Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan
Every day, stuff you'd never see anywhere else.
The owners of an eatery just outside the Yokosuka Naval Base wanted to be prepared in case the US election changed their Trump Burger* from today’s special to yesterday’s leftovers, … Continue Reading Biden Burger’s secret ingredient eerily predicts election outcome
• Hello, fellow lover of all things quirky and Japanese! Would you like a chance to win a copy of a new Japan-centric book every month? That’s one of the … Continue Reading Japanagram Book Review & Giveaway!
From the land that junk food shame forgot, this. A yakisoba sandwich is basically the Japanese equivalent of cold pizza for breakfast, on a bun. This is what frugal Japanese … Continue Reading One Fried Noodle Sandwich, Please
I was in Kamakura today, happily waiting for the arrival of my sesame soba and a mountain of crispy burdock root… …when they delivered my beer along with the usual unwanted … Continue Reading Nemesis, Thy Name Is Squid Guts
Despite the fact that this new snack is called “Addictive Intestines,” I’m afraid you won’t find me bingeing a bucket ‘o crispy innards while Netflixing my way through a Saturday … Continue Reading Crispy Intestine Snacks
This yogurt-banana mash-up surfs in on the enduring popularity of the local favorite soft drink, Calpis, which inexplicably established sweetened sour milk as a delightful flavor in Japan. Peach Coke … Continue Reading Soft Drink Flavors I Do Not Want To Try
If you’re looking for a country with absolutely zero junk food guilt, you found it. Behold the bagel sandwiches available at this shop I spotted while walking through Azabu Juban … Continue Reading Spot The Elvis
I can’t say I’ve ever had a massive craving for an ice cream sundae that resembles a pile of spaghetti with meat sauce, but at least this isn’t ACTUAL spaghetti-flavored … Continue Reading Spaghetti Ice Cream
Somehow, charcoal-flavored cocoa is a vice I’ve managed to avoid acquiring until now, and I feel it’s in my best interests to keep it that way…. • When not avoiding … Continue Reading November Can’t Come Too Soon
Hanging out waiting for a train this spring, my intrepid fellow adventurer and I spotted THIS in a vending machine! Of all the unlikely tastes to come in a can, … Continue Reading Cream Puffs You Can…Drink
The sticky rice balls I can handle. I could even get into the slightly gelatinous, traditional mitarashi topping that gets its brown from, uh, soy sauce. But I draw the line at nori. … Continue Reading Please Tell Me That’s Not Seaweed On My Ice Cream
Rose. Flavored. Yogurt. Let’s all agree that this one ought to have remained a fantasy. • If you love a good read, you might enjoy The Last Tea Bowl Thief too “A … Continue Reading Beautifully Beastly
See, this is where tolerance will get you. Let them get away with putting ginger pickles and fish shavings on pizza, say nothing when your spaghetti comes topped with sea urchin … Continue Reading The Slippery Slope, Illustrated
It never fails – every time the big cherry things burst into bloom, I see foods that totally make me want to shout “What the pinkity pink?” I’m not talking about food that … Continue Reading Pink Food Season Arrives In All Its WTF Splendor
Is it just me, or does this omelet kind of look like it was on the losing side at the Battle of Sekigahara? • Read a novel set in Tokyo…
Okay, as you know, I’ve long been fascinated with Japanese menu depictions of hot dogs, because they can’t seem to resist making them look a little, er, over-eager. But don’t you … Continue Reading Japanese Food Styling Gone Wrong
Okay,I totally get that some days it’s hard to choose between a bucket of french fries and a bathtub of ice cream. I even understand that some days you just say … Continue Reading Twice The Guilt & Half The Pleasure
In case a shot of caffeine isn’t quite enough to get you going in the morning… (If you’re braver than I am, you can find it this month at your … Continue Reading Pink Pepper Milk Coffee
Aieeee, it’s true! McDonald’s is selling chocolate covered french fries in Tokyo! These are so clearly a frontrunner for the All Flavors Of Nope Award, I feel I must selflessly step up and take one … Continue Reading In Which We Try Those Wicked-Looking Chocolate Covered French Fries
But no, I couldn’t bring myself to order it. Because a) civet poop coffee was enough excitement for one week and b) don’t you think there’s a reason that oysters + seaweed + … Continue Reading Not Your Nonna’s Spaghetti
The kopi luwat civet poops coffee. Or, to be more precise, it climbs to the top of coffee trees, eats the ripest beans, digests the fruity bits around the seed and, … Continue Reading How About A Nice Cup Of Civet Poop Coffee?
This time of year, if it’s sweet and purple, it tastes like…WAT? Yes, sweet potato candy (and muffins and ice cream) is a THING, and anything that’s purple in … Continue Reading What’s Purple And Squishy And Tastes Like Thanksgiving?
