00:00:36 John Daub: I'm home! I'm home!

00:01:08 John Daub: So this is a meal. This is indeed a meal. How you doing John? Nice to see everybody here. Although the state of emergency might be over in Tokyo, that doesn't mean that we should charge outside and in fact, not everything is open. Tokyo is opening up in steps. And we're in step one. We're not sure when step two is going to be happening. Could be in June. That's when more things will be opening up. Places can stay open a little bit later.

00:01:38 John Daub: So we're still being cautious. That means we're doing takeaway and delivery food a couple times a week just to add a little bit of fun to the day. Soba is a really fun food. It's a really healthy food and it's better than pizza. Even the tempura, right? Yeah. Oh, so I ordered this tempura soba. I love tempura. And soba shops are quite famous for having tempura. Look at this. Whoa. Yeah. Wow, it's still steaming. Right. Oh, wait, wait. Okay, now open it. Let the steam out. Steaming bowl of hot soba. You can get it cold and then if you do, you can dip it in there. We both got it hot. We're looking for something a little bit warm.

00:02:33 Kanae Daub: I kind of like it. Now, Kanae, what did you order?

00:02:35 Kanae Daub: I have a tendon (tempura donburi, tempura on rice), which is tempura on rice or a tempura bowl. I guess you'd call that. And a set, right? So soba came with it on the side. Tendon and soba set. Right. And it came with some pickles. Now you have these massive shrimp tempura.

00:02:52 John Daub: I ordered tempura soba. Tempura soba. So I'm going to put this tempura on soba. Oh. Oh. Wow. That's a picture right there. I'm going to put this. Oh. It's so good. I think I half-eat it.

00:03:18 Kanae Daub: Half is yours.

00:03:18 John Daub: Oh, half is mine? How dare you take half of my tempura? Massive prawns. I guess they cut them and they get them longer like there. Oh, thanks for giving me some. I got my half on here. And we have shichimi (seven-spice chili pepper). A little bit of shichimi. Okay. You want it? Of course.

00:03:40 John Daub: Hey, guys, if you like these delivery food episodes, click the thumbs up button so we know that this is something that you're interested in. Because it looks and smells so good. I wish I can push that smell through the screen to you. Oh, that's a little bit of spice to there. Jeff Ang's in the house. Definitely looks delicious. It's beautiful. It is very beautiful, isn't it? Look at that. That's so wonderful. And then over here, I have my tendon set. I kind of wish that I had what Kanae has. I have one shrimp in there. That's okay.

00:04:14 Kanae Daub: You can choose hot or ice when you order soba.

00:04:17 John Daub: Oh, okay. So what was the choices on the menu? What else did they have on the menu, Kanae? Because you ordered this by telephone. Yes. What else did they have on the menu, Kanae?

00:04:27 Kanae Daub: They have a lot. They have soba with tempura and curry soba and tamago soba (egg soba). And so with mushroom. And tororo (grated yam).

00:04:48 John Daub: I love tororo. Do you want to take a photo? Yeah, I'm going to take a photo really quickly. This is so good. And I love this tendon here. Oh, this is so magical. We have to eat quickly.

00:05:03 Kanae Daub: Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm awful. I'm a bad, bad man.

00:05:09 John Daub: Look how beautiful that is. So what's your favorite thing at the soba shops, Kanae, why do soba shops have tempura and curry rice? Do you know?

00:05:24 Kanae Daub: I don't know. It's history.

00:05:29 John Daub: Yeah, they have... Normally they have tendon, katsudon (pork cutlet bowl), oyakodon (chicken and egg bowl). So normally they have set menu for lunch. Yeah. But this is so good. I also like curry rice at the soba shop. It's kind of Japanese style curry they have at the soba shop. It tastes so good.

00:05:59 John Daub: All right, let's eat. You finished?

00:06:00 Kanae Daub: Yeah, I'm finished. Okay, I'm tired.

00:06:08 John Daub: This is why I wear a hat. All right, we're better. Quarantine hair. Itadakimasu.

00:06:15 Kanae Daub: Itadakimasu.

00:06:18 John Daub: And we say that... Hey, that's... These are yours. Oh, yeah. Itadakimasu. Soba. Oh, this smells so good. Let the lady eat.

00:06:33 Kanae Daub: Eh? You can go first.

