Solo Dining Hong Kong

Last night I found myself marching up my street, brandishing a bag of McDonald's like armour against the neon lights, the pushy restaurant touts, and the naked corpses of barbecued ducks and chickens swinging in windows.

It wasn't until I was home unwrapping my hamburger and nuggets that I realised how sad it was to be eating McDonald's in my room when I am in one of the world's great foodie paradises.

But the thing is, it's actually quite stressful finding places to eat all the time. I love reading Hong Kong food blogs - but then there's the problem of too many choices. On the other hand, if you decide to wing it, you can never be sure exactly what you're getting yourself into. Like, the restaurant next door, it turns out, is famous for snake soup.

Another problem is I feel like a bit of an idiot eating alone all the time, even though at most budget eateries in Hong Kong you usually end up sharing tables with randoms anyway. I have grown to enjoy this table sharing culture, as I am nosy and like seeing what other people order. But there have also been occasions when wait staff have seemingly gone out of their way to ensure I had a table to myself, perhaps fearing some sort of disastrous gweilo (foreigner) chopstick incident. Just the other night I was ushered towards a single table disconcertingly close to the male toilets, very much regretting having ordered curry.

Despite the indecision, the self consciousness and the occasional (ok, frequent) McDonald's lapses, I have also had some very good dining experiences and been able to try lots of Hong Kong classics - wonton noodle soup, barbecue pork, milk tea (so much milk tea).

I have fallen in love with one particular Hong Kong style café, or cha chaan teng, called Lan Fong Yuen, which is steps away from my apartment and apparently quite famous, having been around since the 1950s. I had read about its legendary "socks" milk tea (named because it is poured through a strainer like a pair of stockings to make it extra silky), no-nonsense food and authentic atmosphere, and set out to find it. At first, I walked right past - it is quite literally a hole in the wall. But that adds to the magic of it. You slip behind a little stall and suddenly find yourself in this bustling old-fashioned café, surrounded by boxes of instant noodles and jars of Ovaltine. It's rather how I imagine Harry Potter felt when he discovered the Leaky Cauldron for the first time.

I can confirm the milk tea is indeed delicious - all cool and smooth and caramelly. I have also tried condensed milk toast, pork chop bun, and chicken chop instant noodles. It makes for a cheap breakfast; around NZ $5 for a tea and something yummy off the menu.

I was also very lucky to meet up with some lovely Kiwis from the Asia New Zealand Young Leaders Network who took me to Tim Ho Wan, which serves dim sum and is infamous for being one of the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. Once I realized where we were going I became so excited that I entered a kind of pre-emptive food coma, eyes glazed over, tongue hanging out, etc. We ordered almost everything on the menu and it was all so good - but the highlight was definitely the char siu bao (pork buns), which were baked and crispy on top and the perfect mix of savoury-sweet inside. I am actually considering going back by myself and just ordering endless plates of buns.

But first, I must tackle the snake soup.

Lan Fong Yuen - the entrance is that little opening on the left

Some of the tasty treats

Condensed milk toast and milk tea 

Pork chop bun 

Chicken chop instant noodles

Angela and I at Tim Ho Wan

Char siu bao - best pork buns in the world

We ordered almost everything on the menu

Wonton noodle soup - from a place called Mak's Noodles

Rosebud-like wonton... so good.

"Tokyo Cheapo" and Japan on the Cheap

It's getting closer to graduation, and everyone I know seems to be planning elaborate travel adventures to celebrate their post-university lives. The details are all over Facebook like a rash. Music festivals in Europe. Road trips across America. Backpacking around Asia. As I will most likely be spending the majority of my summer in pyjamas watching my box set of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, I hate you all. What I don't understand is, how are you meant to afford all of this jet setting? It took me a whole year of working as a minimum wage slave to save up enough for 5 months studying in Japan, combined with scholarships and student living costs. How are you supposed to fund travel that is purely self-indulgent?

As a result of my travel-envy, I recently came across an excellent website, Tokyo Cheapo, which claims to be 'dedicated to giving the best advice for making your yen go further when visiting or living in Tokyo.' The guides cover an almost endless range of topics for enjoying Japan's notoriously expensive capital on the cheap, from where to eat the best ramen to where to have the cheapest sex, if that's what you're, uh, into.

