---
title: 'I Tried Every Viral Street Food in Japan'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=AJiGaXRsFNU'
video_id: 'AJiGaXRsFNU'
date: 2026-07-28
channel: 'Joshua Weissman'
---

# I Tried Every Viral Street Food in Japan

> Source: [I Tried Every Viral Street Food in Japan](https://youtube.com/watch?v=AJiGaXRsFNU)

## Summary

A food enthusiast who worked at a top Japanese restaurant in the US but had never been to Japan finally visits to sample and rank legendary Japanese street foods. Joined by local experts, he explores Tokyo and Osaka, rating items from tanghulu to fresh mochi on an S-tier list.

### Key Points

- **Arrival in Japan** [00:00] — The host, having worked at a top Japanese restaurant in the US for three years, visits Japan for the first time to try street food.
- **Harajuku Start** [00:28] — Joined by local expert Yappy from Arigato Travel, they begin at Takeshita Street in Harajuku, known for kawaii culture.
- **Tanghulu Skewer** [00:59] — First item: strawberry and grape tanghulu. The coating is perfectly crisp like glass, not chewy. Rated B tier.
- **Rainbow Cotton Candy** [01:25] — Six-layer cotton candy with different flavors. Texturally nice but flavor is mostly sugar. Rated B tier.
- **Micro Pig Cafe** [02:09] — Visited a micro pig cafe, described as better than Disneyland. Also noted Asha Cafe and Capybara Cafe.
- **Massive Sandwiches** [02:21] — Two sandwiches: one with 400g of meat (skirt steak) and an egg sandwich. The egg sandwich was rated S tier, the meat sandwich A tier.
- **Twisted Potato** [04:02] — Fried potato on a skewer with salt and butter seasoning. Multiple textures, rated A tier.
- **3D Latte Art** [04:43] — At Latte Pocket, a 3D latte with foam art. Coffee was decent, foam had no flavor. Rated as fun but not exceptional.
- **Texas BBQ in Tokyo** [05:39] — Tried Texas-style barbecue in Tokyo, including A5 Wagyu brisket. Rated A tier, comparing favorably to Texas BBQ.
- **Fresh Orange Juice Vending Machine** [06:49] — Stumbled upon a fresh-squeezed orange juice vending machine. Ice cold, refreshing, with essential oil from peel. Rated A tier.
- **Matcha Crepe** [07:18] — Matcha crepe with various fillings including potato and unsweetened whipped cream. Disappointing, rated D tier.
- **Bruleed Sweet Potato Ice Cream** [08:03] — Bruleed sweet potato with silky sweet potato ice cream. Unique texture and flavor, rated S tier.
- **Onigiri** [09:07] — Pork and egg onigiri. Satisfying but not standout, rated B tier.
- **Hokkaido Milk Soft Serve** [09:38] — Soft serve made from Hokkaido milk. Rich, creamy, not overly sweet. Rated S tier.
- **Curry Pan** [10:38] — Deep-fried curry-filled hot pocket with okonomiyaki toppings. Perfect bite, rated S tier.
- **Departure to Osaka** [11:32] — Said goodbye to Yappy and took bullet train to Osaka, catching Mount Fuji's first snow.
- **Takoyaki in Osaka** [12:01] — Tried takoyaki at Dotonbori. Two versions: salt and sauce/mayo. Rated A tier.
- **Taiyaki** [13:28] — Fresh taiyaki with red bean filling. Thin, crisp shell, perfectly cooked. Rated S tier.
- **Fugu (Puffer Fish)** [14:24] — Tried fugu sashimi. Chewy texture, mild flavor. Rated B tier.
- **Quail Egg Stuffed Baby Octopus** [15:32] — Baby octopus stuffed with quail egg, glazed with sweet soy. Tender but not top-tier. Rated B tier.
- **Sweet Potato Chips** [16:02] — Thick sweet potato chips, well-seasoned. Rated A tier.
- **Jiggly Japanese Cheesecake** [16:33] — Famous jiggly cheesecake. Disappointing, lacking flavor. Rated D tier.
- **10 Yen Coin Pancake** [17:39] — Cheese-filled pancake shaped like a 10 yen coin. Crisp outside, soft inside. Rated A tier.
- **Chinese Pork Buns (551)** [18:20] — Pork buns from 551, a Japanese chain. Soft dough, tender filling. Rated S tier.
- **Torched Bluefin Tuna** [19:31] — Bluefin tuna torched by hand. Smoky, beefy quality. Rated A tier.
- **Fresh Mochi** [20:31] — Freshly pounded mochi with sweet bean paste. Soft, smooth, perfect chew. Rated S tier.
- **Best Item Selection** [22:05] — The host selects the okonomiyaki curry pan as the best item to seek out next time.

