00:02 John Daub: Oh wait, the music. Yes, this is a battle between Okinawa. Do you see that? That is called Okinawa soba. It has a very unique taste. We're going to be trying this, but it's going to be fighting against this one. This is a Hokkaido miso ramen. Miso is very famous from that area up north. And I'm very excited to try this one because there's a big bear on it. And it says only Hokkaido taste. This is going to be an amazing experience. This is going to be an amazing adventure. Joining us is negi (Japanese leeks), and of course, ajitama (marinated soft-boiled eggs) because you need one of these for deliciousness and just the beauty of it.

00:37 John Daub: All right, let's turn this music off. That's enough of that. How you doing, everybody? Welcome to another stay-at-home edition of Only in Japan Go because, you know, we got a lot of time on our hands. I thought I would take these two ramens that have been sitting in my kitchen for a while. And we're going to open it up and try them. And I've been boiling water here. Boy, that pot's kind of dirty. Which one do you think is going to be better? Okinawa versus Hokkaido? I'm going to leave that up to you. We're going to try.

01:10 John Daub: I love the colors of this. I got this at the Okinawa store in Tokyo near Ginza. How you doing? Hey, Misty, Joy, Evan, Alicia. I see you guys are here. We're going to try this one first, but we need to get hot water and we need to cut this negi. So let's do that, shall we? Thank you so much for joining us in this quarantine edition. I hope everybody is doing well, staying safe. For me, this is a real treat because when you're inside, there's not a lot of things that you can do.

01:56 John Daub: I've been editing video for a new channel that's coming, and I'm pretty excited to be releasing that in a couple of days. Announcement forthcoming. Which one's better? I love the Japanese negi. It has a really good taste to it, a crispiness to it. And we often see this in ramen, not just because it adds taste, but also because it adds color. A little bit of fresh green to it. Although, they don't often use the green parts of the negi. Kanae doesn't in cooking anyways.

02:33 John Daub: Join me down here as I cut this thing. So we're going to make sure we have a really good flavor to this. I kind of will cut this into pieces. Yeah, don't make fun of my knife skills. I don't have very good knife skills. We call this the typical guy knife skills. It's typical. Nothing special here. That's kind of thick. Negi, because it has such a robust, strong taste to it that's like garlic, you don't want it in really big chunks. That should be more than enough for the ramen here.

03:24 John Daub: I'm also going to be opening up this. I got this for about a dollar. I don't know, about that dollar, $1.50 at the supermarket. And these are ajitama, so I'm just going to cut one of these up and then I'll be able to put this into the ramen as a garnish. Because we want our ramen to look like it does at the shop. That's only fair. Let's open up this ramen here. This is the Hokkaido Miso Ramen. And if you're a Daimyo supporter on my Patreon, you received this when I went to Sapporo a couple of months ago.

03:45 John Daub: This is pretty good. Let's open it up. This actually cost about $3.50. And, okay good, it's not expired. I'm always worried about that. Whoa! First off, these noodles look a lot better than the ones that you get at the supermarket, don't they? And you know what, it's a bag in a bag, right? So that means these are going to stay a little bit fresher than the ramen that I had. This is the ramen that you get at the supermarket in the United States. Hey, Edo's here! Nice to see you, Edo.

04:36 John Daub: And look at this, this is the flavoring. It's just basically miso. Alright. The packaging says here, Ezo Brown Bear since 1982. I think for me, the packaging is just so badass. Look at that. And Hokkaido is famous for its Asiatic black bears. But they have all sorts of different kinds of bears up there. It tells you the directions for cooking it. Oh wait, I'm not supposed to put it in a pot and then do it like this. We're going to do it John's way then.

05:15 John Daub: I don't know why I was... I'm going to do it the way... Alright, so three cups of water. Wait three and a half minutes with the noodles. Then add the soup. Mix it up, and then eat it. Okay, let's do this. What's the best way do you think I should do this? I've already boiled the water. Should I make both of the ramens and then compare them by look and then eat it? I think that might be the best way to do it. Alright, we'll do it like that.

05:46 John Daub: Let's unbox the Okinawa ramen then. Here. Unpackage it. I love the colors of this. Now this was a little bit cheaper. This one cost about a dollar each. Alright, the water is ready. This cost about a dollar each. And Okinawa is more... They're very famous for their pork down there. This one looks like a very delicious braised... Very tender pork that you can get down there. The directions are pretty simple. Oh, they also say here... Don't do it the way I'm going to do it. Add 500 ml or two cups of water.

