Japan, a country where I lived most of the time on instant noodles. Instant noodles will be definetly not something I will sum up here as the best thing to eat. Yes Japan is expensive, so as a budget traveller instant noodles are a good outcome. However Japan is also one of the places with most wonderful food you can imagine.
Sushi
You can’t go to Japan without eating sushi. The best place to have sushi is probably at the fish market. However if you aren’t able to visit this place, there are loads of good sushi restaurants. Believe me the sushi in Japan isn’t such as the cheap sushi in other countries. This is totally different, with fresh fish and amazing combinations. For the budget traveller, by accident I discovered a place in Tokyo where they sold during lunch time their sushi 2 for 1. So maybe this is more common.
Takoyaki
A delicious ball. Normally it is a wheat flour-based battered ball filled with minced octopus. I tried it by accident on a market in Kyoto but you can find it everywhere. One advice, wait a bit before you start to eat those balls. Those balls are really hot inside when they just came out of the oil.
Chicken Katsu Curry
This doesn’t maybe sounds too exciting. However that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. In fact this dish is wonderful. If you have some amazing curry and some good chicken you will have a quite cheap wonderful meal. I discovered Joto Curry in Osaka. The curry was so great that I had most of my dinners in Osaka at this place.
Tempura
Tempura is a dish of seafood or vegetables that are deep-fried. To be honest, it isn’t that easy to find a good tempura place. The crispy buttered layer in combination with the right filling is difficult to find. But I must admit I didn’t try the Tempura-ya places. These are high-class restaurants and way beyond my budget. As a budget traveller you can still try tempura at more casual restaurants such as izakaya, family restaurants, shokudo, and udon and soba restaurants. Prices here can be even as much as 10% for what you would pay at a Tempura-ya place.
Ramen
Last but not least ramen. Ramen is getting more and more popular all over the world. And with a good reason. These Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat or fish based-broth is delicious. Most of the time it is flavoured with miso or soy sauce and you can add several toppings such as pork, dried seaweed and green onions. Unfortunately I can’t remember a good place in my Japan trip, but there are some good places in London as well to eat ramen, such as: Shoryu and Tatami Ramen.
