Tiffy in Nagoya: Unagi Hasshou うなぎ八勝

Tiffy in Nagoya: Unagi Hasshou うなぎ八勝

There's so much I haven't written yet (Nigeria, more of Korea, yadiyadiya) but I just want to share my favorite local food in Nagoya: hitsumabushi ひつまぶし

今までまだブログしていないことが沢山あるけど（ナイジェリア、韓国の旅行など）、一番好きな名古屋名物のひつまぶしを紹介したいと思います。

tororo hitsumabushi ・とろろひつまぶし・ PHP 1414・ JPY 3200 

It's basically fried eel. Fried so that it's just the right amount of crunchy. I wasn't able to take a picture of the whole tray because it was HUGE but it comes with broth and some seasonings (wasabi, seaweed, spring onions). I ordered the one that comes with tororo (for an extra 400 yen) because I love the taste and texture of sticky gooey yam.

I didn't know how to eat it at first so I just watched my boyfriend eating it first. It's really up to you how you want to eat it but if you want to maximize the whole experience, here's my guide to eating hitsumabushi:

1. Use the smaller bowl (not shown in the photo) and put a portion of unagi and rice from the bigger bowl. Eat it as it is to have a taste of the original flavor
2. Get another portion and put in whatever seasonings you want in. On my next serving, I put in some seaweed, lots of wasabi and poured in some of the broth
3. My third portion had me mixing the tororo in (sooooo good and sooooo healthy!)
4. Go crazy

Whenever I'm in Nagoya I go to Unagi Hasshou because it just serves great quality eel that I don't mind how expensive it is.

Photo from a random guy from the interwebz: anton

うなぎ 八勝（はっしょう）
名古屋市守山区上志段味東谷２１０９－１４６
０５２－７３６－４８７５

Tiffy in Japan: A Christmas Nonholiday

A Christmas Nonholiday
December 25, 2009
Tiffy in Japan

Merry Christmas everyone! I'd love to say the same for me but as you can see, it's a nonholiday for me. Christmas is not a holiday in Japan. If anything--it's a day for couples to go out and have a date. Yes, it's a date day.

So what did I do this Christmas? Well, work, of course!

Work means part-timing at a conveyor-belt-type sushi restaurant at Nagoya Station (name intentionally not mentioned). To this day, I still have no idea how the manager agreed to let me work here, but I am so not complaining because...

I get to take home sushi.

It's not the usual  ¥100-per-plate sushi restaurant. This one had different colored plates that had different prices. It ranges from \150 to \1000 per plate! Woah, right? The sushi is better than that of cheaper places, of course! 

And so even though I didn't get to celebrate Christmas, being able to take home this much sushi (for free) is so worth it. 

They don't usually let us take home the leftover sushi (company policy, ya know)--they throw out the leftover sushi. I think that it's the same for most restaurants. It's to stop employees from intentionally making a lot to be able to take it home. And trust me--we do throw the sushi out. It makes my heart hurt just thinking about all the sushi that just goes to waste (or goes to the rats tummies).

New Year is a holiday although I have work on New Year's Eve. 

See you then! 

Tiffy in Japan | きし麺

Tiffy's Stay in Japan
桜や | Sakura-ya

Restaurant in Kanayama

Last month, right after classes ended, I started my internship with Nagoya Congress Center. The second to the last day of internship, I was assigned at the information center at Kanayama Station. And my boss treated me to lunch.

Since I haven't eaten きし麺 (kishimen) before, she told me to try it. Kishimen is a long flat noodle that is native to Nagoya.

Kishimen isn't really about the flavor more that it's about the noodles :P

Tiffy in Japan | The Tower Restaurant Nagoya

Tiffy's Stay in Japan
The Tower Restaurant Nagoya

Sakae TV Tower

Earlier that day, I went to Seto with Kenji and his family (I teach him and his wife and son English) to this glassblowing studio to make our own masterpieces. Sadly enough, on my first try, the guy had to throw away the glass and we had to redo it because I didn't blow into the pole right.

It's really not as easy as it looks. Or maybe that's just me! Plus, that place was soooo hot. It was around 50 degrees in there. But I can't really complain since I love the glass cup that I half-made (I say half cause the guy who was guiding me through it practically did most of the glass-making). So you can say that I now own a glass cup that I made by myself -- a glass that cost Kenji ¥3,200.

After the glassblowing experience, we went to Sakae to have lunch since I had job interview at Oasis 21. I thought that we were going to eat at a place where they sell rice bowls since Yuuka, their daughter, wanted a udon. But no... We went to The Tower Restaurant Nagoya to have lunch.

I wanted to order the pasta set, which costs ¥1,800. But Kenji insisted that I order the lunch set, which costs ¥3,000. I insisted on getting the pasta but then he ordered so I wasn't able to get a word in. I really did want pasta, though :c It wasn't about the price, but oh well!

I'd tell you what's on the menu but it's in Japanese and I was barely able to read the English translations (fancy food terms escape me, I fail) so bear with me D:

This entrée had a sweet-sour taste to it. I especially liked the octopus. It was yummy.

The next entrée had fish sashimi on top of cucumbers surrounded by puréed pickles.

