Do you like trip? And what do you look for in your trip? Food, people, fancy hotel or activity? When I travel outside Japan, I tend to try their local foods. In Japan, there are many unique foods, signature foods in places. Sometimes they only exist there. In this article, I will focus on signature foods of Shizuoka prefecture in this article. I would be happy if you get interested and actually try it when you visit Japan. I hope it helps make a trip plan to Shizuoka prefecture someday.
Genkotsu hamburger
Speaking of Shizuoka prefecture, most people think of Genkotsu hamburger first. Genkotsu hamburger is a specialty from the restaurant called Sumiyaki Sawayaka. The restaurant was born in Shizuoka prefecture and has been loved by not only the local but also people from other places. It has the super cool hamburger that attracts people all over Japan. Actually the restaurant chain exists only in Shizuoka so you cannot enjoy it anywhere else. Their hamburger, Genkotsu hamburger is big and like a stone as its name. Genkotsu literally means a fist and the Genkotsu hamburger exactly describe the size and shape of a fist. Their desert is also good. Try some!
Strawberry deserts
Shizuoka prefecture is the forth biggest strawberry producer in Japan. There is even a road called Ichigo kaigan dori or strawberry road along the ocean. You can see many strawberry farms while driving the road. Many signs of “strawberry farm” are really calling you to their farms. I really wanted to do strawberry picking there actually. There are shops serving foods made with their strawberries.
Here are some foods, a strawberry cider and a strawberry mochi that I had. Can you imagine what the strawberry cider tastes like? It will be a surprise, just try it by yourself to see how that is. Strawberry mochi is made up of mochi, red beans paste and a fresh strawberry inside. The sourness of the strawberry matches the sweetness of the paste the best.
This is one of the Japanese specialty, dorayaki. Red beans paste is put between two fluffy pancakes. There is a typical dorayaki on the left. The one on the right is strawberry dorayaki specialized in Shizuoka prefecture. The pink-ish cream inside the pancakes is strawberry flavored. You must try it.
Fujinomiya yakisoba
Yakisoba is a Japanese noodle dish. They stir yakisoba noodle, vegetables like carrots, cabbage, green pepper or whatever and pork together. What is special about Fujinomiya yakisoba is that they do not use pork. They use Nikukasu for pork instead. Nikikasu is made by pieces of pork that are dried until the water in it is gone. The yakisoba made in Fujinomiya city can only be called Fujinomiya yakisoba. That means if someone makes yakisoba with Nikukasu in Tokyo for example, and even if it is almost the same as Fujinomiya yakisoba, it could not be called Fujinomiya yakisoba. How funny it is. Also Fujinomiya yakisoba only uses the noodles from several local noodle companies. Otherwise, they will not call it Fujinomiya yakisoba. Fujinomiya yakisoba used to be served in only Fujinomiya city. But these days some other places in Shizuoka prefecture started serving it. But would you try the real Fujinomiya yakisoba in Fujinomiya city, right?
