Food Fun for Everyone!

Ahhh ... where to begin on the food-front?  First of all, I am very glad that my kids aren't picky eaters and are willing to try most things.  We looove street food and train station food and can't seem to get enough of it, nor can we afford enough of it to feed our bottomless pit children.  Alas...

Tako yaki - yummm... octopus balls!

We had tako yaki (octopus balls) at a train station stand and Ethan quite liked it until we told him it was octopus.... It's a favorite of Kevin's as it is a specialty of Osaka, where he spent a year as a college exchange student.  I think it makes him feel young again, like the good 'ol days.


Also love the yakitori stands!  After more than one mistake, I've learned that the pieces that look like tender, delicious pieces of beef are actually chicken liver.  I like most things, but liver is NOT one of them.  I'm not so sure about the chicken-skin-on-a-stick either, but I may have to try that someday soon.

Yaki tori food stall

Something scrumptious on a stick

Sandy and the kids at the stand-up sushi bar

We had a super-fun stand-up sushi bar evening to celebrate my friend, Sandy's birthday.  We were in Peace Corps Malawi together and it's been so fun to reconnect with her while she's been in Tokyo for work.  Fun times!  Ethan tried his first fish eggs, but Ryan refused saying that he'd "rather cut the egg open and have the fish as a pet."  We did have a few bits of wasabi that escaped my not-so-watchful eye and the kids were not so very happy about that, but they recovered quickly.

Ethan and his roe...

Sushi night out with Sandy without the kids... ate what we think was a whole little baby jellyfish, but we're not so sure what it was...

His pained expression has more to do with me taking a picture
than with the mochi waffle he was eating - I promise.

Our day trip to Kamakura was all about the street food.  We made it our family goal to eat only street food the whole day and we succeeded with great gusto.  It seems Kamakura is known for its mochi (pounded rice) in all different forms - we had mochi on a stick, mochi waffles, mochi wrapped in seaweed - all within about 2 city blocks and 30 minutes.  Delicious.

For lunch, I had the local Kamakura specialty of some sort of tiny little fish (for the Malawi folk, it reminded me of the miniature usipa) served over rice with a raw quail egg.  This was my first experience with raw quail eggs - not bad actually!

Never fear - we're just getting started on the food fun!  For Ryan's yochien celebration dinner, he chose to go to the hanami food stands.  Very wise choice!  Such a fun atmosphere.  We couldn't eat everything we wanted to, but had quite a nice sampling - sweet potato chips, age-dashi tofu, yakitori, imagawa yaki, sausage on a stick, some large bimbap-type-burrito thing. Can't wait til next year's hanami food festival!  I'm already strategizing as to how many times we can eat there during the 2 weeks of hanami...

Enjoy the sampling of photos below!

We waited a looooong time just so Ethan could have some cherry tomatoes - and it was well worth the wait for all of us.

Boat o' octopus for tako yaki

Fish sticks, anyone?

The sugar-high end to our evening!