Kanazawa "At Home at Ryokan Service"
Where can I eat?
Before talking about food and restaurants in Japan, I advance you that if you are Italian, anywhere in the world (including France) you are generally will eat worse than in your country.
So if you are Italian, products such as Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano, quality cheese , real-time sliced salumi, vegetables and fresh fruit in huge quantities, dry bread, breadsticks, piadina Romagnola and a huge variety of yogurt, milk and various kind of pasta, are hard to find, so you can forget it unless you will go looking specifically at specialist shops, that exist in Japan but are also very expensive.
In this regard, there are usually small crowded shops inside the JR train stations, selling a fraction of those products that may be useful for example for a snack at night (make sure you have a hotel room with the refrigerator) .
Then look what awaits us in this magical country:
Japan is a nation very clean, so it is usually difficult to find a restaurant with hygiene problems so you can then try different restaurants without difficulty from this point of view.
Regarding the type of food, you must know that much of an average Japanese supermarket is devoted to fish and that fish is therefore the key ingredient for a very large variety of dishes sold here.
If you do not like fish you should definitely find a hotel that provides a breakfast of bread, jam and fruit juice and that is near a restaurant of the food style you desire.
If you like fish and even raw fish then you are in the country in the world that offers the best choice for this kind of food.
The “sushi” is raw fish served with rice and a sauce of soy sauce in where you have to dip sushi; it is a very popular dish and you can find restaurants like this a bit everywhere, even in the top floors of shopping centers (usually devoted to food of various kind). Usually the Japanese people know what’s the best “sushi bar”, so it is advisable for your vacation having a local guide or friend who will advise you the restaurant with the most delicious sushi.
Other typical dishes are:
- The “okonomiyaki“, a sort of pancake made of batter along with various ingredients such as vegetables, fish and meat … often covered with a brown soy sauce .
- The “yakitori” are skewers of grilled chicken,
- The “tempura” is the fish and/or shellfish and/or vegetables fried in batter
- The “takoyaki” are balls of batter with a filling made of a piece of octopus
- The “ramen” (of Chinese origin), is a dish consisting of pork broth in which there are immersed: spaghetti, vegetables and meat (usually two slices of roast pork)
- The “sashimi” is just raw fish served with soy sauce
- The “tonkatsu” are pork cutlets breaded and fried usually garnished with vegetables and a soy sauce.
On this website there are a lot of very good photos of traditional japanese dishes.
There are several shops with a automatic machine outside where are depicted in numbered photograph plates to choose from. To order, before entering in to the shop or at the entrance, place the money in the electronic machine, and press the button corresponding to the plate you have chosen, the machine will give you a ticket receipt and the dishes you have ordered will be brought you to the place where you sit down.
The most expensive restaurants usually do not have pictures (or plastic models) outside it with the available dishes and prices.
For the locations of restaurants, these are scattered everywhere, but I advise you to take a look at this website regarding the areas of Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka: http://www.bento.com/tokyofood.html
and for Tokyo: http://www.jref.com/practical/tokyo_restaurant_chains.shtml
A small note is important to consider: most restaurants close early, around 10:00 pm, so try to arrange your dinner early in the evening, otherwise you risk having to eat pre-cooked food bought in the minimarket (kombini) 24 hours day open.