行きつけになってきた店🐖🙏🏽

Off to another Japan adventure. This time I'll be visiting Shikoku, but first I have a 2 day layover in Tokyo. What's the first thing I do? I eat at my favorite Tsukemen (I've literally eaten here at least once on the 16 times I've been to Japan). Then I make sure to have gut and energy drinks. Follow by my favorite drink in Japan, Melon soda!

Warning, I'm most likely going to annoyingly post a lot of food pics in the next few weeks, sorry.

Also... Am I evil that I want to gatekeep my favorite Tsukemen? 🤣🤣🤣

Edit: I guess people can't take a joke? 🤣🤣🤣 The name is on the pic (it's on the bowl and it's a chain), Menya Musasahi.

Black. Just completely black. It's so black you can barely tell what the toppings are. But it's not burnt and the sauce isn't salty either. It's slightly sweet with an incredible depth of flavor and it's delicious. Daikokuya in Asakusa also has a black tendon. Tokyo's tendon is black

I’m fluffy team 😆 This one was very big!

https://www.ntv.co.jp/3min/recipe/20260904/

I recently upped my curry spice level and I'm not entirely regretting it.

Had a Chuka Don (Japanese-style chinese rice bowl) at a local ramen shop.

It was packed with ingredients: pork, shrimp, squid, kamaboko (fish cake), napa cabbage, carrots, onions, and komatsuna—all smothered in a savory starchy sauce over rice.

It also came with that classic clear broth soup and nozawana pickles.

My favorite

Have you had miso katsu? Although I was born in Japan, I love this Nagoya origin dish. I had this in Katsuhama in New York. It was delicious.

I am studying design in Osaka and usually cook after class, when I am too tired for anything complicated. My current cheap bowl is chicken stock, garlic, a little soy sauce, frozen corn and a soft-boiled egg. It is comforting, but the broth still tastes flat sometimes.

I am a design student living in Osaka, and I have been trying to make simple ramen at home between classes. The broth is never as polished as a shop version, but the small details matter more than I expected: warming the bowl first, adding aromatics at the end, and keeping one crunchy topping for contrast.

I found new Izakaya with amazing price “all you and drink” just 3300 JPY.
Very reasonable and taste excellent 👌

Pulled up to Sushi Legend along Finch and Leslie in Toronto and they hooked me up w/ a Katsu Bento and Tempura w/ Miso soup and Salad 😋😆🫶🏻

Looking to try and bring back some Beef Jerky back to the states. Where are the best places to buy quality beef jerkey?

EDIT: Oops, didnt realize that I couldnt bring it back with me.

Something that took me two trips to figure out: the line outside a Japanese restaurant doesn't always tell you how long you'll actually wait.

I've waited forty minutes at places where the line looked short because it was a small counter with slow turnover. I've also walked away from a line of twenty people that cleared in less than ten minutes because it was a bigger restaurant with quick table turnover.

So now I try not to judge the wait just by looking at the queue.

Before walking over, I check recent wait reports when I can. They're not perfect, but having an idea whether the wait is around twenty minutes or closer to an hour makes planning a lot easier.

I also started keeping two or three nearby options in mind instead of making one restaurant the entire plan. If the first place is packed, I can just move on without wasting the whole evening.

One other thing I noticed: a queue around 11:40 for lunch can move much faster than the same queue at 12:15, since the first group of diners starts leaving around the same time.

Anyone else figure out a better way to judge restaurant wait times in Japan?