The Bitten Word

10 Best Japanese Snacks (and 1 We Couldn’t Eat): Noshing Our Way Through Japan

Japan, it turns out, is the most amazing place to snack.

We didn't know that about the country when we planned our trip. (Otherwise, hello, we would have gone years ago.)

Sure, we had great meals while we were there, with Yakitori, Oysters, and Pastries, and the Ramen, Sushi, and unexpected pancakes. But Japan is just the best for between-meal grazing -- whether it's elevenses, tea time or fourthmeal.       

Snacks are everywhere in Japan. In larger cities, department store basements are almost universally full of amazing food halls with all sorts of delicious items. In train stations, the grab-and-go cuisine is legitimately great. Even at convenience stores -- actually, especially at convenience stores. Japanese convenience chains, including Lawson, Family Mart and 7-Eleven (which is so much nicer than in the U.S. -- trust us), all offer surprisingly delicious treats and fresh foods. 

Here are 10 snacks we either especially enjoyed, or thought were crazy interesting -- along with a bonus one that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to eat.

 

1. Omelet on a stick

Japan doesn't have a street-food culture the same way that, say, Singapore or Thailand does. But one exception to that is the Outer Market at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, where you'll find small stalls selling all sorts of edible takeaways. We saw a lot of Japanese tourists lined up to by these omelets on sticks. We’re not honestly sure what’s on top – it tasted like some kind of sweet-onion sauce. But it was a delicious little bite with savory egg and a hint of sweetness.

The Best Things We Ate in Japan, Part 2: Yakitori, Oysters, Wagyu and More Pastries Than You Can Possibly Count

Ohayo Gozaimasu, everyone!

We're back to talk more about some of our favorite foods we encountered on our recent two-week trip to Japan.

For more, check out Part 1: Sushi, Ramen and Adventures in Pancakes.

 

Yakitori

Yakitori, as you may already know, simply refers to grilled chicken on skewers. We had two yakitori experiences in Tokyo -- about as different from each other as could be -- and we loved both of them. 

Grilled meat on a stick -- what's not to love?

The first was in Omoide Yokocho, which, as we mentioned in our previous post, is this very cool Tokyo alleyway filled -- filled! -- with all these yakitori grill restaurants. These restaurants are tiny: Each one seats maybe 6 to 8 people.

The Best Things We Ate in Japan, Part 1: Sushi, Ramen and Adventures in Pancakes

Konnichiwa, Bittens!

If we've been a little quiet on the blog recently, it's because we just returned from two weeks in Japan! It was an amazing trip: weird and beautiful and wonderful. From the futuristic cityscape and insane bustle of Tokyo, to the serenity of a 1,400-year-old mountaintop Shinto shrine in Kyoto, we loved exploring this endlessly interesting country.

If we had to sum up the two weeks in one word, though, it would be "delicious."

The food we ate throughout Japan was almost universally excellent, like the whole country is just cooking on a higher level, with better ingredients. (And actually it kinda is.) If your stereotype of Japanese cuisine is that it's exacting and made with precision and care, you're right. And it's evident everywhere you go, from hole-in-the-wall ramen shops to finer sushi bars.

We wanted to share with you some of our favorite food experiences from our trip.

So grab your chopsticks and dig in!

 

Sushi

7 a.m. sushi at the Tsukiji market

Yeah, yeah. This one's a no-brainer.

We love sushi, and we were so excited to try it in Japan! And Japan did not disappoint. We had sushi and sashimi a number of times, and every time it surpassed what we're used to in the U.S. (Also, contrary to our expectations, it was generally cheaper than sushi here at home. In fact, we found eating in Japan in general to be far more affordable than we'd been led to believe.)

A Weekend in Montreal: 7 Lessons Learned From 3 Nights

If you're following us on Instagram, you likely saw a few weeks ago that we were in Montreal. (We also mentioned it in this post on Glazed Sweet Potatoes with Maple Gastrique.) On the heels of Fakesgiving and Halloween, we took a trip North as a surprise (at least until the 11th hour when the airline ruined it, but alas) for Zach's birthday. 

Montreal had long been on our list of weekend destinations -- neither of us had been there, and Zach had yet to set foot in Canada. We packed a lot into three nights. Here are some lessons we learned along the way. 