One article that blew my mind was How to Spend 3 Nights in Tokyo All Included on 10,000 yen, or just over 150 NZ dollars. The author gives a complete itinerary of where to stay, eat, go and even what souvenirs you can buy on a budget of just 3000 yen per day. Obviously, a traveler following this itinerary needs to be prepared to 'rough it' a bit for 3 nights - the author's accommodation of choice is a 24 hour manga cafe - but what a cool experience, right?! And sometimes you can pick up grabaseat flights from Auckland to Tokyo for around $800... so following the Tokyo Cheapo guide would mean experiencing a few nights in Japan for LESS than $1000. This is now on my travel must-do list.

Thinking back to my time in Osaka, almost everything we did was with a budget in mind. To save money on food, we spent a lot of time at the Lawson 100 yen store, buying things like onigiri (rice balls), cup noodles, and breads for lunches. When we ate out for dinner, we often went to meal-ticket restaurants like Matsuya and Sukiya, where you can get a decent-sized bowl of gyudon or curry rice for under 500 yen. Instead of going to bars, a lot of the time we'd all go to convenience stores to buy alcohol and drink it on campus, with someone's iPod standing in for karaoke (naughty, but undeniably cheap). As for activities, sometimes the most interesting days were spent just walking around random neighborhoods, for a grand total of the 300 yen it cost for the train trip. Also, window shopping in crazy shops and fancy department stores (recommended for those with a certain degree of self control).

Trying on lobster hats will cost you nothing but your dignity!

I think it's great how Tokyo Cheapo are showing that it's possible to fully experience Japan no matter what your budget is. And, as the saying goes, travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.

Umeda, Osaka

While Namba is Osaka's old South, Umeda is the new North. Whereas Namba is defined by its slightly wacky landmarks - a giant crab, the Glico running man - Umeda keeps it classy, with the imposing Umeda Sky Building and red Hep Five Ferris Wheel against the skyline acting as the area's main symbols. The district is home to the world's third busiest train station, JR Osaka/Umeda Station, and contains a lot of office buildings, hotels, and department stores. It is polished, posh and full of people who walk around with purpose.

Umeda cityscape

Hep Five Ferris Wheel

I never used to like Umeda as much as Namba. The layout of the station was completely overwhelming, and I always felt bored, surrounded by suits and serious faces. Department stores have never been my shopping style, and Hep Five shopping mall, while a haven for young Osakan fashionistas, was a bit too expensive for my budget - although sometimes I would go and splash out on imported lollies from the Plaza store in the mall.

HEP Five shopping mall

After months of walking somewhat aimlessly around Umeda, I now have a list of favourite shops and places that make it worth visiting. Childhood shopping fantasies come in the form of Kiddyland, located in the underground Hankyu San Bangai. This store is two levels of cute, with sections dedicated to Hello Kitty, Disney, Snoopy, and the Rilakkuma Bear. Small Japanese children toddle around carrying their own shopping baskets while mothers follow behind looking defeated. Next we have the world's biggest Pokemon Centre, which is rather strangely located in the swanky Daimaru department store. Go from Prada on one floor, to Pikachu on the next...

Geeks at the Pokemon Center

Behind Hep Five is Don Quijote, the crazy discount warehouse chain store that has everything you need and everything you really don't need but really want. Like a dancing monkey that you plug into your iPod. It also has the most impressive range of candy, snacks and alcohol I have ever seen in my life. For reasonably priced electronics, on the other side of Hankyu Umeda Station is Yodobashi Camera, which is like Akihabara all rolled up into one monstrous store. There are also some clothes shops on the upper floors, including a huge Uniqlo, and a floor of restaurants.

Yodobashi Camera, Umeda

Umeda may be a well-to-do destination by day, but by night, you'll be pleased to know, all sorts of interesting things creep out from the shadows. A thriving gay district pops up in Doyama-cho, behind Hep Five. The neon glare of love hotel lights reveal themselves after dark. 'Information' shops, 'costume' shops, girls dressed as cheerleaders asking you to visit their 'restaurant'... they're all here, hidden within a long, covered shopping arcade called 'Higashi Dori'. I have other reasons for visiting this street though. The actual restaurants. Conveyor belt sushi, Okinawan style cooking, and best of all, all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue for 1000 yen.

