Food: Onigiri (Japan)

Photo: Googlesnatched Onigiri

Onigiri, (Kanji 御握り, Hiragana おにぎり), also known as Omusubi, are Japanese rice balls. They are relatively simple to make, especially once you get used to the basic techniques, but you can also buy surprisingly yummy Onigiri in any konbini (convenience store) in Japan.

Onigiri come in many different varieties. The most common shapes are the little triangles, shown in the picture, and disk-shaped Onigiri. Normally, Onigiri are made of plain, white, sticky rice, and have a single filling in the very center. The most popular fillings are Umeboshi (sour pickled plum) and salmon, although any reasonably dry and strong-flavoured ingredient works well... for example, I have made super-American breakfast Onigiri with sausage and egg. There are also Onigiri that have a topping of fish or ginger instead of a filling, and some Onigiri are formed from rice flavoured with sesame, katsuoboshi (fish flakes), or other traditional seasonings.

A little bit of dried seaweed is wrapped around the rice ball just prior to consumption. The idea of eating seaweed may be a little bit frightening to the uninitiated, but don't be afraid! The flavour of the seaweed is very mild - not even my pickiest friends object to it. The main purpose of wrapping Onigiri in seaweed is to allow you to hold it without getting your fingers too sticky. And, it has a delicious crunch!

Onigiri make great breakfasts and packed lunches. Laura and I started each day in Japan with a nice, filling rice ball or two! Onigiri are easy to eat on the go, although remember that in Japan it is considered rude to eat while walking.

Naantalin Aurinkoinen (Turku, Finland)

Naantalin Aurinkoinen is a small chain of cafes in Southwestern Finland, mainly Turku and it's suburb of Kaarina. The name means "the Sun of Naantali" -Aurinko means sun, and Naantali is a nearby town known for it's lovely sunshine, even spawning the local idiom "to smile like the sun of Naantali".

The cafe and bakery has a wide variety of goods, from fresh bread and the Finnish favourite 'new potatoes' to pizza, pasta, salad, hotwings, and panini sandwiches. The pastries looked the most tempting to me, though, and I picked the Mansikkajuhlawiener (strawberry pastry) because if you go to Finland in the summer you should eat strawberries at every opportunity.

Photo: Liisa's shot of my Mansikkajuhlawiener.
It was five times more delicious than it looks.

Photo: The storefront of the Kaarina branch I visited.
Looks sweet, doesn't it?

Their website is only in Finnish, but your mouth will water just looking at it: http://www.aurinkoinen.fi/fi/

No Google Map this time, because there are multiple locations. This page on the website shows all the addresses: http://www.aurinkoinen.fi/fi/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=30

Chokladkoppen (Stockholm, Sweden)

No matter the season, Stockholm's Chokladkoppen is delightful. Perfectly situated in the Stortorget square, the center of Gamla Stan, it neighbors the Nobel Museum and the Swedish Academy, and only the imposing Stock Exchange Building seperates it from the Cathedral and the Royal Palace.

Everything in Stockholm is expensive, so once you surrender yourself to that idea, Chokladkoppen, where you can put down about 14$ on a slice of cake or pie and a drink and call it a meal, is a bargain.

Photo: The guilty pleasure Liisa and I counted as a meal.

I've heard the cafe is a lovely, cozy place in the winter, where you can duck in out of the cold for bowls of cocoa and hot pie. Liisa and I visited in the summer, so we sat outside in the square with iced chocolate and white chocolate cheesecake and watched the world go by instead. Everything tasted creamy and fresh, and the orange slices added a bright, tangy note to both the flavour and the presentation.

The food is delicious, the atmosphere and the location are top notch, and you won't even have to go broke to experience it. I'll definitely be returning to Chokladkoppen during my next trip to Stockholm.

Photo: Chokladkoppen is the orange building in this
picture from Wikipedia's Stortorget article.

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Late Night Okonomiyaki (Miyajima, Japan)

Miyajima shuts down quickly after the bulk of the tourists leave around 4 pm. The majority of those who spend the night on the island eat dinner in their ryokans or hotels, so when 6 o'clock rolled around, Laura and I found that nearly all the town's restaurants had already shuttered for the night. Luckily, the owner of our ryokan told us that a small Okonomiyaki restaurant a few doors down was open until 8.