### Conclusion

The host concludes that Japan perfects everything with commitment to delicious food, and the okonomiyaki curry pan is the must-try item.

## Transcript

so much that I worked at one of the&nbsp; best Japanese restaurants in the US&nbsp;&nbsp; for almost three years. But here's the&nbsp; crazy part. I've never been to Japan.
So today that changes. I'm finally here to eat&nbsp; every single possible legendary Japanese street&nbsp;&nbsp; food that I can find. From the stuff that&nbsp; we already know to maybe some hidden gems&nbsp;&nbsp; that only the locals know about. And everything&nbsp; will be getting placed on an S tier list. And at&nbsp;&nbsp;
the end of the video, we will give you our very&nbsp; best item. And we're starting at Harajuku Tokyo.&nbsp;&nbsp; And I'm joined by local expert Yappy from Arigato&nbsp; Travel, one of Japan's best food tour companies.&nbsp;&nbsp; As this pin says, no Yappy, no life. Later on,&nbsp; we'll be going more street level, trying more&nbsp;&nbsp;
traditional viral things like puffer fish and&nbsp; baby octopus. But we're starting our journey on&nbsp;&nbsp; Takeshita Street in Harajuku. Harajuku is the capital&nbsp; of a kawaii, which means cute, pretty, adorable.&nbsp;&nbsp; The second you walk on the street, I get why. So,&nbsp; you've got pink, the smell of sugar, artificial&nbsp;&nbsp;
flavors, kawaii, like you. Our first stop is&nbsp; the tanghulu skewer. Strawberry and grape. Very&nbsp;&nbsp; kawaii. But how does it taste? A lot of tanghulu,&nbsp; when it's not made properly, it doesn't have the&nbsp;&nbsp;
right crunch. But this one, the actual coating is&nbsp; perfectly crisp like glass. It doesn't stick. It's&nbsp;&nbsp; not chewy. And the strawberries are great, too.&nbsp; Outside is crunchy. So fresh inside. It's really&nbsp;&nbsp; nice. It's refreshing. I'll give it a beat.&nbsp; I don't think it's quite A worthy. I think you&nbsp;&nbsp;
upstairs to grab an insane rainbow six layer&nbsp; cotton candy. Each layer is supposedly a different&nbsp;&nbsp; flavor stacked on top of each other until it gets&nbsp; actually this big, which was concerning for my&nbsp;&nbsp;
stomach. Texturally, it's very nice. Flavor-wise,&nbsp; I'm not like picking up a ton of flavor out of it.&nbsp;&nbsp; It's like I just feel like I taste sugar, but&nbsp; it still tastes great. All in all, I think it's&nbsp;&nbsp; another B tier. It's nice. It's just a fun treat.&nbsp; It's not mind-blowing. It's just nice, tasty, fun,&nbsp;&nbsp;
and we move on. No. So, something I learned very&nbsp; quickly in Japan is that there's zero trash cans&nbsp;&nbsp; of kids. Safe to say, they were pretty pumped.&nbsp; Hopefully, they enjoyed it. What is a micro pig&nbsp;&nbsp;
cafe? Oh my god, there's pigs. Yes. What? Look,&nbsp; they're having so much fun. This is better than&nbsp;&nbsp; Disneyland. And then this is not the only one.&nbsp; Asha Cafe and Capybara Cafe. I love Japan.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Next up are these massive sandwiches where we'll&nbsp; be getting both an egg and meat one containing 400g of meat, nearly a full pound supposedly. Both&nbsp; sandwiches will be tiered and whichever scores&nbsp;&nbsp; happened. They actually let me work in their&nbsp; kitchen and make one. I don't know what any of&nbsp;&nbsp;
which I thought was funny, but they did let me&nbsp; add a little bit of their seasoning to it. We take&nbsp;&nbsp; out some toasted buns, added some butter, and a&nbsp; good helping of honey mustard. Once they finished&nbsp;&nbsp; cooking the meat, they handed me the pan and I&nbsp; had to carefully layer it on top. I thought even&nbsp;&nbsp;
coverage was the goal, but it turns out they just&nbsp; wanted me to make this pyramid shaped thing, which&nbsp;&nbsp; I guess made it look more substantial. Then they&nbsp; wrap it up a couple times in plastic wrap, slice,&nbsp;&nbsp; add some garnish, and I personally thought it was&nbsp; overcooked. Maybe they should have let me cook&nbsp;&nbsp;
the meat, but you know, whatever. Smells beefy,&nbsp; smells good. Cheers. It's slightly overcooked,&nbsp;&nbsp; just a little, but it's not dry at all. The meat&nbsp; is surprisingly tender, which I I wouldn't have&nbsp;&nbsp; expected from skirt steak. The honey mustard plus&nbsp; the butter just adds this layer of riches. I'm&nbsp;&nbsp;
a fan. I put this in an A tier. Now for the egg&nbsp; sandwich. Wow. Literally overflowing. The bread&nbsp;&nbsp; can barely contain it. Phenomenal. Immediately&nbsp; better than 80% of breakfast sandwiches in the&nbsp;&nbsp; US. This is like a bodega sandwich on crack. The&nbsp; texture of the egg is just so nice. The salty ham.&nbsp;&nbsp;
