The Japanese city that dominates street food – and no, it's not Tokyo | Hacker News Reader

The Japanese city that dominates street food – and no, it's not Tokyo

cnn.com

50 pointsmikhael37 comments

I'd just been on holiday to Japan and one thing that really stood out to me was how social some of the bars (and it's a bit of an assumption on my part but the restaurants in the article) are.

I suppose by now everybody is fairly familiar with Golden Gai in Tokyo now but the concept of these mini bars only seating a few known regulars does not seem to be limited to just Tokyo. I found similar setups in Kyoto and Kanazawa.

These tiny bars seem to fulfil this need for a 3rd place. To help facilitate the social aspect of them, the owner of the bar will tend to make introductions between the people that are visiting (rather than say the Australian model where the bar is kind of a "rented space" to hang out with your friends).

I've also discovered very niche bars in Tokyo, dedicated to Punk music, or Jazz etc. A place for those with similar tastes to come together and hang out and talk about these similar interests.

I'd love to bring this concept back to Australia but the liquor laws here prevent something like this from being financially viable due to the requirements around the size of the bar, available toilets (the mini bars all shared one central toilet) etc. The attitudes around alcohol were very different as well. At at Jazz festival in Kanazawa, bars were free to open stalls out the front and sell drinks to those watching gigs in the laneways. Young kids were free to mix with adults who were drinking and having a good time (here is an example of what I mean: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMS1Z-NymXvHBCcfb4sxrp7...)

I just watched Ozu’s 1956 film Tokyo Twilight and the opening scene has two strangers introduced to each other in a tiny bar, and within minutes one of them is sharing his food with the other. I wondered how realistic the scene was, but from what you write, perhaps it was representative of everyday life. Still, Japan is such a regimented society. How do bar owners ensure that the regulars it attracts belong to the same level in the social hierarchy, so that they can feel comfortable among one another?

In Japanese compainies, CEOs sit and have lunch with the rest of the workers (I have heard).

I love the tiny bars. In Tokyo and Osaka, it's really easy to walk past "apartment tower" style buildings where each floor has several different bars, each with different themes and aesthetics. The "bar per person" ratio is very good. Usually not too noisy. Very helpful for Japanese language practice.

what do you mean by a 3rd place?

The photos link says you need a Google account and to log in to it to see the photo.

A place to hang out and be social that is not home or work

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

sociology idea, essentially that you have a 3rd place outside of home and work to spend your time, meeting people, grow as a person, make connections, etc.

colleges have that, in the form of libraries, student unions, cafeterias, etc. where you can hang out while not sleeping in stuffy dorms. same idea, but for the average person working a job and living life.

Starbucks famously positioned itself as a 3rd place, and also famously dialed that back.

Thanks to all who replied.

It's Fukuoka, please edit the title to eschew clickbait.

Yeah I assumed it was Osaka, which has a lot of good street food like the octopus takoyaki.

> which has a lot of good street food like the octopus takoyaki

at risk of being pedantic, all takoyaki is octopus. tako = octopus, and yaki is to grill or pan fry.

it's like talking about an apple-flavored apple-pie. a true statement, to be fair.

I only included the word octopus so people unfamiliar with takoyaki know what I’m talking about.

There are popular variations “wiener takoyaki” and “cheese takoyaki” which don’t contain octopus, however.

Example: https://www.yonekyu.co.jp/recipe/detail.html?pdid=217

Surprised to see this here, but pleasantly so!

Street food in Japan and Fukuoka in particular is one of my favorite reasons to visit. Seemingly ever foodstuffs location (whether that be a yatai, a ramen shop with a kiosk, or a small hole in the wall dart bar) has a different feel to it, and many have "regulars" that frequent the location often are are willing to chat up a newcomer.

Would heavily encourage any tourist to the country to take a moment and don't do any research, just pick your next meal from something that's close by.

Content farm style title.

A rising programming language that dominates system programming - and no, it's not Rust.

Would the above title be acceptable for HN?

Well, don’t keep us in suspense! Which language is it?!

I don't know but I'll never be able to guess what it does next.

Will the third reason it's good surprise us?

You will be able to guess correctly once you learn this one weird trick!

I love this kind of thing. In Asuncion, there are whole food parks dedicated to this kind of thing, and many parking garages have the top level converted to clubs on Friday and Saturday, usually with a smattering of food carts.

Also, abandoned buildings where the roof is partially or fully collapsed are popular spots for bars.

Here's a parking garage club. https://www.instagram.com/mollys.py/?hl=en

Food park https://www.instagram.com/villamorrapark/?hl=en

Bar in a crumbling building, you can kinda see where the walls are caving in. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2447548432045770&set=pc...

Went to a Yatai in Fukuoka this last summer, was pretty neat. Though it's also kind of intimidating, especially compared to a lot of Japanese restaurants where there's some kind of screen to order from at the front or at a table, and often there's an English translation even.

Oh, totally! However when I was travelling around Japan, especially in smaller towns, restaurants and shops were very accommodating as I took my time to use Google Translate. Very lovely people!

Agreed, though there's other intimidating aspects too. It was hard for my wife and I to even decide on a stall, between a lot of them filling up fast + some ambiguity of lines (because you need to leave space for pedestrians) and it also felt a bit harder to gauge whether each one was the kind of food we wanted from the outside.

Yeah, you’re actually right. I’m travelling around Taiwan now and it does get a bit crowded to the point you can’t really figure out what is what. And by the time you can unlock your phone you gotta move to make space for people coming from behind.

Fukuoka, Japan’s sixth largest city by population, has more open-air food stalls than the rest of the country combined.

Avoid the clickbait, this the whole article.

I love cities that embrace street food. My home (New York City) is well-regarded for street food, but I found it that it's nothing in comparison to Mexico City where a vendor seems to dot every single street corner.

With our density, New York could have a much richer street foods scene if the permitting and regulations allowed it.

I have put Fukuoka on my travel list.

Go to China in the summer, especially in southern China where it is hot in the day and only bearable at night, night markets with just lots of street food are pretty intense.

Unless you want to be easily exposed to dangerous elements like gutter oil or fake food, which is prevalent in China, I recommend other food stall cities like Singapore or Taiwan.

Gutter oil has been exceedingly rare in recent years in China due to extremely harsh crackdowns (literally death penalties were handed out). You will be fine these days in bigger cities.

And it's funny that you suggested Taiwan, which is the country that gutter oil was first seen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil#History

nope, gutter oil won't go away in China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu6yJyi97ZI, especially since it's getting harder to make money in food service these days.

And fake food is rampaging through the cities in China, such as moon cake and alcohol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIpA_RwEtLE

Not sure why you would take Chinese government's word on anything, when they still refuse to accept blame for releasing covid to the world and killing millions, and giving long covid and removing smell and taste for many more.

Dude you need to stop getting news from dedicated clickbait and propaganda YT channels...Those are embarrassing.

Seconded. Taiwan is the superpower not just in semiconductor manufacturing but also in street food. Many quirky snacks from there repopulated the culinary desert of post-Maoist mainland, and bubble tea spread all over the world.

Tried Mexico City street food, got diarrhoea, wouldn’t recommend.

You would think that Japanese people are taciturn,

but most taciturn Japanese actually love to be talked to by foreigners

Why would anyone have assumed it would be Tokyo?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com