‘Japanese’
In all my time living in LA I had one major failure. Well maybe more than one failure, but one of them is not making a trip to Daikokuya. Fortunately, that ramen spot set up an outpost over in Little Little Tokyo. It has a crazy wait, but when you step inside it feels like you’ve really stepped onto a street in Japan (as evidenced by that picture to the left inside the place).
EDIT: Fuku Burger made a move, hopefully it hasn’t changed for the worse.
Amidst the new Linq in Las Vegas is a little spot called Fuku Burger. While the Linq is new, Fuku Burger certainly is not. It started as a food truck in Vegas a few years ago, became a short-lived restaurant in Hollywood afterwards and then found this new permanent location within a cool new food court type of thing. The menu is nice and small and priced right, just like a food truck should be, even if it’s now brick and mortar.
To some it is easy to write Japanese food off as sushi and stuff. Yet, I love Japanese food and have no need for sushi, which means I love places like Toronto. Why? Because Toronto has a diversity of Japanese food to offer, like ramen and curry. One of these places is Gyugyuya, specializing in Japanese curry. Situated right next to a popular ramen spot, it was strangely empty inside and waiting for my wife and I to eat.
The first time I laid my eyes on natto was while studying abroad in Japan. To me it was nothing short of disgusting. Fermented soybeans? A raw egg? A simple stir with the chopsticks that made strands that looked like spiderwebs? For breakfast? It was not a pleasant experience, but it was certainly an experience to be remembered.
In Japanese, the word “misaki” means a type of divine spirit. In Pittsburgh, however, it means pretty much the craziest buffet in the world. You see, the Misaki Sushi & Seafood Buffet in Bon Air would seem to be just a Japanese buffet, but it is so much more. For a mere $11.99, Misaki pretty much gives you the world on platter. Or, at least in troughs in the buffet area.
After imbibing in a few beverages and wandering the streets of New York in search of ramen to no avail, I found myself at a place called Glaze in Union Square. Contrary to what you might expect, Glaze is not a donut shop. Rather, it is a teriyaki fast-casual concept, the concept being that teriyaki is a glaze. The options for the glaze included more than just your typical chicken and I went for the Hanger Steak.
After Portland we made our way into the Great White North, although surprisingly Canada wasn’t quite covered in white in the middle of the summer. We began in Vancouver, and I found myself a Japadog stand to satisfy my hunger. In case you are unable to read between the lines, Japadog is simply a Japanese hot dog stand, serving up typical Japanese-style hot dogs and other interesting hot dogs with Japanese toppings on them. It’s been around since 2005 and is pretty well-regarded in the street food scene. At least it was regarded enough that I can say that I had heard of them at some point in my life.
By now you may have noticed that I like to reference my time in Japan and China when it comes to posts about Japanese and Chinese food. If you like that kind of thing, then my tale of Curry House CoCo Ichibanya is the post for you. It all started when I spotted a sign for Curry House CoCo Ichibanya while driving through Brentwood. This blew my mind, because during my time in China, CoCo Curry (minus the Ichibanya and Curry House) was my go-to Japanese curry place.
Japanese curry and I go way back. From the start, it has been a loving relationship, but I must admit I have a couple of places I like to get it from and don’t often get outside of that box. Curry House is not one of these places, and although it resides across the street from Hurry Curry of Tokyo, my go-to Japanese curry place, I never felt the need for Curry House. Yet, with a big group one night, Curry House was kind of our only option and we took it.
Yakisoba is likely my favorite Japanese food. Yet, yakisoba is rarely every made from real soba, which is a buckwheat noodle. Real soba, though, is highly underrated, typically coming in third when people think of Japanese noodle dishes (ramen and udon first). This is a shame, because soba boasts a truly unique texture and flavor. Fortunately in Torrance (and now in West LA), there is a restaurant dedicated completely to soba called Soba Sojibo.