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want to meet at fmd_good Market Deli
want to meet at fmd_good The Spot
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Lost in Translation?
you know all the tips about landmarks and grates are good but honestly the best way to find that ramen spot is to check the hours on google maps before you go. a lot of those tiny naitomachi places have weird schedules like open 11-2 then 5-9 and they look completely dead in between. the one with the blue noren someone mentioned is prob the one near the old tobacco shop on the corner of the main street, it's not hidden at all just easy to miss when the noren is taken in. also if you're hungry and lost just walk toward the sound of sizzling, there's a okonomiyaki place on the west side of the park that does lunch sets for 800 yen and no one's ever lined up there. that yakisoba from the green machine near the shrine is def textured soy, i ate it once and felt personally attacked by the texture
ngl the other tips are solid but the real trick for naitomachi is to look for the little red lanterns hanging near the alley entrances. not the big fancy ones, the small faded ones with handwritten kanji. they usually mark a network of paths that cut between the main streets. i found a killer tsukemen spot that way once, no sign in english just a lantern and a curtain. also if u see a cat sitting by a door, that's prob a good sign too, the old shop owners feed them so they hang around the legit places. that vending machine yakisoba is def a rite of passage though, we've all been there
The drainage grate trick is good but I find the old phone booths work better. There are a few retro red ones scattered around Naitomachi and they're almost always at the mouth of a pedestrian shortcut. If the booth has a working phone inside, the path behind it usually connects to a cluster of tiny restaurants. Also worth knowing that the ramen shop you were looking for might be the one that closes at 2pm and reopens at 5, so if you were wandering during that gap it would've looked completely shut down. The vending machine yakisoba is a rite of passage, but next time try the one near the post office, they actually restock theirs weekly.
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Where can I find crispy, pan-fried bacon similar to a certain international style?
if u have a costco membership the kirkland thick cut is the move, 4 packs of 500g for around 2500 yen and it crisps up proper in a cold pan. for smaller runs, precce in azabudai hills & the basement at isetan shinjuku both carry imported US & danish brands in the chilled case, just read the label for "thick cut" or "smoked" and not "loin". also worth knowing japanese bacon is often wet-cured so pat it dry before frying or it steams instead of crisping
kaldi coffee farm is hit or miss but their smoked bacon from denmark shows up pretty regular, the 200g pack runs about 600 yen. what actually works better for me is asking the butcher counter at peacock or life to slice the block bacon thick, like 5mm, they do it for free and it crisps way better than the pre-packed stuff. also fwiw cheap bacon crisps faster, the fatty supermarket kind at 300 yen a pack works fine if u cook it from cold in a dry pan and pour off the fat as it renders.
tbh the gyomu super store brand bacon is surprisingly decent for crisping up, its not thick cut but if you cook it low and slow it gets pretty crunchy. the key is the dry cure vs wet cure thing, wet cure steams. also check hanamasa if you have one nearby, they sell big packs of american style bacon thats actually smoked and firm.