And you still taste the cheddar cheese in it,&nbsp; too. It's cheesy. It's rich. It's creamy. I'm&nbsp;&nbsp; putting this in S. It doesn't need to get better.&nbsp; I'm happy with this. S tier. Moving on. On our&nbsp;&nbsp; way out, a audience member stopped by to take a&nbsp; pick and they decided to join us in rating the&nbsp;&nbsp;
steak as well. For the best I've had, I would say&nbsp; I would put it at like an A probably. Still really&nbsp;&nbsp; good. I like this kid. So, we have a rating double&nbsp; confirmed. Moving on to our last spot in Harajuku.&nbsp;&nbsp; I'm sure you've seen these twisted potatoes&nbsp; somewhere. They put them on a skewer, they&nbsp;&nbsp;
fry them for a couple minutes, and then they coat&nbsp; them in a salt and butter seasoning. I've always&nbsp;&nbsp; thought they were a little gimmicky, but you know,&nbsp; maybe they're good. We got to give them a fighting&nbsp;&nbsp; chance here. You can choose three different sizes.&nbsp; long. Long longer longest. This is the longest.&nbsp;&nbsp;
I'm enjoying this. Multiple layers of texture.&nbsp; It's not quite evenly cut. So instead of it being&nbsp;&nbsp; get some bites that have like a little bit of that&nbsp; fresh potato chew. Almost like a roasted potato&nbsp;&nbsp;
I'm going to put this in an A tier. I was ready&nbsp; to complain. With that, we wrap up Harajuku and&nbsp;&nbsp; we move on to Uru Harajuku for a coffee pit stop&nbsp; at Latte Pocket. He's telling me that they have&nbsp;&nbsp;
a three-dimensional latte. I have no idea what&nbsp; that means. So, you can bring your picture of&nbsp;&nbsp; your friend or your pets and then they're going&nbsp; to draw over the foam. What I'll be honest,&nbsp;&nbsp; this was cool to see happen, but it did make me&nbsp; question whether or not the coffee was going to&nbsp;&nbsp;
be any good. [Music] [Laughter] That's meringue.&nbsp; That's also mering. Very nice. Yappy is going into&nbsp;&nbsp; another store. So, we have me. Hello. Here's Nami.&nbsp; uncanny. I feel like all cats kind of look the&nbsp;&nbsp;
find you. Straight through mering. RIP. Give it a&nbsp; little taste. I mean, funny enough, the the foam&nbsp;&nbsp; has like no flavor whatsoever, but it's fun. The&nbsp; coffee itself isn't half bad for the novelty and&nbsp;&nbsp;
it. And this is just a happy fun time. And I love&nbsp; Japan. Thank you so much. Moving on. I could not&nbsp;&nbsp; believe my eyes at the next spot. We came all the&nbsp; way from Texas to try some Japanese street food.&nbsp;&nbsp;
And surprisingly, there was Texas barbecue. How&nbsp; could we not try that? But I really want to know,&nbsp;&nbsp; how does it compare to good old Texas? A&nbsp; slice of Texas in the middle of Tokyo. I&nbsp;&nbsp; wouldn't have guessed it. I thought I was getting&nbsp; away from it. And yet, here we are. Let's taste.
The owner set us up with some ribs, which looks&nbsp; fantastic, but what I'm really here for is the&nbsp;&nbsp; brisket. We have the A5 Wagu brisket and burnt&nbsp; ends. A5 has a unique capability of making the&nbsp;&nbsp; lean equally as good as the fatty because of&nbsp; the intramuscular fat that's in A5. This one's&nbsp;&nbsp;
very tender. I can barely even pierce it with&nbsp; the spork. It literally hits your tongue and&nbsp;&nbsp; evaporates. I mean, it is so anxious. The fat is&nbsp; just rendered enough that it's not too much. It's&nbsp;&nbsp;
meat butter and the smoke is very, very frontal.&nbsp; You can taste the oak wood. It's seasoned really&nbsp;&nbsp; nice with salt. The salt levels are, I mean,&nbsp; I would argue perfect. We got a slice of Texas&nbsp;&nbsp; right here. I'm feeling very represented. My&nbsp; mom would be really proud. Moving on. Overall,&nbsp;&nbsp;
comparing this to the greatest Texas barbecue&nbsp; I've had, honestly, I'd give it just barely&nbsp;&nbsp; over the B tier into a solid A tier. I&nbsp; think it's good effort. If you're in Tokyo,&nbsp;&nbsp; I would definitely recommend stopping by. Onto&nbsp; the next. We were walking and we stumbled upon a&nbsp;&nbsp;
fresh squeezed orange juice vending machine. The&nbsp; only reason I noticed it was cuz I was walking&nbsp;&nbsp; and I could smell fresh oranges wafting through&nbsp; the air, which if you look around here, there's&nbsp;&nbsp; nowhere that should be happening. I turn and I&nbsp; see this beautiful orange box. So, let's try it.
