Burger Showdown

This week has been exhausting. Weekends are supposed to be relaxing, but between no-sleep bus rides and walking around all day, I ended up being wiped out all week long. Got back on Monday morning and took a little nap before I had to head out for the Waseda Marketing Forum. It was required for one of my classes and I helped the professor set up at around 4:00 PM, although the talk didn't begin until after 6:30 and end until 8:00.

I was totally dragging my legs by the time I got out only to find that my bike had blown a tire. So I called V and told her to meet me in Shin-Okubo for dinner while I walked back with my bike. It was a pretty cold night and I thought some warm and fuzzy Korean stew would be appropriate. So we met up at 깡통의추억 - Tin can's memories. V had read about that place in a blog, and Korean celebrities are known to visit it when in Tokyo. In fact the interior was littered with famous photos and signatures that I couldn't recognize.

I wanted something soupy, so I ordered an obligatory sundubu chigae. We were led astray a bit though by a picture of their samgyeopsal which is apparently their signature dish. I didn't know that you needed to order two portions of samgyeopsal, so the sundubu on top of that was just wayyy too much food.

So what did we do? We ate it all. Oh my god...soo good. Everyone is sooo jealous right now; I'm sure of it. That pork belly is unholy-ly delicious. I ate it the traditional way, wrapped up with all the goodies, but it had enough flavor that V ate it straight up - no sauce.

I've come to realize that my time in Japan is pretty much food and then filler material in between. Sure I absorb some culture and language and also study some international business but look above. That folks, is my reason for living. So I think I had some classes on Tuesday, but I more vividly recall coming back home, trying to figure out what to eat, and then deciding on the long awaited burger showdown.

Freshness Burger vs. Mos Burger. My understanding is that these two chains are the most prevalent fast food burger joints in Tokyo. They aren't really that fast as most of the food is made to order, and although I appreciate that they make my food on the spot, it really doesn't take that long to make a burger. We've had Freshness Burger a number of times, but I've never tried Mos Burger although I see it everywhere in Taipei.

It was time to lose my so called Mos Burger virginity I suppose. So from Freshness Burger, we have their Classic Cheeseburger. It's an extremely normal looking burger, just like what you would find from the states.

And from Mos Burger, we have the Tobikiri Hamburger with demi sauce. Demi sauce just means demi-glace, a rich brown sauce from French Cuisine. It's commonly used on top of hamburger type meat in Japan, and you kind have to know what it is when you read a menu and see that something has demi sauce.

Not exactly the fairest fight as the Freshness Burger cost 590 Yen to the Mos Burger's 390, but Mos Burger doesn't have a normal cheeseburger. Their cheeseburger is like a McDonald's cheeseburger and costs 190 Yen. Well anyway, Freshness Burger won this fight hands down. I also tried the Mos Burger's fries which were actually way better than the ones I had at Freshness Burger, but not really to my liking.

I think Mos Burger needs another shot with another burger, but I have no idea what to choose off of that menu. Everything is so eclectic that it's impossible to distinguish what something may actually taste like. Until I figure this out a bit, I'll be sticking with Freshness Burger. If anyone has Mos Burger recommendations, please let me know.

That said, the Classic Cheeseburger was not nearly as good as a simple well done burger you can from a small joint in the US like Five Guys. Forget about it, Japan. The burger's been mastered already and although a "fresh" tasting burger is pretty nice, a real burger needs to be "fat and delicious."

On Wednesday night we decided to check out Ikebukuro. Ikebukuro Station is only a couple stops away, but we've only been once before when Carlos and Kevin were in town. This time we went to look for Gyoza Stadium, a collection of gyoza stalls. Last entry is at 10 PM, so we used the time before to explore the department stores in the area.

Seibu department store was pretty large and had a good collection of food and clothes, but we didn't really find much that we don't have in Shinjuku. We did find a Graniph, a design t-shirt store. I think that there is one in Shinjuku as well, but it provided another perfect example of the Japanese bulk pricing model.

What is wrong with that picture? Winner wins nothing. After a while, we headed out to Sunshine City where Gyoza Stadium is located. Sunshine City is a city funded self-sustained complex, similar to Roppongi Hills. Unlike Roppongi Hills, Sunshine City is largely regarded as a failure and we barely saw anyone there. As fate would have it, it turned out that Gyoza Stadium is actually located in an indoor theme-park called Namjatown. I wasn't mentally prepared for going to a theme-park at 10 PM, so naturally we turned around and started looking up ramen places. It was on our way back we saw a sign for Bankara Ramen.

The name sounded familiar, so we decided why not check it out. Turns out that was a great idea. I got the house special Bankara Ramen, which I think was a version of shoyu ramen. I think I need to figure out what exactly a Bankara Ramen is because it was delicious. The extra piece of meat that came in my deluxe version was ridiculous. Reminded me of Menya Musashi.

V had the Tonkotsu Ramen which was a surprisingly light broth. Both of the ramens had floating chunks of abura, which I think is just fat.

I've started a google map titled the Ramen Report. I'm basically linking all the ramen places I've been to and my relative ratings for them. I'm pretty sure my ratings vary significantly from native Japanese people, but this is what I like.

We also went into a puppy store in Ikebukuro. Huge crowd there looking at puppies, and I really wanted to take a picture. However, there was a clear sign warning me not to take any and plus the store clerk was hawking me and my camera. Puppies are reallllly expensive in Tokyo! V thinks that they're all pure-breeds, but the cheapest ones were about 70,000 Yen. The most expensive came close to 300,000 Yen. That's thousands of dollars for a puppy. I kinda want a Shiba Inu, but I don't think I can afford one anymore.

Thursday was a low key day. We ate in, but decided to go looking for a throw. It's been getting quite chilly and we both have been wanting a casual blanket to use. We left pretty late and had to rush to get to Franc Franc. Turns out their blankets are pretty damn expensive. There has to be an alternative for a cheap comfortable throw. Blanket, space heater, anything to keep our heating bill down.

I did get to check out the Evangelion exhibit at Lumine. Supposedly this has been going around for a while and is about to end. It was actually a little bit disappointing. We were talking about the giant Gundam that used to be at Odaiba Island in one of my Japanese classes, and one of the girls mentioned that they have an Eva in Shinjuku now. So I went to check it out and it turned out to be this:

Somewhat disappointed, we started to walk back when I got distracted by some bread. This place called Sun Pierrot is having some sort of melon bread special. So, I bought myself a normal melon bread, sweet potato melon bread, milk melon bread, and caramel melon bread at 100 Yen each.

All of them were pretty dry, a bit buttery, and not overly delicious. I think I'll settle for Hokuo for now.

I'm supposed to party this weekend for Halloween, but my costume refuses to come together. Also, I'm still kicking this cold and I'm super afraid that if I drink it's just going to go full blown. Halloween, drinking, and Typhoon Chaba in the vicinity; let's hope I manage to get some rest this weekend.