If you're a huge coffee person, trying a cup of coffee jelly in Japan is a must. It’s a refreshing dessert made from black coffee, gelatin powder and sugar. It’s then topped off with whipped creme and sometimes ice cream. You can get a cup of coffee at any cafes or convenience stores in Japan!

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While crepes are invented in France and are well known worldwide, Japan has put it’s own spin on the crepe - as they do with anything! One of the most popular places to get Japanese style crepes is on Takeshita Street in Harajuku. Instead of eating crepes on a plate with a fork and knife, you can find crepes wrapped in paper and carried around like ice cream cones. It’s usually made up of a generous amount of whipped cream, cut fruits and a variety of sauces. The stores in Harajuku literally have over 100 different varieties of crepes which include interesting ones such as strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cake crepes. So, if you have a sweet tooth, then head on over to Takeshita Street to fulfill your sweet dreams.

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Everyone has heard or even tried cup noodles before. These delicious cups are filled with a variety of different soup noodles that are easy to carry around and takes only 3 minutes to make! The Cup Noodle started thanks to the invention of the instant ramen packages. The instant ramen package was created in 1958 by the founder of Nissin Food Company, Momofuku Ando. Then 13 years later, by the same person and company, The Cup Noodles were invented. Today, Cup Noodles has reached almost every corner of the world and has been created by many other companies. While you're in Japan, maybe you can try or even take home some interesting Cup Noodle flavors from Japan! Some of our favorite flavors from Japan are the miso and tonkotsu Cup Noodles.

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Daifuku Mochi is a very popular Japanese confection among both Japanese people and foreigners. It’s a small ball of mochi made from rice (or rice flour), water and sugar with some kind of a sweet filling. Usually it’s a red bean filling, but lately there have been creative fillings such as ice cream, whipped cream and even strawberries. These small delights are so delicious and a must eat in Japan!

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Dango is a Japanese dumpling mochi. Typically they are skewered, but still have non skewered types as well. They are usually accompanied by some green tea for a nice dango set. Of the many different types of dango, one of the most common skewered dango is the mitarashi dango. About 3-5 dangos are lined up on a skewer and grilled for a nice crisp on the outside with a nice warm chewy inside. After they are grilled, they are glazed with a thick layer of sweet soy sauce glaze. You can easily buy these at dango stands and convenience stores throughout Japan.

Photo Credit: Japan Centre

In 2019, Tokyo held the record for having the most Michelin stars in a city, clocking in at an extraordinary 230 restaurants holding one or more stars. In comparison, Paris came in second at 123 stars. Third was Kyoto and fourth was Osaka, two more Japanese cities. Japan has such a rich food culture it even invented (or discovered rather) the fifth flavor called umami. But, what makes Japan have such a rich food culture? It may lie in their use of dashi.

Dashi is a Japanese soup stock which forms the foundation of Japanese cooking. It’s a soup stock that’s used in a wide range of Japanese dishes like miso soup, noodles, takoyaki, okonomiyaki and more. The simple form of dashi is made by boiling kombu (Japanese kelp) and katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes) in water (they sell dashi in packs where you can use it like tea bags).

Dashi was actually the main reason the fifth flavor of umami was discovered. In the early 20th century, Chemistry Professor Kikunae Ikeda came home from a long days work and was sipping on soup that had dashi in it. As he was tasting this he wondered, “Why is it so good? What am I tasting?”. It wasn’t salty, sweet, bitter or sour, it was “pleasant”. He went on to call this umami (umami is derived from the word umai which means delicious).To best describe the taste of umami , it’s a pleasant, savory taste. But, dashi isn’t the only food that has umami in it. Cheese, nuts, tomatoes, eggs, fish, meats, and even human breast milk have umami in it. But what ties all these different foods together? Professor Ikeda discovered that it had something to do with the chemical compound of these foods.

Foods that are high in glutamates have a lot of umami in it. Our taste receptors respond to glutamates separately from the other four flavors. Kombu and katsuobushi, the two main ingredients of dashi is very high in glutamates which is why it has a lot of umami in it.

A dorayaki is basically a pancake sandwich with a red bean filling, usually enjoyed with a cup of tea. The word dorayaki consists of two parts - dora means gong and yaki is baked/fried meaning it's a baked gong - which makes sense after looking at its shape. This traditional confection dates back to the edo period (1603-1868) and legend states that it was accidentally baked in a gong once giving way to it’s name. It used to be one layered, but changed its current form of sandwiching the red bean in the early 1900s. You can find dorayakis at Japanese confection shops or even on our Tokyo food tour!

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The Japanese fruit parfait is popular in cafes and family restaurants across Japan. It’s usually made out of a base layer of granola and sponge cakes, with another layer of whipped cream and topped off with ice cream, mochi and fruits. It’s a perfect snack and/or dessert. Anyone from the United States might consider these a sundae rather than a fruits parfait. Depending on the season, they might have different seasonal fruits covering the fruits.

Photo Credit: Timeout Tokyo

The fruits sandwich is exactly what it sounds like, a sandwich with fruit fillings. Typically it uses milky white bread with the ears cut off with cream and some kind of fruit in it (strawberry is the most popular and common).

The origin of the fruit sandwich is not exactly clear but it is definitely an adoption of western culture in the 1900s. There are a couple interesting theories on how it was invented but it's thought to have been invented in either cafes in Kyoto during the 1920s or by Senbikiya, Japan’s first fruits parlor shop in Tokyo. Some other interesting theories are that it was invented for geisha workers to eat fruits without getting their hands sticky and dirty. It’s also thought to have been invented as a cheap way to enjoy fruits and cake, two luxury items during the early-mid 19th century in Japan because it uses small slices of fruits and replicates the taste of cakes by being sandwiches by two pieces of bread.  There are many interesting theories, but all we know is that Japan invented these wonderful sweet and savory snacks.

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In Japan there has been a huge green tea, or matcha flavored boom.Green tea is a traditional, old tea, but there has been a modern trend in green tea fusion snacks and drinks. For example matcha ice cream and matcha lattes.

The origins of match ice cream are not clear, but it is said that it has existed as a flavor in Japan since the meiji period as it was an item on the emperors menu. Green tea ice cream was always handmade but it was not properly merchandised by major companies because they stuck to normal flavors like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. However, the reason for its recent boom in popularity is actually from California. Maeda-en USA, the Japanese green tea company in the US started selling green tea ice cream saying it was pure japanese style from California. It became a huge popular dessert in California and even started to sell it in sushi restaurants. They began to import it to Japan and sold it in combinis and advertised it in newspapers. So, chefs began to realize that they can't just stick to the original three flavors and started including green tea as a modern twist. Maeda-en also invented the matcha latte in 1999 in the world's first ever Matcha cafe. Now matcha flavored snacks and drinks are literally everywhere in Japan.

Photo Credit: Roti n Rice