It's ice cold. It's so refreshing. The way it's&nbsp; squeezing it, it's getting that essential oil&nbsp;&nbsp; from the peel. So, it has that like fresh, rich&nbsp; orange flavor. Where else are you going to just&nbsp;&nbsp; randomly stumble upon freshlysqueezed juice&nbsp; vending machine. It's an A tier. It's good. I&nbsp;&nbsp;
could drink 100 of these. Moving on. Next item&nbsp; was a matcha crepe. They layered many things&nbsp;&nbsp; in this toasted bread and some of them I couldn't&nbsp; identify. That is a potato. I'm worried about this&nbsp;&nbsp; one. Is it really possible for every element to&nbsp; be great on their own as well as combined? I mean,&nbsp;&nbsp;
I I don't know. There are components of this is&nbsp; good. The macaron is nice. It's got a good chew to&nbsp;&nbsp; it. The toast on the bread is actually immaculate.&nbsp; I think it's fried. I'm really not a fan of the&nbsp;&nbsp; completely unsweetened whipped cream. And there's&nbsp; way too much match in there. It's like borderline&nbsp;&nbsp;
not going to get this again. I feel like there's&nbsp; so many great foods in Japan and this is crazy&nbsp;&nbsp; overhyped. And I mean that with love. I'm loving&nbsp; my time here. I'm coming back, just not to this&nbsp;&nbsp; place. You know, it can't all be bangers. We have&nbsp; to be honest here. That's the whole point of this&nbsp;&nbsp;
So, let's get back on track. Our next spot has two&nbsp; opportunities. Bruleed sweet potatoes in a silky&nbsp;&nbsp; handpressed Okonaman sweet potato ice cream. I got&nbsp; good feelings here. Wow. Wo. Okay, let's go for&nbsp;&nbsp;
it. That's phenomenal. So they have this very&nbsp; fragrant vanilla custard and you mix that and&nbsp;&nbsp; you scrape that beautifully silky smooth sweet&nbsp; potato and then the little bites of crunch from&nbsp;&nbsp; balanced. So this is a paste of potato. This one's&nbsp; made from benyo which literally means red potato,&nbsp;&nbsp;
but it's actually purple. Coming from the down&nbsp; south tropical area. And there's ice cream in the&nbsp;&nbsp; bottom. Let's go for it. Woah. Totally different&nbsp; than I would have expected. The texture is like&nbsp;&nbsp; unlike anything I've ever had. The texture of this&nbsp; paste is really airy as you're biting through it.&nbsp;&nbsp;
It's so soft like a pillow and then it comes&nbsp; together as this dense just sweet almost earthy&nbsp;&nbsp; sweet potato flavor combined with this sort of&nbsp; light vanilla ice cream. Amazing texture, amazing&nbsp;&nbsp;
flavor. I would put it as an S. It's just unique.&nbsp; It's its own thing. There's nothing else really&nbsp;&nbsp; like this and it is kind of perfect. If you can&nbsp; find it, go and get it. Moving on. Of course, we&nbsp;&nbsp; can't go to Japan and not get oniri. This one is&nbsp; a pork and egg version. Let's see where it stands.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Oh, you went for the whole thing. Sometimes when&nbsp; it falls apart, you just got to put the whole&nbsp;&nbsp; thing in your mouth. Pause. The rice is nice. It's&nbsp; seasoned nicely. It's balanced well. There's a&nbsp;&nbsp; but I'm not starving. Snack on one of these. Split&nbsp; one of them. Keep moving. This is very much the&nbsp;&nbsp;
nature of street food. And I would give it a B&nbsp; tier. It's satisfying, but more of like a I need&nbsp;&nbsp; to stop real quick and get a snack kind of bite.&nbsp; Next up, Hokkaido milk soft serve. I have been&nbsp;&nbsp; dreaming about this since I've seen it across the&nbsp; internet and finally I get to try it. Now while we&nbsp;&nbsp;
are in Tokyo, this milk is sourced specifically&nbsp; from Hokkaido cows and apparently these cows&nbsp;&nbsp; are raised in a perfectly nonstressed beautiful&nbsp; environment full of green which supposedly makes&nbsp;&nbsp; the milk taste substantially better. So let's&nbsp; see where it stands. Wow, it is very good. It's&nbsp;&nbsp;
not super sweet. the traditional soft serve that&nbsp; you expect out of a machine in like the US. It's&nbsp;&nbsp; milk plus like a powdered base and then they&nbsp; soft serve it. This actually tastes like rich,&nbsp;&nbsp; fresh, creamy milk. Out of all the things we've&nbsp; had so far, so much of it has been kind of like&nbsp;&nbsp;
