Top10 Japanese Food Anime Made Me Crave

I’ve been watching anime since I was 6 years old, more or less, and one of the things I learned about Japan (or thought I learned, anyway) was that their food looked pretty awesome and tasty.

These are the foods that stood out to me*.

10. Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き)

What? Practically meaning “fried to one’s liking”, it’s a popular pan fried food that consists of batter and cabbage. Toppings and ingredients can vary greatly from region to region.

How? The first time I heard about Okonomiyaki was in Ranma 1/2, from a character named Kuonji Ukyo, she was one of the titular character’s fiances. Yes, Ranma had more than one fiance. Ukyo was an Okonomiyaki chef. Watching her cook this weird pancake-pizza thingie so enthusiastically made me crave it so much. Especially because the name sounded so foreign to my 13-year-old tongue.

Sadly, I forgot about it until some years later, when I watched Card Captors Sakura. The title character, a ten-year-old girl would fry lots of Okonomiyaki with his dad, which made Okonomiyaki a synonym of family food in my head. A bad-ass family food.

Did I like it? I haven’t managed to eat it yet, and it makes me sad.

9. Omurice (オムライス)

What? As the name suggest (omurice= omelette + rice), it’s an omelette made with fried rice, and it’s usually topped with ketchup.

How? I can’t remember the first time I heard of this dish. But I have seen it time and again, especially in Shoujo anime. There were especially two settings for this: a Maid Cafe, and someone (usually a girl) wanting to show her feelings through food. In the Maid Cafe setting, it’s the kind of food that is simple enough and is made cute when a Maid in a high voice draws something on the Omurice with the ketchup.

In the showing one’s feelings setting, the one I remember the most is in the anime Hanasaku Iroha. When one makes Omurice for someone else, it’s usually made with messages of love, as this girl called Tsurugi Minko did for a guy she was in love with. So it contrasted a lot with another Omurice Minko did, an Omurice of revenge. Trying to get back at a mother who slighted her, Minko writes, “I hate Mama” on the Omurice and surrounds it with broccoli, her mother’s most hated vegetable. So yeah, Omurice interested me for the way it could convey feelings, and also looked quite delicious!

Did I like it? Haven’t eaten it. The few Maid Cafes that I went to didn’t make it, which was a bit of a downer. I have seen ads of new ones that said they have it, but I haven’t managed to go to those yet.

mirella

YAM Magazine geek resident. Cloud Cuckoolander. Seldom web developer. Graphic designer.

27 Responses

  1. Camiele says:

    You know what’s funny? I discovered Omurice when I was younger because I wanted something to eat and I was learning how to cook for myself. There was rice. And there was eggs… BAM! HaHA. I didn’t know it was an actual thing, though, until I watched Rooftop Prince… HaHa!

    I’ve always wanted to try okonomiyaki. It just looks extra delicious! Also curry bread looks like the best food in the world!!! This entire list is made up of stuff I just need to ingest… POST HASTE! It’s totally expensive in the States for most of this stuff, or the very least where I live. I took my younger brother out for sushi for his birthday last year and spent almost $60 bucks… yeah. But it was worth it because it was literally one of the best meals PERIOD I’d ever had.

    Yet again, it would seem I’m the first to comment on your awesomeness… HaHA.

    • mirella says:

      @Camiele, Japanese food is expensive here too for the most part. So I eat it sporadically, on festivals mostly. And when I manage to drag friends/family to the Sushi bars and the Ramen restaurants~ Specially when they have discounts once in a blue moon~
      What I like is that recently there’s been this sorta fast food restaurant of Asian food (https://www.facebook.com/bambufastcasual) an hour away from home. And they have Ramen and Makizushi there, as well as other food from China, Thailand and Vietnam :D

      • Camiele says:

        @mirella, Oh my GAWD!!! Why don’t I live some place that actually, I don’t know, has a culture?! LAME! I mean, I guess that’s semi-unfair. We do have Asian markets that sell ingredients and treats from all over Asia (India, Bangladesh, etc. included. A lot of people forget that they’re part of Asia too). Those are usually not really expensive. Now, the Korean market… those ingredients are NOT cheap (from what hermanito says), but again I don’t know how to cook Asian food (or French food, or Brasilian food… wow… I’m lame… HaHa), so going to actually get the food is ALWAYS expensive. *sigh*

        Someday, we’re gonna eat as much food from any culture we want and it’ll be GLORIOUS!!!

