Taste Testing 6 Popular Japanese Foods and Learning Japanese

Hello everyone it's Naoko Are you all feeling hungry right now I'm starving right now I'm absolutely famished Um it's already 2 p m and I haven't eaten anything today I'm starving right now And there's a whole array of delicious food right in front of me Today I'd like to introduce you to some Japanese foods and then taste them sharing our impressions of the flavors Today we'll explore the names of various foods Since I'll be using a lot of Japanese words related to food please listen carefully everyone Alright first I'll introduce what we're having for today's meal Entry number 1 Miso soup Miso soup is a broth made with miso paste It typically contains ingredients such as tofu wakame seaweed and green onions You can also add spinach eggplant clams fried tofu and various other ingredients Miso soup is an essential and cherished dish in Japanese cuisine Entry number 2 Yakitori Yakitori consists of chicken meat skewered and grilled then seasoned with sauce or salt before eating It's a popular dish at izakayas Perfectly pairs with beer and various other alcoholic drinks Entry Number 3 Taiyaki Taiyaki is a sweet snack shaped like a fish and filled with an sweet paste made from beans In addition to the classic version there are various types of taiyaki such as custard and chocolate Taiyaki dough is made using wheat flour water sugar and other ingredients Entry number 4 Tonkatsu Tonkatsu is pork coated in flour egg and breadcrumbs then deep-fried in oil It's delicious to pour the sauce over the rice and eat them together Tonkatsu is usually eaten with shredded cabbage Entry Number 5 Hand-pressed sushi Hand-pressed sushi consists of fish egg or other ingredients placed on a bed of rice Raw fish is often used in the preparation Finally entry number 6 takoyaki takoyaki is a food that contains octopus inside You eat it topped with ingredients like sauce mayonnaise bonito flakes and seaweed It's commonly seen at Japanese festival food stalls It sells very well Yes have you all tried these six dishes before Which one do you like the most Today I'll randomly taste these Japanese foods and share my thoughts on the flavors And finally let me tell you my absolute favorite dish Yes then I'll decide the order in which we'll eat from now on When you need to decide a random order what do you usually do How do you randomly determine the order Today I think I'll try a lottery draw ladder diagram There is a piece of paper here There is one sheet of paper And there is a pen Draw a line on the paper And here I write my name Tonkatsu sushi yakitori takoyaki kakiage miso soup Then I fold it here And here I'll draw a line at random And now I'll list the order First up is jang chan cha This one's the best And secondly This is second Third is Third Ta-da First place: miso soup Second: taiyaki Third: yakitori Fourth: tonkatsu Fifth : takoyaki And sixth: sushi Yes I'd like to proceed in this order today Ta-da Entry number one Miso soup Enjoying the miso soup Let's eat Yeah Delicious Today's miso soup was made by my mother It contains wakame onions tofu and potatoes Potatoes I'm ready to eat Delicious That miso soup I truly never get tired of drinking miso soup every day It's a flavor that never gets old even if you drink it daily It's slightly salty but delicious My mother makes miso soup every single day so I've been drinking it almost daily since I was a child Yes I drink miso soup almost every day when I'm with my mother Miso soup is something that when you're living abroad suddenly feels like home the moment you taste it again after so long Yes exactly By the way it's said that drinking clam miso soup the next day after drinking heavily helps alleviate a hangover If I ever drink too much again and end up drunk I'll definitely try that Try drinking a miso soup with clams Ta-da Here's a taiyaki Taiyaki It's been a while since I 've had one It brings back memories This one has anko filling This is the classic kind of taiyaki Look at this It's really shaped like a fish A tilapia shape This is the red bean paste Bon appétit It's delicious It tastes like a nostalgic favorite Most taiyaki contain this sweet red bean paste but there are also savory okonomiyaki-style taiyaki Okonomiyaki taiyaki When I was in high school I became really hooked on this taiyaki-style okonomiyaki I ended up loving it so much that I ate it quite often A taiyaki filled with okonomiyaki flavor Delicious Another fun topic with taiyaki is whether to eat it starting from the head or the tail—people often debate whether to begin from the tail the head or even from the belly There's a psychological test that suggests your choice of where to start eating reveals something about your personality —whether it's true or not I'm not sure but people often talk about it Incidentally today I started eating from the top The cream is usually plentiful near the top but sometimes there's less filling—like jam—toward the tail end Apparently which end you eat first reveals your personality The taiyaki was delicious It's delicious Today I also bought some matcha-flavored taiyaki It contains matcha filling Matcha-flavored taiyaki I'm going to eat I'll start from the tail Delicious It's yakitori I'll enjoy some yakitori It's been a while since I last had yakitori Yakitori always brings to mind a pub menu I don't usually eat this at home I often order it when I go to a izakaya Grilled chicken skewers Bon appétit I haven't had this in a while but it's delicious There are various types of yakitori This one is a type called tsukune And this is called negima Grilled chicken thigh with green onions And this one comes with sauce It's grilled chicken with sauce It's delicious Truly delicious I'm really hungry right now so I'd love to enjoy it with rice—grilled chicken I think it pairs wonderfully with alcohol It goes perfectly with alcohol and rice It's delicious It's tonkatsu Yes I'll have tonkatsu again after a long time The exterior is crispy while the inside is juicy and delicious Eating it this way with sauce is delicious but I usually prefer it as katsudon I cook it with eggs and serve it as katsudon Katsudon is delicious Entry number 6 takoyaki Takoyaki This was bought from a large chain called Gindako a well-known takoyaki restaurant These takoyaki here have a crispy exterior and a wonderfully soft gooey center—so delicious The inside is wonderfully soft and runny I'm ready to eat It's wonderfully soft and delicious inside Plus takoyaki just have this cute charm to them The appearance is so cute really Is it the shape Its round shape just makes it look so cute I made takoyaki at home the other day after a long time and as I was making the takoyaki I thought it looked kind of cute while I was making it What do you think Isn't it cute Next finally entry number five: sushi Hand-pressed sushi Yay Wow Um I mentioned this in my previous video but I couldn't eat sushi until I was about twenty I just never liked raw fish—never did I couldn't eat sushi or sashimi at all for a long time I didn't eat any at all But around the time I was 22 or maybe 21 I started being able to eat sushi again I love it now Whenever I go to the supermarket I always check out the sushi section Yes I'll have some sushi—nigiri Sushi is eaten by dipping it in soy sauce Dipping it in soy sauce is the way to enjoy it Then I'll have the tuna I'll dip the tuna slightly into soy sauce Dipped in soy sauce wow It looks delicious Bon appétit It's truly delicious—tuna And today's sushi is a bit special It's sushi from a slightly better supermarket so it's even tastier than usual Tuna is truly delicious Yes this sushi platter comes with a variety of ingredients but which one do you like the most Tuna Shrimp Egg My favorite sushi ingredient is Ta-da It's ikura My favorite sushi ingredient is ikura Well then I'll dig in Yes I'm happy Authentic sushi is truly delicious Yes what's your favorite sushi filling Yes thank you for the meal It was delicious really Everything was tasty but if you had to pick one from this selection which would you like the most Of course I love all food but if I could only eat one dish for the rest of my life I’d choose miso soup Well I don't particularly find miso soup delicious but I've been drinking it almost every day since I was a child so it's kind of a habit I couldn't live without miso soup For me miso soup is an incredibly important food and dish Also since it's good for the body I'd like to keep drinking miso soup from now on Yes then let's wrap it up for today Thank you so much for watching until the very end today See you next time Thank you Bye-bye