just a blasting your taste buds with sugar.&nbsp; And I love that this is balanced and they're&nbsp;&nbsp; is the greatest milk on earth. That's what you're&nbsp; going to taste and it's the finest you're going&nbsp;&nbsp; to get." S tier easy. I wish more soft serve was&nbsp; like this. Moving on. Before we head to Osaka,&nbsp;&nbsp;
our final Tokyo bite is the curry pond. It's&nbsp; like a deep fried curry filled hot pocket,&nbsp;&nbsp; but this one has a few surprises. But does it&nbsp; really have the ability to top our tier list?&nbsp;&nbsp; Usually, it's only curry inside a curry pan,&nbsp; but this time they have special topping like a&nbsp;&nbsp;
savory pancake from where I'm from, Osaka. Let's&nbsp; try it. That's insane. Oh, there's cheese. Oh,&nbsp;&nbsp; there's so many textures. The entire outside is&nbsp; like studded with this crunchy texture, but the&nbsp;&nbsp;
bread itself is actually so nice. It's so moist.&nbsp; It's not dry at all. It's super fluffy, super&nbsp;&nbsp; light. And then on the inside, you have this sort&nbsp; of like very savory Japanese curry with mozzarella&nbsp;&nbsp; or some sort of stretchy cheese in there. And&nbsp; then of course, the smokiness of the bonito flake,&nbsp;&nbsp;
the okonomiyaki sauce, the creaminess of the&nbsp; mayo. This is a perfect bite. I love this. This&nbsp;&nbsp; is immediate S tier. It requires zero thought&nbsp; whatsoever. I would seek this out every single&nbsp;&nbsp; time I come to Japan. I love this. It's with a&nbsp; heavy heart we have to say goodbye to Yappy. I'm&nbsp;&nbsp;
so sad to see you leave. Thank you. And uh shout&nbsp; out to Aigato Travel. Be sure to check them out.&nbsp;&nbsp; They're phenomenal. Wouldn't have been able to do&nbsp; it without you. Thank you. I love you. It's okay.&nbsp;&nbsp; You don't have to say it back. Moving on to Osaka.&nbsp; The next morning, we took a bullet train to Osaka&nbsp;&nbsp;
and we actually managed to catch Mount Fuji's&nbsp; very first snow. Insane luck. Let's hope that&nbsp;&nbsp; continues in finding more incredible items. Here,&nbsp; we'll occasionally be joined by Seigato Travel,&nbsp;&nbsp; who'll be helping us find our places for viral&nbsp; Osaken street food. Here's what our tier list&nbsp;&nbsp;
is looking like so far. It feels strong, but&nbsp; I have a feeling it's going to get stronger.&nbsp;&nbsp; Let's kick things off at Osaka's most famous and&nbsp; viral street, Doanbi, which is home to one of the&nbsp;&nbsp; world's most famous Japanese dishes, takoyaki.&nbsp; Excited is too small of a word for how I feel.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Tell us a little bit about this one. The US sent&nbsp; us lots of flour after World War II as a relief&nbsp;&nbsp; because Japan couldn't grow enough rice and then&nbsp; also needed to come up with unique dishes and then&nbsp;&nbsp; this was definitely one of them. And this place,&nbsp; they put lots of tempora crunch as you can see.&nbsp;&nbsp;
And tiny chunk of the octopus is inside because&nbsp; octopus was abandoned in the STO inland sea which&nbsp;&nbsp; is right next to Osaka. So this is a really&nbsp; popular local dish that it's a must try when&nbsp;&nbsp; you're here. So we have the salt version here and&nbsp; then we're going to build up to the traditional&nbsp;&nbsp;
sauce and mayo version. Cheers. Very hot. Oh my&nbsp; god. Okay, I'm okay now. Wo. You guys know I have&nbsp;&nbsp; the bang of salt when you take that first bite&nbsp; is so incredible. It's so seasoned, so salty. You&nbsp;&nbsp;
taste that seaweed, the nori, it's oceanic. The&nbsp; temporal crunch adds incredible texture and the&nbsp;&nbsp; nice chew from the octopus custardy inside. Really&nbsp; nice. Now the question is which is better, the&nbsp;&nbsp; salt or the mayonnaise sauce. I'm scared to take&nbsp; another bite. It's so hot. I'm going to go for it.&nbsp;&nbsp;