00:06:36 John Daub: Report the deliciousness through the camera to the people. Awesome. How many stars?

00:06:46 Kanae Daub: Nine. 9.5.

00:06:50 John Daub: Out of five or 10?

00:06:52 Kanae Daub: Four.

00:06:54 John Daub: No, no, out of 10. She doesn't understand that she doesn't get the star system sometimes. It's all right. I like soba. I know you do. No. Because it's something that's healthy. And she hasn't had ramen this whole time. 60 days without ramen is a long time. Jeff, I'm sorry. Soba is buckwheat noodle, right? Buckwheat noodles. Right. They're usually handmade and the shops, they're very fresh.

00:07:14 Kanae Daub: Thank you for Jeff. Yeah.

00:07:26 John Daub: Raymond and Centeno, glad to see Kanae is feeling better. Those soba sets look good, too. Itadakimasu. Thank you, Raymond. Thank you so much. Kanae has not been feeling... She has a...

00:07:38 Kanae Daub: Do you want to tell the people or...

00:07:41 Kanae Daub: It's okay. I have a kind of injury, but it's getting better.

00:07:45 John Daub: Yeah, back injury. It's getting better. All right. So I wanted to show you really quickly. It's okay. These noodles just came here. But buckwheat noodles, they have that kind of gray-brown color to it. And they're not as springy as the white noodles that you get like spaghetti. These break apart more in the mouth. But it's this dashi broth, this really salty fish soup that's really good as well. It's a little negi (green onion), and you can add some stuff in there. Of course, it comes with tempura. And I don't know why, but tempura, really good tempura, they don't have tempura-only shops. They do, but they're really high class. But if you go and get to a soba shop, they'll always have tempura. And katsudon. And katsudon too, right? And that's another really delicious food. So let's try these noodles. And I'm going to give you a description of how they go, which is basically what I just did. I just kind of did that. So. It's good.

00:08:50 John Daub: Which one do you like, soba or udon?

00:08:53 Kanae Daub: Udon.

00:08:53 John Daub: Udon? I like soba, but udon is just big, fat, mochi-mochi kind of noodles. They look like little snakes. Yeah, that's way better. It's cooler. It's really, really good. It's good.

00:09:14 John Daub: Which one do you like, udon or soba?

00:09:16 Kanae Daub: When I was young, I liked udon. But now, I like soba more than udon.

00:09:27 John Daub: You changed.

00:09:27 Kanae Daub: I changed. Why? I don't know. Soba, I feel soba is more healthy.

00:09:34 John Daub: Oh, because of the health, not the taste?

00:09:37 Kanae Daub: It tastes good. Tastes good. Yeah, but I like both. Yeah.

00:09:44 John Daub: John Wakamatsu writes in, looks good. Restaurants are opening in LA. That's really good to hear. Maybe get some good Japanese food in the LA region. Tony P is here. Toby, I mean Tony at Peso and I are watching and plotting together. Oh, no. When you got Peso involved, something's bound to happen. Ain't gonna be pretty. Thanks, Peso. Thanks, Tony, Toby.

00:10:16 John Daub: So, this set, the soba is actually an accompaniment with the tendon. This is, this is sort of the main course. It's really, really heavy. And fresh tempura, tempura is always best when it's fresh. And it's just out of the fryer. When I went to pick it up, they were just taking it out of the fryer and putting it on there. When they put the dashi on top of it, the tare, when they put it on top of hot sizzling tempura, it goes like this. Because the tempura just came out of the fryer and then they put the tare on there. You can hear it sizzling still on the boiling hot tempura. And that's what I'm talking about.

00:10:56 John Daub: What's this fish here, Kanae?

00:10:58 Kanae Daub: It's kisu (whiting fish).

00:10:58 John Daub: Kisu. Oh. Kisu, like a kiss, like a chew. Yeah, kisu. Can you eat shippo mo taberare desho? Yeah, you can eat. So, we can eat the tail. Oh, my mouth is watering. Look at that, kisu. Everything is just tempura-ized to glory. Kisu is a very soft, white, small, white fish. Let's see here. There it is right here. It's a tempura. Yeah, it's really good with tempura. The oil, the salt and the oil bring out the flavors really, really well. I think on its own, it's not too flavorful, but with the oil and the salt, very good.