I ordered yakiudon with shrimp and Laura ordered yakisoba with pork. As usual with okonomiyaki they put just about a whole head of cabbage in each of ours. It boiled down a lot, but there was still more food on our plates than we could possibly eat. It was good, too - the amount and flavour of the sauce was just right. This wasn't the best food we ate in Japan, but it was definitely a solid choice for a 'late night' meal.

Since the tiny okonomiyaki restaurant we ate at isn't shown on the map, the best thing to do would probably be to follow these directions to the Ryokan Kawaguchi, and follow the road it's located on a few storefronts north. If you're going there at night, it should be one of the only places open, so pretty much impossible to miss.


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Cereal with Milk (and Tea) in Costa Rica

The first time you see cereal prepackaged with milk in Costa Rica, you might think you're going a bit crazy.

But, once you remember that most of the milk sold in Latin America is super-pasteurized and doesn't need refrigeration until it's opened, you get used to it fairly quickly.

That is, at least, until you find something like this:

Yep. That's Iced Tea with Lemon. Always delicious over your honey oats.

Photo: A Sushi Feast (Japan 2009)

A Sushi Feast

Where: Tokyo, Japan
When: Evening, July 16th 2009

After a day trip, I returned to Tokyo to find an unbelievably delicious feast waiting at Mayumi's house. The sushi was much better than any I'd ever eaten before. There was sweet eel and egg sushi, chewy squid, flavorful salmon roe, and chewy, translucent squid alongside more familiar varieties. Every bite was amazing.

Food: Japanese Shave Ice

Snow Cones can be refreshing on a hot day, but I'm usually disappointed by hard, course ice that lets all the syrup slide straight to the bottom of the paper cone. In Japan, I found Kakigōri (かき氷), or shave ice - a fabulous dessert which made me reconsider the potential of the snow cone.

Photo: Melon shave ice with ice cream topping. (Kanazawa, Japan)

Served not only at carnivals and roadside stands but also in nice restaurants alongside ice cream and cakes, most of the shaved ice in Japan is similar in texture to American snow cones, if a bit softer and more like, well, fresh snow. But at least once, in Nikko, I found shave ice that seemed to literally have been shaved from a block - it was as smooth as ice cream, and had a delightful crispness.

The syrup that tops Kakigōri is not unlike that used on American snow cones, with familiar flavours like strawberry, lemon, and grape alongside melon, sweet plum and green tea. It is also common to pour condensed milk onto the ice, adding additional sweetness and richness. Many Japanese also like to add mild sweet bean paste, mochi rice cakes, or even ice cream to their shave ice.



Photo: Laura and I found this incredible Kakigōri in Nikko. The texture was totally different than that of an American snowcone, or even the other Kakigōri we had tasted. Served with strawberries in thick syrup and condensed milk, this was the most delicious dessert I have ever eaten in Japan.

Food: Koya Tofu (Japan)

Does freeze-dried Tofu sound appealing? How about intriguing, at least? If you're anywhere near Mt. Koya, you'll probably have the chance to taste this regional specialty. I personally tried it as part of the vegetarian dinner I ate while staying at Sanboin temple. It's interesting, to say the least.

While many foods can be described as spongy, Koya Tofu could easily be mistaken for an actual sponge. It absorbed an immense amount of liquid, has little flavour by itself, and the texture is exactly what you'd expect from a synthetic bath sponge. I was somewhat surprised it didn't taste soapy.


Picture: Some Googlesnatched Koya Dofu.

Food: Tofu

Sadly, in America many people are afraid of Tofu. This may have to do with a strong association of Tofu with a vegetarian diet - the idea of a "Tofurkey" served for Thanksgiving sounds to many Americans like an unholy violation of their traditions. Still, I say sadly because Tofu can really be delicious.No one should try tofu only once and decide it's not for them, because it simply comes in so many different forms, with vastly different textures and methods of preparation. I will update this list of featured Tofu types and dishes as I write more about this versatile foodstuff.

