Tag: food (Page 7) | RocketNews24

food

Man Leaves Box of Fish at Japanese Orphanage (This is a Good Thing)

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

Chinese Student Finds Used Condom Mixed in with School Cafeteria Food

Dec 6, 2012 by Steven
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Most of us as some point or another have found a strand of hair in our food. Perhaps the more lucky of us have come across an insect or two. These are all understandable mishaps that are best forgiven and forgotten; we’re only human and a little fly in the soup never hurt anyone.

For a bit of perspective, imagine if you found a used condom mixed in with a bowl of rice you ordered at your school cafeteria, which is what actually happened to one unfortunate student at an unnamed university in Beijing.

Now that’s something to raise a fuss about; and the student did, confronting the kitchen staff with the slimy rubber topping. You’ll never guess how they responded…

Dec 6, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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It’s nearly Christmas! And that can mean only one thing: romantic dates on December 24th!

What? Did you think we were talking about the pagan festival-cum-Christian holiday on December 25th? No, no, no; the 25th is just a normal working day here in Japan, and everyone’s already forgotten about Christmas. People without plans for December 24th, however, might as well join the ranks of those who use trains on dates and pay money to sleep next to strangers.

With the romantic dates of December 24th, Valentine’s Day and March 14th’s White Day in its sights, snack maker Koikeya is about to launch a new range of potato chips — or crisps to backwards Brits like me — made especially for couples. And thanks to some clever packaging, Koikeya guarantee that these new chips will be the most romantic salty snack you’ve ever enjoyed…

Dec 4, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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During her recent trip to the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain, RocketNews24 Japan writer Megumi stumbled upon something that, to her videogame-tuned eyes, could look like only one thing.

The above image is one taken by Megumi when she visited the fantastic Brunells patisserie, or Pastisseria i salode te Brunells to be more exact, showing what is known as a “melonmelon” sweet. Although you and I see little more than a piece of rich, sugary confection, when Megumi first laid eyes on this delightful little green tongue pleaser, she could only think of one thing: a Bubble Slime from the hugely popular Dragon Quest role-playing games.

Nov 30, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Japanese kitchens are not the warm, oven-centred hubs that many westerners are used to. The majority of people here get by with a grill/broiler, a couple of gas burners and maybe a handful of kitchen devices like a rice cooker or, if they’re really swish, a bread maker.

True, more expensive microwave ovens often have an “oven” setting, allowing half-baked (sorry) chefs to cook things like pizzas and simple cakes and cookies, but since most microwaves are limited in size you can forget about cooking anything like a whole chicken or a nice ham around Christmas time.

Although vertically-loading toasters are few and far between, small toaster ovens like the one pictured above are very popular in Japan, and, as we’re about to see, can be put to incredible use so long as there’s a little creativity involved.

So, if you’re a foreigner arriving in Japan and bemoaning the lack of a gas oven like you had back home, feast your eyes on some of the mouth-watering creations that clever Japanese toaster oven users have put together.

Nov 29, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Hungry students and budgeting businespeople! Have we got a great deal for you! Yoshinoya’s gyūdon beef bowls – made with the same USA beef, rice, onion and delicious marinade as ever – is available for just 250 yen!

This isn’t a special offer. This isn’t for a limited time only. This is 24 hours a day, seven-days-a-week wallet-friendly value. Available at a number of special Tsukiji Yoshinoya restaurants, for just US$3, you can have a big, hearty warming dish of rice and beef, guaranteed to warm your soul and fill you up until your next meal.

Our top dog Kuzo headed out to try the beef bowl for himself, and he can confirm that this is the same Yoshinoya grub that we know and love, for 130 yen ($1.60) less than normal!

Nov 28, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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If there’s one thing Japanese people like to do it’s collect things. And when those things are small, cute or quirky characters, you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ll fight to get the entire set!

In the land of gachapon (onomatopoeia for the sound of a turning mechanism followed by the drop of a ball or capsule) capsule toys and free collectable figures, mobile phone charms and stickers, confectioners Furuta are well known for their Choko Eggu (choco egg) series that include a collectable toy inside the chocolate shell, not unlike Kinder Surprise eggs sold in Europe and Canada.

Since 1999, the company has produced collectible figures including Disney, Marvel and Nintendo characters as well as scale models of automobiles and cars. The figures are always of incredibly high quality and, with the chocolate eggs being sold for just a few hundred yen each, they’re a big hit with children as well as adults. In 2006, however, the company’s animal figure series, which features everything from cute rabbits to ferocious-looking dinosaurs disappeared from shops, much to the disappointment of collectors.

But now, to delight model fans and kleptomaniacs alike, Furuta’s figures are being brought back to the market as stand-alone models, and Japanese collectors are already going nuts.

Nov 27, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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The dish in the photo above looks like a dessert, something sweet to eat after a meal. But wait! It is the meal! It’s udon noodles in curry sauce and topped with whipped cream, to be exact, and it is absolutely delicious!

According to our trusty reporter Mr. Sato (Food Queen Sato, as he calls himself on Twitter), that is, who went to the noodle shop Shodai in Ebisu, Tokyo to taste this revolutionary spin on curry udon.

Curry udon is a standard noodle dish that can be found at just about any udon shop in Japan. It mixes the flavor of udon and curried rice by ladling curry sauce over a bowl of udon noodles. Simple, yet effective.

Throwing whipped cream into the mix doesn’t sound like it would end well. Usually these kind of things don’t. But what did Mr. Sato think about this unlikely combination?