06:24 John Daub: So it's not as much water in this one. Add in the flavoring. Then add in... Okay, so there's more than one seasoning to this. Let's go ahead and do this. Because this is a little bit cheaper... I know the packaging is nice, isn't it? Because it's a little bit cheaper, you can see that unlike the Hokkaido ramen, the Okinawa ramen came not in another special package. But it's freeze-dried. As long as it's dry, it's going to be the same. I don't think you get any fresher than this.

07:08 John Daub: The noodles look definitely different, right? Hokkaido, Okinawa. So the Okinawa noodles look different. They look more like udon, right? A little bit thicker. So I guess it's going to have a wheatier taste to it. Where these thinner noodles, the thing with them is... Yeah, you get a little bit more of the soup taste with these and more of the noodles taste. So I'm guessing that the soup is going to be more impressive in the Hokkaido in the miso ramen one.

07:39 John Daub: Alright. I'm just going to do it the way I usually make it in college. They actually wanted me to prepare it like... This is hardcore preparation. The way that John does it might not be the best way, but guess what? It's the way that I know. So we're going to go with that. Alright, let's start off with the Hokkaido ramen. Here's the miso. We can do it at the same time because I believe I have six cups of water in that pot here.

08:10 John Daub: So this is the miso. I'm going to put this in here for better or for worse. I know, like, there's people getting angry at me, I'm sure. You're doing it wrong! You know what? I probably am. But it's going to taste the same. There you go. There's miso in a bowl? That looks like chocolate. It doesn't... It smells like miso. Make sure. Got to do a smell check. I do that before I do the laundry, too. Kanae gets angry.

08:43 John Daub: Alright, and here is the soup for the Okinawa one. I'm going to add this powder in here. Flash freeze-dried. Not freeze-dried. There is a difference. Open the powder. One, two, three. Here we go. Alright, so this is more... Obviously, you can see the difference between the two based on the price alone. The miso ramen actually uses real miso here. So that's pretty impressive for that. And this is the powder. It's not going to make it taste any less, but instant ramen generally, it's... I know it's not chocolate!

09:21 John Daub: But instant ramen generally is very salty. So, I think you're going to get that burst of salt. And then you have the difference between the taste of the noodles and then the taste of the toppings that you put in here. So we're going to do this... We're going to do this right now. Just put the water in. I'm always looking for the Saturday Night Fever version of this. Alright. I'm not measuring how many cups. It just says more for this one. Alright, and then over here, it's not as much.

10:01 John Daub: You guys can get angry at me if I'm not doing this right. It's okay. Working in a ramen shop. Alright, let's mix this up. Mix this up. Alright, turn off the music. That's enough of that. Alright, right away, I can smell the difference in the room now. It's more of a fish broth and pork smell to it. And whoa! You can really see the miso now! Look at that! Oh, a little bit of soy sauce and miso. That tastes so much fresher!

10:38 John Daub: Okay. Make sure I don't put the wrong one in here. This is the... Oh wait, that doesn't fit. I didn't think this out, did I? Wait, hold on. Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da. Didn't really think this through. It's okay. It will taste the same. Except somebody will get angry at me. Alright, right away, it looks that I totally did it wrong. So, I'm going to break it in half, which is not what it says to do.

11:26 John Daub: We're on a really bad start, everybody. Look, if you do things perfectly, then you're, you know, you're one of these people who never make a mistake in your life. So, I make mistakes all the time. So, what I'm going to do, while I cut the egg now, I'm going to cover it up and let the steam eventually break down these noodles. Keep the heat in. Nosh can't handle this. You can't handle the truth. This is a quote from a movie.

12:07 John Daub: Next up, this is why Kuma's Kitchen is a very good show compared to John's thing. Okay, I don't have scissors, so I'm going to just cut it with a knife. Look at all that juice. Does it say to keep the juice? No. Okay, just get rid of the ajitama juice. Boom! Alright, these ajitama are really hard to find, I think, outside of Japan. A few good men, that's right. Let's cut it up and we're going to... Hold on a second. I really gotta...