Types of Tofu (or closely related products):

Yuba: "Tofu Skin" (Chewy)
Koya Tofu: Freeze Dried Tofu (Spongy)

Food: Yuba (Japan)

Yuba, also known as soybean skim, is a Japanese food made from the skin that forms on the surface of boiling soy milk. The result is a bundle of thin, rubbery layers of a firm, tofu like substance. Yuba can be shaped in order to texturally resembled other foods, such as chicken breasts, and is often fried to give it a firmer skin. You can even deep fry yuba, like in this googlesnatched photo!



The first time I ordered a dish with yuba, I didn't know what it was. This is common in Japan and probably for the best. I would have missed out on many culinary adventures had I been afraid to eat some Japanese dishes based only on their not always appetizing English names! My first yuba experience was a clam chowder, and I almost mistook the yuba for incredibly tender clams. After this I took every opportunity to order yuba.

As with other Japanese Tofu dishes, my advice for yuba is to give it a try. Don't think about past experiences with soyburgers or tofurkey back home. Japan has many soy products in it's cuisine, and they vary widely by texture, taste, and application. You are not guaranteed to enjoy yuba, but it deserves to be given a chance.

Food: Sukiyaki (Japan)

鋤焼 (Hiragana すき焼き, romaji Sukiyaki) is a type of Japanese hot pot. Thinly sliced beef, jelly noodles, and other vegetables including cabbage or mushrooms are cooked slowly in a salty-sweet mirin and soy sauce broth. When eating Sukiyaki, each person breaks an egg into a serving bowl and dips what they take from the pot into the raw egg before eating. (This is safe to do in Japan, duplication can't be recommended everywhere.) There are many Sukiyaki restaurants in Japan, and Sukiyaki is also very popular in homes, especially at winter parties.



My friend's grandmother made us this Kyoto style Sukiyaki the night we arrived in Japan. The textures were certainly different - especially the jelly noodles and the raw egg - but it all tasted delicious. The flavour was a unique mixture of sweetness and umami.

Food: Japanese Curry

カレー (romaji Karē, also known as Japanese Curry) is a type of curry with a rather interesting history. During the Meiji era (1869 - 1913), curry was first introduced to Japan by the British. At the time, India was under the control of Britain, and the British navy often ate meat stews seasoned with curry powder. Most curry served in Japan today comes from this originally British mixture. However, in more recent years many Indian restaurants have also opened in Japan, so it is possible to get Indian curry there as well.


Japanese Curry is usually served with rice, eaten with a spoon, and called カレーライス (curry rice). The most popular meats are beef or pork, depending on the region of Japan, although chicken and duck curries are also available. Common vegetables are onions, carrots, and potatoes. Another common form is カレーパン (karē pan) called curry bread or sometimes curry dougnut, which is dough wrapped around a bit of curry and then deepfried. Karē soups are also popular.

Karē restaurants are one of the cheaper options for eating out in Japan. Karē is also very easy to make at home, since many instant powders and blocks are available. If you like, you can easily try it yourself in the United States, since many grocery stores carry the instant varieties Vermont Curry and/or Golden Curry.

Food: Yakitori (Japan)

焼き鳥 (hiragana やきとり, romaji Yakitori) is a type of kebab popular in Japan. Literally, the name means 'fried bird', because most yakitori dishes are made of chicken. Yakitori-ya are some of the cheapest restaurants in Japan, and are found throughout the country. There are two main ways to season yakitori. One is with sea salt and lemon, and the other is with tare sauce (a sweet and thick soy sauce).

This googlesnatched photo shows yakitori with mushrooms and chicken together.

If you are picky about your meat, yakitori may not be for you. When you order your kebabs, you are literally asking for the part of the chicken that you want. For example, kokoro (chicken heart), sunagimo (chicken gizzard), kawa (chicken skin), bonjiri (chicken tail), shiro (chicken intestines), and nankotsu (chicken cartilage).

Less intimidating varieties include toriniku (white meat chicken), atsuage dofu (deep fried tofu), and enoki maki (mushrooms wrapped in pork slices).