Sometimes you gotta go off your own beaten track, and onto somebody else's.

Higashi dori, the most interesting street in Umeda

Favourite Japan Foods: Tsukemen (Dipping Noodles)

As the weather becomes hotter, stickier and wetter in Japan during this season, there are some Japanese foods you lose your appetite for. In the stuffy heat, you don't really feel like eating hearty hot pots or spicy curry rice. Instead, you want something light, fresh and cool. The answer to your prayers is - believe it or not - is cold noodles. Oodles of cold noodles. More specifically, tsukemen つけ麺, or dipping noodles.

Noodles on one side, soup on the other.

Unlike ramen ラーメン, with tsukemen the noodles are served separate to the soup. The noodles are usually cold, and the soup is usually hot (although you can get hiyashi tsukemen 冷やしつけ麺, where the soup is cold too). At first, the thought of eating cold, limp noodles sounds kind of gross. But actually, it's the most delicious thing ever. They are springy and chewy and the coldness gives the flavour an extra zing! Eating them is super fun, you pick up some noodles in your chopsticks, dip them into the soup, the slurp them up. Finally, you have an excuse to play with your food! You do have to be careful not to burn your mouth, because even though the noodles are cool, they get surprisingly hot when dipped into the soup.

This cute little sign at a tsukemen shop warns you to blow on the noodles and eat them slowly!

There are all sorts of tsukemen soup types and flavours, I usually stick with a shoyu (soy sauce) broth, but you can get tangy vinegary ones, fishy ones, and sometimes even chicken, which is delicious - ultimate comfort food. If you're in Hiroshima, be sure to try Hiroshima style tsukemen, which is famous in Japan for its spiciness. The broth is full of red pepper and chili, and trust me, it will knock your socks off. You can order using a spice scale from 1-20!

Bright red, spicy Hiroshima tsukemen soup...

You can practically see the steam coming out of my ears.

We usually go to a ramen shop in Kandaimae (where we live) for tsukemen. This particular shop is run by two of the most badass looking Japanese men I've ever seen - I'm talking tattoos, piercings, muscles, facial hair. The first time we went I was terrified, thinking we had walked into some sort of ex-convict or yakuza joint. But it ended up being some of the best tsukemen I've ever had. Those guys are like noodle artists.

If you're a noodle fan, you should check out one of my favourite Japanese movies, Tampopo (Juzo Itami, 1985), a comedy about ramen (not so much tsukemen, sorry). It's hilarious, and will almost definitely make you hungry for noodles. Here's a YouTube clip from Tampopo, in which the 'ramen master' demonstrates the 'correct way' to eat noodles. I'm gonna try this next time...

Cooking in Japan

A reminder of what the kitchen looks like.

When your kitchen in your apartment has just one stove, one sink, no hot water, no plug, and next to no storage space, cooking is no joke. It takes zen-like patience and skill. It takes focus and precision, because if you get even slightly too vigorous in your actions, you will knock everything off the shelves. It takes creative thinking, like bringing your dirty dishes into the shower with you to wash them in hot water. It takes questionable hygiene practices, like chopping up your onions on the floor because you have no bench. Tears have been shed, tantrums have been had, and things have been broken... but in this post I would like to share a week's worth of recipes. Mainly just to prove to Mum that we actually have been cooking in Japan.

It should be noted that we do most of our food shopping at the Lawson 100 convenience store just up the road, where every ingredient can be bought for 100 yen (about $NZ1.60). They even sell a small variety of fresh fruit, veges and meat. This place is like a haven for a student budget. Also, interesting cultural difference - although in NZ families tend to do one big grocery shop per week, it's typical for Japanese people to go to supermarkets or convenience stores nearly every day, and just buy as much as they need for the next day or two. It's very rare to see a supermarket that even has big shopping trolleys. As a former checkout chick, this sort of thing interests me. Sorry. Anyway.

Things you can cook in Japan with limited money, appliances, space and skills: 

1. Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake)

Served with a smile.

