Gyoza, Gyoza stadium!!!, Ikebukuro, Tokyo

Sept 6, 2008
This is why I love Japan. They have what's known as food theme parks. This one that I managed to find in a mall in Ikebukuro has Gyoza Stadium, Ice Cream City, and a couple other things. For the Japanese speaker, there were rides and other stuff for kids to do, including solving a mystery.

Back to the important stuff, the dumplings. They brought in 8-10 well known gyoza makers, and had them all set up shop. Their photo/portrait hung at the top of their stall, iron-chef style, as they all compete to bring in customers. Some were busy, some were sadly empty, but I managed to try stuff from 4 different places. There were two kinds of standard pork, one with shrimp, and one with cheese. I suppose it would have been better with more people, cause then you can try more kinds of dumplings =P. Fairly pricey, around 500 yen for each serving, plus 300 yen to get into the theme park itself.

Tempura, Tsunahachi, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Sept 6, 2008
Tempura prawn. They chef deep-fried the legs as well, it was kinda cool. Usually don't eat the legs, but what the heck.


Scallop (one honkin' big one) and clam (recommended by my grandma). The scallop was ok, interesting that it's kinda raw in the middle, though, and the clam was somehow stuffed, as there was some kind of carbs under the tempura "skin". In retrospect, maybe it was just batter that got stuck in there and didn't get exposed to the oil. It was a good addition, though.


Unagi. It was interesting watching the chef prepare this one, as he took out the spine? before battering and frying the eel. The circle thing there is what I think is the spine, he just deep-fried that directly. Kind of like a chip, pretty cool =)


What I was looking forward to, tempura ice cream. The last time I had it, was late at night back in high school, and just kinda ate it straight. This time, got to sit down and eat it, and figured out the trick. It's covered in some sort of thin batter/skin before it's dunked. Maybe it's just because I was younger, or just memories, but the last time I had it, I remembered it being dunked and brought out immediately, kinda like a flash-fry, and the mix of hot and cold was better. This time was ok, but not up to my memory's par.


Anyhow, this was the frickin' place that was closed the first night, so I had to come back the next day. Ultimately kinda undsatisfying, especially since I decided to order a la carte and the meal (just the 5 items above) ended up costing me 3680 yen. They say Japan is expensive, but really, this was the only time I felt ripped off.

Pizza, La Verde, Shinjuku, Tokyo

Sept 5, 2008
First night by myself, in Tokyo, and I had pizza. Reason being the first two restaurants that I wanted to eat at were closed, and by that time (11pm) I was so hungry I went to the first place open that I saw. Also, I hadn't had pizza in over a month, two months if you don't count the time we taught our students in Kyrgyzstan how to make pizza (I'll post that one later).

Prosciutto, mushrooms, and eggs. Perfect start to 2 weeks of food-touring in Japan. (Okinawa didn't really count towards my "tour", since it was with family)

Rin Grill, Laguna Garden Hotel, Okinawa

Sept 4, 2008
Sirloin steak, ultra fatty, ultra good

Kochuten, Laguna Garden Hotel, Okinawa

Sept 3, 2008
Crab-foo young. I may not love shellfish, but I don't mind it bathing in creamy-egg sauce.


Now THIS is good peking duck!


Sharks-fin chawanmushi. It's little more than regular chawanmushi topped with some sharks-fin, but it's still pretty good.

Okinawan Food, an-non, Laguna Garden Hotel, Okinawa

Sept 2, 2008
Goya, or bittermelon. Not the best-tasting stuff in the world, but not as bad as I had heard.


Tofu and Pork ears. Tofu was made with some sort of peanut starch and hardened, pretty solid =P. Pork ears were crunchy.


Some interesting seaweed soup, and a dumpling made of taro stuffed with pork.

Also, all the stuff down below got updated, and I got bored with the rating system, so it's probably not coming back.