00:11:51 John Daub: How is your tempura?

00:11:53 Kanae Daub: It's good. I ate one.

00:11:55 John Daub: You ate one already? Yeah. Mmm. It's big shrimp. Let's take a look at this prawn here. Yeah, prawn. It's not shrimp. I eat the tail, by the way. If it's been deep fried, you can eat the tail. It has a lot of calcium. A lot of you might be grossed out by it, but don't be grossed out by eating the tail. Wow. Don't be grossed out by eating the tail. I know, like, it's just crunchy. The tail has no flavor. It's just crunchy and salty. It's like potato chips. Hovon writes in, freak. Maybe a little bit. Maybe a little bit. I'm freaky, but it's good. It's good for you.

00:12:40 John Daub: All right, go ahead. Take her down. Don't eat the shrimp tails unless they've been deep fried, okay? Don't just eat them. They're not healthy. They're not healthy unless they've been deep fried. It's good. Yeah, that's... It's good. I'm purring. That's how hungry... I'm like, my mouth is watering. It sounds like I'm purring. All right, go ahead and eat it. Lovely. I guess that's why they leave the tail on. Also, the tail has a really good color. That orange color adds to the dish just a little bit of... It looks like a little bit of a garnish to it when you keep that on there. But I don't think everybody's going to want to eat the tail. That's okay. You don't have to. But when it's been tempura-ed, that's my verb form of tempura, to be tempura-ed. You can eat it. A lot of my friends will eat it. Sometimes people don't want it and I'll eat it. And it's calcium, basically. It's really good. But if it's not been cooked raw, don't eat shrimp tails, okay? That's not good for you. There's a difference.

00:14:02 John Daub: What is this? Is it a pepper? I think it's a green pepper. Yeah, it's a pepper. It's a green pepper. Tempura is just amazing, isn't it? Which tempura do you like?

00:14:21 Kanae Daub: Shrimp.

00:14:22 John Daub: Shrimp? Eggplant is good, too. I think any tempura... You can tempura anything, right? Can you do tempura for anything? Really? Maybe. We ate cheese tempura at a tempura shop. Oh, yeah! It was good. We had cheese tempura once. Imagine! It's just battered cheese and deep fried it. You bite into it and it's like... You just fall back and you can't get back up until the next one comes out. You have to eat it while it's hot. It's so good. Cheese tempura. Not all the shops do it. Chikuwa (fish cake) is also really good tempura. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Tokyo Drew's got it right. You know what's good and what's not good. Maitake (hen-of-the-woods mushroom). Maitake is a Japanese mushroom. Maitake is good. You know why? Because it's like this mushroom that comes out of a bunch and there's lots of little mushrooms sprouting out of it. And when you batter that and deep fry it, the batter gets into all the little nooks and crannies of it. So when you're eating it, it's like you're eating all these little separate mushrooms in one little thing. So it's just a lot of fun. I love maitake. Can you... Can you do tempura for eringi (king oyster mushroom)?

00:15:45 John Daub: If you do decide that you want to live in Japan, you have to learn the 20 or 30 different kinds of mushrooms. Because you go to the supermarket as an American, it freaked me out. We have like one mushroom, the ones that were in Super Mario Brothers, like the brown and the white mushrooms. That's it. That's what a mushroom looks like. When I came to Japan, mushrooms, they changed. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. There's like a dozen... Two dozen kinds of mushrooms. There's the neba neba (slimy) ones you put in miso soup. I like those. Nameko (nameko mushroom). Yeah. You got to learn your mushrooms. Shimeji (beech mushroom). Shimeji is really good too. Enoki (enoki mushroom). Shiitake (shiitake mushroom). Yum. Shiitake is famous, right? Yeah.

00:16:32 Kanae Daub: The Nostra writes in here, in 20 years, you have been... You have gone... We have stepped up our mushroom game in America. When I came back, there's still kind of exotic mushrooms, but there are more and more mushrooms in the US than there were 20 years ago. It's getting better, but when I left, it was a different world. When I visited in New York, I'm shocked they have many kinds of cheese. Oh, yeah. Cheese. Yeah. So we don't... In Japan, we don't have a lot of kind of cheese, but when I visited in New York, I'm shocked they have many kinds of cheese. I visited America, I found many, many kinds of cheese. Yeah. And I'm shocked. But now, I can find some kinds of cheese in Japan too.

