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Review: The best things I ate in Japan, and where you can find them in Eastern Iowa
Vacation ideas for your taste buds on a staycation budget
Jun. 6, 2024 6:15 am, Updated: Jun. 7, 2024 1:50 pm
Konnichiwa — I’m back! Your Eastern Iowa food reporter has returned from more than two weeks in Japan, with some culinary adventures to share.
A trip abroad is a privilege I don’t take lightly — the chance to savor hard-to-find cuisine, take advantage of authenticity you don’t need to verify, and soak in the culture it was born in at the same time.
After almost three weeks away, I’ve returned from the Land of the Rising Sun with a few Far East favorites. But if you can’t hop on a 13-hour flight, here are a few ways you can enjoy them right here in the Corridor.
1. Ramen
Around these parts, ramen has become synonymous with “cheap” and “unhealthy” for many generations — and for good reason. For most of my life, the only opportunity I had to associate the word with real food was with the 10-cent packets you could buy in bulk at big box stores.
With a sodium packet strong enough to turn any saucepan into the Dead Sea, they’re a convenience you live and die by. But not in Japan.
Sure, Japan has the Cup-O-Noodles and other brands that offer freeze dried options you can make with hot water. But in most contexts, ramen is a source of nourishment that’s become a staple in Japanese warmth.
With noodles that often are made on-site with a rich broth and medley of various vegetables or protein options, you can find high-quality ramen at many shops for under ¥600 ($3.84).
Small shops tucked around Tokyo, the most populated city the world, take orders via simple vending machines. Just press the plastic button with the photo of the food you want, insert some cash, take your ticket straight to the chef’s window and have a seat in one of a handful of bar stools in any given restaurant.
Looking for it here? Check out Ramen Belly in Iowa City or Hokkaido Ramen House in Coralville.
2. Treats covered in sesame seeds
No matter which convenience store, grocery store, open air market or restaurant you’re in, you can find something involving sesame seeds.
Americans may most associate them with the thing topping their burger buns. But in Japan and other East Asian countries, they’re not always savory — sometimes, they’re sweet.
Some of my favorite ones were fried balls of soft, chewy dough filled with red bean paste. That filling is another example of an item not commonly used in Western cuisines but adored as a basic goodness permeating many Asian snacks and desserts.
Looking for it here? Ask for an order of sesame balls at Panda Lin in Cedar Rapids.
3. Croissants and French pastries
It isn’t lost on me that I had to go about as Far East as one can go in order to find a quality version of a pastry celebrated as an icon of excellence and sophistication across Europe and America. Whether in big cities or small towns, the Japanese cafes, retail shops and convenience store shelves reflect an obsession with French culture.
But in their quest of imitation, they have not simply struck mediocrity. A few shops on my trip made some of the best croissants and pastries I’ve had since I visited Paris last year. In some cases, they’ve perfected some of the drawbacks of French cuisine for the American tongue.
But the ooh la la with French products doesn’t stop at food.
In the U.S., brands will sometimes use Chinese or Japanese symbols on apparel and other commodities. A translation of the symbols in use often shows that they’re random words that make little sense on a T-shirt. But for the wearer who doesn’t speak the language, it’s more about the aesthetic than the literal meaning of what’s written on their sleeve.
Similarly, I found that the inverse is true in Japan. Many T-shirt stores and retail shops display slogans in French or English that make little sense to native speakers, but probably look cool to those who don’t speak the language.
Looking for croissants and French-inspired pastries here? Check out Barrett’s Quality Eats in Coralville or Delia’s Baked Goods in Cedar Rapids.
4. Ice cream
Like you and I, Japan also screams for ice cream.
With adorable presentations virtually everywhere, it’s not hard to find a bite at a picturesque cafe or get a cone that looks exactly like the advertisement you saw. The Japanese love a good melon float made with melon soda — another ubiquitous sweet — and are experts at finding a way to fuse fruit and cream flavors together.
In addition to melon, they have a penchant for strawberry, citrus and mango.
With honesty valued so strongly in the culture, I found virtually no instances of exaggerated or false marketing in places where Americans or Europeans would expect it. I noticed that my food orders always looked exactly like the advertisement or menu photo that prompted me to get them — even in places like McDonald’s.
Looking for a sundae here? Check out Frydae in Marion.
5. Cheesecake
In addition to ice cream, I found that the Japanese sweet tooth extends to cheesecake.
Although I never sought out cheesecake, I always found it to be a saving grace in the moments when I needed it most. After three days of sashimi and fish for breakfast and dinner at a ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn), a dessert course with cheesecake and cherries offered my Western palate something familiar.
In Japan, an average cheesecake is served a bit differently. Most slices have a delicate layer of what tastes and feels like spongecake at the bottom, rather than a sweet, cracker-type crust.
Looking for it here? Check out Sweet Cheesecake in Marion or The Cheesecake Lady in Cedar Rapids.
6. Wagyu steak
In Osaka, Japan’s third-largest city renowned for its food, we landed a reservation at a nice restaurant, thanks to our hotel’s concierge.
Blind to just how fancy the place would be, we arrived to our own chef, who gingerly prepared 180 grams of A5 grade Japanese wagyu in front of us.
“Wow, those must be really great knives,” I remarked after watching him glide gracefully through each and every slice, making the steak look like sticks of butter.
Then, I tasted it. It wasn’t just the quality of the knives. Thanks to wagyu’s thin marbling distributed so evenly throughout each piece, the meat also melted in my mouth like butter as probably the best steak I’ve had in my life.
Looking for it here? So am I. Wagyu is extremely difficult to find at restaurants here, but makes an occasional appearance at high-end restaurants. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a consistently good steak, go to Chophouse Downtown in Cedar Rapids.
7. Yakitori
Served on sticks Americans would probably just call “kebabs,” this Japanese style makes a meal of each bite through multiple small courses of meat, vegetables and more. In many cases, they’re served in small restaurants where diners circle around a chef making ample use of a blowtorch and smoky fire.
For those seated directly in front of the chef, a small exchange of thanks starts and ends each course with mostly the same words — arigato gozaimasu (thank you). But despite its monotony, the phrase conveys a gradually increasing level of gratitude as courses grow more complex.
Looking for it here? Visit Oyama in Cedar Rapids.
8. Sashimi
Notice how I put the item Americans most readily associate with Japanese food at the bottom of the list. Despite the availability of high quality sushi and sashimi, it wasn’t even a majority of our meals in Japan. That’s how diverse their cuisine is.
Even if you don’t like fish, sashimi is something everyone should try once in their life. Get some soy sauce, try some wasabi and ginger with it — do what you need to do. If your sushi or sashimi smells or tastes unpleasantly “fishy,” you’re at a bad restaurant.
But even if you don’t come away loving it, I hope it will give you a new appreciation for it.
Although I occasionally enjoy sushi in Iowa, three days of it for multicourse breakfasts and dinners at a Japanese inn tested my limits. But I left with a new dimension in my mental flavor map to know what works well with seafood, what doesn’t, and why one might be inclined to eat seafood for every meal.
Looking for it here? Visit Red Ginger or Oyama in Cedar Rapids.
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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