Bento! #85: Burger King's Fresh Avocado Whopper

I'm lovin' it. :D

Actually, I went to BK and didn't notice that they have this new whopper burger that uses black bread, made from squid ink and some, I think, green tea "charcoal" or something like that. I'll try it out next time. By the way, in Japanese, this is フレッシュアボカードワッパー, "furesshu abokaado wappaa."

Bento! #84 - Yuzukoshou Hanbaagu

Or "Yuzukoshou Burger." With "M" size rice, this is only 399 yen from the school cafeteria. According to Wikipedia,

Yuzukoshō (柚子胡椒?, also yuzugoshō) is a type of Japanese seasoning. It is a paste made from chili peppers, yuzu peel and salt, which is then allowed to ferment.[1] It is usually used as a condiment for nabemono dishes, miso soup, and sashimi. The most famous types of yuzukoshō come from Kyushu, where it is a local specialty.

Yuzu is by the way a kind of citrus fruit found in East Asia. According to me:

Yuzukoshō Burger is sweet, sour, and yummy.

Also, this one had a rather huge, larger-than-usual burger patty. It's not 100% beef though, of course. It came with some lettuce and a cherry tomato. I dressed the lettuce with some Italian Dressing which I think complemented the Yuzukoshou sauce quite well.

Speaking of beef, I think I might have said in previous posts that the Pawaa Don (Power Rice Bowl) is like gyuudon (beef rice bowl) with egg. It actually contains pork, not beef.

Bento! #83 - Negi Shio Karaage Don

Or ネギ塩唐揚げ丼 in Kanji. My first Japanese meal back in Japan. Negi = onions, but more specifically, spring onions / green onions / leeks. Shio = salt. Karaage = Japanese-style fried chicken bits. Don = short for donburi, or bowl, where in this case it signifies that this is a rice bowl meal with topping (i.e. the chicken). For "L" size rice, this is 441 yen at the school cafeteria. And it was delish.

By the way, I just decided to merge my "Bento" and "Bento Breaktime" series into one "Bento!" series, and thus we are now at series number 83. Makes for easier blog posting. :D  Let's get fatter in Japan again, shall we? Hehe. :-)

MNL-NRT food

I took Philippine Airlines this time on my way back to Japan. Usually if it's a trip to/from Japan, one of the choices is a Japanese dish. Like at least on the Cathay Pacific flight from Haneda, there was at least the cold soba noodles which was a Japanese thing. The food served on this trip though was far from being Japanese. Nonetheless, it wasn't bad. I guess it's good, too, that Japanese taking this flight going home would have one last shot at the Filipino flavor.

HND-HKG in-flight views and food

We're about to take off!

R Burger

R Burger. Two things I love. "R." and Burgers.
I ate here already once or twice already,
but not this time around. R Burger is not
commonplace around Tokyo, at least; I think
it might be just a Haneda International Airport
thing.

Haneda Airport International Terminal

I'm back!

So I left Japan last September 9 to go on a holiday in my home country, the Philippines, and I promised I would blog about the Japanese food there. Well, oops. I didn't have time. It's because the reason why I went on a holiday there was actually to meet my very first, newborn son for the very first time. I was actually a week too late already but at least I got to spend time with him on his 2nd and 3rd weeks on earth. And man, if you're a parent, you know what those first few weeks entail. But, it was all good.

So anyways, I do have a few things to blog about, with some related to food in Japan. This first one is all about the Haneda (Tokyo International) Airport International Terminal from where I took off. I have lots of pictures. Check 'em all out below.

RocketNews24

Speaking of RocketNews24, their website contains a ton of English language articles that is all about Japan. Well, and the rest of East Asia. Check it out; it's a website I'd include on my "Welcome to Japan" list of articles for all of you new to Japan or looking to learn more about Japan and her culture. Check the articles out at the URL http://en.rocketnews24.com/category/japan. Or for all about East Asia (including China, Taiwan, and Korea), check out their main English site at http://en.rocketnews24.com.

A different kind of charity event... only in Japan?

First question: Is this for real? I read about this event via this article on RocketNews24, which you should probably read first, too. I also haven't heard about "oppai momi" pubs until I read this news article...

