Tag: food (Page 6) | RocketNews24

food

A Very Berry Ramen Experience — “Susususustrawberry Ramen”

Jan 20, 2013 by Kay
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Here at RocketNews24, we’ve certainly brought to you our share of stories on unusual ramen noodles, from chilled blue ramen to ramen that’s too disgusting to eat. Well, once again, one of our reporters was brave enough to try another very, shall we say, “interesting” ramen. And yes, as you can tell from the picture, it contains … strawberries. Read More

We Get the Dirt on this Season’s Fad Ingredient. Hint: It’s Dirt.

Jan 20, 2013 by Jessica
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There is a chic French restaurant in Tokyo’s Gotanda district known to those in-the-know. It’s called Ne Quittez Pas, and it is famous for using high-quality seafood and produce from Kanagawa’s Misaki region. However, they’ve just unveiled a new full-course menu created around a rather peculiar ingredient: actual dirt. Of course, we had to check it out. Read More

Here’s One Yogurt Lid That’s too Dirty to Lick

Jan 19, 2013 by Steven
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There are two types of people in this world: those who lick the yogurt off the lid, and those who don’t.

Most of us probably fall in the former camp; after all, that’s good yogurt. But two Japanese Twitter users have come up with the idea or a cup of yogurt that even the most adamant lid-lickers would be hesitant to lap up at.

Jan 18, 2013 by Philip Kendall
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On Monday this week, Tokyo was hit by one of the biggest snow dumps it has seen in years. Although winters are often unfathomably cold in Japan and it’s not uncommon for snow to fall even in the capital, the city of cuddle cafes, cornman and cross-dressing was entirely unprepared for so much of the stuff such a short space of time, and within 24 hours of the snow’s arrival the ordinarily robust public transport system was on its knees and dozens of people were left nursing twisted ankles, bruised buttocks and hurt pride.

Just two days later, though, the generous blanket of white fluffy stuff had started to disappear, putting an end to all sledging, snowman building and frosty fun. As quickly as it had arrived, Tokyo’s winter wonderland was already nearly gone.

From the topmost floor of Rocket Towers, international man of mystery and reporter extraordinaire Mr. Sato watched as men with shovels worked to clear the last of the snow from the pavements and miniature mountains began to appear on each street corner, adorning the footways like dollops of sweet white frosting around the edge of a miserable grey cake. It was at that moment that a quite remarkable idea hit him.

Zipping up his wind breaker and grabbing his wallet, Mr. Sato charged out of the office like a man possessed and flew down the stairs. Bursting out of the building, he headed directly for the nearest supermarket. Moments later, he stepped back out onto the city streets armed with three bottles of thick, sugary syrup. Things were about to get tasty.

Jan 11, 2013 by Kay
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Had enough turkey and chicken over the holidays? Or if you’re in Japan, maybe you’re tired of the traditional osechi food that you’ve had to eat the first few days of the New Year.

If so, here’s something a bit different you may want to try to spice things up a little — a curry recipe from the African island of Mauritius. Our reporter from our Japanese sister site Pouch gives us the following lesson in “curry à la Mauritius” (taught by a native Mauritian no less), and the resulting dish certainly looks good enough to feature in your next meal! Read More

Tokyo’s Pico Pico Cafe: Where Video Games Meet Coffee

Jan 9, 2013 by Philip Kendall
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Despite having visited the town of Kichijoji in Tokyo on a near daily basis for over a year, it wasn’t until I sat down with video game developer James Kay and started chatting about our mutual love of pixels and coffee that I learned about Pico Pico Cafe, a cosy corner perched at the top of a eight-storey building just minutes from Kichijoji station.

After dropping the staff a line, RocketNews24 headed over for a coffee and a chat. We hadn’t gone two steps inside, however, before we found ourselves completely enamoured with the unique cafe’s warm, homely interior and – perhaps most of all for this life-long gamer – the subtle dashes of video game culture in every other nook and cranny.

Tons of cool photos after the jump.

Jan 6, 2013 by Steven
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On January 4, McDonald’s Japan launched their “Enjoy! 60 Second Service” campaign, which promises customers their meal in less than 60 seconds or their next hamburger free.

The service is only in effect from the hours of 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and the time limit doesn’t apply to products that are known to take over a minute to prepare, like the hefty Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

Even still, the promotion is shaping up to be a bit too much for the poor McDonald’s Japan floor staff, who are literally on the timer with every order. Only two days after launch, Twitter has erupted with complaints that the promotion has caused a sudden drop in the quality of service, with many people sharing photos of their own “60 second disasters.”

