I make lots of videos about food

But I thought it would be best to compile them all into one single video

So if you guys are coming here for a trip you can kinda look through this

and get some ideas of stuff to try

I'm not gonna mention the super obvious, like sushi

So keep that in mind. It's not that I'm saying it's bad...

It's just, you guys all know about sushi

So yeah, lets get started!

The first thing that came to find when I was thinking of foods that people aren't familiar with in Japan

I thought of katsudon!

Katsudon is one of my favourite dishes

Even thought I don't like meat, I really like katsudon

It is a breaded pork cutlet, on top of a bed of rice

And they have a really yummy egg that they pour over it with onions

It is soooo delicious

So I really recommend that you try katsudon!

You can get it at any Japanese style restaurant

You can get it at super fast-food type of restaurants as well

I will list a couple places where you can get each dish down below in the description box

So check that out

But katsudon, yes #1 for sure!

#2 would be zarusoba

I bet you guys know soba noodles, they are a buckwheat noodle

They're very popular outside of Japan as well

But zarusoba is a certain way to eat it here where the noodles are cold

and you dip them into a dipping sauce called mentsuyu

It's a really great dish for the summer because they're cold

But I love them so much so I even eat them in the winter

Again, you can get these at any typical Japanese restaurant

#3 would be udon!

Udon are another type of noodle which are thick and made from wheat flour

I really like eating udon here because

lots of restaurants you can order your bowl of udon

and then you can pick and choose the toppings that you wanna put inside of it

My favourite is to put some kind of tempura on top

and an egg, and I just think it's so yummy!

Udon are really cheap and really filling

So it's a great meal if you're on a budget

Ok next would be okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake

When you think pancake, you think sweet but okonomiyaki are a savoury pancake

You can basically put whatever ingredients you want inside of it

Inside of my okonomiyaki I like to put lots of vegetables

You can also put meats inside

Honestly whatever you like

so that's why it's so much fun

Many okonomiyaki restaurants in Japan you can grill your own

So they'll bring you the bowl with the batter

and all the ingredients and then you stir that up

and pour it on the grill in front of you and fry it yourself

It's lots of fun

I will list a couple okonomiyaki restaurants that I recommend down below

Another favourite of mine is fish egg pasta

Oh my god, I love it!

It probably sounds creepy to lots of you because it did to me at first too

I had the instant kind first actually

I'll put a picture here so you can see what it looks like

You can buy some in the grocery store

and bring some back with you so you can eat it in your home country as well

But it's so good, it's not super fishy

It's got kind of a spicy flavour

There's two types actually

Mentaiko and Tarako

Tarako and Mentaiko are both made from the same type of fish eggs

The are cod or pollock eggs

The only difference is the flavourings

With the tarako it's basically just salted, it doesn't have any spice to it

The mentaiko has a bit of a kick to it, it's got some chili pepper in it

They're not only used in pasta but also in other dishes such as pizza

Sandwiches, sushi...

It's a popular ingredient for onigiri as well

I prefer mentaiko usually

But a very cheap family restaurant called Saizeriya

has a tarako pasta that I really really really like

So if you go there, please try the tarako pasta!

So good omg

Next up is curry rice

When you think of Japan you probably don't think curry

But curry is actually one of the most popular meals that people eat here

It's really easy to make yourself, or you can go out and get it at a restaurant

There's a very popular chain called CoCo Curry

And again, you can choose whatever toppings you want on your curry

There'll be the base curry, you can choose to put katsu (breaded meat) on it

Or vegetables like spinach, or scrambled egg

Or eggplant

My favourite is eggplant with scrambled egg, it's so good! I recommend you try it!

Be very careful at CoCo Curry! They have different spiciness levels

You can choose

I always choose the sweetest one (amakuchi)

It goes up to level 10 I think

Basically you can choose whatever level you want

But after like 3, it starts to get pretty intense

Which is weird for Japan, so it's kind of surprising

So forget all that you know about Japanese food not being spicy when you go there

And stick with like a lower number to start with, just in case

Because it's really really really spicy

My friends I know that love spicy food, like SUPER spicy food

will only get like a 4, past that is a little much for them

Be careful!

Another rice dish is omurice

Omurice is short for omelette rice

It's a flavoured rice, covered in an omelette

It's usually served with ketchup or a tomato sauce

There are so many omurice restaurants in Japan, and they're all so delicious!

It's also really easy to make yourself!

I will be making some recipe videos soon

I wanna show you guys some of the Japanese foods that you can make at home

really simply, so you guys can try this out even if you don't have a chance to come to Japan

But omurice is so good

And there's so many different variations of it too

I went to an omurice restaurant in Shibuya recently

I will put that one down below

But there were probably 20-30 different kinds of omurice there

They were so good! I got the basic one with tomato sauce

And it was delicious!! So good.

Next is oden!

Now, oden is a winter dish

So if you come here in the summer or spring you might not see it around

I saw it come out in about the middle of September this year

So I figure if you come here anytime after that, you will see it in the convenience stores

It's basically vegetables, and fish and eggs and various ingredients stewed in a hot fish broth

It is so yummy! And you can tell the people which ones you want

So I pick out my favourites which are daikon, shirataki noodle, and hard boiled egg

Daikon is the best, just make sure you try the daikon

It absorbs all the broth and like melts in your mouth, it's so good!

Really cheap too! Each piece will be about 50-100 yen

So you can choose however many you want

You can eat them just like that, or they will give you some spicy mustard to eat with them

Either way, it's really really good

So if you guys are here in the winter, definitely check that out at the conbini

It will be up by the cash register, up at the front there

So you'll order it from the cashier and they will serve it for you

It looks kinda gross, I'm not gonna lie

But try it because it's really good!

I hope that gave you guys some ideas of things that you didn't really know about

Leave some comments down below and tell people what your favourite Japanese foods are

There are so many more that I could have mentioned, but I just picked some of my favourites

So leave some comments down below so other people get some more recommendations

I will be making another video focusing on sweets

Because I decided that that deserved a whole video all to itself

So look out for that!

And I will see you guys soon, bye!