Sanja Matsuri Food Festival
19 May 2013 – Tokyo
One thing i never missed in Japan is food. Especially when you go to such festival like Sanja Matsuri. As i told you in my previous post about how i found everything i saw in Manga and Anime real. The procession was exactly what i imagined. But for me, the food festival was the highlight. I bought so many stuffs, that makes me gone wild. Ate while walked, and stopped by every stall just to check what kind of food they sold. It was a wonderful experience. If you have the chance, you should visit one of Japanese event or festival (Matsuri).
Dango and Matcha Iced
After passing through Kaminarimon or Thunder Gate, you may find some shops selling edible stuffs. I found this one while avoiding the crowd in Nakamise main street. There were 3 good looking girls dressing in their yukata, serving kibidango and matcha iced. The dango was coated with soybean flour, which i thought it was grounded peanut like mochi. It tasted good, but be careful when you eat it. You may inhale the soybean flour and coughing not stop. The matcha iced was refreshing. It costed 400 yen in total.
Ogura Ice Cream
I found these in front of one old dessert house in the smaller street of Nakamise. Ogura or red bean ice cream covered with shell shaped cone. The ice cream tasted great. It was the beginning of summer, eating this gave you the nice feeling. It was a homemade ice cream and costed around 200 yen.
Matcha Kakigori
It was served inside of the old dessert house that sold the ogura ice cream. I lined up for couple of minutes, since it was full. It was 756 yen, quite expensive for a kakigori since we ate it in fancy dessert house. Since, later we found the real festival kakigori with colorful syrup on top. The one that we bought was shaved ice topped with matcha syrup and red bean on the bottom.
Traditional Japanese Sweet
We bought it in front of the dessert house for 640 yen. We were curious to try without knowing what it was (perhaps someone could tell me what it is?). It consisted of konyaku, brown sugar, ogura paste, mochi, mandarin orange and nut (i have no idea what). However, the taste was not fit our tongue. It felt like old taste.
Karaage
This one was the best Chicken Karaage i had ever tasted. The flavor was rich, the chicken was smooth, the mayonaise was great. I bought the small cup for 300 yen. It was located on the right side, just before the entrance gate of Sensoji Shrine. Too bad that i dont know the stall name.
Age Mongya
We were attracted by the pictures of television review on the stall. When we read the sign, this was something we never knew before. So, we gave it a try. They had 3 optional filling, cheese, kimchi and onion. We ordered the kimchi one. It looks like a fried wanton skin or traditional chicken puff. Amazingly, it tasted sooooo good. So, i might believe of the word “Tokyo Asakusa Famous Food”
Yakitori
Or probably, should i called it street steak. The first one was bought from the black shirt man, i believed it was wagyu. The meat was so tender and delicious, even though only seasoned with salt and pepper. It was heaven in our mouthes. I have no idea how to describe the awesomeness. Awesome and Period! The second one was bought from another stall, but was not that satisfying. It was 600 yen each stick.
Ayu no Shioyaki
This one made me so excited (to be honest, all the food here were exciting for me). It was fresh fish, i saw the old man sticked the fish to form a wave. Then he grilled it over charcoal. It was rather difficult to eat while stand up. As you see the salt is all over the fish, we had to throw some away or else we might got hypertension. Overall, i was satisfied with the taste. The fish meat was sweet. You can have it for 500 yen.
Modan Yaki (Okonomiyaki with soba)
Bacon, egg, soba, shrimp, bonito, with mayonaise. This was so delicious and tasty. It was so good. I love festival foods, all of them were satisfying.
Ramune (Japanese carbonated soft drink)
The traditional ramune that i found unexpectedly when we were going to leave Asakusa. I thought i was not going to have one, since it was quite difficult to find. It was packed in plastic bottle sealed with a marble. Without more information on how to open Ramune, we did it almost correctly. It tasted like Sprite or 7 Up with less flavor. Those who did not find it can try Matsuya Cider, it was available in all convenience store.
Toy Stalls
Aside from the food stalls, we also saw some stall selling toy or figurine from famous characters like Ultraman, Pokemon, Doraemon, Disney, Power Rangers, and Sanrio. We did not have much time to try one, since we had Cassiopeia to catch and too busy munching and growing our stomach. Next time when we visit Japan, we plan to spend whole day in Matsuri. I am going to try Kingyo Sukui or Goldfish Scooping.