So hot. I'm fighting for my life. I just love that&nbsp; like smoky sauce, the creamy mayonnaise, and then&nbsp;&nbsp; of course the bonito flakes add that additional&nbsp; umami and also like that nice roasted fish flavor.&nbsp;&nbsp; A strong A tier. It's a really nice street snack.&nbsp; I would eat all these, but I also want to not burn&nbsp;&nbsp;
my taste buds off. So, we'll move on to the next.&nbsp; Osaka starting out strong negates with a powerful&nbsp;&nbsp; A tier. I'm excited for this next one because I've&nbsp; been making and eating tayaki for what feels like&nbsp;&nbsp; my whole life. And I always thought it was pretty&nbsp; good, but I've never had one in Japan in a fresh&nbsp;&nbsp;
one off the street. Let's see how it is. This is a&nbsp; classic Osaka dish. It literally comes from Osaka.&nbsp;&nbsp; feels crisp. It's hot and fresh. This is the red&nbsp; bean flavor. It's the classic choice. Cheers. Oh,&nbsp;&nbsp;
yeah. Very, very, very, very good. It's cooked&nbsp; perfectly. I love that the actual tayyaki shell is&nbsp;&nbsp; so thin and crisp. It's not thick and cakey. I've&nbsp; had a lot of different ones that are almost like a&nbsp;&nbsp; soft waffle. That's some [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] This is the right&nbsp; one. You still have that nice chew as well. And&nbsp;&nbsp;
tayyaki I've ever had. Yeah, it's an S. I don't&nbsp; think it gets better than this. Moving on. Osaka&nbsp;&nbsp; on the board with an S tier. Arguably one of the&nbsp; most viral traditional items on our list. And it&nbsp;&nbsp; actually delivered. The competition is ramping up.&nbsp; Now we really head streetside into Kuraman Market,&nbsp;&nbsp;
Osaka's most famous street food market. here.&nbsp; There's going to be a massive variety of street&nbsp;&nbsp; foods to try. But our next two items are the&nbsp; real standouts. Behind me is arguably the most&nbsp;&nbsp; famous poisonous fish on planet Earth that is&nbsp; eaten. They don't do this as much in Japan,&nbsp;&nbsp;
but in America, if you order this and a&nbsp; menu happens to serve it, which very few do,&nbsp;&nbsp; they have an ambulance sitting outside, and it&nbsp; is fugu, also known as puffer fish. We're going&nbsp;&nbsp; guys. I've never had this in my life. It looks&nbsp; like a sort of like a tender white fish. So,&nbsp;&nbsp;
the way I'm going to do this is touch chili sauce.&nbsp; You see that on there? And then into the panoo. The best way I can describe it, a lot of fish that&nbsp; you have usually like if you look at like a kami&nbsp;&nbsp;
and tuna, right? It's like literally falls apart&nbsp; in your mouth. There's no intramuscular tendon in&nbsp;&nbsp; it whatsoever. This, on the other hand, has a lot&nbsp; of density. It's very chewy, but in a nice way.&nbsp;&nbsp; It's got a nice bounciness to it. Flavor-wise,&nbsp; it's pretty mellow, actually. Not fishy. There's&nbsp;&nbsp;
That would be awesome if it wasn't. But all things&nbsp; considered, out of all the sushimi, I honestly&nbsp;&nbsp; wouldn't I wouldn't seek this out. There's so many&nbsp; other pieces of fish I would eat before this. I&nbsp;&nbsp; would probably put this at a solid B. It's a nice&nbsp; fish, but it's certainly not my first pick. Moving&nbsp;&nbsp;
on, keeping up with the seafood, we continue&nbsp; down to the market for a quail egg stuffed&nbsp;&nbsp; baby octopus or taco tomago. Normally, I like&nbsp; my octopus grilled, but this being cooked down,&nbsp;&nbsp; letting all that sweet soy glaze get absorbed into&nbsp; the little suction cups and the body of the actual&nbsp;&nbsp;
squid is really nice. I don't think the quail&nbsp; egg adds that much. I could honestly do without&nbsp;&nbsp; it. It's fun, but not really a necessity. But the&nbsp; octopus itself is surprisingly tender, not chewy.&nbsp;&nbsp; at a solid B tier. Out of all the octopus dishes&nbsp; I've had, though, it's not in the top top top,&nbsp;&nbsp;
but it is good. I'm a fan. Moving on. Next top&nbsp; are these sweet potato chips. Say told me that&nbsp;&nbsp; they're gaining in popularity, so I figured I'd&nbsp; give them a taste. They look incredible. I love&nbsp;&nbsp; eating these, I'm like, how good could it really&nbsp; be? I will say they're seasoned nicely. Cheers.&nbsp;&nbsp;