Check his full report below! Read More

Tokyo Bug Eating Club to Hold Festival Tomorrow, Guess What’s on the Menu?

Nov 22, 2012 by Steven
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As icky as it sounds to many of us brought up in Western cultures, the human consumption of insects is common in many parts of the world.

Most Japanese people are on the same page as the rest of the developed world in thinking of bugs as unappetizing—not to mention creepy, gross, and/or scary— little creatures that have no place in the home, and especially not on the dinner plate.

However, there are some rural regions of Japan where insects are are a local delicacy, and have been so for centuries. In Nagano, the prefecture this writer calls home, you can walk into any supermarket and expect to find plastic packs of grasshopper (inago) or stonefly larva (suzumushi) boiled in soy sauce, and sometimes even read-to-eat packs of boiled wasp larva mixed in with rice (hachinoko-gohan).

In the cities, eating bugs is still taboo, and even in rural areas insect cuisine is now considered fringe cuisine, especially among the younger generations. But in Tokyo, there is a group of people who believe that bugs just need to be given a chance, which is why they are hosting what is now the 4th annual Tokyo Insect Eating Festival (Tokyo Mushikui Festival) on November 23.

Nov 19, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Few things could delight kids (and big kids!) more than mimicking their favourite TV shows, movies and videogames, and sitting down to the exact same meal that their heroes enjoy.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles always had the most mouth-watering pizza; Ponyo and Sousuke had home-made ramen noodles; Pop-eye had canned spinach… OK, so maybe not every cartoon meal is the greatest, but putting together food that looks exactly as it did in our favourite shows is sure to inspire even the most kitchen-shy of us to have a go, not to mention encourage fussy eaters to try something new.

If it’s anime-inspired food you’re looking for, cooking website Bistro Animeshi (a combination of “anime” and “meshi”, meaning rice or food) has everything from the fish pie delivered by Kiki herself in Kiki’s Delivery Service to Naruto’s favourite ramen noodles. As well as providing step-by-step recipes for each dish, the food blog makes every effort to match the original dishes as much as possible. We’re sure that you’ll be blown away by what they have to offer.

Plenty of tantalising food photos after the jump!

Nov 18, 2012 by Steven
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Last week, Dominos Japan launched the “Amazing Coupon Festival”, a bizarre discount campaign offering 25%-off coupons to anyone who fulfills one or more of nine seemingly random conditions.

So what do you need to have to get the discount? Let’s just say it’s a good time to be a bearded second-year high school student with a parakeet.

Nov 17, 2012 by Steven
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One of the most common stereotypes of nerds, or otaku as they’re known in Japan, is that they cannot cook and subsist on a diet of instant noodles and soft drinks.

Kitchen a la Mode is a new cooking school in Akihabara that hopes to get otaku off their chairs and into the kitchen by providing simple, hands-on cooking lessons with cute girls.

You may remember reading about Kitchen a la Mode on our site last month. Curious as to how the school has been doing since opening, RocketNews24 sent its handsomest American correspondent (me) to Kitchen a la Mode to experience moé cooking firsthand. Check out his (my) report below!

Nov 15, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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Would you believe us if we told you the image above is not a bowl full of blue paint, but actually a batch of curry prepared fresh at the second floor cafe of the Niconico Headquarters building in Shinjuku, Tokyo?

Known as the “Unappetizing Blue Curry”, this 700 yen (US $8.70) dish is true to its name in that it doesn’t make your mouth water, but your stomach churn with nausea!

But wait, that’s not that’s on the menu! There’s also a horrible liquid concoction roughly translated as “Intense Disgusting Juice: Extreme”, which costs a shocking 3000 yen, or about US$37.oo.

Why would they have such items on the menu? This is the question that piqued the curiosity of our own brave correspondent, Mr. Sato, who, no stranger to blue himself, was kind enough to sacrifice his stomach and give us a taste report. See what he has to say below.

Nov 14, 2012 by Steven
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Well Japan, you had a good run.

For decades your people have boasted the longest life expectancy in the world, but it looks like American fast food chain Burger King won’t rest until you start dropping a few ranks with some good ‘ol American heart attacks. We saw it first with the “15 strips of bacon for a buck” deal earlier this year—and you know how that ended.

Now Burger King is pulling out the stops with their boldest health-destroying promotion yet: an all-you-can-ear hamburger buffet.

Nov 13, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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In Japan, Christmas means strawberry short-cake . Just about every Japanese family that celebrates the holiday will eat one on Christmas day, a tradition that has cake shops scurrying to meet orders.

I-primo, a bridal jewelry store selling engagement rings, decided to take advantage of this holiday season for lovers to drum up business by using cake, a Cold Stone ice cream Christmas cake to be more precise, as a means to pop the question. Read More

Korean Feces Wine is a Real Thing and We’ve Got Two Bottles of it, Contains Cat Bones as Well

Nov 9, 2012 by Steven
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Ttongsul, or “feces wine”, is a Korean drink made by pouring soju, a distilled grain alcohol, into a pit filled with chicken, dog, or human feces, and leaving the mixture in the pit for three to four months until it ferments. It is then extracted from the pit and drank straight, with the belief that it can cure illness and help in the aid of bone fractures.

It sounds like the stuff of urban legends, but Ttongsul is indeed a real beverage that, while by no means popular, can still be found if you know where to look.

How can we be sure? After nearly six months of extensive research, RocketNews24 was able to track down a private Ttongsul vendor in South Korea and procure a bottle of the elusive feces wine ourselves.