Ramdom Japanese Food Pictures

At 100yen Kaiten Sushi restaurant !

Cheapest sushi choice in Japan

The taste is so so.... But, very casual and easy way to eat Sushi.

Sushi is good choice for hot summer :-D

Bento (Lunch box) I like '' Makuno-uchi'' Type like below.

Can enjoy many kind of foods. More healthy choice with some vegetables.

It is around JPY500 per 1 meal

You can choose the favorite one at Bento Store from the menu.

This is a little bit expensive, special type.

So many DRINKS @ discount Liquor Shops

This is my favorite. 泡盛（awamori = a kind of Shochu made in Okinawa). It is sprit distilled from Rice.
And, not like other nomal Shochu, there is a vintage type in 泡盛。I can say this brand is the most popular/familier one for 泡盛　vintage (古酒）。There are so many brands available. Rare one only available in the local place sounds interesting.
But, for me, くら is good enough. I love this taste.
Sometime I can see this small bottle type at the convenient store. Easy to buy anywhere all over Japan.
And, it seems that くら has Gold medal also at Monde Selection (International food fair) !

kura - atJPY1,200 around per bottle.





Today, I bought this at Discount shop of Liquor.

This is great place to shop around for me. I am not so big drinker.. but I like eating many kinds of foods. Drinking is the same for me. I don't buy Drinks so often at this kind of big shop. But, I can find something new or interesting Drinks or Foods like this,

This is WINE. JPY1,000 for above three. 750ml for 3 cans = 1 bottle.

The taste is so so. Easy to drink, easy to dispose :-D  If the price would be around JPY200 per can. I will come back to buy the same one...

And some pics for the shop inside.

日本酒　area

Wine selections

Recent Stronger Yen makes the wine price lower !

Beer Towers

What kind of drink do you like ????

Beer or Juice ???

It has been still hot and humid here. The TV news talks about too hot summer this year...sigh....
In a hot summer, Beer moves well. I also noticed I often buy beers this summer.
Do you know many TYPES of Beer on sales in Japan ?
Some of them are NOT beer...what ??? Yes, here is the new type of beer !

All looks Beer. But ALL are NOT real beer.

Even one of them is NOT alcohol drink either lol.

1) Blue one on right is 発泡酒　(low malt beer) 

2) green one on middle is, what is called, a new type of beer.

Sparking liquor with beer Taste. This contains less suger 70% off. The taste is lighter. Good for ladies.

3) Right one is not Alcohol drink.

So, i can say this is Juice ??? Even Children can drink this...but most likely too bitter for them though...hehe.

Here in Japan, there is alcohol TAX. It is decided on the quantity of used malt. So, all beer makers create those new type of beers and low malt beer's price is lower than normal real Beer.

The appearance all looks beer....and new products come up. It easily confuse me in my shopping.

I am not a beer lover. So, those reasonable new type of beers are very welcome.

But, please be careful to pick up the beer at Japanese shops.

Obon

It was so humid and hot summer day today. We're in the Obon Festival holidays, this is the main holidays for Japanese people.
Typical way to spend Obon holidays is to be with families. People go back to the hometown and also visit family graves to comfort the spirits of their ancestors as well. And, in this period, August 15th is included. It is the anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. Yes, it is the time to think about the families and ancestors.... and our own lifes etc...

Tonight, I went for a dinner with my father, hubby, and my sister and her family members. The restaurant (Izakaya) is located near the city station, on the local shopping street. This place always reminds me of my old time. I often go shopping etc in my childhood. The street has been changed. Some shops were not there anymore. And the new stores or building are seen. But, still good local atmosphere. It still bring me back to some memories.

It was so wonderful time tonight at that restaurant. The small bon dance festival takes place nearby. I could hear that sound. This sound makes me feed VERY SUMMER :-D

Japanese Fast food

August has rolled around already and it was very hot day today too.... I feel this summer is strange Last night, I suddenly heard a strange sound, something noisy. It started raining so heavily. But, it was just short time. Is it a squall ??? It reminds me of my trip to Bali..haha.

When I had to overwork, I sometimes use '' take out ''. Today's take out is,

This is Gyudon　（= bowl of rice topped with beef). I can say this is Japanese Fast food. There are many ''Gyudon'' restaurant chain. 2 big ones are also near my house.

My favorite is the oldest chain - YOSHINOYA.

Beef is the most expensive choices in meat. But, Gyudon is the reasonable choice for food, I can say. The price is JPY380 in Yoshinoya. And the newer and larger chains offer just JPY280 !!!!! Incredible price. Why ??? They use the imported beef from USA or AUST. And beefs are well sliced ^^  My favorite YOSHINOYA gyudon is more expensive but I believe the taste is better　:-D


Pls let me show you another famous chain - SUKIYA.