12:45 John Daub: Alright, the noodles are starting to soften up over here on the side. That's good news. That means I can get it in the broth. I should have done it the other way around. And the Okinawa noodles, they're getting there too. Don't you worry! Don't you worry, Nosh. We got this covered. Here we go. Three, two, one. Oh. Alright. That looks pretty good. I can't complain. It's going to give it a nice color to it. Ajitama dollar. I got two eggs. I don't need both of them. I'll save one for Kanae for later.

13:27 John Daub: Alright. So now typically you have to wait for three minutes for the noodles to get soft. As you know, I did it wrong, so I might wait longer. There you go. See, I let it steam up in there. That's right. Now there's one more pepper that I have to add. This is supposed to go into the Okinawa ramen. This is a little bit of shichimi (seven-spice pepper) and seven peppers. There's a little bit of spice in there. Yeah. Alright. That looks pretty good.

14:07 John Daub: Look, you know, if you keep saying it looks good and you did it perfect, you start to believe your own words. This looks really good. I did it perfect, okay? And over here, how's this Hokkaido ramen doing? It's not doing very good. Just let it sit in there. It's kind of still really good. Alright, good. We're getting there. We're getting there. Little by little, we shall get there. That's wonderful. Ah, yeah. Almost I can already taste it. I can already taste it.

14:47 John Daub: I'm going to take these out over into the other room and taste it in my tasting room, which is my living room. Now we're going to add in some of this cut up see these cut up leeks here. Let's do it right now. I'm going to have to take the top off. There you go. It's a nice color over there. Here we go on this side. Ooh. That almost looks like the package. Let's put a little ajitama here. Oh, look at that. Wow. That's just amazing.

15:25 John Daub: It doesn't quite look that way. Brendan Walker's here for properly sized ramen bowls. Yes, thank you. Yes, I actually have them, but I wanted to look at the broth through the glass ones. It does look almost the same. No, what do you think? No? No, not really. Noodles are going to be hard, probably. Well, maybe I like it that way. Huh? Jitto's nightmare. What? Okay, we're getting there. You know what? The broth's going to be good. Look at the bright side.

16:07 John Daub: Alright. Alright. All you trolls out there saying it's going to be awful. Look. You know what? You guys got to be more positive. Things might go, things might be really good. You don't, you never know until you fail and try again. Let's get this here. I've got, I've got a soup spoon. Just not really a soup spoon. And I got the bowl and some chopsticks. So we're going to take a look at the color here. And then I have one more spice to add to the Okinawa one.

16:41 John Daub: And I'm holding right now the Hokkaido one. The Hokkaido one says it takes five minutes. Alright. And let me get the spice. We don't want to forget that. Turn this light off. I don't think that helped at all. And should I get Mozart back? No. Some people were offended by that. Like how dare you play Mozart and you ruined the ramen. Well I think he wasn't, wasn't Mozart blind or deaf? I can't remember. But he was a genius.

17:25 John Daub: Alright. Let's take a look here. Oh, before we, before I do that, I want to add in this to the proper one. This is Hokkaido. It's still brewing. Oh wow. This Okinawa one is starting to look really good. Oh ho ho. Nice. Let's give it another minute. So how is everybody doing out there? I have been doing pretty good. In fact, if you are on the internet, which is most of you, you would be able to see that Kanae and I are on Tokyo Eye that is playing right now on TV around the world.

18:01 John Daub: We filmed this about like less than a week ago. And I set up a studio right here. You can see the picture of it on Instagram. Only in Japan TV. One word. And we got a chance to share with everybody this is really cool. To share what I've been doing on this channel for the last two months because I have had to stay at home, right? But they also put in a scene where a lot of you guys were on there featured because they showed the chat going by in the online camping and that was really cool.

18:45 John Daub: I don't see it right here. Because right now we are just waiting for the noodles to prepare itself. But if you go to NHK World, I will put a link down here. You can check it out. Some of the stuff that we did on go made it into the edit of that. And that was really exciting. Kanae was like, I'm on TV. I said, yeah you are but you are on YouTube all the time. I think more people are watching what we are doing here. But it's always an honor to be part of the greatest show on TV.

19:22 John Daub: Let's see how they are doing here. I want to take you down. Let's take a look at the broth and compare. The reason why I use this bowl is because I wanted to look at the broth here. No fish swimming. That's pretty good. And then if I pan over here, you can see this is the miso ramen. Some of the miso part of the bowl. That's not condensation. That's the miso. Kind of clumped up. So I'm going to want to mix this up a little bit.

