Entries about gourmet

Pepper Lunch is a famous restaurant chain in Japan which serves meat, mostly steaks. The brand was first established in Tokyo and since then has grown into a international fast food brand for steak. You can find Pepper Lunch in most big cities in Japan, however the further away from Tokyo you get, the harder it is to find a Pepper Lunch. Many Japanese people who goes to the restaurant for their cheap steak cuts. However, you have to remember that the Japanese diet is different from those outside of Japan so the portions are really small and might not be enough for you. Their most famous signature dish however is their beef pepper rice, which is rice served in an iron plate and topped with thin slices of beef covered in their signature pepper sauce. Not only is it nutritious because you get the meat, rice, corn and green onions but also cheap at 700 yen (tax not yet included). You can get a larger portion of rice if you add an extra 100 yen. They have a 900 yen version of it with extra meat but who really knows how much they add in it? If you ever come across a Pepper Lunch anywhere around the world and is craving for meat, it might be a good idea to head in for some steak and meat that would not hurt the wallet, especially in Japan.

Kishimen is a flat and thick-cut noodle dish famous in Nagoya. The broth is very refreshing because it is a mix between the Kansai and Kanto style of Japan. In the Kanto region, things a much more sweet while in the Kansai region, things are much more salty. In this case, you can taste the saltiness from the bonito flakes as well as the sweetness from the sake they used for seasoning in their broth. Usual toppings they put on their Kishimen in Nagoya are spinach, kamaboko, fried bean curds, to name a few. Not only is it an interesting dish but also a different twist to your knowledge about Japanese noodle dishes.

The doteni is the Nagoya version of doteyaki (Osaka famous B class gourmet). Although both doteni and doteyaki are sweet and the colours look the same, the sauce is made from different ingredients. In this post I will be focusing on the comfort food of Nagoya, the doteni. Doteni is a dish where they simmer ingredients like daikon, beef innards and eggs to name a few; in a sweet Nagoya special Hatcho miso sauce. It is usually finished off with chopped scallions on the top and served as a la carte at izakayas. If you like sweet meat dishes then this is a must try the next time you visit Nagoya!

Like all other parts of Japan, Aichi people are also fascinated with pork and what is a better way to eat pork than deep-frying them into cutlets like the rest of Japan? Now, here is the catch. Unlike other parts of Japan where they either serve it in tonkotsu sauce on the side or smother the whole dish with tonkotsu sauce, they dump a sweet miso sauce on to the cutlets. They bring out the deep-fried pork cutlets and the sweet miso sauce separately and pour the sauce on for you to your liking. If you want more sauce you can ask for more just by asking the servers. Although deep-fried pork cutlets isn't my favourite thing to eat in Japan, I do like the miso katsu. I find that the crispiness of the pork cutlet and the hot sweet miso sauce the pour on afterwards creates this perfect harmony and when you bite into it you can taste the meat, the breading and the sweetness from the miso sauce all in one bite. Not to mention that the miso sauce goes so well with the rice! If I ever visit Nagoya again, I would go and have it every day!

Ochazuke is a common dish served all over Japan. It is a very traditional dish where you have either tea, dashi or hot water poured over rice. There are different types of ochazukes with different toppings. The one I had here had red seabream from Ehime prefecture of Japan. Ochazuke is most famous in Kyoto because this dish is usually served after a meal. So if someone serves you ochazuke in Kyoto, that means they are asking you to leave.