Japanese Street Food
 

What's the most memorable "street food" you've had in Japan? Remember ... not "restaurant" sit in meal. Rice cake, red bean cake, fishball, or ....

Cheers,
Chuck
http://www.travelbyfood.com
My Travel and Food website

tacomaki - octopus balls on the street in Kyoto just after exiting the Heian Shrine.

At Yoshino, had a small fish, impaled on a stick and grilled. Not much to eat and kind of nasty, but fun.

There were vendors selling grilled sparrow along the road leading up to Fushimi Inari shrine, but I opted to take a pass...

I did like the maple cakes filled with bean paste (can't remember the name without looking at my notes) on Miyajima Island, though.

ume onigiri....I try just about everyone I see, lol

Aloha!

Ok, I'll fess up, I didn't try them.

My husband and son devoured them. I don't mind the taste of octopus and squid, it's the texture I can't get past.

I do remember they were 6 for 500yen.

> tacomaki - octopus balls
That's tako-YAKI. Very popular, you can find them pretty much all over Japan. 6 for 500 yen? Must have been very big ones. Otherwise, that's too expensive.

> maple cakes filled with bean paste
That's Momiji-Manju.

kappa-san, i am assuming you are referring to the shape of the takoyaki, right? lol. couldn't resist.

Gohei mochi - coarse mochi on a stick, grilled, with sweetened soy sauce.

taiyaki - fish shaped "waffles" filled with bean paste or custard.

mitarashi dango - 3 small, round balls of smooth mochi, on a stick with sweetened soy sauce

green tea ice cream...in various shades of green.

Chicken terryaki, chestnuts and for my children taiyaki.

A bowl of ramen from a yatai somewhere near Asakusabashi. I say somewhere near, because I was stumbling back to my hotel from the subway after a night out drinking and happened upon the street vendor late one evening. I don't think I would be able to find this night stand again. Also some hot oden on a chilly spring night in Fukuoka, washed down with a cold beer. Simple food, but delicious.

I like the street vendors in Kyoto who sell fried ramen, gyoza,and alot of other things out of the back of their vehicles in front of the train station that have a small stove unit attached to the back.....very inventive and good!

Yum !

Yaki Imo: sweet potatoes roasted in an open fire on the back of a pickup truck in the Winter around Ueno station, you hear them come early in the morning by their announcements of "Yaki Imooooo, Oishi Yaki Imoooo!"

Takoyaki: I helped my friends from Yanaka kendo dojo make and sell them during a "flower festival" (among 20 food stands, a small steam train carrying children for 25 yards, and a stage where at some point 3 young Japanese in kimono were singing a medley of classical opera songs and Italian favorites like "Santa Lucia"), in the middle of Yanaka Cemetery. I remember ending up extremely greasy and hoarse after having shouted "irasshaimase" the whole day ...

Fruits on sticks in all food markets (strawberries, pineaple, melon, ...).

Yaki Soba at Yatai ...

Ramen, Udon and Soba, eaten standing in small train station while waiting for a connection ...

I can't wait to return ...

This post is not doing anything good for my hunger. Rice balls in my opinion is something your mother makes. Good ramen or soba is very hard to find outside Japan. Consider the awful "Japanese food " at Wagamama in london or Sydney. Forget propane. Think smoldering charcoal with the smell of teryaki chicken or beef with green onions wafting in the wind....I guess I am not very vegetarian.

1. hanami dango - pink, green & white rice balls on a stick - usually sold around cherry blossom time.

2. GIANT takoyaki ball in Sunshine Douri, Ikebukuro

3. sweet potato icecream from the icecream shop on the left just before you go thru the main tori gate at Kamakura but probably available other places in Japan.

4. probably doesn't count, but Green tea thickshakes from Mister Donuts.....mmmmmmmmm

5.anagomeshi at Miyajimaguchi (sorry - another restaurant, but had to mention it)

dammit....need to go to Japan again...

Ooishi san, sorry, your humour is lost on me ! Explain please ? or anybody else who got it ?

And I love Tai-yaki. Somebody mentioned above.

One thing I do at home here in Geneva. I buy Mövenpick vanilla ice cream. Top it with sweet redbean (canned) that I buy in Asian stores in Paris. I like big cans from Korea. Cheaper than japanes products and I prefer the tastes too.

Another thing. Prepare cutard pudding with "House Pudding Mix". Only I add Matcha gree tea powder in it. Serve it with the same sweet red bean sauce. Maybe not for every body but most of my European friends love it (probably because they already have the taste for Japanese food).

Sorry if this is a bit off the "street food" topic.

Florence got mine right-- the baked sweet potatoes. There was a vendor at the base of Tokyo Tower who had these in his little roasting cart w/a real wood fire in the oven on the cart. Seeing this cart and little old man and fire embers late at night 11 pm at base of the Tower was magical aside from the sweet potatoe being very good.

Also, there is a rice cracker man w/a shop right on first block off one of the side streets of Nakimase-dori that runs in front of Senjosi in Tokyo. He wears a traditional headband and matching robe and he heats the crackers on top of an open fire pit in the front of the shop, one by one, turning them and roasting them. He sells several types of seasoned crackers. I have been to this shop on both trips and brought some home, and always walk away eating some of his crackers as I approach Senjosi.