19:48 John Daub: We are going to try the miso ramen first. I think it's done. Let's open her up. Oh! That does look really good. This is the Okinawa ramen with that ajitama. Should be warmed up from being in there. Now let's look at the miso ramen. That looks pretty good too. Those noodles might be a little bit hard. Let's mix her up a little bit. It's getting there. Let's try it.

20:27 John Daub: So, how do you get a hold of these ramens? Well, if you are a Patreon supporter, you would have gotten it in February. Kanae and I sent out boxes to people once a month. It's not that the lens is dirty. It's just the lens flare from the sun. This is not quite finished miso ramen. I don't know if I should wait longer. Let's start off with the Okinawa then. The internet is like shocked. I wrote an OMG. Still hard. Don't do it.

21:08 John Daub: Alright, this is actually doing better. Here. This is doing better. Okay. Which one do you think is going to be more delicious? It's up to you to vote. On the right side. This side. Which would be your left or is that my right? This is the miso ramen from Hokkaido versus Okinawa. Miso, Okinawa soy tasted one. I'm not even sure what Okinawa ramen is. I've never heard of Okinawa ramen but we are going to taste this. I think we're pretty close to done here. Let's try this Okinawa ramen first.

21:55 John Daub: Wow. Right away you can see that the noodles truly are different in this one. Look at this. So they're more like soba noodles. They've gotten softer now. I guess I just had to open them up a little bit. So we're going to see how these are undercooked. Yeah, they probably are. But I can't wait any longer. I'm just starving. I should call up Kevin. No, you know what? Kevin's just going to scold me. And he's going to do it in a way that makes me feel good about myself. Because that's the way Kevin does it.

22:51 John Daub: That's not undercooked. That's really good. They're like a mochi mochi. Kind of a spring to this one. I like that. It's got a really good consistency to it. So when you do bite and chew these noodles, they really are springy in the mouth. Let's try the soup here. I like the negi in there. The broth is salty. A little bit of a pork taste to it. There's some oil in there. And this ajitama that I bought has warmed up from the broth. Let's try this here.

23:57 John Daub: It's gotten some of the soy sauce taste into the outer layer of the egg. It's really good. And the yolk. Now I like mine more hanjuku (half-boiled), kind of runny. But I think when you put it packaged in here, the yolk has absorbed some of the flavor of the broth that they were cooking it in. You can see it in the package. Hey, Queen of Tacos is here! Hi, John. Enjoy the noodles. Thank you.

24:22 John Daub: You know what? Even if it's a little bit undercooked, I really do enjoy this one. It's going to be hard to beat the Okinawa. Now we gave the Hokkaido in a little bit more time because we thought that the noodles are not quite... I cooked it my college student way. College student recipe. Irvan, you should have added bear meat from the creepy vending machine. If you go back about two years, Peter von Gomm and I went to a vending machine corner in Akihabara, in the back streets of Akihabara.

24:54 John Daub: This is kind of a little bit far around from the station closer to Iwamotocho in that area of Tokyo. We found a canned bear meat there. We didn't buy it or even venture to do it because it was like $10. First of all, I don't want bear meat and it might be interesting. I've eaten it before, but I don't know. In a can? Really? I don't know. We passed. But other YouTubers have not. Kanae is actually resting. She hurt her back dancing. So we're just going to let her be and get well soon, Kanae.

25:32 John Daub: I'll make her lunch later. Now that she's sick, I'm the one in charge now of cooking. Good luck to her too. Now the noodles are okay, they've softened up enough to eat. Let's try it right here. This is a Sapporo Hokkaido Ramen noodle ramen. And they're yellow because Sapporo makes the noodles with egg in it. So that egg yolk gives the noodles a yellow consistency. That's how one way you can tell from Hokkaido Ramen because the noodles have a different color to it.

26:09 John Daub: Mmm. That is really good. Wow. These noodles are really good. These noodles do not taste like freeze-dried noodles, like flash frozen noodles. These taste like I was at the shop. It really does taste fresher. It tastes a lot fresher than the other one. So in noodles, I give this for instant ramen, I give this 5 stars. This one gets 3.8 stars out of 5. 3.5. It's 3 stars, but 5 for that extra mochi mochi. It's got a really good spring to the bite. I like that.

