only Ramen.

But I got a new camera.

Can you tell?

おいしそう！！！！！ 

- Harvey

Kushikatsu in Juuso

I randomly found an amazing Kushikatsu shop in Juuso (十三) in Osaka the other night.

The name of the shop is 珍寿 (chinjyuu) , and the owner has been working kushikatsu for 55 years. He started when he was 17 years old, right out of junior high school and he never went to high school. He later met his wife, and they have been making kushikatsu ever since.

The current shop is extremely small. I counted 8 or 9 chairs around an extremely small counter. Very homely.

Smoking and eating kushikatsu for 55 years… He even lived through the war… I think this guy may be immortal!

He proudly told us that in his day, you had to live in with the kushikatsu master you were learning under. He would wake up, clean the shop, cook some kushikatsu, clean up again, and sleep at night right in the same building. He has been working in his current place in Juuso for about 8 years, and before that he has worked in various places around Osaka, including the Hankyu Department Store. He says that most all of the people making Kushikatsu at the restaurants in Hankyu were his students (弟子) at one point.

You may notice that he is wearing a beret. He showed us an old black and white picture of himself in a cooking studio wearing the beret as well. He says it’s his trademark and he wears it because he is making “art food”. The couple has been featured on TV countless times.

He was quick to point out that his kushikatsu is cooking (料理), unlike the kushikatsu in other places, like Shinsekai which is just a side dish (おかず) . He told us that in Juuso you can tell which shops are cooking shops (料理) and which just serve side dishes (おかず) by the material used for the curtain (のれん) hanging out in front of the shop. The cooking shops have hemp curtains, and the others have cotton curtains. The cooking shops, like his, are much more expensive, but have higher quality food. Sure enough, his stuff was delicious!

When you enter this shop, you don’t order anything. Only your drink. Which can be a little tricky because the grandmother who takes the orders is extremely forgetful… Or maybe she was drunk. I’m not sure. She asked the three of us for our order about 7 times… So 1 wheat shochu with water, one potato with hot water, and one sake? No no, 1 wheat shochu with hot water, and 2 potato shochu with cold water… We went around a few times. It was funny.

Once you sit down the couple starts cooking your kushikatsu one by one in a predetermined order. They place them on your dish as they are done. When you’re full, you tell them to stop, and you pay for what you ate. The order is on the menu there, they just take you from the top left all the way around. They say that if you come on an empty stomach, you can easily do a full round.

Get this, there is even desert at the end! We had desert ice cream kushikatsu with a strawberry inside. It was amazing. Imagine a strawberry on a skewer, covered in icecream, and then covered again by the breaded fry stuff that is on kushikatsu. You have to bite into it quickly, or you’ll burn your tongue on the hot oil before the ice cream has a chacen to cool the outside. Also if you wait too long the ice cream on the inside will melt!

It was delicious.

The sauce that the skewer (the kushi) is pointing to as they set down your food indicates which sauce you are supposed to use with which kushikatsu.

The lady was quick to point out that two of her sauces are blends of more than 20 different flavors. Even the salt uses 5 different types of salt!

By the way, Juuso has a reputation for being one of the more dangerous parts of Osaka, so I asked the master about it. He said that it used to be dangerous because there were a lot of yakuza hanging around in the area. These days though, it’s illegal to even talk about yakuza dealings, so things are much better.

So go give Juso kushikatsu a try!

Here is a Google Maps to the shop. The address is also located on that page…

Yahoo Gourmet info here. Hot Pepper map here.

By the way, the place is not cheap! I think it’s worth it though, the food is great, the owners are talkative, friendly, and interesting, and it’s got a really deep Osaka atmosphere!

- Harvey

Bullet Train Fast Food

I’ve done train bento (lunch boxes) posts before, but here’s another one!

Yum!

Shinkansen bento are scrumtious.

- Harvey

Valentines Day Chocolates For Me! Kinda

In Japan on Valentines day girls give chocolates to guys.

There is also a phenomenon known as “giri-choco” (義理チョコ) .

Literally it means “duty-chocolate”. Basically, it’s the chocolate that girls give to guys because they are obliged to do so. For example, my guitar teacher is a lady, so she gave me giri-choco. She doesn’t have Valentines Day-ish feelings for me, but I see her often, so she must give me chocolate or I will feel like a chump. I will.

This is good, because the only other chocolate I got on Valentines day was from all of the ladies in the office (they put their money together and bought something for all the guys… There aren’t that many of us… This is also 義理チョコ).

This is the lovely chocolate I got from my guitar teacher. Fujiya! Peko-chan!

My wife ate half of both the chocolates I got…

I need more chocolate!

- Harvey

I have a wasabi plant 5 NO MORE

Well on JapanNewbie, you ask, and you receive.

My poor wasabi plant.

Finished.

Rotten too. He’s stinky. He’s outta here. Really. It rotted at the core.

In fact. The picture looks greener than it actually is.

If you’re gonna buy me a present. Don’t buy me a plant.

Unless it’s a virtual plant.

I’m sorry Mr. Wasabi! Next time I eat a wasabi filled sushi… I’ll reminisce.

- Harvey