        • amy says:

          @Camiele, Lima is a good place to eat, though the only places that I’ve actually found that are quite good are Chinese, Japanese, and lately Indian. I mean, I’m not counting Peruvian food restaurants coz then I’ll have to list all the regions of different food xD But from the foreign ones…

          There’s a bunch of Italian trattorias, as well, and I suppose there’s Spanish food – though I’ve never eaten it here. For the past 3 years, there’s been a couple of Korean restaurants now. Surprisingly, there isn’t a good Mexican place down here. xD

          There’s only a small Arab food place that I know, so I can’t really say it’s the best xD

          And we don’t have African food, but we make up with Afro-Peruvian fusion food, which is included in Peruvian food. xD That along Chinese-Peruvian are the ones more fused with Peruvian culture. Chinese and Peruvian culture are so fused together that Peruvians don’t say “soy sauce” they call it “sillao” with the Cantonese word for soy sauce xD

          And they don’t call it “ginger” they call it “kyon” xD and so on.

  2. amy says:

    Oh, you can get Okonomiyaki at Irashai in Av. Aviacion.

    Where did you get Takoyaki? xD

    • mirella says:

      @amy, I got Takoyaki at the Natsu Matsuri last year and also at the “Feria Gastronómica” during Japan’s Week at Centro Cultural Peruano Japones!
      Yay Okonomiyaki! :D

      • amy says:

        @mirella, I need a restaurant that does it. xD I almost considered buying my own Takoyaki recipient, but it’s too damn expensive xD

  3. Camiele says:

    @amy, *sigh* I need to live some place where it doesn’t cost you your paycheck to eat from different cultures. Like, when you have to choose between having some good food or paying a bill… lame.

    • amy says:

      @Camiele, that’s true. America and Europe are mad expensive when it comes to food. I felt it was super cheap in Taiwan, though. Like, cheaper than here. Not in terms of junk food, coz that’s expensive everywhere except States side… but actual hand-made noodles for like a few dollars. Crazy. A similar thing in Seoul. It was more comparably priced to Lima, but still relatively normal.

      • Camiele says:

        @amy, I just find it so stupid in America (I don’t know about all of Europe, but in London at least the junk food and the real food were pretty comparably priced)! The stuff that kills you and makes you feel like shit is the least expensive while the stuff that’s handmade, healthier, and easier to digest costs you your first-born child. I really have a hard time living here and enjoying it… HaHa.

  4. amy says:

    Also… DUDE. POCKY. Best invention of a snack. EVER.

  5. amy says:

    There’s a fried rice omurice kind of dish at Naruto. xD

    • mirella says:

      @amy, When can you go at Naruto? The only time I wanted to go it was freaking full. And my friends also went once and was also full. Cannot go there xD

      • amy says:

        @mirella, I think their night shift begins at 7pm or something, so I dropped by there pretty early… not even 7.30 – but if I’m not mistaken, they’re also open at lunch. I thought that was less busy. :) They also have those ramen soups, and they have a special Naruto menu that comes with chicken cutlets and miso kyuri salad, which was pretty good. Order on one go, so you don’t have to wait for other items later.

        And Irashai’s Okonomiyaki has gone down in quality :( anddddd my mother decided to buy a Takoyaki grill xD HUZZAHHH

  6. Logan says:

    I always wanted to try meat buns that Goku would eat on King Kai’s planet.

    • Mirella says:

      Food in Dragon Ball has a special place in mt heart. There’s also a lot food porn any time a Saiyan and half Saiyan eats~

  7. Eunice says:

    Totally random detail, but as a Korean, I eat omurice all the time! Weird, since it’s a Japanese meal, but I guess I can’t complain..

    • mirella says:

      Oh, lucky you then! What’s your favourite Korean food then? I am finding myself interested in it since I’ve been told it’s spicy!
      I wonder if I should update this list considering I have now eaten most of the things in here!

  8. amy says:

    What are you missing?

  1. November 27, 2015

    […] Desde mi regreso, el boom gastronómico no solo se dio en la cocina peruana tradicional— todos le damos fuerte; los anticuchos, el ceviche, un buen shambar, o un buen juane con su presa de gallina. ¡Uy! El boom gastronómico también se dio en la comida asiática. Ayuda que el Kpop haya entrado con fuerza con el Hallyu Wave, pero también la colonia japonesa se abrió al paladar… aunque no estoy segura si atribuírselo al anime. […]

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