Anime Makes Me Hungry

(Originally posted 2018-12-22)

Over the last several years, there’ve been several anime series that have a major tendency to make me hungry while watching them.

(A reminder: This is part of my 12 Days of AniTAY 2018. Big thanks to Zarnyx for suggesting to go ahead and do it in mainline-TAY, and RedStripe118 for putting me on to the 12 Days of Anime idea in the first place.)

Now of course, I don’t just mean generically hungry. I mean, watching these shows, makes me wish I could be where the characters are, trying some of the kinds of dishes. (A former co-worker was apparently in Japan recently, and posting images of the restaurants he was visiting on Facebook, and I was practically drooling with jealousy ;p)

I have yet to try any of the recipes, but one of the first major influences for me on this was Amaama to Inazuma (Sweetness & Lightning). The different recipes each week, many of them looked delicious. For better or worse (probably worse?), I haven’t yet tried any of them, nor the ones listed in the manga, but hopefully someday.

Similarly, this year’s Emiya-San Chi no Kyou no Gohan (Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family), besides being another fun take on the Fate universe (if not quite so off-the-wall as Carnival Phantasm), gave much deliciousness that I hope to someday try making myself.

One of the big ones I’ve seen in a few different anime that I would love to do somewhere is yakiniku, the grilled meat restaurants. (I’m a sucker for grilling in the first place, one of my great disappointments this summer was not being able to get out and grill, American style, due to my recovery from a broken ankle.) Similarly, teppanyaki also looks fascinating.

Lower on my list, but not off, are some of the hot pot type dishes, and okonomiyaki. Also, soba and udon, and tonkatsu look pretty good as well. However, I’ve never been particularly interested in seafood, so the typical tempura shrimp, sushi, and takoyaki don’t really “do it” for me.

One of the things my wife and I have actually tried is a few ramen dishes. I never did instant ramen in college, and honestly, still wouldn’t now. I probably wouldn’t even do a ‘cup ramen’ where you add the water and microwave it. However, shows like Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san (Miss Koizumi Loves Ramen) have inspired us to try some things. Sometimes it’s been adding things to a pre-done frozen ramen package, and once or twice, we even put together a ramen dish from a recipe. So far simple stuff, but it’s definitely been something I’m interested in continuing to experiment with. (Sadly, in my current town, while there’s a ramen restaurant in the mall, it doesn’t seem to be terribly ‘traditional’ in any of the senses, and on top of it, mainly seems to be featuring seafood, so I’ve given it a miss.)

In grad school, I tried a local “Japanese” restaurant for lunch one time with some folks, and didn’t know what to try/think. Now, I’d be much more interested in giving a more serious place another go, and seeing if the real thing matches up to the hopes and dreams of food inspired by the animated versions 🙂

(And of course, this doesn’t even count the idea of going to a Japanese ‘family diner’ to experience the hijinks that shows like Working!! have told me must be happening there ;D)