to switch on the subtitles because today I am gonna talk in my native language.

Okay let's go!

Sushi is known all across the world but Japan has some special delicacies

that you need to try as well. That's why today...

Today I will tell you 5 of my favourite Japanese foods that are NOT sushi!

Number 5 is Gyuudon.

It's simply Japanese rice and on top of that...

comes fried, thinly sliced beef.

It's one of the cheapest budget foods you can eat in Japan...

When I don't have much cash I love going to eat Gyuudon.

The trick to it is...

There is flavor... uh taste, there is lots of rice and you will definitely feel full afterwards.

I pay less than 500 Yen for it so it's super cheap too.

One of my YouTuber friends was VERY shocked to hear I visit Gyuudon places alone...

cause usually you see all business men sitting there alone in a row...

shoveling their gyuudon quickly before they have to go back to work...

I do however visit those places in my complete... armor so to speak.

I will sit down and get my gyuudon.

Yeah well the people will look at me surprised but I know how I like my gyuudon.

I ask for "Tsuyudaku" and that means .... wait that was English...

So I can recommend you "Tsuyudaku" which means...

With the rice is a bit more of the sauce they use to fry the meat...

and if you order "Tsuyudaku" people will be like ...

"That girl knows what she's talking about and has been eating Gyuudon before."

I love that. Then you get so much more flavor with the rice. It's cheap and tasty.

Number 4. I would like to introduce you to two types of noodles that you cannot

easily get in Germany and similar. One is Soba noodles and the other is Udon.

Soba is buckwheat noodles. They look dark and are supposed to be healthy

You can tell from the color it has to be some kind of healthy.

They are gray, sometimes brownish...

Those noodles are a lot more healthy than others.

And Udon are thick white noodles and they are a little "squishy"...

"Squishy".... I don't remember what that word is in German...

They are thicker and have a "bounce" to it... damn that's and English word again....

(in Japanese) Give me a sec...

Well then the noodles have a little bounce to it!

Both soba and udon you can order either with cold or

warm soup. These two types are seen are more healthy foods...

some of them have less calories than other foods here in Japan.

And both can go well with fresh Tempura, if you like fried foods.

Another interesting thing is that generally the soup base of udon and soba is

without meat but with fish instead. So those who don't like meat,

this might be better for you (depending on the restaurant)

Especially in summer when it's very hot in Japan, a cold soba or udon soup is great.

It's great to cool down and when you're not feeling that hungry.

Yes

Number 3

I love Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu!

For both of those dishes you get a large pot that sits in the middle of the table...

This is great for parties with friends by the way.

You sit around the pot and take thinly sliced pork, beef or

sometimes chicken or lamb...

Take it on your chopsticks...

"Shabu-Shabu" is the sound the meat does, the onomatopoeia

when you swing the meat around in the boiling soup.

Because the meat is sliced so thinly...

It gets done really quickly so you can eat it. It's a little bit like....

Fondue!

Just that it's not little cubes and you eat them from chopsticks instead

The difference between shabushabu and sukiyaki is that...

Sukiyaki the soup has a rather strong flavor...

and then you dip the food into raw eggs.

Don't worry in Japan raw eggs are generally save to eat. I have never heard of a case

of someone having problems with that. So dip it into the raw egg...

and then eat the meat like that.

That's the Sukiyaki way. With ShabuShabu you do...

you have different sauces and you dip the meat afterwards into different sauces.

They are similar but also different. The first time I came to Japan...

I ate more than my entire host family...

Because I liked it so much. Fresh meat...

fresh vegetables..

cooked right there and you can eat as much of whatever you personally like...

And you don't have to worry to much about other's foods and how much there is left on the plate

I love these dishes!

Number 2

Ramen and Tsukemen!

Ramen many of you have heard before. It's a Japanese take on a noodle soup...

it doesn't originally come from Japan actually...

but Japanese people took the receipes and made their own thing with it...

The different between ramen and tsukemen?

Tsukemen noodles are thicker than ramen noodles and the soup...

and the noodles are separated!

The soup is also a lot stronger.

It's almost too thick to drink it like that.

When having Tsukemen, you pick the noodles and dip them a little

in the super rich soup.

Then you slurp it like that. With ramen you already have everything in one dish

Noodles are in the soup together with other things, like an egg and similar.

These dishes are super popular. Ramen might also exist where you live.

I was once in Duesseldorf and had Ramen there too.

However Tsukemen hasn't really made it's way to other countries and that is my

definite recommendation! If you you have seen my Instagram account...

Then you know!

At least once a week there is a picture of me having Tsukemen in my IG stories

Because the director and I, when we get a quick break from our shoots,

We often go to have Tsukemen, and we have our favourite spots by now which we like.