Need: Okonomiyaki flour, 2 eggs, 3/4 cup water, chopped up cabbage, tenkasu (tempura bits), any kind of pre-cooked meat you like, soba noodles (optional). Okonomiyaki sauce and mayo for topping. How: Mix everything in a bowl to make batter. Pour batter on frypan to make pancakes. Flip. Serve with okonomiyaki sauce and mayo.

2. Nikujaga (Meat and Potatoes)
 Need: 200 g thinly sliced meat (pork or beef), chunks of onion and potatoes, 2 spoons each of sake, mirin, and sugar, 4 spoons of soy sauce, cup of water. How: Fry meat, add onion and potatoes. Add all other ingredients. Boil for about half an hour until potatoes are cooked and have soaked up broth.

3. Yakimeshi (Fried Rice)

Have rice cooker, can cook rice.

Need: Rice, rice cooker, soy sauce, egg, frozen veges, packet of chopped up mini 'wiener' sausages. How: Cook rice using rice cooker. Fry an egg on stove, cut up, put aside. Put cooked rice in frypan with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce. Fry the rice. Add frozen veges, sausages, and egg.

4. Yakisoba (Fried Noodles)

Need: Soba noodles, chopped up cabbage, little bit of meat (pork or beef), yakisoba sauce. How: Cook meat in frypan. Add noodles. Cover in yakisoba sauce. Add cabbage. Stirfry everything.

5. Curry Rice (Curry and, um, rice)

It is acceptable to use a spoon to eat this dish.

Need: Rice cooker, rice, beef, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onion, cup of water, instant curry roux. How: Put rice cooker on. Fry onions and meat. Add other vegetables. Pour in cup of water and boil until potatoes are soft. Add two of the curry blocks, and cook until desired thickness. Serve with rice. 

6. Gyudon (Beef Bowl)
Need: Rice cooker, rice, beef (despite the name, pork works too), onion, chopped up cabbage, yakiniku sauce. How: Put rice cooker on. Fry onions and meat. Squirt with yakiniku sauce. Stirfry with cabbage. Serve on top of rice.

7. Bacon Sandwich (The 'I Hate Cooking in Japan' Dish)
Need: Bacon, Bread. How: Fry bacon. Prepare bread. Place bacon on bread. Assemble.

Tsuruhashi, Osaka's Korea Town

Something I find interesting about Osaka is the variety of people who live here. Osaka is home to Japan's largest Korean population, with the highest concentration living in Ikuno ward. This area, in particular that surrounding Tsuruhashi station, has become a Korea Town in its own right. Located under the train tracks, and consisting of a maze of mysterious tunnels and narrow alleyways, Tsuruhashi is the cultural experience that you wouldn't expect to have in Japan.

An entrance to the Tsuruhashi cavern of Korean goods.

Koreans in Japan have a troubled and complex past. Known as zainichi, meaning 'to reside in Japan', the roots of Korean migration can be traced to Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910. From this time onwards, many Koreans came to Japan, working in manual labour jobs such as coal mining and construction. During World War II, Koreans in their millions were forced to migrate to Japan, to serve as slaves, soldiers, and 'comfort women' for the Japanese Empire. While most repatriated after the war, a sizeable Korean population remained in Japan.

Koreans in Japan - even families who have lived here for generations - have been faced with a kind of contradictory discrimination regarding their ethnic status. On the one hand, the Japanese government has tried to assimilate Koreans into Japanese society, by encouraging to take Japanese names, making them pay taxes, and forcing them to speak Japanese. On the other hand, it has been ensured that Koreans will never become fully integrated into Japanese society. Until recently, zainichi Koreans, including those born in Japan, were required to provide fingerprints and carry an Alien Registration card, like any other foreigner.

Korea Towns such as Tsuruhashi are important, as they represent a place where Korean culture - which, like it or not, is undeniably a part of Japan's history and larger culture - can be unabashedly displayed and celebrated. Though you may be surprised at how relatively un-Korean looking and sounding Tsuruhashi is. Almost all of the shop names are in Japanese, and shopkeepers will speak to you in perfect Kansai-ben. Japan is, after, their home.