27:18 John Daub: So the Okinawa one gets 3.5 and this one gets 4 or 5. Hold on. Right away obviously you can taste the difference in the broth. Now the wavy noodles here that you see in this bowl, ramen connoisseurs, meaning the professional ramen eaters, a lot of them prefer the wavy noodles, especially the Kitakata ramen. These are Kitakata ramen noodles, the wavy ones, because when you take a slurp of the noodles that are wavy, they say that the waves catch more of the broth. So you get more of the flavor not just of the noodles, but of the actual soup.

28:18 John Daub: And that's just a little inside information on wavy noodles versus straight noodles. Now the broth competition. This is very very salty. I can taste the oils in there. But, yeah. Kind of a weaker pork, but there's a dashi (fish stock) in there as well, which is a fish soup stock. It's mixed pretty good. But instant ramen is hard for me because it's always very salty, you know. Sometimes they overdo the salt. Let's try the broth here.

29:00 John Daub: Slightly, a little bit too salty. But maybe you can add a little bit more water to this. So I didn't measure it out like a professional. Maybe a little bit more water to it. Yeah, that miso is so good. Miso ramen is my favorite of all the ramens. There's tonkotsu, which is a thick pork bone ramen broth. There's shoyu (soy sauce), which I think this might be more into a shoyu. There's shio (salt), which is a salt flavored ramen. And then there's miso.

29:43 John Daub: There's four main types of ramen broths for typical shio, shoyu, tonkotsu, and miso. I like miso the best. It's just that extra dimension that they add in with the miso. That natural saltiness to it and the complexity of the broth. I don't care about the thick one of tonkotsu. I do like the Hakata Kyushu tonkotsu ramen. But if I had a choice, I would always pick miso. And it just seems, miso seems healthier. Let's try this ajitama.

30:17 John Daub: Mmm. That ajitama tastes better in this one. I think the taste in this one is really, really distinguished. It's really, mmm, it's a really special tasting one. So, I think that ajitama had another flavor from cooking in a different kind of broth. But the broth that the ajitama was cooked in, that aji (taste), the flavor, suited this one a little bit better than this one. But, you know, hands down, this one wins. Not because it was more expensive, just because of it tastes fresher and it tastes more distinctive. Mmm. Those noodles are good.

31:11 John Daub: It probably would have been about 25% tastier if I'd done it the way that they instructed. But, I did it my way. It was easier. And it still tastes pretty good. I'm gonna be a very happy man for the rest of the day. Do you have any questions now at this time? I will take your questions. I wanna show you something else here in the kitchen. I'm gonna be sending this to some of our Patreon supporters, Daimyo supporters here.

31:40 John Daub: So these are also different kinds of instant ramen. Check it out. These are more of a premium kind of instant ramen that we would get in Japan. See the way that they come? They're different, packaged differently. This is Oita, which is down in Kyushu (island in southern Japan). You can see the broth. This is more soy-based. Um, Kyushu typically has a tonkotsu pork bone broth, but this is a pack that you can buy for a couple dollars. And I'll be putting one of these in the Daimyo packages for June.

32:25 John Daub: This is a tonkotsu ramen. This one comes from Kyushu. It's also a non-fried one. Takes three minutes. And it's a portion for two people, which is pretty good. Tonkotsu, yeah. This is a pork bone broth. So you can already see the colors are different. This one is also from Kyushu. This is Miyazaki ramen. Miyazaki ramen, um, Miyazaki is famous for its chicken. So this one is chicken-based ramen. It's not pork, chicken. And it, once again, it says for two people.

33:02 John Daub: Here, it takes three minutes. So maybe in another episode, as we explore more ramens, because we're trapped at home, I'll compare these three Kyushu ramens. These are all from Kyushu. You can see here Kyushu Island down in the south, from three different areas of Kyushu. This might be really interesting to try out in another livestream. And maybe Kanae will help me because I totally messed this up. It wasn't pretty. Right? Anybody have complaints? Complaint department is all over there. Nobody's in there.

33:34 John Daub: You keep your complaints to yourself. I'm in quarantine. So we're gonna try that in another livestream, um, later on and see which one is the better one. Those cost about the same as this miso ramen. They're about three dollars for each one. So it's not very expensive. Three, three fifty? Yeah, between three and four dollars. It depends on which area you are, but I'm gonna send either one or two of them to, uh, the Patreon supporters, uh, the Daimyo supporters, because, um, to America, I had to send them surface mail.

