Japanese Food Bites: Indulging in the Taste of Summer

Hello! I’m Rachel, a rising fourth year from the standard suburbs of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and I’m sharing our life in Japan from my little viewpoint today.

It’s another hot and humid trek to our lovely Ochanomizu university classroom except today, we have a guest speaker, Brandon Hikota, who has a mindset based upon self-sufficiency, fermentation, and sustainability which are all deliberately reflected in his vegan pizza take-out speciality store called “Vegan Pizza Tiga.”

From his cream tee with the word “hope” to his uniquely patterned socks, Hikota-san set a friendly atmosphere the moment he walked in. His quiet energy of excitement made me sit up a little taller in anticipation. He also carried plastic bags filled with boxes of pizza which had my curiosity fully piqued. We were going to be munching on them for lunch after his lecture.

Hikota-san’s lecture was in the format of a conversation with students and professors chiming along with comments and questions as he set the topic. He focused on the history of Japan, largely stemming from World War II in the context of food. After World War II, there was a focus on European food, instant food, and mass production in Japan and the traditional Japanese dishes were seen as “lame” and “out-dated.” As we can see, that mindset has manifested itself in the form of konbinis (7-11, Family Mart, etc.) in present day because of not only the convenience, but due to the economic bubble in Japan after World War II that factored into the toxic “workaholic” mentality in Japan. In the lovely spirits of mass production, farmers are coerced into an endless cycle of growing the same genetically modified crops rather than being able to farm their own chosen crops. Hikota-san implied that farming is an intricate craft nurtured by trial and error of the human mind, but mass production kills this creative spirit. Interestingly enough, this “mass production” mentality and “winging it” with instant and prepared foods is a stark contrast to Andoh-san’s “Washoku” which incorporates a large amount of patience. Due to these issues among many others discussed in class, Hikota-san holds his personal philosophy true to nutrient-dense, locally-sourced, and fermented foods. It is his way of becoming the best version of himself. It these types of ideas that that help me tinker my way through life in the most fulfilling way.

Just a side note in my own little mind: In a classroom setting, I tend to take an observer type of role since I find that it helps me make connections between concepts better and give me time to reflect on the material. It’s a bad habit, but I tend to zone out by flipping back on a concept in my head when the next topic is already on the table. During Hikota-san’s lecture, it was interesting to see who poses clarifying, thoughtful, or overarching themed questions because it shows a lot about the way a person thinks and compiles new information. This particular “dialogue” group has a mix of active listeners and commenters which lends itself to a flowing conversation. We have quite a few “yappers” with differing cultural and academic backgrounds and I only say it in the most endearing manner as they enrich the conversation.

The lecture was absolutely engaging, but I was getting hungry so I started nibbling my Family Mart Lychee gummies as I happily waited for Hikota-san’s homemade pizza. He started making these pizzas at 4am – I could never. The dedication was just pouring out. The origin story of the pizza stemmed from Hikota-san’s wife who had severe menstrual cramps so he created this vegan pizza filled with nutritious iron for her. Some details on the ingredients and process:

• All locally sourced vegetables for toppings
• Fermented brown rice + charcoal for the pizza crust
  • Similar to a sour dough
  • Fermentation allows for better iron absorption
• Foxtail millet for the cheese
• Organic salt (not enriched like the US iodine-enriched salt)
• Pizza crust was pan-fried

Verdict: I love Hikota-san’s Tiga vegan pizza and followed his Instagram @tiga-japan. Vegan pizza is certainly not one of my favorite foods or one that I would like to try but I would happily eat this one again. The crust was chewy and presented itself as a network of tiny aerated bubbles of varying sizes. The components of the pizza from the sauce to the vegetables were beautifully seasoned. I loved the fresh and vibrant pan-fried vegetables, and the foxtail millet has a braille-like, soft, and creamy texture that mimicked standard cheese. It seemed like my sentiment was shared with many other students as the ten slices of pizza left in the box were snatched up within minutes.

Between class and our upcoming festival adventure in the evening, I took a well-needed nap and then wandered around and found a MIFFY cafe – one of my favorite cartoon characters that I discovered in London back in my freshmen year of college. She is so aesthetically pleasing and I had to get their highlighted menu yogurt drink with the Miffy sugar cookie. Although the drink was standard in terms of flavor as it was very similar to the Chobani smoothie, the amount of serotonin from the delicately placed Miffy cookie and dewy cubes of jelly jewels that glimmered as light danced upon it was just pure bliss. Happiness ❤

In the evening, hosts from Ochanomizu took us to an Ennichi Festival in Ikebukoro near the Kishimojin Temple. Ennichi refers to the day when a deity was born or has left the world. The festival glowed in the dark with hues of scarlet and orange with dozens of stalls lining the walkway. The air was sizzling with the grilling and frying of the street vendor stalls with mixed aromas. People lined the stalls with clumps of groups and children skirted around while being menaces to each other. I split the six piping hot takoyaki balls with Jo and we stabbed and nudged them with our tiny wooden swords in attempt to get them to cool faster since my patience is always running thin when it comes to festival food. It was mesmerizing to watch the chef deftly rotate the batter into identical spheres – the cooking process has always been a favorite of mine for street food. After eyeing people walk around with refreshing sticks of bright yellow pineapple, I followed suit. It was so juicy, a hint of tart, and a breath of relief in the sweaty heat. After getting split off from the group due to my pineapple endeavor, I ran into Andy and Kelly who were deep in conversation while also enjoying takoyaki under a tree. Not wanting to intrude onto their conversation further, I stepped back into the bustling air of the festival to wander back to the front entrance to find people.

I had a craving for cold udon, so it was back to the underground maze of the Ikebukoro station in search of one. We walked in circles looking for this udon shop on Google Maps until we decided it was time for the “Help Desk.” Using my limited Japanese vocabulary, I did a quick inquiry and sadly, the service worker said it closed recently (my listening comprehension is better than I thought – the anime do be coming in a little handy). And so, it was back to the hotel with a konbini dinner for the convenience factor. Cold udon for another day then – we still have three more weeks left!