Thanks to my friend who shared this link with me! ;-)

Bento #49: Bunch of fried stuff bento

Alright. This is my last bento before I go pay a visit to my motherland. I've long tried to avoid bento with salmon, because I've had bad experience with them. I think it's only if you get unlucky and get one that's been out there on the konbini display shelves for a while already, and the salmon tastes a bit fishy/oily. But also because the salmon still has bones! Like this one did. But thankfully, it wasn't fishy/oily at all. Otherwise, I love salmon. This is another packed one. You can see the rice has been "sliced" into 10 rolls, sprinkled with black sesame seed, and topped with "divine protection" in the form of a plum. There's the salmon - baked, maybe? And an ebi (shrimp) tempura. There's an okonomiyaki-like deep-fried thing. Half a weiner. A small pork hamburger patty. Rolled egg. Lotus roots and carrots salad, and some seaweeds on the side. Only 398 yen! From 3F; where else. The quantity was not enough, though, so actually I got me a bowl of pasta to complement this meal. :)

Anyway, like I said, while on a 2-week hiatus in my home country, I hope to visit some Japanese or Japanese-themed restaurants back there and post my "bento" from those joints. Meanwhile, check out the rest of The Japan! Japan! Blog. I was here for 2 months in 2005, so I have stuff written during that time. I came back here in 2010, from whence I started blogging yet again. Until next time, I'll see you guys around.

Bento #48: Egg and chicken and egg rice bowl

480 yen from 3F. One egg is sunny-side-up-like, and one is scrambled. And, talk about magic. You're looking around for which bento to eat. You see the bowl and you see, wow, this is a lot for 480 yen! But actually the egg+egg+chicken is separated from the rice. When you pour them over the rice, it fills just half (or less) of the bowl. Wow. Anyways, this "donburi" (rice bowl) bento comes with some spices, and at least a leaf of some veggie.

Bento #47: Trifecta of Kansai-area goodness

Okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pancakes), Takoyaki (Octopus balls) and Yakisoba (Japanese style fried/grilled soba noodles). 398 yen from 3F. Yum. There's 3 pieces of takoyaki. In the Philippines, some "takoyaki" shops don't actually have any tako (or they say they do but…). The yakisoba doesn't have the usual stuff with it (usually cabbage, carrots, and some meat), though it does come with pickled ginger as usual (the pink stuff on the lower right of the photo). The okonomiyaki is a simple, cabbage-only one as well, I think, and enough mayo and okonomi sauce. Okonomiyaki, by the way, means something like "grilled anything-that-comes-to-mind." "Yaki" means grilled, but in many cases, they just use a teppan grill; i.e. a big flat heated pan on which often they'd put oil - so in that sense it's really fried. Yakitori and yakiniku (barbecue chicken, and barbecue in general) though are usually charcoal-grilled. Oh, and these three things, as I mentioned come from the Kansai region of Japan (Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, etc.).

Bento BreakTime #35: Pork cutlets with Nagoya-style miso sauce

The cafeteria is open again starting this week, after their summer vacation ("natsu yasumi") hayatus. Which only means more food for less. This one's only 441 yen (but almost 1000 calories) from the cafeteria, with "L"-size rice. It's called "Nagoya miso katsu" in Japanese. Comes with shredded kyabetsu (cabbage) which I dressed with my favorite, Italian dressing (though I really like it better with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, croutons, some onions, i.e. the usual salad veggies). By the way, I should mention that at the cafeteria, when you order "large" rice, you just say "Raisu, eru-saizu." For "medium" and "small" and "super small" rice, you say "emu," "esu," "esu-esu" instead of "eru." Say all that out loud and you'll know why if you haven't yet guessed.

Bento #46: Another kind of katsudon

Sorry for the blurry photo!

This is probably the fifth type of katsudon I've blogged about already, but this one's "new," as you can see. The main difference I think between this and earlier ones are the use of pickled plums (as well as plum-colored pickled radish). Yummy and interesting and expensive, as usual. 498 yen from 3F.

Toyota Auris 30-second TV Commercial

Careful with ogling skinny young women in Japan.



Thanks to my buddy SG for sharing this link!

Bento BreakTime #34: "Umai Karaage" and "Hashudo Poteto"

I almost forgot to take a photo of this one, and when I did,
it turned out blurry!

Tasty fried chicken balls and hashed brown. 105+80 yen from 3F. Nice. I ordered these to complement my not-so-heavy main bento. There are four pieces of the fried chicken balls but I already finished one before taking a photo! :D