00:17:25 John Daub: I guess what mushrooms were to America 20 years ago, cheese was to Japan 20 years ago. You couldn't find a lot of really good cheeses in Japan, and now most of the supermarkets will have several kinds. A lot of it is processed stuff. But more and more of the specialty shops, especially in Tokyo, are carrying several kinds of cheese. Before, it was just like processed American cheese. Cream cheese was hard to find for bagels, right? There wasn't much cream cheese. No Philadelphia cream cheese, no kitty cream cheese back then. 20 years ago, it was hard to find. They had processed cheese for pizza, toast, which is really bad, and like American processed cheese. And there really wasn't anything else.

00:18:04 Kanae Daub: I like feta cheese.

00:18:06 John Daub: Feta cheese. It's difficult to find feta cheese in Japan. Now it's getting a lot easier now. You can get them in bottles directly from Greece, Yasu. I'm just amazed at the size of the shrimp. It looks like a rocket ship with the fire on the bottom here. It would be pretty cool if it would launch into my mouth. Oh, wow. I gotta share this with you. It's just, look at that. You can start seeing the tempura skin. Starting to pop off on the backside. It sticks to the rice. Do you see that? That makes the rice even more delicious. But on the backside of it. You didn't eat rice. I'll eat it. I'll eat it. Chulaks there. You enjoy your tempura. I'm gonna play with my shrimp a little bit longer. That's a big shrimp, huh? Is that a prawn? A lot of people don't know the difference between a prawn and a shrimp. It's hard to know. When you put it in your mouth, it just tastes good. That's all I know.

00:19:10 John Daub: How does it taste?

00:19:12 Kanae Daub: Good.

00:19:13 John Daub: That is the most important thing. Speaking of which, how does it taste? That's good. I don't have a lot of words. Just that tare, the sauce that soaks into the deep-fried tempura. That's what really brings it all together. I think that salty sauce around it. It's easy to deep-fry a hot dog, but you need to put that sauce on top of it. That makes the flavors come through. I'm talking about a corn dog. We call corn dogs in Japan American dogs. I don't know why. I guess only America puts deep-fried corn around a hot dog. American dogs.

00:20:17 Kanae Daub: Don't you eat your tail? Why? I'm okay with it. But there are people who eat it, right? There are people who eat it. I think my dad eats shrimp tails.

00:20:30 John Daub: Three-second rule. I play by the rules. Three seconds. If you drop it, you can eat it. This is the part that I like. I like the shrimp tails. I don't know. Maybe it's just me. I have a sophisticated or unsophisticated taste. Denise writes in here, good tempura is such an art. Well said. It's fluffy, crunchy. Not the same here in San Francisco. I miss Japanese prawn tempura. But shiso (perilla leaf) is also good. Shiso is good. Shiso is really good. When you get that... We go to a place called Hamachan. I love this chain. I guess it's a chain. I think it's a chain. They have a shop at Ueno Okachimachi in Shibuya. Right. They have a few more as well. And you can get super cheap and delicious tempura. They sell on value. And you just eat tempura there. You can get sushi as well. But tempura is where it's at.

00:21:33 Kanae Daub: Yeah, tempura is me.

00:21:38 John Daub: The shrimp tail takes in some of the sauce as well. It's so good. I finished all. Look at that. Why don't you drink the soup though? Do people drink the soup? That looks like it's still drinkable now.

00:21:57 Kanae Daub: You can drink. But it's too salty. Kind of salty. So it's not really good for you. Yeah.

00:22:04 John Daub: You don't want to drink too much of it. The same goes for ramen. People don't really drink the soup. They might take two or three sips of it. It's not that the soup is bad. It's really good. It's just not good for you. It's got a lot of salt in there. It's got a lot of fat. So it's not the healthiest thing to be drinking the ramen soup. Only hardcore people drink it. But I'll tell you what. After a couple of years of doing it through this lifestyle. You get like lousy. You really skin and don't look healthy.

00:22:37 John Daub: Does your papa drink the soup?

00:22:40 Kanae Daub: No. He doesn't drink all. That's how he stays in shape.