 

1. Joe Beef is reason enough to visit Montreal. 

Joe Beef -- the storied bistro in the city's Little Burgundy neighborhood -- is, all by itself, worth the trip to Montreal. We had a spectacular meal there, due in no small part to the phenomenal staff. We arrived for our 9:45 p.m. reservation to discover that we had accidentally booked our table for the following week. The staff was so nice about it, sending us to the bar for snacks and drinks and then getting us seated in no time. We were the ones who goofed up, yet they treated us like VIPs.

The food at Joe Beef is the stuff dreams are made of. 

We started with a dish of shaved ham and cheese with mustard that was served not on bread, but on a piece of oven-roasted squash (pictured above). The combination of the savory ham on the sweet squash made us question why we haven't been eating it this way all along. 

For entrees, we had two gorgeous dishes. The first was a lobster spaghetti that was incredibly rich but also worth the indulgence. 

That Time We Were Oyster Farmers (And Learned to Fly)

Virginia Beach in the Off Season

 

Way back in March, Zach was invited by Endless Vacation magazine to write a feature about Virginia Beach in the Autumn.

So in the earliest days of spring, we hopped in a car and went to sample all that Virginia Beach had to offer. It was a jam-packed/meal-packed weekend as we ran from one activity -- kayaking! indoor skydiving! climbing through treetops in an adventure park! -- to another. 

Virginia Beach rolled out the red carpet, but we had one experience that's really stayed with us: a visit to Pleasure House Oysters. 

Here's the scene:

It's mid-afternoon on a Sunday, and the sun is starting to lower in the sky. It's one of those early days of spring -- sunny but still cold -- that indicates longer, warmer days are coming. We meet the owner of Pleasure House, Chris, on a dock. He outfits us with waders (very flattering, as you can see from the photo above), then we all climb on the boat and head out to Chris' farm. 

Visiting (The Other) Portland

(image: City of Portland, Maine's Facebook page)

 

We recently celebrated the wedding of our good friend Sue to her wonderful groom Adam. (You'd know Sue from countless Fakesgiving dinners. She's one of the few who's been at every single one we've had.) We were extremely happy to witness their special day.

But we were also thrilled because their wedding was held in one of our all-time favorite places: Portland, Maine.

We've visited Portland 4 or 5 times over the years -- it's a wonderful small town that's very convenient from the East Coast or eastern Canada. The flight from Washington, D.C., is just an hour and 15 minutes. It's a perfect weekend getaway.

What you'll find in Portland is a compact downtown with lots of great shops in stately historic brick buildings, along with a working waterfront of fishing boats (with plenty of tourist-oriented whale-watching ships as well).

But what might surprise you about this town of 60,000 is what a fabulous food destination it is. Bon Appétit dubbed Portland "America's Foodiest Small Town" way back in 2009, and the city's food scene has only gotten markedly better since then.

So we wanted to share some of our favorite Portland spots with you.

 

Fore Street

Let's start with our favorite restaurant in town, which also happens to be one of our favorite restaurants on the planet: Fore Street. It's not new (it opened in 1996). And it's hardly a secret (it ranked in Gourmet's Top 50 Restaurants in the U.S. in 2001 and 2006, and it's been nominated for a national James Beard award multiple years). But it's outstanding: The produce and meat and seafood are local and consistently amazing. The fresh-baked bread is phenomenal.

But it's the space that makes Fore Street truly special. The woodplank ceiling, the weathered brick walls, the iron posts and window casements, the open kitchen with crackling fires in the hearths -- everything about the restaurant is welcoming and warm and cozy and perfect.

Dining room at Fore Street (image courtesy forestreet.biz)

 

The Best Things We Drank in Spain

What, you thought we drank water with all of that great food?

  

 

Vermouth

We've never given much thought to vermouth. For us, it's mostly just that thing you put in a Manhattan. The idea of actually drinking vermouth just never really occurred to us.

But we became obsessed with it in Spain. On our first full day in Barcelona, we strolled through an outdoor food market, and there was a vendor selling 2-euro glasses of it. Several Spaniards were lined up for it, so we did the only culturally sensitive thing possible: We got ourselves a glass. 

Many other glasses followed over the next 10 days. A few things we learned: Vermouth is a very traditional drink in Spain, usually as an afternoon apertif, and it's currently experiencing a renaissance. (Another fun fact: It's from the same German word as "wormwood," which was a common ingredient in vermouth a century ago.)