The soup? Mais con yelo, anyone? It was cold, too!

Medium rare pork -- just the way I like it.

And let me just say -- peach is my favorite fruit now.

I wasn't able to see the the Tower Restaurant at night but I was able to find a picture online.

Nagoya: Sunday Cooking

Tiffy's Stay in Japan
Seminar House
In-house Dormitory in Nagoya Gakuin University
Sunday Cooking


I don't know if I've already mentioned that I get free breakfasts and dinners here at the dormitory in Akaike. It sort of makes up for the fact that it's an hour from school if I ride the subway, plus the fact that it costs 40,000 yen a month (excluding electricity).

On Sundays, however, they don't serve any food -- Sundays being a sort of rest day and all.

So I did what any sane person would do. That is, ask my friends if I can chip in for dinner (that they're going to cook). If you've been my friend long enough, you'll know that I have no talent in cooking. People have been known to tell me to keep clear of the kitchen. I know they're exaggerating, but it really doesn't help my self-esteem. Boo hoo.

I asked Brandon if I can chip in for food -- and he said yes! Now I've tasted Brandon's cooking before. And let me tell you: IT IS GOOD.

Say hi to Brandon!

So then since everyone was going to cook their own food, everyone just brought their hot plates and food to the lounge at the Seminar House (the in-house dormitory; don't ask me why it's called that)!

It was like a mini-party!

Brandon even let me bread the chicken!

And you know what I find weird? They throw out the chicken skin! :c And it's my favorite part! They know that by now, so they didn't throw it out this time! Hee. Yay me. My arteries are SOOOOO going to be blocked by the time I'm 50, but who cares?

いただきます！

Tiffy in Japan | Sushiro

Tiffy's Stay in Japan
Sushiro
Somewhere near Nagoya Gakuin University

A bike ride away

I don't really know the name of the places around here. And neither do my friends. Most of the time, they ride the bicycle to places around the school. I didn't bother buying a bicycle because I just live an hour away from school by subway. It's been really troublesome, trust me. And home has an atmosphere that's too serious for me. I think that's a big reason why I'm so sleepy when I'm there.

A couple of weeks ago, Sushiro had a sort of promo where all their sushi costs 90 yen. (Originally, a dish would cost 110 yen.) You know what that means, right?

Eating time!

Sushiro had tables and conveyor belts beside the table. If you want something, you just get it off the conveyor belt. White plates have sushi without wasabi in them. If you want wasabi in your sushi, better get the yellow plates. It wasn't enough for me, so I put more wasabi -- YUM.

If something you want isn't on the conveyor belt, you press a little button and order what you want. Your order will then come in these elevated plates that indicate the assigned color of the table that made the order:

We also got to make our own tea. LOL. Powder and add water. Careful though -- the faucet is pretty hot. Trust me, I learned the hard way.

And my dessert? Yoghurt mango parfait! Although, if you ask me, the mango isn't sweet enough! I think I got used to the mangoes in the Philippines!

Eating with friends is what makes it all worth the trip! ♥

Tiffy in Japan | Yoshinoya

Tiffy's Stay in Japan
Yoshinoya
Somewhere near Hibino station of the Meijo line in Nagoya

Sometime last week, I ventured out near Hibino station to a SoftBank store so I can cancel the services that I don't need from my mobile phone plan. While I was talking with the woman in the store, my friends showed up -- they were planning to buy prepaid phones which, unfortunately, that branch ran out of.

We were all hungry so we went to Yoshinoya, which a Japanese friend pointed out to them beforehand.

豚丼

Frankly, I haven't tried the Yoshinoya in the Philippines but I think that it would be about the same except that the food quality here is better -- I love their rice, that's for sure.

Jetsetting Foodistas | Nagoya: Food and Experiences

Tiffy's Stay in Japan
Jetsetting Foodistas: A Travelogue by Tiffy
Getting used to the culture: Food and experiences


As most of you probably know, I have been in Japan for more than a couple of weeks now. And the one thing that I'm loving so far is the sheer amount of food. It's everywhere. I'm not even exaggerating! Most of their local channels (or those that I've surfed so far) show different kinds of food or Japanese people eating food.

Their convenience stores (コンビニ) have whole shelves dedicated to cooked food (and onigiri ♥). The school I'm currently attending, Nagoya Gakuin University (名古屋学院大学), even has a small convenient store inside, and two cafeterias -- one on the first floor, and another one on the second floor.
You know how Japan is crazy about their vending machines, right? Well, my school isn't any different! On the first floor, there are about five vending machines that sell drinks. Two vending machines, on the other hand, sell food. Oh! The food doesn't come out of the machines, of course. It will give you a ticket that you give to the guys inside the cafeteria, and they will give you your food!

Food is yummy -- prices ranging from 200+ yen to around 400+ yen (in our cafeteria, anyway) :>
And if there's anything that I'm glad I didn't miss out on so far, it's 花見 (hanami), or flower viewing, which happened around two weeks ago. The Japanese love to have picnics when the Sakura flowers are in full bloom.
Steffi, one of the other exchange students studying in my school, is a great cook:

And our campus is pretty easy to fall in love with.

Travelogue by Tiffy.
Photos by Tiffy.