Best Foods to Try While in Japan

1. Katsu: fried pork loin
Usually katsu is pork, however you can easily find it as chicken. It tends to be served with/over rice. There is always a brown thick dipping sauce which resembles a worstechire/barbecue sauce. At traditional places, expect to have a runny egg served on top!

2. Shabu-shabu: cooked in hot water
I was lucky enough to try multiple types of shabu-shabu. The most interesting was octopus, which is called tako. Essentially, you cook the dish yourself. You decide how cooked you want your meat, tofu, and vegetables to be. Then once pulled out, you immediately dip in a brown sauce. Delicious!

3. Yakitori: cooked on open griddle
When I first heard about this dish (usually with beef), I knew I had to try it with the world's most famous beef, Wagyu. For your meal, you receive multiple slices of thin meat of which you cook yourself on an actual mini griddle on or made into your table. The server makes a recommendation for the preparation of each piece, then you cook it to your preference. I tried a Wagyu sampler, which included tongue, rib meat, sirloin, and round. All were melt-in-your-mouth amazing!

4. Udon
There are different styles of udon. The basic breakdown is the distinction between a soup or a bowl of noodles. When ordering, you specify what kind of udon you want. Some have lots of broth. Some have barely any. It really depends. There are restaurants that specialize in each kind. As with other typical Japanese dishes, it's not surprising to have a runny egg, piece of tempura, or pile of "sea lettuce" on top.

5. Tempura
Since being here, I've learned that tempura is a lot more than just shrimp. I've tried all types of tempura at this point- shrimp, sweet potato, zucchini, kamaboko (fish cake), corn on the cob, and different kinds of white fish.

6. Okonomiyaki (from Hiroshima)
Okonomiyaki is one of those foods that is very hard to describe, but I'll try anyways. First a savory crepe batter is poured on a hot teppan grill. Next, the chef adds noodles, bean sprouts, cabbage, thick bacon, squid, shrimp, tempura flakes, a cracked egg, seaweed powder, pepper, a brown sticky sauce, and Japanese mayonnaise. Then it is flipped over to let everything cook inside. It is served at the table on your own personal teppan grill built into your table. Absolutely delicious!

7. Anago don: broiled monger eel on rice (from Miyajima Island)
This dish is very rare and is extremely hard to find outside of Miyajima. A special type of eel is locally caught, broiled, placed on a bed of rice, and smothered in a sticky brown sauce. It doesn't taste fishy at all! I was quite surprised!

8. Kaki: oysters- raw, grilled, smother, and fried (from Miyajima Island)
While in Miyajima, you have to try their famous oysters. I recommend trying the marinated raw oysters and also the fried oysters. At some restaurants you can get a set that includes multiple preparations of oysters. You cannot visit the island without trying them!

9. Nigiri: fish over rice
Japan does nigiri so well! The ratio of fish to rice is absolutely amazing. Thick cuts of fresh fish, over a mini boat of sticky rice. It can't get any better than that. My two new favorites are raw sweet ebi shrimp, tamago (sweet egg) and bonito nigiri.
​
10. Warrabi Desserts
Warrabi is one of those flavors that is really hard to explain. If I say a very mild peanut butter, that wouldn't serve it justice. Anything and everything Warrabi is delicious!