They offer many various menus of Gyudon (combination with Cheese or Kimuchi (Korean taste) or even with Italian Tomato source and so one). So fascinating !!!! And also other menus like Curry or Grilled eel Rice bowl are available.  I should admire this establishment in this point



 Gyudon is a kind of JAPANESE culture. Such companies activity are often picked up on the news. Each chains have been making the heated battle. And this summer, SUKIYA put up the big campaign and now offer only JPY250 for a original standard GYUDON.  I am sure it is really good deal. With JPY250 (= around $3 currently), we only buy 2 Rice bowls or 2 Breads.

Explore more Japanese fast foods here - this is interesting article !
 10 Japanese fast food that should be exported

Easy cooking of Japanese HOME taste !

It is the special extra holiday for me cause the office is closed :-D
It is rare to be off on the week day and I have something to go. But for my relaxing time, I finished them up in the morning (going to the hospital and bank). In the afternoon, I took 90 minutes Oil massage after shopping around in the department store.

The best floor I like in the department is FOOD section. We call '' Depa-Chika'' meaning the basement floor of a department store where the delicatessen sections are usually placed. The big department floors have 2 floors for food sections. Usually,1 floor has various shops of Sweet, bakery, and delicatessens etc. And the other sell the daily food stuffs with meat/fish/vegetables shops. I like to buy meat at meat shops and fish at fish shops if possible.. but unfortunately those local shopping stores are taken place by the super mkt.
But, when I go to the department store, I can find the small shops of fish/meat/vegetables at once on the same floor. It gave me the enjoyable time of shopping. Shopping should be fun always.. right ?

And what I shopped there is '' Beef'' :-D

Normally the sales unit is per 100gm at the meat shop. These are already sliced or cut for each menu ;
  
すき焼き　＝　Sukiyaki   (thin slices of beef cooked with vegetables at the table in soy sauce, sake and sugar)
焼肉　＝　thicker slices for BBQ
こま切れ　Komagire ＝ Hash. Usually the most reasonable one

Also, beef for stakes or minces are available.

Above picture is just one corner of a lot of types, reasonable products.
But, pls take a look this !

This is selected and branded beef - JPY1,575 per 100gm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The good beef Japanese people thing are marbled one,  fat and red part good balanced. This kind of beef is like melting in the mouse.
But, this is not highest one. The highest price one in this shop is JPY2500 per 100gm !
Who buy ??? 

And what I bought was,

The cheapest hash one - JPY298 per 100gm.
That is the best for '' Nikujyaga'' -(simmered) meat and potatoes. It is Japanese popular dish for home cooking.

Today, I got the very easy recipe. Normally we use the soup from dried bonito. But, this recipe does not need it. All seasonings we need are SUGAR, SOY SOURCE, JAPANESE SAKE.
The ingredients are sliced beef, Onion, Potatoes and carrot.

Here is the recipe.

1. stir-fry the sliced beef with a small amount of oil
2. put Sugar , Soy-source, and Sake : rough ratio  Suger:Soysourse:Sake = 1:2:1
3. put other vegetables and stir-fry
4. stew with sometime string up.

It is Typical Japanese taste. The potatoes are not soggy and very nice !!!!

Korean food stuffs

It has been really hot here. I feel Japan is becoming more like sothern country...
On the hot day, I want to eat something spicy. For me, Thai food must be perfect ! But, unfortunately, it is hard to cook and uncommon here. So, today, I picked up some Korean foods at the super mkt. Yes, Korean foods are popular and already common food stuffs I easily buy even at the local super mkt :-D

キムチ(ki-mu-chi = Korea's traditional fiery pickle) - JPY250 around
I can find several kinds of Kimuchi at the stores. Some are imported from Korea. This is common one the famous Japanese Tsukemono (Japanese pickle) company.

And also picked up another major Korean food.

The package says Korean Traditional Seaweed.   JPY100 per pack .
I love this seaweed. This is seaoned by sesami oil and salt. Good with RICE too !
I have ordered 1 box of this seaweed on the web once. It is much more reasonable price.

Korean food is already well-recoginized also in Japan. There are many Korean dinings. Korean BBQ is one of major ones. Korean food taste ONIGI with this seasoned seaweed is on sales at the convenience store.

Anyway, tonight, I put Kimuchi and Seaweed over TOFU with a seasoning soy sourse. It was good.