It’s pretty rare for me. American movies about food seem to be few and far between, and the ones that are around are usually socially-conscious documentaries that bum me out more than anything.

Japanese movies about food seem to do exactly the opposite. Most food movies out of Japan focus a lot on the role of food in bringing people together, the journeys people go through for food and, most importantly of all, always make me really hungry. Would you expect anything less from the country that brought us Iron Chef?

I gathered up some of the best Japanese movies about food I could find. If these don’t rouse your apetite, then you might not have a stomach.

Tampopo (タンポポ)

Tampopo is the be all and end all of Japanese food movies. Period. Full stop. If you say that any other food movie is better then sorry, but you’re wrong.

Billed as a “Ramen Western” (a play on the “Spaghetti Western” genre of movies), Tampopo is, at its most basic, the story of a woman trying to turn her ramen shop around to save it from its own mediocrity.

But that simle description does such disservice to the movie. Tampopo jumps around, exploring different topics, settings, and stories, culminating into a movie that encompasses life, death, love, and all of the big questions in life.

If you’ve never heard of or seen Tampopo before, then see it as soon as you can. But in the meantime, you can read our post on Tampopo and philosophy.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a documentary all about Jiro Ono, chef at the best sushi restaurant in the world, Sukiyabashi Jiro. How do you get to be the best sushi chef in the world? Jiro Dreams of Sushi tells Jiro’s life story and explores his philosophy on sushi and life in general.

This movie is the definition of food porn, full of close-up shots of freshly-made sushi glistening with soy sauce, moments before it’s delicately gobbled down by a appreciative diner. Even if you can’t go to the best sushi restaurant in the world, Jiro Dreams of Sushi will give you a very personal view of the sushi.

You also get a glimpse into the inner workings of the Japanese restaurant industry, all the way up and down the supply chain. It’s a behind-the-scenes tour that not many people get.

You can watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi on Netflix, and read our write-up about Sukiyabashi Jiro here.

Udon (うどん)

In Japan, udon noodles plays second fiddle to ramen. Not only is the greatest Japanese food movie, Tampopo, about ramen, but ramen has taken off in the Japanese food world the way udon never has.

People in Japan are always tinkering with ramen, coming up with new and exciting ways to serve it. There are so many variations when it comes to broth, noodles, and toppings, that it’s hard to keep track of it all. (Although we’ve written a guide to ramen to help keep track of it all.)

That doesn’t mean that you should ignore udon. Not only is it delicious in its own right, but it even has its own movie, appropriately titled Udon.

Udon, like Tampopo, is a bit of an underdog story, but is much different from seminal classic. It follows a washed-up comedian who returns home to help construct an udon pilgrimmage of sorts.

Ironically enough, one of the members of the comedy group the Rahmens appears in the movie. Maybe ramen and udon can be friends after all!

The Antarctic Cook (南極料理人)

When you’re stationed at a research facility in Antarctica, it’s easy to get homesick. Surrounded by vast stretches of impossibly cold desert, you long for more hospitable surroundings.

Fortunately, some familiar food can go a long way. The Antarctic Cook follows the crew at Antarctica’s Dome Fuji Station and, more specifically, Nishimura, the crew’s chef.

You can read our full review of the Antarctic Cook here.

Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し)

You might think that Spirited Away isn’t really a food movie. After all, isn’t it one of those Studio Ghibli movies about magic and wonder?

And you’d be right. But, Spirited Away also happens to feature enough tasty-looking food to make your mouth water. Even though the food is all illustrated, the variety and serving sizes of those foods still provoke your appetite.

You can read our article about how Spirited Away is the perfect foodie movie for more.

Honorable mention: eatrip

eatrip (a portmanteau of “eat” and “trip”) is a simple documentary about how food bring people together. Despite featuring dreamboat actor Tadanoba Asano and coming out pretty recently (2009), I couldn’t track it down through either legitimate or not-so-legitimate means.

The trailer makes the movie look promising, but every review site I’ve come across gives it pretty mediocre ratings. Just as well, I suppose.

What food movies make your mouth water? Did I miss you favorite Japanese food movie on this list? Do you want to try to make the argument that Tampopo isn’t the best (rofl)? Tell me in the comments!

The B-Class Gourmet Effect

Every restaurant in Japan wants to be recognized by B-Class Gourmets. All it takes is one good review and out of nowhere comes a flock of B-Class Gourmets. Soon there is a long line wrapped around the building and the small, previously unnoticed restaurant is suddenly the talk of the town. Restaurant owners love this.

If the good reviews keep coming, the restaurant will continue to stay busy like this. Very few actually become so popular that they remain trendy for years to come, but they still enjoy the spike in business. Many of these B-Class Gourmet hot spots quickly fizzle out and the restaurant goes back to its previous amount of patrons.

Restaurants are a multi-trillion yen industry that is super competitive. Every cheap restaurant in Japan wants to be the next B-Class Gourmet sensation, but very few will actually enjoy long term B-Class success.

I just don’t get why they stand in that line, man.

Foreigners, however, rarely understand this phenomenon. Some even remark that Japanese people seem to actually enjoy waiting in line. Very often you’ll see two ramen shops right next to each other, one with a line wrapped around the building, and the other with no customers at all.