Jan 3, 2013 by Michelle
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Much like Christmas in many western countries, New Year’s is a time for family in Japan. No ball drops and champagne popping over here, just time spent with family huddled under the kotatsu, eating mikan and watching New Year’s specials on TV. There are many New Year’s traditions in Japan, but the most delicious tradition is the eating of osechi ryori, special food eaten to give thanks and wish for happiness and prosperity in the new year.

Osechi ryori is characterized by an array of colorful dishes packed together in special boxes called jubako, which are eaten communally on New Year’s Day. Since New Year’s is a time for rest in Japan (according to tradition, nothing should be cooked on New Year’s Day), preparation of osechi ryori is typically finished before New Year’s Eve. Many of the dishes are either dried or contain a lot of sugar or vinegar to preserve the food and enough is made to last a few days.

Osechi ryori is arguably the most important meal of the year, each dish serving as a symbol or wish for the coming year. The food is even eaten in a special way by using chopsticks that are rounded on both ends; one side for humans to use, one side for the gods. Let’s take a look at the meanings behind some of the traditional osechi ryori foods.

Dec 23, 2012 by Steven
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From January 4 to January 31, McDonald’s Japan will run a marketing campaign they’re calling “Enjoy! 60 Second Service”, where customers who are made to wait any more than a minute for their order during the hours of 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM will receive a coupon for a free McDonald’s burger of their choice.

Even if staff are able to prepare the order within a minute, all customers who visit during the 4-hour time frame will receive a coupon for a free small-size ‘Premium Roast Coffee’.

To prove that the campaign isn’t all talk and no substance, staff at each of the 3,300 participating McDonald’s restaurants will be required to flip over an hourglass measuring one minute each time an order is placed.

Dec 22, 2012 by Steven
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One of the the things people find most charming about food in Japan is how creative the presentation can be. From adorable panda rice balls to over the top bento lunchboxes, the Japanese have perfected the art of making food something that you can enjoy with both your eyes and your mouth.

If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at food presentation à la Japan, six Japanese YouTube channels are holding a giveaway for a set of cute sandwich cutters, as well as introducing six creative ways to use them.

Dec 22, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Those of you who abhor the very idea of eating food that’s been anywhere near a creepy-crawly may wish to look away now.

Here at RocketNews24 we like to pride ourselves on our willingness to take up unusual food challenges. If we’re not baking Big Mac bread or gorging on bacon, we’re fighting our way through a kilo of curry and rice for your enjoyment. So as soon as word reached Rocket Towers that a nearby restaurant was serving up genuine insect cuisine, our reporter Mr Sato immediately sprang into action and boarded a train to Takadanobaba.

Who’d have thought that deep-fried imomushi (hairless caterpillars or hornworms) could be so delicious that they could bring smiles to our reporter’s face?

Dec 20, 2012 by Steven
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Some foods are so spicy that consuming them can leave the more intolerant of us with an upset stomach. It was once believed that eating lots of spicy food could even cause gastric ulcers—a break in the tissue lining of the stomach—but this has since been proven false, the credit stolen by a bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori. If you find yourself retching with pain after lunch at an Indian food buffet, you’ve likely aggravated an existing condition and should probably have it checked out.

So as colorful as the expression is, eating spicy food can’t actually “burn a hole in your stomach”. At least, it shouldn’t be able to, which is why doctors at a hospital in Wuhan, China, were scratching their heads when a 26-year-old man with no history of gastrointestinal disorders was brought in after eating soup so spicy that it opened a hole in the wall of his stomach.

Dec 19, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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“Hideo-kun! What do you want in your lunchbox for school tomorrow? Ham and cheese? Peanut butter and jelly? Or how about Solid Snaaaaaaaake!”

The image you see before you, ladies and gentlemen, is genuine, 100% completely edible food. We’ve seen colourful character bentō lunchboxes before, but this is something else.

As part of its 25 years of Metal Gear and Final Fantasy celebrations, Japanese game developer Konami has had a set of truly amazing lunchboxes made for a photo event. Featuring characters from both of the long-running series, the lunchboxes are so detailed that they almost look like waxworks. No matter how many times we look at these things, we can’t quite get over the fact that it’s actually food.

Dec 18, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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This Udon Museum will open on December 22nd from 11:00 in the Gion area of Kyoto. Udon is a thick noodle made from wheat flour. With all the variations out there – over 45, including noodle shape, thickness, soup varieties, ways to be eaten, included ingredients and cooking procedures – it makes perfect sense to have a ‘Udon museum’!

