Sunday, January 5, 2014

Japan Food Post!

This post is going to contain nothing else but the food that entered my tummy while I was in Japan! They're mostly food cooked by my lovely host mum who prepared breakfast and dinner for me (although I occasionally eat dinner with my friends outside) and also a few pictures of my lunch at restaurants!

Aite, shall start with the food cooked by my host mum!



My first meal in Japan (lunch) was my favorite inari sushi and udon! The moment my host mum picked me up at Kichijoji Station, she was already eager to feed me! She immediately brought me to the nearest shopping mall to let me choose what I like to eat and what I don't. Which kind of gave me a shock because I was still excited about reaching Japan and everything still seemed like a dream to me and there I was choosing food I like in a mall. Lol. So I chose inari and told her I like to eat soba/udon! So she cooked udon for me. T_T It was so yummy, it tasted even better than those served at restaurants, I swear!


Dinner on the first day was fried rice with lots of side dishes. Lol. The one on the right is soup with tofu, cabbage and tiny pieces of bacon which tasted heavenly good! Oh and my host mum thinks it is a must for me to eat rice, egg and salad every day so you'll see those three in most of my pictures later on! Salad was a must for both breakfast and dinner. I immediately felt a lot healthier after coming back. Haha.


Hamburg with rice, soup, vege, sweet potato and a small pot of oden which she cooked specially just for me to try. I'm sorry the plate of hamburg looks quite disgusting because I realised I forgot to take a picture of everything after eating a bit of it. :P


The hamburg accompanied by fried eggplant and salad (as usual)!


Karaage and salad!


It's the heavenly good soup again! This time with sausage instead of small pieces of bacon.





My favourite udon again with half-boiled egg which made the soup richer in taste! *slurps*


This bowl of rice may look simple and tasteless to you but trust me, it was really yummy! My host mum mixed tiny pieces of salmon and sesame seed with the rice.


As I have told you, my host mum thinks it's a must for me to have rice every day, even during days when she cooked noodles, she just had to make sure I ate both the rice and noodles or else she say I'll be malnourished. Lolol a bit too exaggerative eh?

I'll now spam you with my favourite food in Japan : Japanese curry!


In my opinion, the most delicious home-cooked food by my host mum has to be curry. Her curry was beyond delicious! I would yearn for more even though I was already bloated after eating everything above because it was just THAT good omg.


Another curry on a different day, this time simpler than the previous time.


Some instant curry udon which was also surprisingly really good!


Beef curry! The best out of all kinds of curry she cooked!


Another kind of curry LOL.


Accompanied by onigiri! (rice again!)


Chicken and beef curry she cooked for our BBQ Party! :D Everyone loved it!


Karaage again! With salad, of course.


This was so so so so so so yummy I finished the whole thing by myself. The serving was for about 3 people. I'm not joking.


Simple yet rich in flavor!


Tofu with "take no ko" which I suppose is bamboo's... baby? 


What is Japan without miso soup?


Something I actually didn't dare to eat in Malaysia but dared myself to eat in Japan. Squid. Still don't really like the texture!

My favourite side dish : Nira tama (that's what she called it). I'm gonna attempt making it in Malaysia! When my host mum was in the mood, the nira tama would look like this :



When she was lazy, it would look like this :



Hahaha super cute!

There was once the eggplants planted by my host dad was going to spoil soon so my host mum made use of all the remaining eggplants to make dinner.


Eggplant soup.


More eggplants! This was dipped in a sauce with lots of ginger!


Dinner for that day!


Salmon and mentaiko!


Hohohohoho I told my hos mum that I really liked gyoza so she made these for me as a surprise! LOVE HER!


No lah, I didn't finish all the gyoza by myself. I only ate half. Teehee.




My host mum was afraid I would get bored with the same kind of salad every day every meal so she made me a different kind of salad! This time with carrots, potatoes and cucumber.



'
Mabo tofu! I know this looks a bit gross but it didn't taste like how it looked! I loved this a lot because after being in Japan for so long, I'd finally gotten the chance to eat something spicy! 


Another one of my host mum's specialty : Spaghetti!


Super duper yums I tell you! I could eat more than 2 servings!







She used the Malaysian chicken rice chili to cook this. Hahahaha. I was so shocked when she told me that but still, it tasted not bad! Tasted like... home. :)



Some leftover from the oden.






I stalked her when she was cooking one day. She was preparing lunch for my friend, Ayumi who was reaching Japan that afternoon! She was also there for homestay but only stayed with us for about a week!



Ta-dah! I couldn't stop myself from taking more and more till Ayumi looked at me like I'm a monster. *hides*

One of the must-eat food during winter in Japan is... ODEN! Also on the top of my list of favourite food!



Played with it a bit using Line Camera hehe.






So much food for dinner on the first day Ayumi arrived! *jumps with joy*





Surprisingly she didn't give me a bowl of rice. Hehehe.


This picture has a touching story behind it. I told my host mum I rarely eat fish because I had a phobia of eating fish because when I was young, I was choked by a fish bone which stayed in my throat for 2 days at least so I was frightened by it. So... she took away all the fish bones for me. T_T






Tempuraaaaaaaaaaa!



We had this for dinner one day and for breakfast the next morning.


Secretly snapped a photo of her hehe.

Now I'll go with the breakfast I ate!


Tamagoyaki! I loveeeeeeeeeeee this!


Yes everyone, this is ba-na-na.



She likes to cook rice + vege for me in this donabe (土鍋) for breakfast. On the days when there was no salad, this was it.


