Found this image of a (quite shady) ラーメン大学、which means Ramen University. I’d be kind of scared to go in there though, do you think it is legit? ^^

Goes nice with my blog’s theme and all, Instant Ramen!

Speaking of which, my Japanese teacher told me that all chefs in Japan need a license in order to become cooks, just wondering if this applies to small ramen shops too. If so, where do they study? Here I guess!

Thanks to Neta

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I must say, I love to play my Nintendo DS. But having one for breakfast would be epic, don’t you think? Still wondering how they manage to create such a fine toast (if it’s real that is). Any ideas? ^^

Source: newzonfire.com

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Different airlines in the world have different kinds of foods. Take a look at what United is serving. JAL and China on the other side look delicious! Most airlines, however, have really made an effort in recent years to make their grub a bit more palatable. Some refined airlines have even improved the presentation! While some airlines make no effort to provide for vegetarians or vegans, other airlines like United give you many delightful options. Asian vegetarian? Kosher? Whatever you feel like! ^^

A flight, whether long or short, should be as enjoyable as possible, regardless of the food. Take a good book and a DVD player if you don’t have one of those televisions in-built in the seat in front of you. Bring games, a notebook, and a magazine to happily while the time away. Write a To Do list, or plan your next party bets moves or draw up a guest list for your next party. Write the postcards you forgot to send while on holiday! Do whatever you like to make the most of your time onboard. Enjoy the meals– even if you don’t like the main course you might love the dessert! Never say never.

Korean Air’s mineral patch looks delicious! (Here’s a Starcraft Cake in case you didn’t get the joke ^^)

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Or should I say, a poor man’s curry rice ^^;

Curry is one of Japan’s most popular dishes (particularly curry rice), and is also well known amongst East Asian cuisines. Curry originated in India and South Asia and expanded to all Asia, and arrived to Japan in the Meiji era.

Anyway, imagine how many spoons of rice you have to eat with each chop of vegetable on the curry above! Via Neta.

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Sushi brought to you by Hao ^^; dunno if it’s legal to call it sushi as any Japanese would kill me if they knew I’ve been messing with their food >_<

Today I received some very good news, the video-game that we published some months ago — Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles / 時空五行風水大戦 — was featured at gamesTM, a huge UK-based magazine and I had a chance to look at it today. Really neat and professional.

Was originally going to write a photo article about it today but since I was so happy we decided to make sushi. Was excited from both making it and eating it that forgot about the time and ate too much sushi. Ironically enough, Instant Ramen should be all about food an less about all the other stuff I write about, so to make up with you guys I’ll be writing my own How to make Sushi guide later this week, but promise you won’t tell any Japanese cuisine connoisseurs or Japanese friends!! ^^;; one reader even openly complained about my lack of food-related posts on his blog!

Tweeted 「sushi 食べ過ぎちゃった」 earlier today and someone asked me what it meant. Might as well post a few Nihongo lessons around here too:

• 食べ (tabe) means “to eat”
• 過ぎる(sugiru) means “too much”
• ちゃった(chatta) is the informal of しまいました(shimaimashita) which means “carelessly”, “accidentally” (something like “I accidentally the whole internet”) in this context

It’s hard to explain but (in this context, remember!) is used mostly for bad stuff. So the whole thing, 「sushi 食べ過ぎちゃった」 becomes “I ate too much sushi…” in a bad sense. If anyone else can help me explain better please comment below!

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Can you see anything weird on the picture above? Well, most of us would be caught in the trap I guess — there are ice cubes inside that ramen! Actually, it’s 冷やしラーメン (hiyashi ramen), served chilling cold and literally on the rocks.

Cold ramen originates from the Yamagata prefecture. On summer, ramen stores have a hard time selling hot ramen to customers, and you’re better off eating ice cream like our modern samurai. Well then, someone thought it would be a great idea to serve cold ramen, and the rest is history ^^

It may feel a little beyond your imagination to eat cold noodles, but they taste quite good. In my case, it was a (very) hot summer day and my host family had sōmen (素麺)  — another type of noodles served cold — for lunch. I was initially a little hesitant to eat noodles with ice on them, but my family insisted that I would feel refreshed. Not only was it true, but the noodles tasted great, and I became an instant cold noodle lover.

Would you give cold ramen a try?

Photo by: Higetiger.

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Beautiful My Neighbor Totoro Bento by AnnaTheRed. In case you didn’t know, hand-made bento (lunch) making in Japan is a form of art for some ^^ looks delicious but I would feel bad eating it!

Beside decorated bentos, normal bentos in Japan are very common in convinience stores — you can find virtually any type of Japanese meal in the form of bentos and for quite a fair price. At least in the Tokyo/Osaka area, I’ve seen that bentos are usually in the 500 – 1000 yen range, which is quite affordable considering that most of them are a good, balanced meals (maybe a bit on the small side). Much better choice compared to fast food restaurants, which I am not very fond of.