One of the best things about Japan is its vast and comprehensive food culture where a wide variety of culinary dishes can be enjoyed. Japanese people take great pride in their ‘washoku‘ (Japanese food), with multiple varieties of the same dish according to geographical location. Different areas have their own version of country cooking, sweet or savory, which becomes that area’s ’meibutsu‘ or speciality, often times giving that area a name which they become famous for. So it is with Udon. Read More

Japan Inadvertently Summons Tentacle Monster Into This Realm with Holiday Potato Salad Recipe

Dec 15, 2012 by Steven
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This Christmas, Japanese retail conglomerate Aeon is conjuring an ancient evil from a centuries-long slumber— and bringing it to the dinner table for your family to enjoy!

Dec 14, 2012 by Steven
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Just a few weeks after the heartwarming story of an evil villain donating backpacks to a Japanese orphanage, comes another tale of anonymous Japanese winter philanthropy, this time from Toyama prefecture.

At around 2:30 pm on December 8, a female staff member at an orphanage in Takaoka city noticed a man pulling up in a white vehicle and placing three large boxes, two styrofoam and one cardboard, at the base of a telephone pole near the entrance. The man, who seemed to be in his 30s, beckoned the staff member over with his hand and, without saying anything, left the boxes and drove off.

In the cardboard box were five daikon, or Japanese radishes. In the styrofoam boxes were two large, plump yellowtail, accompanied by a letter that read: “The men of the ocean have braved billowing waves, putting their lives on the line for these kan-buri (winter yellowtail).” The letter was signed: “Yours truly A Man Who Loves the Ocean”.

At first, vegetables and fish may seem like a rather strange combination to leave outside an orphanage, but the man had actually gifted the children with a luxurious winter feast: winter yellowtail are a major seasonal delicacy that normally sell for anywhere between 30-40,000 yen ($350-$480) a fish.

Dec 13, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Just over a month ago, the poor relation of the convenience store chain family that is Save On unveiled a dish that it hoped would appeal to the hungry man on a budget and entice customers through its novelty value: an enormous 1 kg (2.2 lbs) tub of curry and rice. Even by western standards, the dish looks intimidating, sitting there taking up nearly twice the shelf space as its brethren and with a deep dish brimming with thick, dark-brown liquid and gut-filling fluffy white rice.

Since the dish is not yet available in all Save On stores, the gluttonous RocketNews24 team — famous for its food challenges like the 1,000 cheese slice Whopper and the 30 patty cheeseburger eatathon — was itching to try it but hadn’t been able to track one down until recently.

Luckily, late last week our reporter Yoshio was able to pay a trip to Saitama prefecture to pick up one of Save On’s monster curry tubs. And, even better, they were on sale for half price! Without stopping to wonder why such a gargantuan amount of food could possibly be on offer for such a meagre sum, our hungry writer bent at the knees, grabbed one with both hands and headed to the register.

Dec 10, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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One Piece fans the world over will have no doubt lost count of the number of times they’ve seen Monkey D. Luffy chomping on a big hunk of meat.

Keen food fans that the RocketNews24 writers are, we can’t help but feel a little peckish every time we see the wide-grinning captain tucking into his meals, and we always find the food he eats, dished up by chain-smoking pirate chef Sanji, absolutely tantalising.

But now, thanks to the equally food-loving team at sister site Pouch, we have just the thing to placate our growling stomachs while we watch our One Piece DVDs or flick through our ever-growing stack of comic books: from Chef Sanji’s very own cookbook, egg-stuffed chicken!

It’s simple, nutritious and boy is it tasty. Full ingredients and recipe all after the jump >

Dec 10, 2012 by Kay
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At RocketNews24, we love seeing well-known characters indulging in a bit of fun cosplaying. Last month, we showed you Hello Kitty turning herself into a Thanksgiving main dish, and it appears she’s not the only one transforming into food form. This time, Doraemon has made himself available in a mochi (rice cake) costume for the Japanese New Year, and darn it, he actually looks cute doing it! Read More

Which is Considered Worse, Holding Your Chopsticks the Wrong Way, or Eating Noisily?

Dec 6, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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In Japanese eating culture, holding chopsticks improperly might be frowned upon (see: Proper Way to Hold Chopsticks), but how does it compare to that other notorious dinner table offense, chomping down on your food with your mouth open?

According to denizens of Japanese message board site 2channel, who recently discussed the matter in depth, noisily eating your food is a far graver crime than poor chopstick handling. Let’s take a close look at their discussion below. Read More