You Have to Try These Japanese Street Foods at Least Once

If you plan on traveling to Japan in the near future, you don’t want to skip the delicious street foods. The small food stalls, called yatai, can be found along the streets and at festivals and there are tons of foods to choose from. These are the ones you should try.

Takoyaki

These bite-sized golden balls are fried and filled with octopus, tempura, green onions, and pickled ginger. Watching the vendors flip them with chopsticks, is almost as delightful as eating them. They’re topped with Japanese mayonnaise, a sauce similar to Worcestershire, dried seaweed, and dried bonito fish flakes.

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake that’s stuffed with whatever is available. The batter usually consists of eggs, meat or seafood, vegetables, and cheeses. It’s then made on the griddle and topped with special sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes, seaweed flakes, and pickled ginger.

Taiyaki

For those with a sweet tooth, this fish-shaped waffle, which happens to make awesome Instagram photos, is filled with red bean paste, custard, and chocolate. They’re best when eaten warm and they taste better than they look!

Yakisoba

Wok fried noodles are known in Japan as yakisoba and they’re wheat noodles that are stir-fried with pork and vegetables and flavored with tangy sauces before being topped with dish flakes, ginger, and mayonnaise.

Dango

This sweet, fun-colored dumpling is made from mochiko, a glutinous rice flour. Each stick has between three to five dumplings and different varieties are available based on the season. During cherry blossom season, they have ones that are pink, white, and green.