Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network
Show Name: Food Away from Home (World Tour)
Episode Title: Jammin in Japan
Cece: What’s up guys? Welcome to the fourth episode of our podcast, “Food Away From Home (World Tour)”, with your hosts Annie, Cece, and Shiv. In this episode, we're going to be talking about the different foods that you can find in Japan, and where they can be found. Let's get started!
Segment 1: City vs. countryside: Tokyo and Kyoto
Shiv: Japan is a large country-island-that is located in the South Pacific Ocean. It has many geographic locations that vary from cities, countrysides, and mountains, such as Mount Fuji. In these widespread and vast areas, there are many different cultures and traditions, as well as amazing foods, that need to be tried out.
Annie: We can start with Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Tokyo is a very populated and touristic city, with many different experiences and places to visit-but lets get into the food!
Annie: In Tokyo, the foods include many.
-Sushi, which is a ball of rice underneath a piece of freshly picked, raw fish, such as salmon, and tuna.
-Sashimi, which is just pieces of freshly picked, raw fish.
-Maki, which is your classic rice roll with seaweed to contain the rice and a piece of raw fish on top.
Cece-I have been to Japan, and I found it such as amazing, and cultural place. There were so many things that were unique, and different from the U.S, and it had very beautiful scenery. I spent about a week in Tokyo, and can tell you that the foods are so good, and need to be tried!
Cece-What I especially liked about the foods were the Shabu Shabu japanese dishes.
- Shabu Shabu are restaurants where there are hot pot dishes and you can cook your own thinly cut meat, tofu, as well as vegetables, inside of this “broth” like soup.
- “Shabu Shabu” is a literary term for “swish”, because of the swishing sound that the meat makes when it is cooked. They usually use Wagyu beef, which is very prestigious and important to the Japanese culture.
- I found these so interesting and diverse, and I loved the taste of the finishing product!
Shiv: Another popular and interesting food in Tokyo is ramen. Ramen is a bowl of broth, or soup, with noodles, either crispy or rice noodles, in the broth, with vegetables, tofu, and oteh==her ingredients for a perfect finishing product!
Cece: When I went to Tokyo, I visited this one restaurant, where you could choose the ingredients you wanted in your ramen, simply buy taking a grocery basket, and "shopping around” for fresh ingredients around the store. Then, you would pay for the ingredients, and give them to the chefs, who would make you the ramen using the ingredients you chose. They could also add spice levels, and toppings for you as well. This was so good, and a unique experience!
Shiv says what her favorite is - Annie and Cece build off of that
Cece: Now, take it away Annie
Segment 2: Popular foods and Sweets/Snacks
Annie: There are many delicious foods in Japan. Many that you might eat! There are many snacks as well. There are different foods in Tokyo and Kyoto, like what we described in India, but they are all still delicious. Shiv will start us off with some of these cuisines.
Shiv: Thanks Annie!
Some of the popular foods in Tokyo Japan are many that you might have heard of!
- Raman - Noodle soups with rich broth and toppings. Great for anytime of the year.
- Sushi - Rolls of rice, veggies, and fish/meat and dipped in soy sauce, wasabi, and/or ginger. There are both meat rolls as well as vegetarian rolls.
- Tempura is deep fried fish or veggies and has a crunchy outer layer.
- Yakitori is skewered grilled chicken
- Tonkatsu is A breaded and deep fried pork cutlet
- Monjayaki is a runny, savory pancake cooked on the griddle
- Takoyaki is ball shaped snacks with deep fried octopus.
Some of the popular sweet snacks are
- Tokyo banana, which is a sponge cat outer layer with a soft banana inside. Even if you are not a fan of banana’s, this is something everyone can love.
- Pocky are bread sticks with hardened chocolate around it.
- Japan also has many flavors of kit kats
These are just a few of the popular Tokyo snacks
There are also many savory snacks
- Umaibo - puffed corn snack - many flavors
- Senbei - rice crackers that come in many flavors as well.
You might have thought that with all of these sweet snacks, Tokyo doesn’t have as many desserts, but you would be mistaken.
- Dango - Dumplings with a sweet soy glaze
- There are many gelatin like sweets as well
Now onto the other part of Japan - Kyoto
Some popular foods are
- Yudofu - Simmered tofu, served with dipping sauces
- Nishin Soba - A noodles dish with sweetened, simmered herring
- Tsukemono - Variety of Japanese pickles
Some popular snacks are
- Mitarashi Dango - Skewered rice dumplings coated in a sweet and savory soy glaze.
- Dorayaki - Pancakes filled with anki and modern variations like matcha cream or custard
Soma savory snacks include
- Senbei - Japanese rice crackers that can be rather sweet or savory
- Yuba - Tofu skin that can be a snack or used for various dishes
Some popular deserts include
- Matcha roll cake- popular in many kyoto cafes, very internet famous, a soft cake that's usually cream filled
- Ajari mochi- a type of mochi with a red bean paste; kyoto specialty
Cece: My dad goes to Japan often and some of his favorite restaurants to go to are…
Ristoranti
Sushizanmae
Informal sushi place open from 11am to 5am, great food, great quality fair price, sushi menus and singles
Shabusen
For the lovers of meat this shabu shabu and sukiyaki place seats everyone at the counter and has excellent service and food, at the 8th floor of a department store
Hibiki
Classic Japanese menu, elegant, with vegetarian options, named after the famous Japanese whiskey
Zauo
Multiple locations in Tokyo, we tried the Shibuya. Great choice and attraction is you fish your own fishes in the big pools located inside the restaurant. Fish can be prepared as you wish (sushi, sashimi, tempura, soup) Great for families with kids
Ichiran
Classic Tonkatsu Ramen, nice jingle, great food, each has his own cubicle where waiter leave food raising a sliding door. High quality, multiple locations around town, can get crowded at peak hours
Before end, everyone talks about favorite dish and from where, Annie starts
Segment 3: Experiances
Cece: There are many unique, fascinating, and diverse experiences that you can have in Japan. Many can not only be free, but can include even taking a trip to a grocery store or pharmacy in Japan.
-When I went to Japan, the grocery stores were one of a kind. EVerything was written in Japanese, so I couldnt understand a single word. The foods were interesting, and they included many fruits that I never saw in the U.S, as well as many vegetable that I didn't see either. Their snack collection was huge, and all the snacks looked very appetizing, I wanted to try all of them!
Experiences-
Cat cafe- act cafes are very popular in urvan areas like Tokyo, there are close to 150 cafes nationwide, many areas in japan do not allow pets so this is a way for people to interact with them since they cant keep them in their houses, and these are popular tourist spots
Shiv: Yes! The pharmacies in Japan are so much different than the rest of the world! They are known for having many different items, such as multiple skincare brands, and everyday used materials. Their pharmacies are packed, and have many, many things inside.
Cece: a lot of popular brands, like shisedo, have beauty stores in Japan, that have a variety of beauty products you might not find in america
Annie: The people in Japan are amazing. You can always see people greeting you when you go into restaurants or stores, and saying goodbye when you leave. Fun fact, good
Ending
Cece: As you can see, Japan is a very exciting place when it comes to food. It is pretty clear why we wanted to talk about it today. *Pause* Thank you so much for listening to “Food Away from Home” today and
All: We will see you guys next week!
Music Credits: List the artist and song name
- Intro - Cruise control - Patrick Patrikios
- Outro - Invisible - Anno Domini Beats
- Transitions - Stalling - Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
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