Japanese Department Store (Depa-Chika) 〜デパ地下〜 Japan Vlog | easy Japanese home cooking recipe

Welcome to Taiji's Kitchen. Today I'm going to show you Depa Chika. So Depa stands for department store and Chika means basement floor. So Depa Chika is a basement of a department store. And it's a very special place where they sell a lot of good food, mostly pre-made food, but also like snacks and souvenirs. So it's a place you definitely should go when you have a chance to come visit Japan. I'll definitely guarantee the quality, but it may not be so friendly to your wallet. Then let's get into it. Here first up is tonkatsu, Japanese pork cutlet. And then they also have in bento boxes other ingredients. And here are other ingredients and skewers fried in the same manner. Meat, seafood and veggies, many different kinds. And here they have Japanese style croquettes. And then they also have ebi furai, fried shrimp, which is famous for my hometown Nagoya. Here they have different kinds of main dishes and side dishes. Meat, seafood, different kinds of salad and whatnot. These are sold by weight so you can buy however little or a lot you want depending on the occasion. Here they have teriyaki chicken in bento box style. In this store they're making and preparing these dishes right in front of you. So you know exactly what goes inside. Here's a salad store of different sorts. Unfortunately this place was a bit crowded so I wasn't able to get good angles. I apologize for that. But you can see different kinds of salad. Some with meat or some with seafood. Looks very delicious. Here they sell fresh mixed juice. I used to come here very often with my grandma and we drank this together. So it's a bit nostalgic for me. And then here they sell Chinese dishes, ebi chili and many other. We love Chinese food so it's very common to find these Chinese food store. And they also have in bento boxes. And next thing we have fried fish patty known as satsumaage. Many different kinds with variation of ingredients. Here they sell many kinds of bento boxes for about $10 or 8 euros. Reasonable yet balanced with many small dishes. And then here specialized in rice with different ingredients in them. It's getting to autumn so they have these chestnuts mixed rice. Here they have many fish dishes. Fried fish, cooked in sauce, grilled. And this is my favorite fish of all, ayu. They only live in small part of East Asia. They're so delicious and very aromatic. And they also look so handsome. Next then they have so-called kakinoha sushi. Pressed sushi wrapped in kaki or persimmon leaves. Which is said to be antibacterial. With different kind of toppings and packaged in many sizes. And then here they have Chinese steamed buns and steamed dumplings. And they're steamed right in front of you. So you can eat freshly made as you would in a street market. This store has a lot of so-called osozai. Which are Japanese home cooking side dishes. Here they have more traditional or old style dishes. Something Japanese grandmothers would make. So they tend to have less color. But all are very delicious and go so well with rice. Oh it's so delicious. And here they're sold in small portions. Or you can also buy them in different combinations. So this department store is located right under a major train station, Nagoya station. So many people come here for lunch or dinner to go to eat in the trains. These are called ekiben. And here they have famous Japanese food samples. They look so delicious. Oh these bento boxes look so delicious. And yet they only cost about 8 to 10 dollars worth. Here they also have some more western or Italian style food. Ham, pasta, pizza, lasagna or meatballs, gratin, different fried food and more. Many Japanese people also love Italian food as well. Here they have more side dishes and salads. This is a fig salad. In Japan we always like to have some seasonal food on our table. And here is a tempura store with many variety of ingredients. Different kinds of veggies, seafood, meat. They also have here karaage. And here they have fried shrimp in mayo sauce. And here are more different kind of tempura. Here they also have another osozai store but more traditional. And therefore perhaps more healthy and less or no oil even. Or maybe not. This is shishito pepper filled with shrimp patty and then fried. Here they have onigiri store. Even though convenience is much more convenient and often cheaper, the quality is no match. And so many people still prefer these stores where they make onigiri themselves with hands. They have here many kinds of fillings. Next them they have chirashi sushi. Which means open or scattered sushi. Different toppings over sushi rice. They also have maki sushi or roll sushi. And all different kind of sushi. There are just so many ways only to make sushi. Variation of styles and toppings. And here on the top they have huge futomaki or thick roll sushi. These cost about 14 dollars. A bit pricey but many good stuff inside. On the other side they have variety of hosomaki, thin roll sushi. And around the corner they have so-called inari sushi. Sushi rice inside deep fried and seasoned tofu. Also very very delicious. And here they are cooking okonomiyaki right in front of you as you would see in a street market. It's just so much fun to watch them being made. And then here next to them they have sabazushi. Mackerel pressed sushi. Here the chef is making also right in front of you. As a child I always enjoyed watching these being made for hours. During my parents were doing the shopping. It's just so fascinating to see these professionals making these dishes and so fast. These are about 15 dollars a package. A bit expensive side but it's definitely worth it. Further down they have different kind of yakitori skewers. Mostly different part of chicken including inside organs like liver, stomach, cartilage, skin. We try not to waste any part of the chicken. Here more kinds of salad. Very colorful and appetizing. These make you so hungry you want to buy just everything. That's the biggest danger of coming to Depachika. So you just have to be careful about that. If you go further down we come to sweet snacks and souvenir section. Here in this store they have all kinds of delicious looking cakes. Five to seven dollars worth a piece. So rather in the expensive side but definitely worth the price. Here's another cake store with instagramable looking fruit tarts. About 30 dollars. Expensive but definitely worth it as well. Here more kinds of cakes. Here they have packaged baked sweets. More for souvenir. Here they also have macaron. So these are probably french influence cakes. These french style cakes are so delicious and loved all throughout Japan. Here we come to more japanese sweets. These are dorayaki. The favorite of Doraemon. And these are yokan or japanese style jelly of different flavors. These are traditional japanese sweets category of wagashi. Often emulating something of that season. At the moment autumn chestnuts and then small flower over a rock on the right. Here they have variety of manju or daifuku mochi. They also vary depending on the season. Here they have rice crackers with different flavors. These are autumn themed. These are rather higher end suited for gifts or souvenir. Here where you see these are shrimp crackers. Nagoya where I'm from is known for catching a lot of shrimp. That's why we have many shrimp dishes and also why this store sell these shrimp crackers. These are all different kind of shrimps and these are all my favorite kind of crackers. And by the way these clothes what the salesperson is wearing is called hakama. Traditional skirt like pants to wear over kimono. You may know from aikido or kyudo, japanese martial arts. This used to be a formal wear and also school uniform for women during the Meiji period. That's probably why this store has this as a clerk's uniform. Across from there we have monaka. Another traditional japanese sweets red bean paste inside mochi rice cracker. Here they also have another wagashi imitating morning glory a summer flower. This is also another typical summer dessert anmitsu. And here another yokan of now autumn theme cosmos flowers. And here further down there's a high-end fruit store. Different kinds of fruit. This package of two apples costs ten dollars. These cost much more. Three peaches for roughly about fifty dollars. And this gift set costs eighty five dollars. And this peach one costs sixteen dollars. And this one melon costs over a hundred dollars worth. And these for 160 even. And this one bunch of grapes costs two hundred dollars. I have tried some of these and the flavor is so heavenly. But it's difficult to say if it's worth it. And guess how much this box of ten tangerines cost. Yeah ninety dollars. Would you pay that much money for these? Well then that's the end of this video. Hopefully you enjoyed a little tour of Depachika. See you in the next video. Bye.