Another tip when you’re in Japan is looking for bentos at night, since most of them will be discarded after one day, convinience stores put them a little cheaper. Just pray that you won’t get sick or something! ^^;

Do you prefer conbini bentos or fast food?

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Have you seen the Japanese version of KFC’s Colonel Sanders? When I first saw him in Tokyo, I expected to see the Western version  — chicken tasted great for sure, but didn’t expect a localization for the Japanese market ^^; (Photo: jpellgen)

Depending on the occasion, they also dress Mr. Sanders the way they want. Santa? No problem. Strange fat middle-aged men in yukata with a lace? No problem!

Photos via Flickr using this search.

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I just had the most delicious mangoes I’ve eaten in a long time I must say. While eating my mango, I suddenly remembered about TokyoMango, and then wondered how much a mango could cost in tokyo — the author of said probably knows! ^^; (why mango anyway?)

My mangoes depicted above cost roughly 80 yen/pound, or about 20 yen a piece, and have the best taste I’ve had in a while. Thinking about it, some fruits in Japan do taste better than the ones from my little Costa Rica, but others taste pretty much the same. Anyway, fruits are extremely cheap around here, and if you’re used to eating at least ten kinds of different fruits a day (me), you’ll get a huge fruit-culture shock.

I remember my Russian friend telling me that 100-yen (about US$1) bananas were the best. When I heard that one single banana could cost 100 yen I almost killed myself for not bringing 30 pounds of bananas from Costa Rica — at the time one banana cost 1 yen (yes, you read that right, one yen) in Costa Rica. Banana prices are soaring now, and unhappy locals are now forced to pay the steep price of 4 yen a piece. Anyway, I was expecting the Japabanana to taste 25 times better. I mean, Japanese are known for their animé, and giant Gundams; Costa Rica is known for coffee (I don’t drink coffee) and bananas, so as a seasoned banana expert, the 20-yen bite that I had was definitely quite a scam. (Photo credit: tokyogoat)

Just adding my two yen of humor and cheating a bit, since Costa Rica is actually one of the four leading banana exporting countries in the world. Mango may be expensive but Manga surely isn’t! The otaku stuff I purchased in Akihabara was dirt cheap — Love Hina and Shenmue were 100 yen each, so I’m more than happy with that ^^

If you think bananas are the only overpriced fruit in Japan, the fun has yet to start. (Expensive) melons are popular gifts but are more famous for their ridiculous price tag — the most expensive in this picture costs 24’000 yen or roughly US$240 (most of those melons are more expensive than a Nintendo DS). Now imagine tripping over that melon stand and squashing all those melons, you would end up paying 89’000 yen (about US$900). I’ve yet to taste such an expensive melon, but normal melons taste very similar to the ones in Costa Rica. If you’re wondering how much a melon costs around here, it’s usually 100 yen a melon, or three melons for 200 yen (US$2) if you know your ways =) in fact, my mother taught me well on the art of buying on the farmer’s market, our usual purchase being 40 kilos (about 90 pounds) of fruits and vegetables for US$30.  (photo credit: Piero Sierra)

But wait, add water to your melon and you get Japanese square watermelons! You’re probably acquainted with them. The kanji below reads 最高級品, literally “The best quality product”, but translated in plain English as F@#$! EXPENSIVE. (Photo credit: rumpleteaser)

My motivational phrase for today is that you should cherish the things that you’re most used to, and those whom you share  your daily life with, since you’ll end up missing them when they’re no longer there (or are too expensive!). Yes, I know, I lack all the poetical genes.

The list probably goes on and on but you probably got the idea that fruits in Japan are a bit of a pain to your wallet. So instead of eating orange for Vitamin C, I recommend buying lots of animé, manga, video games, and eating lots and lots of ramen. So, what’s your take on this one, how are fruit prices in your own country?

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Have you ever tasted Japanese Soft Drinks? I’m not a fan of soft drinks, especially Coke, but I did try them. As for the Fanta alternatives, I must say that I was quite addicted to them. Japanese soft drinks do have much less sugar compared to the Western ones, and also less artificial coloring, which makes it less scary to your stomach ^^

Classic Coke does look the same as the ones I’ve seen elsewhere, say the U.S. Tasted different, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it. Anyway, whether you like soda or not, if you’re in Japan, don’t forget to try Fanta Melon Creamsoda. I know, the name doesn’t make sense and it is gramatically incorrect, but it tastes great — for a mere ¥120 ^^; though dispensing machine’s prices vary from place to place, and tourist sites are obviously on the expensive side. I took these two pictures at the Tokyo Tower I think.

Your life is not complete without tasting Melon Cream Soda. Not sure if it’s available elsewhere outside of Japan, does anybody know? My sister did desperately try to find it in Taiwan with no luck though.

The presentation is quite funky and I had my doubts about its taste, but it met up my expectation.

Update: Here’s a Japanese Fanta commercial, very short but I’m still laughing :D how can you not drink Fanta after seeing this?

Click here to view the embedded video.

First two photos were taken by me, last tｗo from Flickr using this search.

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