It's typically served over ice, with a tiny splash of soda and a twist of lemon. In older bars in Spain, you'll see huge barrels behind the bar marked "Vermut," with metal spigots for the bartenders to fill your glass.

It's delightful. Cool, refreshing, slightly bitter. We just might make it our drink of the summer.

Clay samples the goods.

 

The Best Things We Ate in Spain -- Part II

We continue eating our way through the Iberian peninsula. You can read Part I here. ¡Vamos!

 

 

Salmorejo

We fell in love with Seville the moment we arrived. We had loved Barcelona and San Sebastian -- and would go back to both in a heartbeat -- but we also really enjoyed the feeling of Sevilla. With its sunny plazas, bright stucco buildings, orange trees, festive tiles and Moorish ironwork, Sevilla was filled with a languid, sleepy beauty.

A signature dish of this part of Spain, the area called Andalucia, is a cold soup called salmorejo. It's like a gazpacho but with bread blended in, so it's thick and hearty but still refreshing on a hot afternoon. It's usually topped with a swirl of olive oil and some shredded ham; sometimes there's hard-boiled egg as well. (You might recall that our first-ever Cover to Cover Challenge included a recipe for salmorejo, from Team Saveur.)

We really enjoyed the classic salmorejo we had in Seville. We also had an avant-garde version at one restaurant, which was bright green and blended with apples, arugula and black olives. The less said about that one, the better.  

 

 

The Best Things We Ate in Spain -- Part I

"What's the best thing you ate??"

That's the one question we get more than any other when we return home from a trip. 

Answering that question is always hard. But after our recent trip to Spain, it was downright impossible. We ate constantly over the 10 days we were in Barcelona, San Sebastian, Seville and Granada. We were always roving: We didn't eat three meals a day; we ate a dozen. And on the occasions we did sit down for a proper meal, it was frequently tapas-style or a tasting menu, meaning a dizzying array of bites, morsels and small plates.

Spain was our buffet, and -- believe us -- it was definitely all-you-can-eat.

Food in Spain is less of a sit-down event than an ever-present hum in the background. There is always food. You are always eating. And it is glorious. Lunch might be four or five plates of food. Dinner might be 10 plates at five different tapas bars. (And yes, dinnertime is 10:30 or 11. We saw families with small kids sitting down to dinner at midnight. We absolutely loved it!)

But out of that complete barrage of food -- that culinary blitz -- we wanted to share some of our favorites with you.

Some of these are specific dishes; others are more about the overall experience. But each of them was truly special -- and delicious.

So settle in, Bittens, and tie on a bib. This post is going to be epic.

 

4 Days in Tulum: Chasing Away the Winter on the Beach in Mexico

Hello, Bittens!

Are you cold? We sure are. Over the past several weeks, we've had an extreme cold snap here in Washington, D.C., along with much of the rest of the country. 

Which made it all the more wonderful when, a couple weeks ago, we snuck down to Tulum, Mexico, for a four-day weekend. 

Tulum is amazing. It's a beach town on the Atlantic coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, about 50 miles south of Cancun. Until about 10 years ago, Tulum was a sleepy stretch of thatched-roof huts and a couple of food stands on a spit of land between the ocean and the jungle.

But in recent years, Tulum has grown up. There are now several boutique hotels and pricey little shops. And there's a burgeoning restaurant and bar scene.

Despite the growth, it still maintains the feel of a tiny beach town. The hotels and shops and restaurants all blend in to the surroundings. There's exactly one road, a narrow lane that parallels the ocean, with no side roads. So everything in Tulum is either on the beach side of the road (in which case it's likely a terrace with the most perfect view of the sparkling ocean you've ever seen) or on the jungle side (in which case it's likely this impossibly romantic restaurant with a thousand candles hanging among the palms). The whole place was beachy, breezy, casual and beautiful.

We stayed in a tiny hut we found on Airbnb. We mean tiny. And hut. It had a high thatched roof, a concrete floor, a bed and a bathroom area in the corner. There was one naked bulb hanging from the ceiling, and one electrical outlet.

But our hut was right on the beach -- maybe 50 feet from the surf, with nothing between us and the water. The crashing waves lulled us to sleep every night. (The photo at the top of this post is the view from our hut.)

An aerial shot of out hut (and several others). This photo from Jana/Airbnb. 

Anyway, we wanted to share with you some images from our trip -- the foods we ate, and some of the sites we saw.

So without further ado ... ¡vamonos!