Tokyo Food Adventure #1: UDON

After bidding my farewells to New York and spending a food and alcohol ridden week in Taipei, I decided to take a break from the madness and book a ticket to Tokyo. Realistically though, if it hadn't been for a friend who conveniently was going on a business trip and had a hotel room that was a 5 minute walk from Shinjuku Station in the heart of Tokyo, I probably wouldn't have booked a ticket and left the next day. Fortunately for me, I had a justification for this trip because it'd be like giving up a free ticket if I didn't hop on the plane.

While booking my ticket, it was decided that I would make this a food adventure in Tokyo that would not be easily forgotten. I would go on a hunt for all the things that Japan is most well known for: sushi, ramen, udon, and beef, amongst other things that I happened to come across. I must admit, having planned to arrive Sunday night and leaving Thursday morning meant not much time for more food than I could fit into my stomach.

Monday Morning
Having had a rough week in Taipei and still trying to recover from jet lag, I opted out of going to the Tsukiji Fish Market my 1st day there. I slept in a little and got some good r&r, the woke up to my stomach growling at me calling out for food. I threw on some clothes and set out on a hunt for my 1st meal in Tokyo. Well, here I'll admit, the previous night after landing, we had already ventured out for some food, and I had scarfed down an amazing bowl of ramen in no time. So, on the search for food, I decided to head to the same area (5 minute walk from the hotel), in search of some authentic Japanese food.

When arriving at the Shinjuku Station, if you walk out and hang a right, walk approximately 5 minutes, cross a major intersection and turn into the 1st small back street, you will find yourself in a couple blocks filled with restaurants with very few foreigners. This is exactly what I was looking for. These were my only 2 requirements: no sushi (that must be saved for the Tsukiji Market), and a place with few or no foreigners (I was looking for something authentic. Simple enough you might say, there's plenty of options aside from sushi in an area with few foreigners. Only trouble with that was, ALL the signs and menus were in Japanese! I had no idea as to what the restaurant was selling, and how I would order anything unless there were big vibrant photographs of the menu outside.

After wandering aimlessly for an hour and not understanding a word on the menus, I finally decided to walk into a tiny noodle shop. Luckily my limited knowledge of chinese came into good use, because some Japanese characters are the same as Chinese characters. Although, I still didn't know what kind of noodle shop it was. For all I knew, it could have been a ramen, soba, or udon shop. I decided to take my chances.



Walking in, it was a cute little shop with a noodle bar and tables, all locals no foreigners. Bingo, I landed in my authentic affair that I was in search for.




Since I was there on my own, I was quickly directed to the noodle bar which was seated by mainly Japanese men in black suits on their lunch breaks.



I asked the waitress hoping that they would have an English menu. Lucky for me they did! According to the menu, small, medium and large bowls of Udon were all the same price. 700yen for either 200, 300, or 400 grams of udon noodles, and a bowl of dipping sauce on the side. But as with any good noodle place in Japan, I had to order the perfectly soft boiled egg with the creamy center! Along with that was some pork "cha sui" and bamboo. All that for an extra 300yen. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself! Soon enough, I had more food then I could imagine sitting in front of me.



As I was waiting for my noodles, I carefully watched those around me eating their bowls of udon as it wasn't the typical bowl of udon that we're used to in North America. Instead of a bowl of udon in soup, I was served a bowl of unseasoned, dry udon. As I watched the man next to me, I figured out the Japanese way of eating udon. A bowl of sauce on the side is used for dipping your udon in. So this is how it was done.



After making my way through 1/2 a bowl of udon, I had to admit defeat. There was way too much noodle, pork, bamboo and egg to fit into my stomach. What I didn't know was at the bottom of the bowl of sauce, also sat a good amount of pork and bamboo. I could barely move at this point.



As I sat there attempting to digest this large amount of food, I started to wonder what the second pitcher contained in front of me. I knew one was filled with water, and then other... tea?



I watched as other people finished up their meal and realized what the second pitcher was for.



The second pitcher is filled with hot water for you to make your own soup after finishing your udon with the left over dipping sauce. PERFECT, especially on a cold winter day.

After my bowl of soup, my tummy was filled and I was ready to go for a nice long walk in attempts to digest all this food. All this yummy goodness only added up to 1000yen (approximately $10CAD). Worth every penny of it I must admit! This meal left me craving another bowl of udon for the rest of my trip!