Aieee, what is this, AUSTRALIA? I mean, what if you got up in the morning and snagged your bread from the toaster before you’d had your coffee and when you went to take … Continue Reading Eat ALL The Bugs
…where exactly did Mos Burger find a chicken part that looks like THIS? • If you can’t be eating weird Japanese chicken nuggets, you can always read a novel set in Tokyo … Continue Reading Not An Expert On Chicken Anatomy, But…
Yes, it’s a heart-shaped patty of raw meat. Because what could be more romantic? (Thanks to my friend Mad Caron of Clumsy Dandy fame for spotting this, er, treat.) • … Continue Reading The Hamburger Of Luv
I think I’d describe this as: all flavors of NO. • “Without question, the best book I have read all year.” —Susan Spann, author of the Hiro Hattori mysteries and … Continue Reading Popcorn Latte
Never thought I’d be using the words “squeee!” and “fishcake” in the same sentence, but…! • Read a novel set in Tokyo
Mixed Message Food Mash-up Of The Year! Donuts made with tofu! In the interest of science, I felt it was imperative I step up to answer the burning question: does the healthy tofu part … Continue Reading Tofu X Donut
Every once in a while you see a food mash-up that nearly sends you into insulin shock just by looking at it. I admit I say yes to sugar about 99% of the … Continue Reading Doughnuts With Ice Cream And Popcorn On Top
Deep in the labyrinthine dungeons of Tokyo Station lies Tokyo Confectionary Land, where they fry up potato chips before your very eyes! Even if they stopped there, it would have … Continue Reading Freshly Fried Potato Chip Sundae
Yes, it’s Honey Caffé Latte with…PARSLEY. • Read a novel set in Tokyo…
Aieeeee, when I saw this on the menu at Krispy Kreme, I knew I’d have to strap on my Try Anything Once Cojones and take one for the team! So … Continue Reading Spicy Tomato Filled Doughnuts?
Okay, buckaroos, it’s time to play Guess That Flavor with these cones of soft-serve goodness I spotted recently in Asakusa! Our first contestants are the lovely blue ice cream on the left, and … Continue Reading Chocolate, Strawberry and…Bean Powder?
Okay, first of all: Yes, I have, and no, it was awful. (Whale is not a taste I plan to acquire anytime soon – or even in this lifetime – even if tortured with … Continue Reading How To Eat A Whale
Brewskie on a bun! At first glance, this latest candidate for Strange Sandwiches Of Japan promises to deliver the punch of a nice cold one, but on closer examination, there’s … Continue Reading Beer Sandwich
It’s summertime, and that means the cool, refreshing beer you just ordered might arrive in a teapot, accompanied by crisp cucumbers, a dollop of mayo to dip them in and…fish guts. … Continue Reading Pass The Fish Guts And The Teapot Of Beer, Please
It’s eleven o’clock – do you know where your kitteh is? Unsupervised cats-about-town head for Roppongi Station, where they can load up on CATNIP TEA from this handy partytime vending machine. They don’t … Continue Reading One-Stop Partytime Shopping…For Cats
What is Lotteria thinking? Seriously, how could you even bite that thing? I’m not talking about the triple-decker beef-o-rama – I’m eyeing that fried shrimp tower-o-power with the shovelful of tartar sauce just … Continue Reading I’ll See Your Triple Burger And Raise You A Shrimp Puck
From the land of snacks with tentacles and fish bone crackers comes the latest healthy food disguised as a snack: carrot and tomato ice cream! Haagen-Dazs Japan hit the subways with a “secret” poster … Continue Reading Haagen-Dazs Veggie Ice Cream?!
Coffee + Milk + BLUE CURACAO? With a LIME on top? I’m still gathering the courage to try the latest entry in this season’s unlikely flavor-combo coffee drinks of Tokyo – partly … Continue Reading Blue Cafe Latte
In the next round of trade talks with Japan, go ahead and give away the store when it comes to cars, beef and rice, but we need to make one thing … Continue Reading Cinnamon Roll Blasphemy
Just because weiners aren’t round and cuddly doesn’t mean they can’t have Hello Kitty Faces too. • Read a novel set in Tokyo
You know when you were a kid, and you made the Nobel-prize-winning discovery that if you dumped chocolate syrup into your milk, it turned into chocolate milk? And then you tried it with … Continue Reading Green Brownie Sludge Frappucino
Around cherry blossom season in Japan, the shelves suddenly fill with “sakura”-flavored food. But what does cherry blossom-flavored food actually taste like? I investigate. *Edited, thanks to Little Alex, whose comment … Continue Reading So, What DO Cherry Blossoms Taste Like?
Naturally, it being the Pink Season, all things must be as one with the almighty sakura. Including…ice cream. And what does this marvel of food engineering taste like? Hmm, good … Continue Reading Cherry Blossom Flavored Ice Cream
In case you were wondering if there is such a thing as too much information, take a look-see at this handy chart I spotted recently, hanging outside a “Don’t Waste … Continue Reading Wait, Seriously, You Can Eat That?!
What are those little wiggly-looking lumps on top of that monster pancake? I wondered, perusing the specials menu at Hoshino Coffee, home of Godzilla-sized flapjacks. “Crema Catalan & Anglaise Sauce” … Continue Reading More Extreme Pancakes
Lines stretch around the block at every KFC in Tokyo on Christmas Eve, as household minions are dispatched to pick up the traditional holiday fare, but this year they have a … Continue Reading Traditional KFC Christmas Dinner, Now With Seaweed!
Luscious strawberries…succulent peaches…flaky pastry…fresh whipped cream…all topped off with…PARSLEY. Yes, the fluffy little herb that rocked the 1950s sits inexplicably atop this otherwise tasty-looking fruit tart, and the strangest thing … Continue Reading What’s Wrong With These Desserts…?
In the land where “anything in a tortilla is a taco” and “anything on a crust is a pizza,” why am I not surprised that there’s a cafe playing fast … Continue Reading Dessert Sandwich!
