(no subject)
Alright, I've been avoiding this topic because there's so much to say, but it's time.
Time to talk about Japanese food.
Traditional Japanese breakfasts include rice, miso, and all sorts of veggies and fish that I don't know the name of. The food my family eats of breakfast, though, is Western breakfast gone terribly, terribly wrong.
The main dish always involves toast. Taking into account how much more delicious bread is in Japan than America, this may seem like a safe choice. It is not. The toast is usually served with psuedo-cheese melted on top and adorned with strips of rubbery ham. Remember the plastic ham that you played house with as a kid? Yeah, it looks like that. Japanese also have a love for mayonnaise, and my host brothers think it goes really well with breakfast.
*Cheese in Japan isn't actually real cheese. Real cheese is about a dollar a slice, so most people apparently purchase a processed cheese-ish substance, like American cheese with less dairy.
The toast is offset by actually delicious nashi (Asian pear), and cereal. The milk in Japan is different than in America, as well. It is thicker and sweeter. I'm not such a fan.
Lunch is my favorite meal of the day!
My program gives us a lunch stipend, and we can choose to eat anything we want. Some days we eat in the school cafeteria, which has two perks:
1. A full lunch costs 300-400 yen.
2. The receipts. The receipts are indicative of Japan's fascination with details. On the bottom of every receipt, the nutritional value of our meal is printed. It is divided into three categories, red (protein), green (veggies), and yellow (carbs). Nutritional goals for both genders are listed right above that, so you can compare them to your intake. They also list the total number of calories.
If we have no class right after lunch, we head to downtown Kyoto! Downtown Kyoto has amazing food, especially KAITEN ZUSHI and CREPES.
Kaiten zushi is one of the genius inventions of Japan. It is a sushi restaurant in which the sushi is placed on plates, and then onto a conveyer belt, which zooms the plates all around the periphery of the store. You take the sushi you want off the conveyer belt, and they charge you by the number of plates you consume.
We found an incredibly cheap and delicious kaiten zushi in Shijo, and it's AMAZING.
and CREPES. Oh my God they are amazing. There is a little store called Crepe Ojisan (Uncle Crepe) that serves delicious and slightly expensive crepes, which they make right in front of you.
We've been twice. The first time I got choco-banana-cream, which is exactly what it sounds like and is all kinds of delicious. The second time I got this one, blueberry-vanilla-rare cheese. Rare cheese was very curious-sounding, but tastes like cheesecake. IT'S SO GOOD I AM SO SORRY YOU CAN'T ALL HAVE ONE RIGHT NOW.
You may be wondering what a crepe stand is doing in Japan. Well, my friend, French desserts are an obsession of the Japanese. Parfaits and crepes and pastries are EVERYWHERE, and I for one am not upset about it :D
Dinner in Japan is a family affair, and consists of food I can't describe very well because I don't know what most of it is lol. Obviously rice is always served, along with a lot of veggies and some meat. Fish is the most common.
Waste note (もったいない) is a very important concept in Japan, so everyone must consume all the food on their plates!
Well, I'm going to go eat dinner now :) and then later go out with a couple of friends to get ice cream parfaits.
Time to talk about Japanese food.
Traditional Japanese breakfasts include rice, miso, and all sorts of veggies and fish that I don't know the name of. The food my family eats of breakfast, though, is Western breakfast gone terribly, terribly wrong.
The main dish always involves toast. Taking into account how much more delicious bread is in Japan than America, this may seem like a safe choice. It is not. The toast is usually served with psuedo-cheese melted on top and adorned with strips of rubbery ham. Remember the plastic ham that you played house with as a kid? Yeah, it looks like that. Japanese also have a love for mayonnaise, and my host brothers think it goes really well with breakfast.
*Cheese in Japan isn't actually real cheese. Real cheese is about a dollar a slice, so most people apparently purchase a processed cheese-ish substance, like American cheese with less dairy.
The toast is offset by actually delicious nashi (Asian pear), and cereal. The milk in Japan is different than in America, as well. It is thicker and sweeter. I'm not such a fan.
Lunch is my favorite meal of the day!
My program gives us a lunch stipend, and we can choose to eat anything we want. Some days we eat in the school cafeteria, which has two perks:
1. A full lunch costs 300-400 yen.
2. The receipts. The receipts are indicative of Japan's fascination with details. On the bottom of every receipt, the nutritional value of our meal is printed. It is divided into three categories, red (protein), green (veggies), and yellow (carbs). Nutritional goals for both genders are listed right above that, so you can compare them to your intake. They also list the total number of calories.
If we have no class right after lunch, we head to downtown Kyoto! Downtown Kyoto has amazing food, especially KAITEN ZUSHI and CREPES.
Kaiten zushi is one of the genius inventions of Japan. It is a sushi restaurant in which the sushi is placed on plates, and then onto a conveyer belt, which zooms the plates all around the periphery of the store. You take the sushi you want off the conveyer belt, and they charge you by the number of plates you consume.
We found an incredibly cheap and delicious kaiten zushi in Shijo, and it's AMAZING.
and CREPES. Oh my God they are amazing. There is a little store called Crepe Ojisan (Uncle Crepe) that serves delicious and slightly expensive crepes, which they make right in front of you.
We've been twice. The first time I got choco-banana-cream, which is exactly what it sounds like and is all kinds of delicious. The second time I got this one, blueberry-vanilla-rare cheese. Rare cheese was very curious-sounding, but tastes like cheesecake. IT'S SO GOOD I AM SO SORRY YOU CAN'T ALL HAVE ONE RIGHT NOW.
You may be wondering what a crepe stand is doing in Japan. Well, my friend, French desserts are an obsession of the Japanese. Parfaits and crepes and pastries are EVERYWHERE, and I for one am not upset about it :D
Dinner in Japan is a family affair, and consists of food I can't describe very well because I don't know what most of it is lol. Obviously rice is always served, along with a lot of veggies and some meat. Fish is the most common.
Waste note (もったいない) is a very important concept in Japan, so everyone must consume all the food on their plates!
Well, I'm going to go eat dinner now :) and then later go out with a couple of friends to get ice cream parfaits.