Hiroshima Archives - Pale Ale Travel

Exploring Hiroshima’s Underground Oyakodon Movement at Torisanwa

October 15, 2023October 15, 2023Asia, Food, Japan BigBody Leave a Comment

You know how in your quest to find a spectacular new restaurant in whatever country you’re traveling to, you’ll inevitably stumble on a social media influencer’s page who has an oddly well-produced, 30-second video vignette highlighting that restaurant or specific dish (with not another single customer in sight), and suddenly be overcome with this compulsion to eat there even though you know deep down it isn’t going to live up to the hype?

Of course, after arriving, reality hits as you see the two-hour line of other platitudinal travelers eagerly awaiting what turns out to be a meal you could have eaten 100 meters down the street, at one-half the price, and of better quality. Well, this post is to hopefully make you think twice before giving in to that urge.

This post is a call to (eating) arms to avoid settling for the most obvious choice (sometimes). Poke around, open that door that you’re unsure what’s behind it (unless it’s someone’s apartment), walk into a restaurant where you know it will elicit stares and awkwardness as you ask in broken Japanese if there are any available seats, step outside your comfort zone. You might just find the best oyakodon (or other beloved Japanese dish) you’ll ever eat in your life. I did.

Here’s a little bit about how this three-seat oyakodon counter in a supermarket at the bottom of a shopping mall in Hiroshima completely caught me by surprise, bringing me both tremendous joy and sadness at the same time. Joy because I knew this was the apex of what a fantastic oyakodon should be and sadness because I was set to leave Hiroshima the next day.

Hiroshima-Style Tsukemen That Will Put Some Hair on Your Chest

September 2, 2023January 31, 2024Asia, Food, Japan BigBody Leave a Comment

If you’ve read my post (and failed screenplay – thanks a lot M. Night) on the iconic, bustling food-theme park ‘Okonomimura’ in Hiroshima, then you already know just how memorable a time I had in this city.

From the most flavor-packed and savory oyakodon I’ve ever tasted (in the basement of a shopping mall) to sweet, battered, thick corn dogs at the Hiroshima Carp baseball stadium (the most raucous fans in all of Japanese baseball), to a thick, nutty and mince meat-topped dan dan noodles served while macabrely watching the Titanic, I did not have a single bad meal in my week-plus in the “City of Water.”

Rounding out this eating and baseball-fueled trip of mine was a popular ramen staple, unique to this resilient and historical city, Hiroshima-style tsukemen – cold boiled noodles topped with shredded cabbage, cucumber, and green onions, served with a dry chili oil (and chili pepper) and vinegar dipping broth, garnished with sesame seeds. This can be one spicy papacito (depending on the level of heat you choose).

M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Okonomimura’: The Okonomiyaki Village

August 29, 2023January 31, 2024Asia, Food, Japan BigBody Leave a Comment

Picture this. You’ve grown ravenous, bordering on feral, from the previous night’s drinking festivities in Hiroshima. 13 Sapporo draft beerus is the limit, you’ve tested it thrice over, just to make sure. You stumble outside of your hotel right off Hondori Shopping Street to a pitch black night sky and take a deep breath (like Frank in the ending scene of Nicholas Winding Refn’s ‘Pusher’). You put your head down and veer down a back alley, only to be confronted by a gaggle of grotesque monsters in red robes.

A robe slips off one of them. Only this time they aren’t the village elders attempting to create a bizarro-world 19th century enclave to protect you from the outside world. They are hulking, menacing, behemoth…grilled wheat flour pancakes stuffed silly with cabbage, yakisoba noodles, and seafood, topped with a fistful of green scallions, Japanese mayonnaise (for some), and descendent of Worcestershire sauce.

[The screen cuts to black]