are seasoned properly. So, the fact that this is&nbsp; seasoned properly is adding a whole another level&nbsp;&nbsp; to it being good. And I think because they're&nbsp; so substantial, one chip is like three, four,&nbsp;&nbsp; five bites. It's like a whole meal in a cup. I&nbsp; like it. I'm into it. This is honestly worthy of&nbsp;&nbsp;
an A tier. There aren't many chips that I think&nbsp; are worthy of an A tier, but this one definitely&nbsp;&nbsp; is. Moving on. Time for a heavy hitter. For years,&nbsp; we've seen this item jiggling about on Instagram.&nbsp;&nbsp; It is the Jiggly Japanese Cheesecake. I have&nbsp; always wanted to try this. I'm incredibly excited.&nbsp;&nbsp;
And I got to be honest, it looks just as perfect&nbsp; as I thought it would. But how does it taste? It's&nbsp;&nbsp; about Japan is that they don't oversweeten their&nbsp; desserts. Their desserts are actually very mellow&nbsp;&nbsp;
on sugar levels. They focus a lot on the flavor.&nbsp; But texture- wise, it's kind of like almost eggy&nbsp;&nbsp; and it just feels like baked meringue with very,&nbsp; very little flavor. This is more novelty than it&nbsp;&nbsp; is like a mind-boggling experience. If I'm being&nbsp; honest with you, I feel like a lot of people come&nbsp;&nbsp;
ever had. Out of here. There's not much going&nbsp; on. Honestly, I'm going to put this at a D. I'm&nbsp;&nbsp; be pissed. This is a country full of some of the&nbsp; greatest food in the world. Don't waste your time&nbsp;&nbsp;
with this. Go somewhere and find something maybe&nbsp; a little bit more local. Wow. Honestly, this might&nbsp;&nbsp; have been one of the most disappointing bites in&nbsp; the last 5 years of my life. I'm just going to&nbsp;&nbsp; be flat out with you guys. And we only have four&nbsp; more items remaining before I choose my favorite S&nbsp;&nbsp;
tier. Will any of these four dethrone the current&nbsp; S tiers? Onto one of our most viral items here in&nbsp;&nbsp; Japan. You can't walk down the street without&nbsp; seeing this everywhere. The 10 yen coin. It's&nbsp;&nbsp; essentially kind of like a grilled cheese. It's&nbsp; got a lot of buzz. It's got a lot of popularity,&nbsp;&nbsp;
but so far they're not doing so good with&nbsp; overhyped food. So, how does it stand? Honestly,&nbsp;&nbsp; crisp on the outside, super soft and fluffy on the&nbsp; inside pancake, and then the cheese adds like a&nbsp;&nbsp;
really nice creamy light cheesy flavor. This is&nbsp; fun. I like this one. I like cheese. Like, look&nbsp;&nbsp; how cheesy this is. I mean, it's crazy. This is&nbsp; so phenomenal. I'm actually a big fan of it. I'm&nbsp;&nbsp; going to put it in an A tier. I don't think it's&nbsp; S tier worthy. I would definitely spend some time&nbsp;&nbsp;
going and getting it. Moving on. Another viral&nbsp; item surprisingly meets the hype. Now, moving&nbsp;&nbsp; on to try these Chinese pork buns. I know this is&nbsp; a bit of an unusual one, right? Because this is&nbsp;&nbsp; doing things that are viral in many parts of the&nbsp; global hemispheres that exist. Think about it this&nbsp;&nbsp;
way. What you know is viral, what the American&nbsp; people know as viral is one thing. But what the&nbsp;&nbsp; Japanese people know is viral would be this. If&nbsp; you are Japanese and you live in Japan, you likely&nbsp;&nbsp; know and love 551. They really keep the name&nbsp; simple here. I can respect that. Mustard. You'll&nbsp;&nbsp;
never really find a Chinese person doing this, but&nbsp; the Japanese suggest it. Cheers. [&nbsp;__&nbsp;] That's a&nbsp;&nbsp; banger. Oh my god. I will say the mustard opens&nbsp; up your sinuses, dude. I smell smells I didn't&nbsp;&nbsp; even smell before, but now I smell them. The dough&nbsp; is so soft. It's so light. It's so delicate. It's&nbsp;&nbsp;
so fluffy. Great chew. The building is also very&nbsp; delicate as well. It's bouncy. It's got good chew,&nbsp;&nbsp; but not only is it like the fatty traditional meat&nbsp; that you would expect inside of something like&nbsp;&nbsp; this, but I like how tender it is. It like melts&nbsp; in your mouth. It's seasoned perfectly. It's got&nbsp;&nbsp;