34:10 John Daub: They're gonna take, like, one to two months, they said. It's not gonna be... I, it's not fun to wait for this. So I will answer your questions. Go ahead. The big announcement is sort of everybody knows about it. I have a new channel. That's it. I haven't launched it yet. The animated opening for the new channel is, um, they've been working on it really hard over the last couple of months, so they needed an extra day. So probably as soon as it's done, done, and I've seen it, then I'm gonna release the new channel. And I believe strongly it'll be this week.

34:55 John Daub: Literally drooling. Look at the broth there. That, this miso. I could just inject this inside, just savor it. It's, it's just, ah, just makes you feel so good to drink this. Adding the negi really gives it, um, it makes it fresher and gives it, uh, a crunchy taste and, uh, the, they're pretty strong. It's, it's a different, hits a different side of the tongue, uh, and if you have it in hot water for a while, it also gets rid of the strength of it a little bit.

35:36 John Daub: John creates miso shots. Oh, that would be good. What type of ethnic food do you miss that you can't get in Japan, John? There's a lot of ethnic foods that you can get in Tokyo. Um, outside of Tokyo, it's very hard. A lot of ethnic foods you can get around the embassies. Uh, Nakano has really good, uh, sorry, Takadanobaba, for example, you can get, I don't know why there's like six or seven Myanmar, Burmese restaurants. You can get really good Indian food around the Indian embassy, of course.

36:05 John Daub: Uh, every embassy is here in Tokyo, except for maybe some of the rogue countries might not have them, but I, you know, I don't really miss too much. Um, I do miss getting, um, a really good Indian food, and it's more suited to Japanese tastes here. Uh, it's not quite the same, not as spicy, not as authentic. Uh, but, uh, Kanae and I, we love masala dosa. And we can't get a good masala dosa here in Tokyo. That's kind of a shame.

36:34 John Daub: Another camping out on your balcony? Possibly! Somebody saw the NHK show. Uh, Kanae and I were camping in there. Yeah, you know, I might get the tent out one last time before June, uh, just because, um, the lockdown, the state of emergency is over, but we cannot travel to other prefectures yet. So, uh, I'm gonna wait a little bit. Hey, Dimitri's here! I do visit Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Shinto shrine, Buddhist temples. Uh, that's how you remember. SSBT.

37:09 John Daub: Uh, thanks, buddy, for the recommendation. Cool. I'm looking at the, your guys' questions. Not a lot of questions here. Tanarino Totoro. I have put on, I have put on a massive amount of weight. Basically, I cannot do any naked man festivals or get into an onsen for your benefit. It just is really bad right now, and I'm gonna have to be, uh, exercising. I did hurt my knees. Uh, a while ago, and then I sprained my ankle trying to self-distance from a guy not wearing a mask, coughing on the street.

37:39 John Daub: I came back running. This guy was coughing, looking at his smartphone, go, and so I made a really large circle, but then I was kind of looking at him, and I missed the curb. I twisted my ankle, and it took me out of commission for about two weeks. But I just kept eating like I'm a teenager, because I kept cooking, and I put on, uh, quite a lot of weight. You can tell from the third or fourth chin, it's just fine, you know. It's quarantine fat, I guess.

38:07 John Daub: I do plan on going live on Twitch in about an hour or so. Most of you will be asleep, though, but I've been trying to do some Twitch livestreams, and it's been an interesting ride. Gyms are not open, by the way. They're all closed until May 31st, and that has been extended until the middle of June, while they open up in steps. Gyms are one of the last places to open up, because that's been a cluster zone, where people have been getting sick the most.

38:38 John Daub: Um, I lost weight in quarantine. You don't live with Kanae, alright? She's cooking all the time. She loves it. She can't cook now, because she hurt her back. I'm doing the cooking. So probably I start losing the weight now, because I can't eat when I'm cooking. I'm not a bad cook! It's just, I've been spoiled, because ever since getting married, Kanae's the one who's been cooking, and it just tastes better when she cooks. It's true.

