Risotto from Saizeriya, a popular, affordable pizza-and-pasta chain of restaurants in Japan. If you’re looking for fast and affordable Italian food, Saizeriya (or “Saize” for short) is definitely the place to be. They also have a reasonably priced drink bar with sodas, teas and juices.
You can find Saizeriyas all over Japan; they’ve also got branches in Taiwan and, I think, mainland China.
Being a warm, steamy dish, oden is perfect for wintertime, though oden ingredients are available in convenience stores all year round. Oden consists of a broth that’s made of dashi stock, with its other ingredients being: boiled eggs, wieners, daikon (radish), konnyaku (which has a gelatinous texture), tofu and various fish cakes. Spicy mustard (karashi) can also be added to enhance the flavor. Convenience stores allow you to pick your own ingredients to add to the broth, and you pay based on how much your bowl weighs.
Rainbow Pocky!
We bought a box of this in Japan. As you can see, it comes in different flavors and colors of the rainbow. I’m not sure if I remember the flavors correctly, but I think that the orange one is, well, orange (duh… I’m Captain Obvious, haha), the green one is green tea, the yellow one is banana and the red one is chocolate. I really can’t remember what the blue, indigo (which actually looks more pink than indigo) and violet ones were, but perhaps the blue one is blueberry and the violet one is grape.
![Kit Kat is really popular in Japan. I’m not sure if it has already overtaken Pocky in terms of popularity, but at the very least, they seem to be on equal footing now. Its popularity comes from its many unique flavors and the fact that Kit Kat, when pronounced in Japanese as “kitto katto,” sounds like “kitto katsu” (きっと勝つ), which means “[you will] surely succeed.” The next few posts will show some of the more unique flavors we encountered. To kick things off, behold - soy sauce-flavored Kit Kat!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhogsspoUI1qh7c1wo1_1280.jpg)
Kit Kat is really popular in Japan. I’m not sure if it has already overtaken Pocky in terms of popularity, but at the very least, they seem to be on equal footing now. Its popularity comes from its many unique flavors and the fact that Kit Kat, when pronounced in Japanese as “kitto katto,” sounds like “kitto katsu” (きっと勝つ), which means “[you will] surely succeed.” The next few posts will show some of the more unique flavors we encountered. To kick things off, behold - soy sauce-flavored Kit Kat!
Christmas has become a popular occasion among young Japanese, although they celebrate it more as a secular, commercial event (usually as a day for lovers to spend time together) rather than as a religious event.
Here’s a meal that was served to us dormers in Japan in December 2009. Notice the chicken on the left. Japanese people usually eat chicken on Christmas - there’s a very interesting history behind it. Apparently, back then, KFC came up with a marketing strategy that left Japanese people with the impression that Americans eat fried chicken on Christmas Day. Today, of course, Japanese people know better, but the tradition of eating chicken on Christmas has stuck. And, of course, KFC is where most Japanese go to for their chicken, which was why we saw really long lines at KFC on Christmas Eve. (It’s worth noting that, while KFC is the most popular choice, a Japanese fastfood chain called First Kitchen seems popular as well, because we noticed people buying from First Kitchen.)
I don’t have a picture of it, but strawberry shortcake (also known as Christmas cake in Japan) is another iconic Christmas food in Japan. Lovers usually eat it together. I was surprised to find out that strawberry shortcake can get really pricey on Christmas Day. I suppose it’s because of the demand and all the decorations (as Christmas cakes can be elaborately decorated). Much as I wanted to buy some Christmas cake, I decided not to because it was expensive, and because I had no one to eat it with (my family wouldn’t be able to finish the cake, and only my little sister and I like strawberries).
Spaghetti and pizza from Shakey’s Japan.
Also, that pizza on the right? You may think that the whitish/yellowish substance is cheese, but that’s mayonnaise. It’s not as bad as you may think it to be. I love mayo, and I was delighted to find out that it tastes just as good on a pizza.
