This post was written in 2005. Some information may be out of date.
For someone like me who cares about bang for the buck, the favorite kind of place
has to be somewhere cheap and tasty. Same deal since coming to Japan..
On top of that, with the move and everything, I had to live pretty frugally for a while,
so my craving for cheap, tasty places grew enormously..
But do cheap, tasty places really exist? Anyone with even a little
interest in food will understand that cheap and delicious cooking is
almost impossible. Truly delicious food uses expensive ingredients. You can say
ingredients make up 70% of a dish’s flavor, and you need expensive ingredients to get
delicious food. Sadly, that’s the truth. In Korea, you need to spend around
30,000 won or more on a meal to eat something satisfying.
But of course there’s an exception. Chinese food!! Chinese cooking
uses fire to draw out the deep flavor of the ingredients for a brief moment. Cheap or
expensive, the ingredients give off their best natural flavor the instant they’re seared
over the flame. The problem.. you have to eat it right after it’s cooked.. once it cools,
it loses its flavor.
Japan has Chinese food too.. but it’s not that cheap.. ^^;;
Compared to “Garibegas” back in Korea (Garibong-dong’s Chinatown).. it’s almost a letdown..
That said, ramen, which came over from China, is widely loved as a
popular everyday food in Japan, and thanks to countless cooks it’s become cheap yet
as good as anything you’d get at a restaurant of any style.
I remember saying before that sashimi is cheap in Japan. Cheap, fresh
sashimi is sold everywhere, which is nice nutrition-wise, but the taste is
just so-so.. Taste-wise, there’s hardly anything in Japan that matches ramen
for value for money. (Udon, maybe? ^^) Gyudon doesn’t taste good either..
Ah.. come to think of it, there’s exactly one. Bread.. well-made bread isn’t expensive and
is really delicious. But where on earth do you find a decent bakery.. T_T
P.S. Still, it’s sad that you have to pay at least 800 yen for a bowl.