39:07 John Daub: And when I cook, it's more darkness. You don't know what you get. The things that I put on the oven, in the oven, and boil, we don't know how they will turn out. They could be, you know, like, I've made pizza, and every time I make pizza, it never tastes the same, and I swear I am measuring all the ingredients. It just doesn't taste the same each time. Each time has its own characteristic. Um, I'd like to get some more consistency. I know that, like, uh, Domino's is so consistent, I'm in awe of their consistency.

39:44 John Daub: My cooking tastes different each time. What happened to the DVD you did? What do you mean? What do you mean? What happened? What happened? What do you mean what happened? Do you mean this? Do you mean this? Uh, it's all been sent out to every single supporter. That took a long time. It was a lot of fun. It's a pretty good movie. It's almost three hours long. It has a director's track and it ages you a little bit. About that. But it's not on sale now because I can't send them out.

40:21 John Daub: So, they'll be put on sale soon. Um, Shane writes in. By the way, it's a Blu-ray. Just so you know. It's HD. Hey, Kuma's Kitchen's here! Kevin! Kevin is here! Kevin, do not watch what I did, alright? Don't watch this episode from the beginning. You will be horrified at how I made instant ramen. But, for the record here, um, you can see the broth. This is miso, right here. And this is Okinawa's, um, pork-based soy-tasting one.

40:56 John Daub: Kevin writes, Laugh out loud. I already heard. Oh my gosh. Okay. You don't want to get on the bad side of the King of Osaka. It doesn't always work out well for those who... You know, Kevin's such a nice guy, it doesn't really matter. And if you do go to Osaka, look him up. He's pretty good at taking people around. He knows all... Nobody knows Osaka better than... Or the whole Kansai region, even though he says he doesn't know Kyoto, he does now, than Kevin Reilly.

41:26 John Daub: So take a look at Kuma's Kitchen if you want to see cooking done right. If you want to see cooking done better. Kevin Reilly. You should do comparison. No, John. You're in kitchen trouble. Oh no! Oh, I don't want to be in kitchen trouble. That means I'm probably going to have to pay for the okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancake) dinner we have in the neighborhood, in Teradacho. I've been craving good okonomiyaki (savory cabbage pancake) for ages.

41:51 John Daub: We literally, Kanae and I, have not been able to eat at a restaurant in so long. We're really looking forward to step two of the lockdown when it's a little bit safer to go out to the restaurants. It's just we are a little bit worried about that and we're still doing takeaway and we'll probably do another takeaway next week or maybe by the end of this week. So if you have some suggestions, maybe soba, maybe tempura, tendon maybe something else from a local restaurant.

42:15 John Daub: We're doing our best to support local businesses and it's really hard because a lot of the local businesses are closed. We took a not suggestible trip out a few days ago before the announcements were made and we hurried home after that but we saw some small business owners running stands and they were so happy to see us and we bought what we needed. They didn't have a lot on sale but we bought what we needed. And came back but I think I feel really when I watch back that video and I think about it, it really like Japan needs you.

42:59 John Daub: They need the tourists and the businesses need the tourists to come not just to converse with but I think when the people start coming back to Japan again you'll be welcomed so much by open arms by half of the population and the other half will be like, what are you doing here? It's too early. And the other half will be like, welcome! Life's getting closer back to normal! So it's going to be really happy time for me I think when tourism starts to trickle back depending on your country situation.

43:27 John Daub: Ramsey Silence here! Hey, Ramsey! You missed a bunch of Super Chats to get Can I Take Out? Please take a look. I might have missed it. Hold on, I'll go back. Let's give our respect to those who are supporting here. Yeah, Brenda MC. Oh, I did! Totally did! Brenda MC little fist bump there. Chris Hanson's got the Pear Man, a little coffee there. Chris, thanks for sharing the pictures there. It looks really interesting. I love this. Your cherry blossom photos that you shared on Instagram.

43:58 John Daub: Irvan, get some Kitakata Banai Ramen to help her heal. You know what? Kanae hasn't had a bowl of ramen in two months and she's grew up on ramen, alright? Her dad's favorite food, her favorite food. She hasn't had a decent bowl of ramen and this is not decent so I cannot feed her this. I have to do something better. So maybe we'll do Ramen Takeout. We're still looking for an option for that.