It’s not surprising that foreigners would not understand this. I’m sure it sucks pretty hard for the unpopular shops around the B-Class sensation as well. Locals and B-Class Gourmets say that if you truly appreciate the B-Class foods then you’ll know that it’s all worth the wait.

Japan is known for a lot of foods, but not all of them really qualify as the stuff of a B-Class legend. However, many of these should be relatively familiar to you, and a good restaurant that serves them is definitely worth the hunt.

Ramen

Everybody knows ramen. Not everyone loves ramen. I really like ramen, but unfortunately I couldn’t tell a huge difference in quality by getting ramen at a supposedly “nice place” in Japan. These nice places will make their own noodles and broth, which is certainly a step up from instant ramen. I’m sure if I had more ramen, I’d develop my palette and be able to appreciate it more like a B-Class Gourmet would.

And for those B-Class Gourmet’s in training, Hashi here has written the definitive Ramen Survival Guide which will be indispensable in your quest for ramen enlightenment. Give it a read.

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki… It’s good!

Ah, okonomiyaki. This is more like it. I love okonomiyaki. This is the kind of food I would be more willing to go on a quest for. While good okonomiyaki wasn’t all that difficult for me to find in Japan, it was a bit more difficult to find over here in America. I did find a good spot for it (see above), but it wasn’t quite as cheap as I would have liked it to be. Too bad for me.

And since I’m quite confident all of you will love okonomiyaki just as much as I do, you should probably check out my full post on okonomiyaki and why it’s so awesome. Then you can go on your very own B-Class Gourmet quest for it.

Yakisoba

Yakisoba is another one of my favorite B-Class Gourmet foods. The dish itself is kind of similar to chow mein. Yakisoba is flavored with a sort of Worcestershire sauce and despite the name, yakisoba noodles are more akin to ramen than soba. Yakisoba is a popular festival food, and while I did have some at a festival, I wouldn’t say it was the best I had.

Embarrassingly, the best yakisoba I had was a kind of instant yakisoba. It came with a packet of some variety of horseradish sauce, and I’m a sucker for horseradish. Therefore, that was my favorite yakisoba. Now all I need to do is go to a restaurant that has good yakisoba and some horseradish sauce and I’ll be all set.

Gyoza

Gyoza are ground meat and/or vegetable dumplings that are pretty much always served fried. They’re extremely popular in Japan and for good reason too. Gyoza are super tasty. I love them. One of my greatest joys in Japan was finding fresh gyoza at the local market in Kobe. Just thinking about them now is making me hungry.

Gyoza, like ramen, is another Chinese food that made it into Japan and was adapted to the Japanese tastes. I’m glad it was, because I like Japanese dumplings way more than Chinese ones. Sorry China!

Curry

And who could forget about curry? Fiona even wrote a full post about curry not too long ago. While I’m not so sure I would call it better than ramen, curry still is pretty darn tasty.

I live not too far away from the largest Japanese market in the state, and they have a Japanese restaurant attached to it that serves up some mighty tasty curry. I haven’t been there in a while, but now I kinda want to go. I shouldn’t be writing this post on an empty stomach.

Sushi

Like you weren’t expecting sushi to be on this list – c’mon, everybody knows sushi, and if you don’t love it then I feel bad for you. Sushi is great, comes in so many different varieties, and can either be super cheap, or way too expensive. I prefer the super cheap variety, but that’s just me.

Unfortunately, America has all but ruined sushi. My favorite kinds of sushi are the simpler varieties though. I just really love tuna. And wasabi. And ginger. Give me some plain tuna rolls with soy sauce, wasabi, and a pile of ginger, and I’ll be a happy boy.

Sushi is another area where I feel my palette isn’t developed enough to appreciate higher end stuff. I mean, I can tell when sushi is bad, but I don’t think my mouth really notices much difference between medium grade and high grade sushi. Oh well, I’m fine with my relatively cheap tuna rolls.

Soba

Soba are Japanese buckwheat noodles. They’re served hot in a light broth or cold with a dipping sauce. As with ramen, restaurants often make their own noodles from scratch. Unfortunately for me, I’ve never really cared for soba all that much. I’ve always held ramen noodles as the superior Japanese noodle. All the other noodles seem inferior in comparison.

But regardless of what I think, soba are still a very popular B-Class Gourmet food. Lots of people love soba. Just not me.

Yakitori

Yakitori is grilled skewers of chicken and vegetables. They’re great. Some of the best ones I had were at a fair in Osaka, just from one of the little food stands. It wasn’t a restaurant, but they were super fresh and super tasty. If you like grilled chicken, yakitori is definitely the way to go.

Hanbaagu

No, hanbaagu is not the same as hamburger. At least not in the way you’d expect. When I first heard the phrase, I thought it was a hamburger. Actually, hanbaagu is served without the bun that you’d expect and is most often served with rice and plain sides with light seasoning. The main focus is on the hanbaagu, which can be topped with anything from egg to pineapple to Mark Zuckerberg himself.

