Live vicariously (and deliciously) with this Japanese food review channel

Originally published at: Live vicariously (and deliciously) with this Japanese food review channel | Boing Boing

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Shake Shack only has 13 locations in Japan, and virtually all of them are in Tokyo and Osaka, so it’s still kind of a novelty.

Sadly, we do not have Five Guys…

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I’ve only eaten at a Shake Shack once, so maybe what I got was not representative of their normal fare, but I was not impressed at all. But it seems to get a ton of love from social media. Five Guys is good, but overpriced. Although, if you want enough fries to feed a family of 12, that’s definitely the place to go.

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The burger situation in Japan is not great, so I would kill for Five Guys. For a long time, Burger King was the best you could get outside of Tokyo, and even Burger King doesn’t have all that many locations.

Hell, I went out of my way to eat at Five Guys when I was in Dubai last year.

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Yeah, don’t get me wrong. I like Five Guys a lot. I just think they’re overpriced. I’ll go there when I want a good burger and I’m not in a position where I can just make one at home. Or don’t feel like making one at home.

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I must recco the delightful Solo Travel Japan’s equally delightful and yummious second youtube channel, Solo Travel Japan / Food Tour. He has a good sense of humor, and his videos are fun and honest.

I remember seeing news stories re: $25 hamburgers in Japan decades ago, and countless other “OMG Look how expensive it it to dine out in Japan!!!” stories since. Solo, however, has only ever shown us ridiculously expensive food when he’s at a ridiculously expensive restaurant, or aboard a ridiculously elegant ship or train who serves her passengers ridiculously elegant, expensive dishes as part of her dedication. I am usually quite surprised by the low cost of most of what he eats, which usually involves noms that sure don’t look like they’d be cheap.

Some ferries’ cafeterias to which he’s hipped us have wonderful food for eyebrow-raisingly reasonable prices. He normally makes good use of the all-you-can-eat variety, showing us a variety of goodies.

Granted, summa the ferries on whom he travels have got some mighty dodgy-lookin’ vending machine victuals I wouldn’t touch with a ten meter chopstick, but, hey. That’s nasty vending machine food for ya. That said, summa the vending machine comestibles he shows us do look amazingly good.

The previous also applies to the bento boxes he purchases, but to a varying degree: they seem a bit less hit-or-miss. Many of his bento buys look mouth-wateringly great, but some oughta’ve gone straight into a trash can.

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I’ve had great ramen from the little restaurants on overnight Japanese ferries a few times - breakfast ramen with a bunch of truck drivers to start the day! Haven’t tried the vendo ones.

But on my last trip I did seek out this little gem of a place - the show is being rerun in a few days so should be available on-demand again for a while:

Two vending machine places next to each other, each run by a different guy. Their job is to make udon and ramen throughout the day and keep the vintage machines stocked. The udon was great, especially for the price - added bonus, Nixie tube countdown timer!:

ETA: Location:

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