There are just so many flavors.

That is my absolute favourite!

It's a very tight race with the dish that gets first place. Let's talk about that one.

And here comes number one of Japanese foods that you should not miss

if you come to Japan. And that is Okonomiyaki!

You might have wondered about the hot plates on the tables here.

I shall now...

Well we are right now in an Okionomiyaki restaurant and I will introduce it to you

as a Vlog!

Do you remember the microphone from SHURE?

I will clip it onto my phone and make a report, vlog style.

Ok looks like it's time for me to order so let's do this!

I am curious about your Classic Okonomiyaki. It says there is an healthy option.

I want to try the Avocado version!

I saw you have a Vegetarian option and also a Vegan one? - Yes.

Can I try the Vegan one? - There won't be egg or our flavor sauce in it. Ok?

Yeah take it all out for me.

I think... I think it's on the way to me!

Sorry for the wait...

Here is the Avocado one...

Ok we have a normal Okonomiyaki with special toppings!

We have cheese, avocado and tomatoes because I like that stuff!

And over here we got...

The Vegan Okonomiyaki. You cannot expect that to be in normal stores...

it's super rare to find Vegan food in Japan. I am happy they have it here.

I shall taste the taste for you.

Let's try it.

Okay, I don't come from the Kansai region of Japan but...

the director comes from Kansai, which is famous for Okonomiyaki

That's why we will leave it to the director to fry it for us.

My favourite things about Okonomiyaki is, it's a total party food.

You can fry it with friends, laugh at how people cut it,

And also if you have people who are hmmm...

very peculiar about their dislikes, you can all make your own Okonomiyaki

To match your own tastes. It's great.

It's like a mix of omelette and pizza.

Hey! (Don't copy me!)

Well that looks really good.

And that's how it gets on the hot plate and get's spread around.

Oh wow it smells so good.

I am not the patient type...

I also want the Vegan Okonomiyaki fried right now. So the director will be

frying the Vegan Okonomiyaki right now too. Thank you!

It looks like they use a type of sticky potato instead of the dough. Ops something just fell off the dish.

You can see I am holding the SHURE microphone in my hand because I want to...

really hear in detail how nicely it will sizzle on the hot plate.

You can experience that with me now.

Let's do it!

Time for one of my favourite moments... the flipping? The over flipping?

The flip of the Okonomiyaki!

Go!

This is great right?

And GO!

This is the Okonomiyaki sauce which is called... Sauce.

That was the Sauce and next stop is the Mayonnaise.

Director: MAYO

Mayonnaise! Mayo-naise!

Wow the director seems to like mayonnaise a lot!

And next up is...

Dried... dried seaweeds.

Here are the extra toppings...

So this is a finished normal Okonomiyaki.

This is also Sauce... - What did you use earlier???

I think it's both Sauce?

Now even more Sauce!

And this time we use our extra toppings too...

Let's see how well the director can prepare that for us.

That looks pretty good.

Please cut me a piece director!

Okonomiyaki also means that...

you fry what you personally like. So when you are out with friends...

everyone can just put in the stuff they like.

In my case it's the Avocado here...

It's like a perfect mix of Omelette and Pizza...

Everyone likes it because everyone has their own tastes they can fry up.

I often tried...

To make Okonomiyaki in the UK and in Germany...

But without the right type of sauce...

Without the right hot plate... it never gets as good as when you make it in Japan.

That was super good but I am excited to find out now...

What the vegan okonomiyaki is like. I have NEVER tried that you see.

Some of the ingredients are totally different too...

For example you can't use the famous Sauce for these...

Instead they made their own sauce. This one here

I am very excited what this will be like.

Well then off you go director.

And these one here are herbs and types of grass

herbs...

that come from natural sources. They give the whole thing a different taste too.

I was so curious to try this one out.

Let's see how it will be.

This looks very green.

Well that does look good.

So vegan Okonomiyaki with extra... two herb topings.

Let's try it.

There are different flavors coming together for this one...

Especially the beans that are used...

and similar things. This does taste pretty good.

I am glad I tried it at least once.

I think it's good. I could get used to it.

If you are Vegan that is great but I have to be honest...

Okonomiyaki for me personally isn't the same without the Okonomiyaki sauce...

I need to add this extra for me personally...

That's just for the Okonomikai flavor that I love the most...

Those were my top 5 Japanese dishes without Sushi!

you should try them all if you should come to Japan!

I hope you enjoyed this video. There are more videos in German and

also many more in Japanese and English..

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I hope you had fun and I will see you soon for another video on Ask Japanese. Bye.