A rare glimpse of Hangul, Korean script

Cross cultural... kimchi stored in Kirin refrigerator

Assortment of spicy Korean ingredients

Tsuruhashi is dark, dank, and some of the food safety practices are questionable. Raw fish, meat and kimchi all sit out on display in the open air. Old Korean women haggle in loud voices, while old men shuffle past, coughing raggedly.  It's the kind of place where you'll find three legged cats limping down the alleyways, hunting mice and food scraps. Surrounding houses look as though they could collapse at any moment. Yet there are moments of beauty. Shops selling brightly coloured Korean fabric and hanbok (kimono). Little bowing dolls in traditional Korean dress.

Dark, covered arcade of Tsuruhashi

Abandoned (?) house just outside the shopping area

Beautiful Hanbok (traditional Korean dress) store.

Piles of fabric everywhere.

Bowing dolls.

Despite above-mentioned questionable food safety practices, Tsuruhashi has become somewhat of a foodie destination. There are all sorts of interesting vendors selling bulbous, bobbly-looking red-hot snacks that I can't remember any of the names of. But the main attractions are the many delicious yakiniku (barbecued beef) restaurants, derived from the Korean bulgogi dish. We found a picture of a cow that detailed all the different parts of the animal that could be barbecued and consumed. No vegetarians allowed.

Got meat?

Instead of yakiniku, however, we decided to have Korean noodles - jajanmen, coated in a sweet, thick, glossy, meaty, black soybean sauce. The noodles are so long that sometimes you need to ask for scissors to cut them so you can eat the dish properly!

Chowing down.

The longest noodles you will ever eat.

Tsuruhashi was another eye-opening Osaka experience for me, and the area has established itself as a unique kind of tourist attraction. The awareness that this brings to the plight of Koreans in Japan is necessary - because even today, a new source of discrimination against Koreans is brewing. This time it stems from television screens - with some right wing Japanese arguing that there are too many Korean dramas being broadcast on Japanese TV. I think I actually saw one of these protests outside the Korean consulate in Shinsaibashi a couple of months ago... it's scary stuff.

Links:
New York Times article
Japan Focus article
SPICE paper - 'Koreans in Japan'
Japan Times Blog on Korean Boom

Nomihoudai and Tabehoudai - All-You-Can-Eat and Drink

Sometimes I think of Japan as one big playground, full of weird and wonderful 'only in Japan' activities. The kinds of too-good-to-be-true things that make you exclaim, 'man, I never wanna go home!'

Like many foreigners before me, I have discovered the joys of Japan's nomihoudai and tabehoudai culture - bars and restaurants that offer 'all-you-can-drink' and 'all-you-can-eat' for a cheap price. And when I say cheap, I mean $15 for two hours of unlimited eating/drinking. My favourite economic analysis of this system is from Ryan at Ryman in Japan: "It's like I'm making money!"

"You're practically making money!"

How can these places afford to do this? Well, I have observed a few common factors during my experiences of nomihoudai/tabehoudai. If you order cocktails during nomihoudai, you will probably find they don't tend to put as much booze in as they normally would. Also, if you're with a large group, sometimes they take a while to bring the drinks out. You're on a time limit, so the amount of drinks you can consume is dependent on the speed in which the waiter/waitress can bring them out.  With tabehoudai, it seems that most of the places serve Italian food - pasta and pizza. This kind of food is high in carbohydrates so you get full quicker!

I think there's something about Japanese culture that makes nomihoudai and tabehoudai work, too. I don't want to generalise, but most Japanese people are so polite and trustworthy that they don't treat it so much as a binge-drinking/pig-out sesh as, perhaps, we do. I've read that some places in Tokyo have an unofficial 'no foreigners' policy, because of bad experiences with people taking advantage of the system and going absolutely bananas. Which I can relate to. At our first tabehoudai, we acted like starving Ethiopian children tasting food for the first time. 7 pizzas and 4 pastas later...

If you're in Japan and want to give nomihoudai and tabehoudai a go, look for this kanji: 飲み放題 (nomihoudai - all you can drink)、食べ放題 (tabehoudai - all you can eat). Some places even have both, at the same time! For food, I recommend 'Shakey's' (Pizza and pasta, found pretty much everywhere in Japan), and 'Sweets Paradise' (all-you-can-eat sweets, but with some pasta dishes too).

