Kit Kat seems to be marketing all kinds of variations of their classic candy bar around Japan, which makes me wonder what goodies they’re distributing in other countries. Here are a few of the versions I came across in my travels.

Kit Kat Little

These were interesting. They were a little smaller than malt balls, with cherry or mango chocolate flavors. I opted to try the mango since it seemed the more strange of the two, but I wish I’d tried both because I never saw them again. I wasn’t a big fan of the mango, it had sort of a strange flavor that shouldn’t have been in chocolate form. But I ate all of them anyway because it was sweet, and I like the Kit Kat cookie center! Yea, lame reason.

Kit Kat Mini

I couldn’t read anything on the big packaging, but there was a picture of a strawberry and what looked like a cranberry! Anyway, these have the regular chocolate coating with a berry-flavored cookie center. It was pinkish on the inside. This one was a definite improvement from the mango.

Green Tea Kit Kat

OK, I know what you’re thinking…naaaaaaaaaaaasty!!! Right? Well, actually these ones are my favorite! Imagine green tea ice cream with little bits of Kit Kat cookie thrown up in the mix. Yuuup…these are pretty bomb. I’m bummed I only bought one package. I should’ve grabbed some more while I had the chance, but again, I only saw them in one location and never again. Have you guys seen other kinds of Kit Kat around the world? My local Japanese market has flan flavored Kit Kat that I saw a couple days ago…I haven’t been brave enough to try it yet but my guess is it probably tastes like caramel.

Start Your Day Early

I woke up at 5 am to ensure I’d be able to grab a quick snack and shower before meeting up with Ed Lau. Our plan was to head out to the Tsukiji Fish Market for a one-of-a-kind epic sushi breakfast.

When you’re on a fast-paced schedule, you can’t waste time lying around…er…sleeping! This was good too since Ed and I ended up getting slightly lost on our way there. Nothing we couldn’t handle. Besides, sometimes getting lost is the fun part! Just remember to give yourself enough time in case you do.

Research Your Transportation

The getting lost part leads to my next tip: make sure you research your transportation to your best ability. Some cities are walking-only cities, some are car-only cities (Los Angeles for the most part), some have good public transportation, and some have the most advanced public transportation you’ll ever see in your life (i.e. Japan!). Taking public transportation in Tokyo means you should know which train to get on, how to find your stop, which side of the station to exit, and which direction to head. The hardest part is finding the right train in which direction since there can be a number of different trains on different platforms leaving from any one station.

Ed and I had the problem of heading the wrong direction out of the station. This can be a problem if you’re not too keen on reading maps. The huge maps next to the train stations don’t always point North and South according to the top and the bottom of the map (North may be pointing 20 degrees to the left, for instance, which is indicated), so make sure you have a map on hand to compare direction.

I don’t know what I would’ve done without Ed. I definitely would have studied the system more, but I’m glad he had a few weeks to figure it out for me In Japan, however, once you’ve figured out the system it’s pretty much a piece of cake after that.

Create Your Game Plan

One of the biggest time savers is already having an idea of what you want to do or see when you’re in Tokyo. I don’t need to tell you that there are endless possibilities, so make your plan beforehand and commit to it.

As for myself, since I love food, my day mainly revolved around meals and filling in the time between meals with shopping. Therefore, I had to secure lunch and dinner and the rest was icing on the cake! Ed and I had planned to eat at Sushi Dai in the fish market (line in front of entrance shown left), which he heard was the best restaurant there, then head to Harajuku for some fun shopping. Sounded good to me. We got to the market by 9 am and waited in line for two hours. Feel free to read about the entire adventure here.

It was definitely worth the wait. Some of the items I’d never had before, like clam, uni (sea urchin), swordfish, and shiraebi (baby shrimp). Each one had a unique flavor and texture that I won’t be able to find here in terms of freshness, but that’s OK. This adventure hasn’t ruined sushi for me, just given me a newfound appreciation for it! If you find yourself at an amazing sushi restaurant, go ahead and let the chef choose the items if you feel up to it. We ordered the “Trust the chef” set, as it is actually called. Check out this video that Ed put together:

After our epic sushi adventure and Harajuku/Shibuya scramble (post and pictures to come), I headed back to my hotel to meet up with my college friend Asuka for dinner. Being from Japan, she was gracious enough to locate an izakaya for us called DDSK just a couple train stops from my hotel. Izakaya is basically a Japanese pub restaurant where you can drink and eat small plates, sort of like Spanish tapas but Japanese style.

How we ended up there was interesting. She chose two restaurants, both of which were full (remember, most of the good restaurants are pretty small). The second restaurant suggested we try their sister restaurant which was next door and down a stairwell. We were assured we could order their yakitori (grilled appetizers) from there. Awesome. And if you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t find it…my kind of place. We descended down the steep path to find a quaintly dark and narrow room. One table, a small bar, and a private room with space for a small dinner party. That’s it.

DDSK Tokyo, near Shimbashi Station

Variety of fresh sashimi

DDSK’s version of the “trust the chef” yakitori set, which Asuka requested. Grilled chicken parts: thigh, skin, gizzards, cartilage, breast, and liver. Oishi!