00:22:43 John Daub: You just eat the noodles. The noodles take some of the soup. Drink the broth a little bit. I always. It's so good. I always will drink a little bit anyways. So I'll get it like halfway. But I won't drink it all. But I can understand soup is so delicious.

00:22:54 Kanae Daub: Yeah. So it's difficult to stop it. Stop drinking it. Stop it. You better not do it. It's not good for your health.

00:23:07 John Daub: But you know you put condiments and stuff in it. Like garlic and shichimi, which is a spicy pepper. I kind of want to drink that. I don't want to waste the garlic. So sometimes after the ramen is done. I will search the soup for the goodies. And then I say oh I found some treasure. And then you kind of sip the goodies. Like little mushrooms or pieces of chashu (braised pork) steak. That kind of settled under the bottom. That you couldn't find. Because the soup is hard to see through. You have to really dig to find that treasure. It's like down in Davy Jones' locker. Pull it up from the top. Save it from the murky bottom. Make sure you get your money's worth out of the ramen.

00:23:43 John Daub: This lunch cost us $20. So $10 for Kanae. And $10 for me. I think that's pretty reasonable set. We got a bowl of soba. A tendon. A tempura on rice. A rice tempura bowl. And she got a bowl of hot soba. With two massive prawns. Mine was a little. How much was this? This one was a little cheaper. ¥700 and ¥1200. Yeah I think that's $10. Yeah with the bowl of soba. It was a little bit more expensive. But pretty reasonably priced. Any last questions here? Before we cut off and head to our cots. To let this lunch settle. Tempura is a little bit heavy. Because of this. Nice to see everybody still here.

00:24:32 John Daub: John you should try the ramen with scrambled egg noodles woven in them. What? Tell me more. Leave me a link. Leave it in a comment. I have never heard of that before. Weather is pretty spring like now. We've had sunny. Somewhat windy weather in Tokyo. And she got a suntan. When we went out before. But now she's hurt her back. And she's probably going to lay down after this. But she had to make an appearance. People were worried about Kanae.

00:25:04 Kanae Daub: I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm fine.

00:25:08 John Daub: She's a warrior. Tomorrow morning. I'm going to be taking you out to a location around Tokyo. In the morning. I'll surprise you with it. It's going to be pretty nice. The state of emergency has been lifted. But that still means we still need to take precautions. So I'm going to ride my bicycle out to a neighborhood in Tokyo. And show you tomorrow. It's a popular place that a lot of people like to go to. And yeah. That'll be around tomorrow. 10 a.m. Japan time. 10.30 maybe. And there's a midnight snack run coming. You best be ready. I said it like a cowboy. There's a midnight snack inbound. So. It might be outdoor midnight snack.

00:25:54 Kanae Daub: Outdoor midnight? I think so.

00:25:57 John Daub: Will people get angry if I go outside? I don't think so. Totoro, why are you staring at me? You can use alcohol. Before eating. And you can. Make social distancing. And it's fine. I want in and out. I don't want to mess around inside that supermarket. It's creepy though. Because Totoro keeps staring at me. Do you see it? Look at the creepy smile.

00:26:25 Kanae Daub: It's not creepy.

00:26:26 John Daub: I don't know. It's a little bit too toothy for me. I always think at night when we go to sleep. These stuffed animals animate. And they walk around and treat them right. Never treat a stuffed animal poorly. Or they will seek revenge when you sleep at night. I hear things. Creaking and things like this. I know what it is. Very scary. Very scary. Tonight drinking. I don't know if the midnight snack run will be tonight or tomorrow night. It depends a lot on the weather. And how I'm feeling. I have a lot of stuff to do over the next few days. Everybody on Patreon knows all about the inside information. And a big announcement coming. But I hope that everybody is doing well. We wanted to bring you another delivery food. And we are going to do another one next week. Because we still shouldn't be eating out at restaurants too much. Limiting your risk. Limiting the risk of getting sick. Limiting the chance that you might get sick. It's still out there. As long as it is, we have to stay vigilant. We can do takeaway. Takeaway is good. It was really fast. You know what the best part about this delivery food was? They were so happy to see me. To get customers again. And that makes me really happy too. Because it's a local business just down the street. So really good soba and tempura. So I have to give it a big thumbs up.