like onion in it. You can see whole sauteed onion.&nbsp; Out of all the bow I've had, I really like this.&nbsp;&nbsp; Out of the things that we've had thus far, this is&nbsp; a banging S tier. It's so funny to have a Chinese&nbsp;&nbsp; dish in a Japanese street food video as an S tier,&nbsp; but it's an S tier. It's really good. But will it&nbsp;&nbsp;
beat our other items? We'll decide in a bit. But&nbsp; now we are on to two of the most viral items I've&nbsp;&nbsp; seen on all of the internet. I'm sure you've seen&nbsp; this guy before, but if you haven't, he literally&nbsp;&nbsp; torches bluefin tuna with his bare hands. He dunks&nbsp; his hands in ice water in order to increase the&nbsp;&nbsp;
endurance he has against the heat. It's a pretty&nbsp; incredible show. Unfortunately, we got cut off&nbsp;&nbsp; right before we got to taste it. And thankfully,&nbsp; we had an audience member that was already in line&nbsp;&nbsp; that was kind enough to let us have a bite of his&nbsp; dish. Big shout out to you. You saved our beehind&nbsp;&nbsp;
Casey. We appreciate you. I'm going to pick a&nbsp; small piece cuz I don't want to steal too much&nbsp;&nbsp; from you guys. Wow. Okay. It's way better than&nbsp; I thought it was going to be. I'm thinking like,&nbsp;&nbsp; uh, this is some bull blah blah blah. No, it's&nbsp; actually very good. It's got like a smoky barbecue&nbsp;&nbsp;
richness. It almost has a beefy quality to it.&nbsp; It transforms it from fish almost to like meat.&nbsp;&nbsp; Wow. Incredible. Moving on. All in all, this joins&nbsp; the ranks as an A tier. And we have one more spot&nbsp;&nbsp; to go. I think this has to be the item that's&nbsp; blown up the most. If you've ever been on the&nbsp;&nbsp;
internet looking for food, you've probably seen&nbsp; this mochi. I've been enamored by its process&nbsp;&nbsp; for years. I've never had fresh mochi before and I&nbsp; get to actually witness it and taste it in person.
in Japan anywhere. We're in a deer park. We have&nbsp; deer. I have moji. This is mine. No, this is mine.&nbsp;&nbsp; You can't have this. Yes. Bow. Bow. You can't eat&nbsp; this. I can't I can't give it to you. Okay. All&nbsp;&nbsp;
right. He gave out. We're going to try it. Here&nbsp; we go. [Music] Right. Oh, I'm scared now. You're&nbsp;&nbsp; really close. You're very calm for being scared.&nbsp; I would have ran. Really phenomenal. First of all,&nbsp;&nbsp;
perfect chew. So smooth and also soft. A lot&nbsp; of people in America have never had like truly&nbsp;&nbsp; fresh mochi. They're used to like almost like a&nbsp; very hard waxy mochi. This on the other hand is&nbsp;&nbsp; like one of those like 5 million count thread&nbsp; Egyptian pillows but in your mouth. The mochi&nbsp;&nbsp;
being pounded at the shop. It's not really a show&nbsp; for people to watch. They do it while the mochi is&nbsp;&nbsp; still steaming hot because they want to achieve&nbsp; this really soft, beautiful texture, and then&nbsp;&nbsp; you have that beautiful sweet bean paste in the&nbsp; center, the toasty, roasty soybean flour on the&nbsp;&nbsp;
outside. This is a phenomenal bite. We're peeing&nbsp; over here. Fresh mochi. Immediate S. This one is&nbsp;&nbsp; truly worth the hype. Fresh mochi is incomparable&nbsp; to anything else you'll ever try. It's a textural&nbsp;&nbsp;
wonderland you truly cannot replicate without that&nbsp; craftsmanship that it takes to pound that mochi&nbsp;&nbsp; and delicious. I wish I had it near me. But wait,&nbsp; we didn't finish here. What was the best S tier&nbsp;&nbsp;
the one I think I'm going to seek out the next&nbsp; time I come to Japan is the okonomiyaki curry&nbsp;&nbsp; pond. That one was crazy. I've always wondered why&nbsp; everyone, including myself, is so obsessed with&nbsp;&nbsp;
Japanese food. And it's because this country&nbsp; perfects everything. It's a true commitment&nbsp;&nbsp; to making food delicious. And only a place with&nbsp; people with big hearts and attention to detail can&nbsp;&nbsp; do that. And it's earned them a place in the food&nbsp; hall of fame. Subscribe. Love you. Bye. [Music]
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