We actually had hanbaagu quite a few times in Kobe at a place called Bikkuri Donkey which here translates to “Amazing Donkey”. Hilarious name. It’s the only place I’ve ever had hanbaagu, but I think it was pretty good there.

Udon

Udon is thick Japanese wheat-flour noodles. While I’m not really a big fan of these heavier thick noodles, Koichi absolutely loves udon. And bukkake.

I much prefer ramen to udon, but hey, that’s me. If you’d rather have bukkake sliding down your throat and into your stomach, then whatever – more power to you. It’s just not my thing.

Those are just some of the most popular B-Class Gourmet foods though, there are many others. The above ones are definitely the most popular however. If I had to pick one standout favorite, I think I’d have to go with okonomiyaki. It just can’t be beat.

And if you do decide to go on your very own B-Class Gourmet excursion in your home country, or any country that isn’t Japan, make sure you’re going to the right places. How do I know the right place from the wrong place you ask? Well, just check out Koichi’s post on The 7 Immutable Laws Of Identifying A “Real” Japanese Restaurant and you’ll be all set. I guarantee it.

So tell me, what’s your favorite B-Class Gourmet food from Japan? Have any spectacular restaurants to recommend to the gang when they make it over to Japan next month? Let us know in the comments!

Why you making this face at me??

WAIT. WHAT? You thought I was talking about WHAT? Whoa. Dude. Hold onto your horses. You some kind if perv, or something? I was talking about the delicious style of food, bukkake. I have no idea what you were thinking of. Not cool. Not cool at all. I can see how you may have gotten the wrong idea but… really? Is that what you think of me? I guess I better explain.

Bukkake Is A Food… NO, A REAL FOOD. Seriously.

Doesn’t this bukkake udon look delicious?

I’m being absolutely serious here. I am a very innocent person. I did not know about this “other” bukkake (DO NOT SEARCH FOR THIS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS ALREADY AND ARE IN A PUBLIC PLACE) until pretty late in my life. I am definitely one of the more innocent and naive people in this world, so it was a big surprise to me when I realized people weren’t talking about the delicious food. I grew up knowing about and eating things like bukkake udon, bukkake soba, and tamago bukkake gohan. This would be like if you found out that the word “pizza” was a dirty nasty porn-fest, and you were the only person not to know that.

What I’m trying to say here, though, is that in Japan, you’ll see the word bukkake on food menus everywhere. It’s definitely not an uncommon thing. The most common bukkake foods you’ll see are probably these guys, though:

Bukkake Udon

Bukkake Soba

Tamago Bukkake Gohan

Of course, all three of these things are delicious (what Japanese food isn’t?). The true challenge for all you pervs out there is getting the other image of bukkake out of your head before partaking in the correct and way tastier image of bukkake. Do you think you can do it? Maybe if we talked about the word itself and its meaning, that would help?

What Is “Bukkake”?

That right there is the kanji for bukkake. It’s usually going to be written in kana alone, I’d say, but the kanji is where you can pull some meaning from, so we’re going to use that. Let’s look at the individual kanji in here.

打：This kanji means to “hit,” “pound,” or “strike” something.

掛：This kanji means to “pour” something (at least, that’s the best meaning of this kanji for this particular word).

So, what can we figure out from this kanji? That you’re hitting something with the pouring of something else. So far, kind of dirty, but that’s only because you learned the pervy meaning first. Don’t worry, I’ll try to beat it out of you.

Now, when you combine these kanji together and throw some okurigana in there, you get a slightly different definition (though not all that far off from what we figured out by breaking the kanji up).

打っ掛け（ぶっかけ）Bukkake Definition

1. Splashing on; splashing at;
2. Dish made by pouring broth over something (esp. bukkakesoba)
3. Something nasty that I can’t write here. Think of the children, man!

This word is actually short for the verb, 打っ掛ける, which means “to dash” or “to pour.” I think you can start to see why this word is used for either type of bukkake. For the food, though, it’s used because in these dishes, some kind of broth is poured over some other item. Splashed over it, if you will. There will usually be other toppings on top as well. Things like grated daikon (yum!), nattou (ewww), grated Japanese yam, bonito flakes, egg, green onion, and more. It’s pretty delicious, too. A nice and simple food with simple ingredients that come together to form a nice assortment of tastes. It’s a very Japanese-ish food, if you ask me.

You Should Try Bukkake Sometime

美味しいよ！

Okay, so maybe that headline is asking for it a bit. But seriously, you ought to try it. It’s a really good food, and it’s probably moderately healthy as well. Also very simple to make… though I’d turn safe-search on when you’re looking for recipes. Bukkake soba and bukkake udon are generally cold noodle dishes, so when things get nice and hot in the summer, I hope you give it a try.

Dang, all this talk about bukkake is making me hungry though. I might have to go make some for myself.

I hope you enjoyed this post. It may be the least classy post every written on Tofugu, but I also think it’s the classiest blog post written about bukkake ever in the history of the world, am I right? So, now you know a little bit more and you won’t be surprised and confused to see a bukkake dish on a Japanese menu. You’re welcome for splashing the broth of knowledge all over your face. But, I hope you’ll excuse me. I have some bukkake (udon) to prepare.

P.S. I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!