Foods You Must Eat on Your Japan Travels!

The best part about traveling to a foreign country is tasting local food. Japanese cuisine is world famous and there are all kinds of delicious dishes to try once you travel there. We picked some food you definitely must eat to make your Japanese adventures complete.

Soba

Noodles are a big deal in Japan, and it’s highly unlikely you’ll visit the country without trying them. Soba will remind you of spaghetti – it’s noodles made from buckwheat flour, usually served cold and with a dipping sauce.

Beef

There are different types of Japanese beef and they’re all delicious. Kobe beef is famous all around the world, but there’s also Hida beef that melts perfectly in the mouth.

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese delicacy – it’s a savory pancake that contains a variety of ingredients. It can be translated into English as “As-you-like-it Pancake.” Okonomiyaki is made with flour, eggs, shredded cabbage and topped with your favorite ingredients.

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I introduced Greg to Okonomiyaki through a few YouTube videos about Japan (we’re hoping to travel there sometime in 2020 hopefully). Greg is the type of person that appreciates mayo, so when he saw these savory pancakes he wanted me to recreate them at home. The name of these pancakes is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "how you like" or "what you like", and yaki meaning "cooked". So these are cool because the simple base is a flour batter mixed typically with cabbage and other fillings. Once it’s cooked you add an okonomiyaki sauce and mayo. To make this vegan, we took the advice of @eastmeetskitchn and made some tiny modifications to make it our own. Came out incredible! 🙌🏽🙌🏽 We had eaten out earlier in the day, so we actually decided to cook the pancakes without oil on a non-stick griddle and it still cooked really well. To replace the pork belly in traditional recipes we actually used @uptonsnaturals faux bacon. Added a ton of great flavor. 👌🏽 . Batter 1 cup all purpose flour 3 tbs potato flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/4 cup mushroom broth 🍄 . Fillings of Choice 2 scallions, minced 1/2 cup minced mushrooms of choice (I used beech mushrooms) 2 tbsp pickled ginger, minced 2 cup thinly shredded cabbage 4 Upton’s vegan bacon strips 🥣 . Sauces 1️⃣ 3 tbsp Hoison sauce with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar 2️⃣ Thinned our mayo to squirt on top . Toppings 1️⃣ More scallions 2️⃣ Air fried thinly sliced shallots (to mimic bonito flakes) 👏🏽 . Preheat your pan or griddle. Mix batter ingredients in a medium bowl. Batter should resemble a pancake batter. Fold in all your fillings except bacon and make sure batter properly coats all your veggies. Add half of batter into griddle and spread out into a 1/2 inch thick circle, using spatula to help make edges circular (if you don’t have a non-stick surface you definitely should use oil to prevent sticking). Repeat with the other half on a different part of your griddle. On the wet side of the batter, lay your bacon on top and gently press into the batter. Cover pancake with a lid and allow to cook until bottom of pancake is nicely browned. [Continued in comments]

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Tempura

Tempura is made of seafood and vegetables that are battered and then deep fried. The batter is usually made from flour, sesame oil and ice water which makes this dish crispy and very tasty.