Negima Nabe (ねぎま鍋)

This is an old-school Tokyo recipe. Otoro, or fatty tuna belly, used to be something that spoiled too fast to be commercially useful. Instead of the prized sushi ingredient it is today, it was sold fast and cheap, and more often cooked than served raw, thought to be too rich to consume raw. Which is insane considering how prized and expensive otoro is nowadays. But at one point in time, we used to feed lobsters to prisoners and indentured servants here in the states because it was so plentiful. Doesn't both of these make you wistful?

Our family took us to a restaurant famous for its otoro fare, apparently the royal family has even frequented there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to track down the name of the restaurant. I wanted to bring some of that cuisine home to Mr. Mochi and my father since they weren't able to come with us on this trip. The name of this hot pot, "Negima Nabe," is a portmanteau the two star ingredients: Japanese long onion "negi" and bluefin tuna "maguro." "Nabe" just means "pot" and refers to the donabe pot that the meal is cooked in. Don't have a donabe? A dutch oven or even a large saucepan will work fine, you might need to cook in batches however.

Sugar Margarine Snack (シュガーマーガリンスナック)

Late at night, my brother and I would wander the cities of Japan, peeking down alleys filled with laughter as the izakaya crowd were just warming up, strolling past stray cats and dark buildings with nothing but the eerily glowing vending machines in the distance to mark our path. We'd emerge on a major street, eat dinner or perhaps head to a konbini on the corner for a look around and a quick snack. Sometimes we had a destination in mind, but mostly we were just exploring.

During these explorations, I discovered my favorite konbini snack: Sugar Margarine Snack. Literally just a brick of untoasted thick-cut shokopan white bread with a smear of cold margarine, sprinkled with granulated sugar.

It's a snack that will horrify your mother and your dietician. But it's truly delicious and a testament to everything refined, bleached, and concocted by man.

I was in love.

I tried to find it in every city we visited, and sometimes was awarded with a slice of sweet sweet diabetes. Sometimes it would be something similar, sometimes they tried to fancy it up by toasting it, sometimes the price would be higher or lower. The cheapest I saw was ¥52, and the fanciest was ¥129, but my favorite was the original priced just under a dollar at ¥91. The others just tried too hard.

All about that Konbini life

When I went to Japan in 2014, I didn't have a lot of cash to sling around. We backpacked around the country, staying in hostels, and ate a lot of cheap food. I've spent more on room service in one day than I spent on food for an entire two weeks in Japan. It helped my family took us out to absolutely fabulous meals I hope to be able to repay in kind some day, but we were very price conscious about our dining habits in between these ultra-luxe meals. We visited the local grocery stores near our hostels in order to buy groceries, and visited konbini.

chocolate covered shrimp chips

Konbini (コンビニ), as Japanese convenience stores are referred to, have taken the American convenience store concept and perfected them. Think I'm over exaggerating? Put it this way: the parent company of 7-Eleven Japan bought the original United States' 7-Eleven. Lawsons, which died out in America, is one of the largest chains in Japan and the success in Japan led to the chain returning to the U.S. via Hawaii. Konbini are serious business, and the Japanese have mastered it.

And if you visit Japan, I guarantee you will end up going to a konbini. Why? 7-Eleven has ATMs that take our credit cards. Japan has their own credit card system and a surprising amount of places don't take Visa, Mastercard, Discover, etc, but JCB and others, and even more are cash-only. If you don't stay far from the beaten path and stay around Tokyo and Kyoto you'll be fine, but just finding an ATM was tough in Yawatahama, let along somewhere that took Visa!

Adventures in Japan: Kyoto

Kyoto, also known as the old capital, reigned as the imperial capital of Japan for over a thousand years. So you can imagine a lot of history can be found there. It was also spared the worst of the bombings from World War II, something that couldn't be said about Hiroshima.

More national treasures of Japan exist in the city of Kyoto than any other and it remains one of the most important cities, culturally speaking, in Japan. It's simply a must-visit place and was our next stop on our trek across Japan.

As one of the cultural and historical hubs of Japan, Kyoto boasts not only shrines and temples galore, but also some of the best fine dining you will find. 

Yudofu (湯豆腐)

Kyoto, since it was the capital of Japan for so long, is steeped in history and tradition. One of those traditions still popular today is shojin ryori, or Buddhist cuisine. As Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the 6th century, so was the idea of vegetarianism for religious ideals. This cuisine became synonymous with Kyoto as Kyoto is home to some of the longest standing Buddhist temples and sects that still carry on this tradition.

As a whole, Japan is not very vegetarian-friendly. Dashi, made with dried bonito shavings, is omnipresent and veggie dishes on most menus will have some sort of fish in it, if only the broth. If you're a pescetarian, you're in heaven, but if you're vegan or vegetarian, I'm not going to be the best person to tell you how to navigate Japan and I recommend finding a blog that specializes in both Japan and veganism. I ate things in Japan that I'm still not quite sure what I ate, so I'm not going to claim any sort of authority on either subject. I normally write about Japanese American food!

Nakau (なか卯)

I'm definitely not fluent in Japanese, especially when it comes to the written word. Therefore I amused my relatives by exclaiming excitedly when I actually could read a sign on my trip to Japan. To put this in perspective: imagine if your crazy cousin from another country came to visit you, and every single time you drove past a Little Cesar's, they joyfully bellowed "Pizza!" like they discovered the promised land.

I'm brilliant if I do say so myself.

It doesn't help that my Japanese reading comprehension is all limited to food. I can instantly recognize the characters for donburi (丼), ramen (ラーメン), udon (うどん), curry (カレー)... and not much else without some careful thought.

So I was especially excited to try Nakau (なか卯) as their sign boasted not one, but two words I knew by heart: gyudon and udon. Nakau is a fast food restaurant in Japan famous for their cheap eats with over 400 location. Or perhaps fast casual, not fast food? It's hard to tell in Japan. Anyways, it's very popular with Japanese looking to get a cheap fast meal and I wanted to experience what the quality and price of such a typical chain was.

Pumpkin Granola Cookies

Growing up in Southern California, Autumn does not herald itself in the same way as most people associate with the season.

Here, Fall isn't about the changing colors of the leaves (palm trees don't do that, sorry), nor the cool crisp morning fog that rolls in and begs you to turn on the kettle for a cup of tea (yeah no seriously, I wear flip flops year round). Hey, at least now we kind of have football with the return of the Rams.

Fall for me, and for a lot of Southern California natives, is when the Santa Ana winds start howling. For those unfamiliar with these winds, they even have their own Wikipedia page (and accompanying page on their mention in the popular arts). Also know as "devil winds," these winds are super hot and super strong, and account for how our wildfires get so out of control.

So when the ground bakes and cracks, when the air itself crackles with electricity, and the wind seems to go after you with a personal vengeance, that's when I know that Autumn is upon us.

I'll admit that Southern Californians are a little bit twisted, positively quivering to glug down Pumpkin Spice Lattes and don some scarves when the weather is trying to kill them and it's just as hot as ever. We seem to decide when the seasons change based on what the stores are selling.

So when the first Santa Ana winds of the season started, I immediately decided it was time to start decorating for Halloween and bust out the fall recipes that I've been saving all year.

Too bad I'm just not a fan of Starbucks' PSL.