Japan X1 - The Inner Bloke

Some bloke sitting on a white horse a couple of centuries ago is reputed to have said the immortal words...'an army marches on it's stomach' though they might have been uttered a couple of millena before that by Claudius Galen, the chief physician of the Roman Army.  Whoever said it, the phrase is no less true today as our intrepid little band found out in Japan, as we ploughed our way through all the culinary delicacies on offer.

We were initially a little sceptical about the food, believing as many do that the Japanese exist solely on a diet of raw fish and rice, but nothing could be further from the truth as the range and quality that we tried was quite bewildering at times.  Make no mistake...it is different, but it's part of the experience to have a go at everything.

I had two caveats, the first being that I wasn't going to resort under any circumstances to the old standby and the second was that if it was still moving on the plate, it wasn't coming anywhere near me!

The traditional British pub exists nowhere else (apart from the ubiquitous 'Irish Pubs' to be found in every city and resort in the world...and the less said about them, the better!) but the Japanese have their own version, the 'izakaya' where food is served.  It's a good place to try out loads of varied dishes ranging from 'yakatori' (ALL bits of the chicken on a skewer) 'tempura' (deep fried anything in batter) 'edamame' beans (rather like broad beans) and many others.  Strangely, there's nowhere in Japan, unlike the UK, where you can just go for a drink or twelve...if you drink, food needs to be ordered.

One of the meals we had was at a tempura restaurant, where a chef coats the item (veg or fish) in batter whereupon...

















...they get deep fried.  And very pleasant it was too.

Not quite so pleasant was the traditional Japanese breakfast, although what the monks  at Nagano had...

...was slightly better than most, but even so, a few different varieties of tofu, a sticky rice ball and a bowl of miso soup wasn't really my bag...I need strong coffee and lots of it!  Together with the breakfast there's always the obligatory green tea...

 ...served everywhere in Japan and this was much more acceptable, though it's far superior to the rather bitter, insipid stuff we get in the UK.  Even better is 'hojicha' or brown tea, which is low in caffeine.  We liked it so much that several large bags of the stuff found their way back to England!

Perhaps one of the best meals we had was at the ryokan in Takayama, where the evening meal required us to dress in a yukata, or cotton kimono tied with the obi, or belt.  Later on, I found a good selection at the Kyoto Handicrafts Centre and brought one home, but I still haven't worked out how to tie the obi correctly.

The meal was quite delicious but the centre piece was the bowl of...

...Hida Beef, which was cooked over noodles and mushrooms.  Later on, Tom took us out to a tiny little restaurant tucked away in the backstreets that specialised in the beef where they without doubt...

...served the best hamburgers in the world.  In fact, so good where they...


















...I had to go back on my own the following evening just to make sure!

There were lots of markets in Japan, where all sorts fish and veg were for sale, but so different were the foods, that I failed dismally to identify many of them.

If you can recognise any of the food (apart from the crabs and octopus, which tastes a bit like a mushroom) you can have free readership of the BlokeBlog for life...an offer not to be sneezed at!

Miso soup is an obligatory part of every Japanese meal and is unquestionably an acquired taste.  Some of it is quite good...


























...especially at this miso 'brewery' in Takayama, but in other places it was awful. In certain parts of Toyko there's an all pervasive pong of the stuff which I found distinctly unpleasant.

You can't go to Japan without trying sushi, of which there are dozens of varieties.  We had a couple of really tasty meals, but the cast-iron prerequisite is that the fish must be absolutely fresh.  Alyson is looking a little...

...apprehensive here, but was much more enthusiastic...

























...about the conveyor belt sushi in Kanazawa...

...where she eventually polished off more than me!  The waitress is shown reading the bar-codes on each plate and it's this that determines your bill.

Whilst we were in Kanazawa, Tom took a couple of us on a bit of a 'pub' crawl where we eventually ended up in the 'standing bar', a tiny little establishment that served the cheapest beer in Japan.  The lady behind the bar also supplied us with copious amounts of nibbles and fresh tempura.  Later on in the evening we were befriended by a group of Japanese business men who insisted on buying drinks for us and sharing their food, so that a slightly inebriated night was had by all!

Did I mention that I like sake?

After the war, there was a desperate shortage of food in Hiroshima and to relieve the suffering, the Americans supplied vast amounts of wheat flour, common in the west but relatively unknown in Japan. The inhabitants of the city then developed their own speciality using the flour, the 'okonomiyaki' or Hirshoshima pancake.

This consists of a pancake base layer, cooked on a hot plate...

...over which are gradually added layers of different ingredients...

...so that eventually, after many turnings and 'squashing-downs'...

...the thing is cooked.  Delicious!

I can't finish this account of the culinary delights of Japan without a mention of something I simply had to have every day.  Forget Ben and Jerry's, Haagen-Daz and the rest of them...

























...green tea ice cream is the way forward!