00:27:51 John Daub: If you do have any suggestions for food. Food delivery that we haven't done already. Or if there is some kind of content that you would like to see. Go in the comments below. And leave us suggestions. I do read the comments. And I do take it. Do take those into consideration. Because I want to make content for you. And click the thumbs up button. We are really really light on that. It's like 265 likes isn't so great. But okay. I know you guys want to see more food deliveries. So click that thumbs up. Udon pizza? Tempura pizza. I hope they work. I believe that the tapioca boom is over. Because they put now. Domino's bought up all the tapioca on sale. And they are putting it as a topping on their pizza. It's pretty nasty in a way. It's strange. I know. So maybe I will get that and try it. But some other YouTubers have already done it. I don't know. Tapioca. I like tapioca. But when the boom came. I became less attractive. Because I don't want to follow what everybody else is doing. If I start drinking a tapioca drink. Like look at me. I feel like I am following all these other people. Like I don't want to be a follower.

00:29:03 Kanae Daub: Actually I didn't try tapioca drink yet. Did you? Ever?

00:29:07 John Daub: No you did in Yokohama. In Chinatown. I am pretty sure. But after this boom. I didn't try. I haven't either. I stay away from those places with the long lines. But now that the tourists are gone. There is no more tapioca stands. They are all dried up. So the tapioca boom is over.

00:29:27 Kanae Daub: But if the boom is over. You wouldn't be a follower anymore.

00:29:34 John Daub: So maybe I will just. You know what I am going to do? I want to pluck the tapioca off the pizza. And then make a drink from that. You can make tapioca pizza by yourself. I could. But where do you buy tapioca? Can you just buy it at the supermarket?

00:29:50 Kanae Daub: Yeah maybe. Really? I did not know that. I don't know. How much is tapioca? They are probably still pretty expensive.

00:29:57 John Daub: All I know is that Domino's buys it in bulk. And it might be an interesting livestream. To get a take on it. Anyways. Leave me your comments below. Sushi pizza. The thing is with sushi pizza. Remco. Is that if you put it on a pizza. Is it really sushi anymore? And sushi is supposed to be on a bed of rice. I know. It is not raw. It is kind of cooked. I don't know. It is like body sushi. Which by the way. I searched for that in Japan. When I came here 20 years ago. Body sushi is not a thing here. I don't know where that came from. Body sushi is like a western thing. Where some dudes in New York got together. Like bankers. And said we can buy some body. And eat off their body. I looked for that here. Seriously. I looked for it. And I didn't find body sushi. Seriously. It is not here. It is gross. I don't know. Somebody says it is good. Kabukicho maybe. I think that is something that Japanese don't. I have never heard of Japanese. Even this really scabby. Perverted business man that I talked to. Have never done it. They did some stuff in the 1980s. Oh you believe me. I believe their stories. None of them said that they thought it was stupid. They never heard of such a thing before. Either that or they are completely in denial. I think it was a US thing from the 1980s. Where Japanese culture was coming along. Just like something that was in a movie. Rising Sun maybe. I don't know. Just in the movies. JJ Tokyo. A lot of these stereotypes. Maybe that would be a really nice episode. To try to bust some of the myths. Homemade takoyaki. You know what? I was going to totally do that.

00:31:35 Kanae Daub: I know. We were going to do homemade takoyaki. The problem was that the grills. The metal parts were all sold out. That we could buy it. Maybe I should go back online and try to find some. But there are homemade takoyaki grills. I don't want to do the electric one. I want gas. You got to do it with gas. You got to get really hot. And those were sold out. I never had good electric takoyaki. It's like you couldn't find gas. So you settle for the electric. Electric doesn't get hot enough. So you need to get a good gas takoyaki grill. And it's a lot better.

00:32:13 John Daub: I have never tried gas. You have totally. At the shop right? Yeah. They all use gas. That's because when I do stuff. I do it right. There is no audience to clap. You know. There is no one clapping. Alright. Thanks guys for watching. Have a good day. Have a good night. Wherever you are in the world. We will see you again in another live stream. Perhaps tonight. Perhaps tomorrow. That's why you subscribe. And thanks so much also for clicking. We got up to 300 likes. I much appreciate it. It means that you like this content. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to 500. But if you do like this click like. Because I do follow the trends of what you guys want to see. Bye. See you soon.