44:20 John Daub: Dimitri, best birthday ever. Thanks for doing this. Happy birthday, Dimitri! I didn't even know! Dimitri just joined our Patreon postcard club. So thank you for that and happy birthday. That's great. Raymond Centeno's here. A for attempt and some takeout for you and Kanae. That is perfect. We're gonna put that towards some takeout. We're gonna do one more takeout I think. Maybe two depending on if we can go out on this channel.

44:42 John Daub: So look for that coming up in the next few days. It's up to Kanae. And I might do a midnight snack where I order a Domino's pizza because they have the tapioca pizza. It's really weird. I'm very curious about that. Tapioca pizza. That makes me sort of choke on myself. Misty writes in here, please tell Kanae I miss her and get well soon. Kanae, Misty says get well soon! She said thank you. She's resting in the other room. She's probably watching the horror show on her iPhone laughing at me. Not with me.

45:30 John Daub: Alright guys, um, there you go. Last one, Okinawa. Hokkaido. Hands down, Hokkaido. But I gotta say, I was pretty pretty happy with the Okinawa because the noodles were really good. It always helps to add in your own toppings. You can add in some bamboo shoots that we also got from Fujinomiya the other day. But, they're still soaking and haven't been cooked. Noshiers might not be going to California. Apparently it's illegal to send fruits and vegetables across the Pacific.

46:07 John Daub: But, we'll get some ramen when you make your way here one of these days. Hopefully this fall, everyone will be able to come back. We'll go get some ramen and we'll get some extra menma (bamboo shoots topping). Menma is what you call the bamboo shoots on there. And if you look on the picture, here, you'll see it on there. Menma is so good. Menma is so good. Actually, it's not on the Okinawa one. These are the two that we ate today. Okinawa versus the Hokkaido.

46:40 John Daub: I do like this. You can find this just about everywhere when you go to Hokkaido. It's sold at the tourist shops because it's mostly a gift but it's really, really good. And here's the one that we're going to be trying in another live stream. Kanae's going to help me out with this. These are three different types of Kyushu ramen. These come Kanae's father recommended. So, bing! A little check mark there. Verified by Kanae's dad who buys this brand. And he's a ramen lover so they're really authentic.

47:13 John Daub: So, I'm looking forward to that. Probably sometime this weekend we'll do another ramen episode because if we can't get order ramen, we can make it ourselves and get as close as possible. Although, Ramen Guide Japan, a friend of mine, he has a really good Instagram page. I'm going to see if he can join me on a trip out to a ramen shop. He knows more than me and probably will fix all of my problems with making ramen as well as eating it. I don't eat it properly either.

47:43 John Daub: You should drink the broth first, they say. But look, I do what I want to do. Alright? Can't fault a man for going straight into the meat, okay? Alright, last couple of questions here. Oh! I will be doing a Patreon live stream by the end of the month. Probably on the weekend as well when more people can watch it. Let's click the like button. If you guys want to see this, click the like button. If we can get to a thousand likes on the playback of this video, then I will do it.

48:13 John Daub: If not, I will know that this was a complete failure. It was so bad, you don't want to see more. I just prefer to see other people doing this. This is a pretty good deal. Oh, and our Discord server is doing really well. We're closing in on 10,000 people over there. So, definitely come and check it out. We might even start a ramen community because it's so good. And Twitch as well. So, I'll go into Twitch a little bit later. I want to see if I can get some exercise first and come back and do Twitch.

48:43 John Daub: And if you have any questions, leave them down below. I'm really happy for the support, guys. And I'm really happy that despite me and Kanae not being able to go outside and travel around Japan, we can still kind of make out okay here indoors by thinking inside the box and bringing Japan to you in a completely different way. I appreciate it so much. This has been hard for all of us. And you know, revenue is down, subscribers are down on the channel. That's just part of the business.

49:10 John Daub: Everyone is not doing... is doing better before this than after this. And I want to say to all of you, just keep doing the best that you can do. It's not easy. Even though everything is reopening, I think that that's really great. But just stay safe. Stay safe for your family. Stay safe for yourself. Stay safe for your community. And wear a mask and just keep distances. And still only go out when you need to.

49:38 John Daub: Summer's coming up. If we can all stay really healthy and we see 000 for a long time, it's going to be a lot easier to want to go out to the amusement park and know we have a peace of mind because we've been a little bit safer through May and June. And make July and August a lot better, I think. See you guys. I'll be back in another livestream soon. Catch you on Twitch.