We ordered two additional dishes which I forgot to snap pictures of. The first was a tofu sample dish with two types of fresh tofu: regular and peanut. Yep, that’s right, peanut tofu is a regional specialty of Okinawa and is served up at DDSK. It had a sweet, pasty quality to it, sort of like peanut butter custard. It was outstanding. The regular tofu was so incredibly fresh, I would visit DDSK just for the tofu, it was that amazing. The second dish was a grilled cod, which was also cooked to perfection.

Be Adventurous About Food

When I travel, experiencing different cultures (even in different States) means trying new foods I hadn’t thought of trying before. Being closed off to another culture’s food means rejecting their most essential bond. I try to take an Andrew Zimmern approach when traveling (although I don’t seek out the bizarre) — trying everything at least twice before making my final judgment. My best tip when traveling is to try to be open when it comes to food. You never know, you just might end up loving chicken liver!

What we ordered:

• 3 Whole Dungeness Crabs in The Whole Sha-Bang
• 1 lb. Shrimp in The Whole Sha-Bang
• 1/2 Dozen Hot Wings
• 1/2 Dozen Oysters on the Half Shell
• Fried Catfish with Cajun Fries
• Hot Links and Corn on the Cob

The evidence:

The pictures are kind of fuzzy since they were taken on Gary’s iPhone in not-so-great lighting. But you get the idea. The plastic bags had the shrimp, crab, corn, and sausage in them. We went through half a roll of paper towels as well. Ahh…fun for the whole family!

On any given Tuesday, Gary and I, and his sister Sophia, trek to the local golf range so they can practice and so I can hack away at a medium-sized bucket of balls. But yesterday wasn’t just any given Tuesday. It was the beginning of a new chapter for Gary, who’s just accepted a new position as Director of Internet Marketing for a company in Los Angeles. (Yay! Congrats to Gary!) So he chose to celebrate with a night of big eating. The place — an up-and-coming cajun-style seafood restaurant called The Boiling Crab.

We chose the new Alhambra location since it’s close to Gary’s house, and by 7:45 the place was already packed with a handful of parties waiting to be seated. The 30-minute wait was well worth it, since it gets way busier on the weekends. Our waitress quickly tied our bibs around our necks once we were seated, which made us all giddy — we were starving. It took us only a minute or so to order since we just ran down the menu and rattled off a bunch of stuff we wanted to try.

The best part about The Boiling Crab is when you order shellfish, they drop your order on the table in a steaming bag, which contains a mash-up of seafood, seasoning and other goodies. Just tear open the bag and have at it. No plates, no utensils, no rules. We ordered an exorbitant amount of food which we nearly killed, but it took us until 10:00 to mow through it. The mounds of empty shellfish, corn cobs and sopping napkins were enough to get stares from all the other customers since we’d clearly eaten more than any other table in the restaurant. But we didn’t care, our bellies were happy.

So you might be wondering what we ordered, right? Well, I’ll let Gary tell you. You’ll have to check out his blog to see exactly what we ordered from the menu. He should be posting the details soon along with pictures of the mounds of empty shells.

As I’m writing this, it’s nearly 2am and I’m still full. Who knows if I’ll even eat tomorrow. They pretty much dropped a heart-attack-in-a-bag on our table, since our seafood was mixed with a sauce they call “The Big Sha-Bang.” Apparently it’s a mixture of all the other sauces combined — garlic butter, lemon pepper, and ragin cajun. Yep, like I said…a heart attack in a bag. But it was one of the best heart attacks in a bag I’ve ever had, and I highly recommend everyone else to try it out, if possible. I prefer the crab and shrimp over the crawfish and oysters, but that’s just me.

Overall it was a great experience. It’s like I was five years old and my mom just told me I could stick my hand in the birthday cake. No holds barred, dirty, yummy fun. As for our official ratings, Sophia was least impressed but still gave it a great review. She’s a huge fan of crab so her smile was ear to ear mid-meal. She nearly hit the wall but I encouraged her to keep going, and just bust straight through it. I felt a little bad afterward when she was stuck to the couch, moaning about her stomach being so full…but I was still proud of her. Besides, we were all in the same boat. Gary, on the other hand, needed no encouragement.

Official Ratings:

Sophia: 8.5 of 10

Danielle: 9 of 10

Gary: 10 of 10

Knowing this first point well, my good friend Jim bought me this adorably entertaining Roasted Garlic Express. I don’t know where he got it, but I give him much props! It’s this mini roasting appliance shaped like a big garlic bulb. It’s the most awesome thing I’ve seen ever – and it’s mine!

I wanted to try it out immediately and see how stinky I could make my house, so I ran over to my local Trader Joe’s and picked up a rosemary demi-loaf and a package of fire-roasted tomatoes. Oh, it got stinky alright. But in the good way. Roasting the garlic was super easy, too. You just slice the top of the garlic off, stick it in the roaster with some olive oil, plug it in, and push “On.” 27 minutes later, it’s done! Just spread the soft garlic cloves on the toasted bread, throw on a tomato or two, and voila!

I always wanted to make roasted garlic at home, but it always seemed so messy. And if I was going to invest 45 minutes of my life waiting for roasted garlic, I was going to make a lot. This way, I save time, and I can make them one at a time if I want. If you love garlic, you should get this thing. It’s novel, functional, and easy!