Search results for “soba”

You can usually order at Japanese restaurants without speaking Japanese. Pointing at a menu photo, tapping a tablet or buying a meal ticket is usually enough. What confuses first-time visitors is rarely the language. It is the process, b...

Shikuwasa drink is Okinawa's everyday citrus beverage, made from a small green fruit called Citrus depressa. It tastes sharply sour with a green, faintly bitter edge, so almost nobody drinks it straight. Instead, locals dilute it with co...

In general, a two-week trip to Japan gives you around forty opportunities to eat. That sounds like plenty, until you realize that all 47 prefectures have their own specialties and food traditions. This Japan food bucket list therefore na...

In some major North American cities, a restaurant ramen meal can approach $30 once tax, tip, and maybe a side or a drink reach the check. In Japan, the same budget can stretch across a whole day. Breakfast, a proper restaurant lunch, an ...

Gurukun is Okinawa's prefectural fish, and most visitors first meet it as a whole small fish split open and deep-fried until the bones crunch. Locals call the dish gurukun no karaage. It tastes mild and clean rather than strong, so it su...

Asamushi Sencha (浅蒸し煎茶) is a lightly steamed Japanese green tea known for its elegant leaf shape, clear liquor, vivid fragrance, refreshing astringency, and delicate finish. The word asamushi means “light steamed” or “shallow steame...

Ten dollars does not buy much lunch in London or New York any more. In Japan, it still buys a proper meal, and often a very good one. Quick answer Yes, you can eat well in Japan for under $10. At roughly 163 yen to the dollar in late Jul...

At some point in every anime and manga, the action stops so that the character can eat something. Have you noticed the food is never too creative? Everyone eats the same few things. Ramen, bento, meat skewers, rinse and repeat. You hardl...

Japanese convenience store food is one of the cheapest pleasures of a trip to Japan, and for many visitors it becomes a daily habit. Japanese convenience stores are commonly called konbini, a shortened form of the Japanese pronunciation ...

Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than any other city on earth, yet some of the best meals you'll eat there cost less than 500 yen and come from a stall the size of a closet. That contrast is the whole point. A single day of ea...