Natsukashii Hiroshima

A Japanese word I love is 懐かしい (natsukashii). It roughly translates in English to 'nostalgic', but not many people use the word 'nostalgic' that often. Japanese people use 'natsukashii' all the time. Perhaps it's a cultural thing - in the western world, we like to focus on our futures, without really taking the time to consider our pasts. In contrast, Japanese society is strongly grounded in history and tradition. I think there's more of a tendency to contemplate what once was, and what now is. But anyway. That's enough philosophy for now...

I was 16 when I came to Japan for the first time, spending the winter living with a home stay family and studying at a high school in Hiroshima. It was an interesting experience - it wasn't easy. But for the past 4 years since then, Hiroshima has been on my mind. When I found out I'd been accepted into Kansai University, I knew I had to go back. And this weekend, I did.

Genbaku Dome, Winter, 2008

Genbaku Dome, Spring, 2012

The first thing we did when we arrived in Hiroshima on Thursday night was to hop on one of the city's quaint little streetcars and head to Okonomimura (Okonomiyaki village), parallel to Hondori. If you live in Osaka, you might be under the impression that you've already sampled the best okonomiyaki that Japan has to offer - at least, that's what the Osakans will have you believe. But I reckon Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is the superior of the two. The main difference between the regions is that all the ingredients are mixed together in the batter in Osaka style, whereas Hiroshima style is carefully compiled in layers, with a high concentration of cabbage and the addition of soba or udon noodles.

Hiroshima-yaki. Melt-in-your-mouth noodles smothered in tangy Hiroshima-brand okonomiyaki sauce.

There are loads of places where you can eat okonomiyaki in Hiroshima, but Okonomimura has to be seen to be believed. It consists of a few multi-storeyed buildings in which every single floor contains nothing but okonomiyaki restaurants, squeezed in beside each other. Chefs prepare the dish on long hot benches right in front of the customers, which is exquisite to watch. We went in the middle of Golden Week, so there were lines spilling out of the buildings. But the wait was worth it. Actually, I'm not even ashamed to admit that we dined there twice in one weekend.

Entrance to Okonomimura

Lines of hungry people waiting to feast on Hiroshima's famous fare

I know it's horribly cliche, but no trip to Hiroshima would be complete without visiting the Peace Park. I had to see the Genbaku Dome right away to confirm that I was really, truly in Hiroshima again. I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I saw it. From Hondori station there's this sense of anticipation - the signs say 'Genbaku Dome this exit', and you prepare yourself to see what you've already seen so many times in pictures and history books. But it's so different in real life. It's tangible, three dimensional, and hauntingly hollow. A true piece of history.

Genbaku Dome lit up at night.

We were fortunate enough to catch glimpses of Hiroshima's annual Flower Festival, held in the Peace Park during Golden Week. For such a poignant place, it had a fresh, spring-like, celebratory atmosphere. I bought a toffee apple and enjoyed it sitting on the riverbank, beneath the Dome.

Floating flowers

I love the bright colours of the origami peace cranes

View from the top of the Peace Park Memorial Museum - decorative peace cranes on the lawn

On Saturday, like true Japanese Golden Week tourists, we decided to go to Miyajima. Unfortunately, all those other Japanese Golden Week tourists had the same idea. Even more unfortunately, the island's crowning glory - the big red floating torii gate - was covered up in scaffolding, having been damaged in a recent storm. Such disappointment.

Not quite the World Heritage Site I remember...

But everyone knows the main reason to go to Miyajima is to play with the wild deer, anyway. Oh, and to eat the Momiji Manju cakes. Chocolate and cream filling are my favourite.

Me playing with a Miyajima deer 4 years ago! Why did I think acid wash skinny jeans were a good fashion choice?!

... And now!

Miyajima 5 storey pagoda. Also big, beautiful and red (suck on that, floating shrine).

After visiting old friends, my old school, familiar neighbourhoods, and using familiar transport (hello Astram line), Golden Week came to an end, and it was time to take the night bus back to Osaka. Revisiting Hiroshima was a very 'natsukashii' experience. As we pulled into Umeda at 5am this morning, and watched the sun rise up through the Sky Building, I thought to myself, Osaka is my new home in Japan. But Hiroshima will always have my heart. I can't wait to go back again.