Right before the whole Tofugu team left for Japan, we decided to try a nearby Japanese restaurant right here in the US. Even though we were a little apprehensive about eating there, we decided to give it a try anyway. What was the harm? It turned out we should have listened to our instincts. This [...]
There’s no Japanese food I’m more obsessed with than ramen. It’s cheap, delicious, and has enough variations to keep me interested and coming back for more. Even though ramen is originally from China and was once called shina soba (しなそば), over the course of about 150 years ramen has slowly but surely become a uniquely [...]
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are. -Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin To some people, Iron Chef was just a TV show. It ran for about a decade in Japan and had a few, less successful spinoffs around the world. Among a sea of reality TV cooking shows, it might not [...]
Sushi is arguably the most Japanese food out there. Many other Japanese foods are similar to foods from other cultures, but it’s hard to find anything as uniquely Japanese as sushi. A small sushi bar near a train station in Tokyo called Sukiyabashi Jiro, run by sushi chef Jiro Ono is largely considered to be [...]
Ever wonder what makes Japanese food taste the way it does? It absolutely has a very distinct flavor, but how would you describe it? A hundred years ago, the distinct flavor of Japanese food lead to the discovery of a brand new flavor: umami. The Four Basic Tastes Image sources: 1, 2, 3, & 4 [...]