I... don't know what this is called.





The rice tasted a lot better with seaweed! :D


Fried egg with ham or sausage was very common too!
















When she didn't cook rice and vege in donabe, she would ask me, "Rice or bread?".




Remember the heavenly good soup I mentioned above? This one was with rice mixed in it!

More vege soup! :D




Surprisingly, I was really addicted to this corn soup! I don't usually drink sweet soup but this was approved by my taste buds! *thumbs up*


Spot the strawberries! :D

Now, my lunch at restaurants! I seldom took pictures when I eat out, mostly because some restaurants were so packed it was troublesome for me to take my camera out or because we were in a rush so there wasn't really time for me to be like #asiansatwork !



I just love how the Japanese made these look super real and mouth-watering hehe!



My sukiyaki! CHOPSTICK-LICKING GOOD WTF. But the portion was too big for me!


Ayumi's karaage!


My tonkotsu ramen! Not a fan of ramen in Japan because they're way too salty for my liking. Mehhhhh.


Me with my ramen.


Went to this Turkish Kebab stall in Ueno and it tasted a lot like home! :) Although I'm not from Turkey haha.





There were so many flavours to choose from but I chose my favourite, teriyaki chicken!


Not exactly my lunch, but never mind! Soft cream at Asakusa, strawberry vanilla! Super duper loved it!



Went there for the second time and tried banana chocolate. I didn't like it at all! Too sweet!


Senbei, anyone?


Yakisoba at a restaurant in Asakusa!


Ingredients for monjyayaki!



Mine was tasteless, unfortunately. How am I gonna be someone's wife like this. *sobs*


Tried curry at Kare wa Takahashi!


Kare Katsu Don.


Kare Katsu Pasta. I wanted to try something new so I chose pasta instead of the ordinary don. Tasted a bit weird but still good! Oh Japanese curry~~~





Cabbage and bacon pasta at a restaurant in Shinjuku, which was mehhhhh. *disappointed*


Ginger chicken.


When we had no clue what to have for lunch, fast food it was!



Burger King.



Mos Burger.



At Jonathan's! Was very satisfactory hehe!

We bought food at Family Mart whenever we were in a rush!



Super convenient, I tell you. Just pay at the counter and they'll heat it up for you.


My beef spaghetti, which was not bad for a convenience-store standard! Actually, no, it was VERY GOOD.


Spot the yaki udon, yaki soba and gyoza!

Jeng jeng, lunch at Disneyland!


Looked cute, but tasted blarghhh. I can cook better than that LOL.



Mickey eggyolk! I'm still wondering how they managed to do that!


I don't know why but pastas in Japan are really not tasty at all. :/ Except for the pasta cooked by my host mum!


Teriyaki chicken sandwich at Kua Aina!


This crepe thingy got everyone super excited. My friends bought so many of them!


And of course, I would choose nothing else but strawberry! *slurps*


Oreo flavour?


Tokyo Banana. I didn't really like it. I thought it wasn't really special!



Yakisoba again~


I ordered Okonomiyaki Yakisoba but it came with just... a fried egg on top?! How is this okonomiyaki?!


Everyone's favourite gyoza!



This was my dinner before Arashi's concert! Was a little too excited I had a hard time swallowing everything. :/


It's funny how I tell everyone that my favourite food is omurice but never once had I tried omurice while in Japan, until the second last day in Ikebukuro at this restaurant in Sunshine City!


Tummy satisfied!! I should've eaten more of this! T_T


This pudding tasted way too weird for everyone's taste buds except for mine. I thought it was fine though. Allison had to mix it with rice to swallow everything HAHAHA. Super gross lor, but too funny!




Another kebab at a Turkish restaurant in Takadanobaba!

On my last night, I had dinner with my host mum and her daughter along with her 3 kids and Ayumi at Bamiyan, a Chinese restaurant just behind my house!


Still think the one in Malaysia tastes better LOL. Sorry Japan.


Tenshin Don.



Chocolate cake baked by my host mum's daughter, Youko-san and her son, Natsuki chan! Natsuki is allergic to egg and milk so the cake didn't contain those of course. 


Was a bit hard but still yummy!

Because my host mum always cooked for me, I decided to cook for her too! I intended to cook our Malaysian Chinese delicacy, Bak Kut Teh for her to try. I even dressed up like a village girl.





I was having a hard time because they only sold pork meat with the bones removed at the supermarket! I really had the shock of my life I tell you. What is BKT without pork bone?! Anyway, so, I told my host mum I would just go with chicken meat and pork meat (mixed both). Plus, they didn't have black soy sauce! I tried my best describing black soy sauce to my host mum but she had zero idea of what I was talking about. T_T So... My Bak Kut Teh turned out like nothing close to BKT. 



Host mum said the soup had a really nice smell but it was a bit tasteless for her! She likes to eat super salty food, so she added in Ajinomoto by herself. LOL. I got culture shock again. I hardly even use Ajinomoto back here in Malaysia. :( I cooked too much so we couldn't finish it. She kept the soup and used it to cook her own soup with vege! Hahaha.


Okay la, must admit it tasted a lot better than my BKT fml.


She even removed the mushrooms in the soup and don't know what she did, the mushrooms turned into a side dish! Omg she's a genius. I should totally learn from her, it tasted so freaking good. She added konyaku in it too!


Phew! I should end my food post here, I'm super tired already. T_T Took me ages to upload all these photos lol. Blame my house wi-fi! Anyway, will blog more about Japan after this, but not so soon, I guess. Till then, bye! :D

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