 And then here is where we actually dropped the udon. Oh my gosh. What's going on everybody? Welcome to a very authentic Japanese experience episode of Fung Bro's food. Macadona though. We are here with our Japanese friend Chi from New York. Konnichiwa, yoroshiku onegaishimasu. You can speak English too. Sada. Do you like that though? Chi, that's not your real name though. Chi is Chikori? Chikori Koike. We are out in West LA on Sawtel. And if you guys don't know, this is a famous Japanese street. It's like the west side little Tokyo or better yet, little Osaka. Today we are going to be checking out one of the most authentic Japanese experiences you can get in America. Hands down, I read it. I don't know, I read it. We got the articles to back it up. This spot is very famous and authentic for many, many reasons. Mostly because it's very quick, it's very affordable and it's really, really good. Eko. Koro today, I'm going to come next. Could you please explain to us how it works here? Yes, of course. It's a cafeteria style and I think maybe it's a quality for Udon. You come, you grab your tray and then at the order station, you basically order what Udon you want. And then you make your way down the line after you receive your Udon and just get your favorite tempura or musubi items. Make your way all the way down to the drink station, get your drinks, pay for your order. Once you're done paying, you can go to the complimentary topping station and get your free choice of green onions, cilantro, as much as you want. Not everybody that works here is Japanese, but people still say that this is one of the most Japanese experiences you can get. Why is that? We bring the concepts straight from Japan, the equipment, the ingredients are all from Japan. We bring the training from Japan as well, so we train the staff to provide omotenashi, which is giving to the customer, you know, accommodating, making their experience as good as possible. So we bring the Japanese service style to America, which we feel that the customers would love, that extra degree of service. They think I need to go back in the back of the kitchen to go talk to the chef in order for me to decide which one I want. If I'm entering the kitchen of Arigame Udon right now, let's go see what we find there. People are really cool. Shout out to them because not that many Japanese restaurants will let you back in their kitchen. What are we doing here? Can we explain? We're doing spam. That will be called Furikake Spam. Excuse me, miss. What do we got going on here? So this is the last noodle station in this fridge. This is the H Udon, and we have these here. We just pretty much flatten them, and then pretty much this station over here is where we pretty much get the shape of the actual udon. And then here is where we actually drop the udon. Oh my gosh. That's all different stations. I'm just hopping station to station. It's like an RPG game. So we got different soups right here. This is the signature basic just health broth. This is the kake, and then we got the tonkatsu. Real milky. Wow. This is the bukkake. What does bukkake mean? So it has bonito and seaweed in it. So it's like the sauce version of the kake. Awesome. Awesome. And then finally we got the curry. Okay. Yeah, so we got the curry soup. It's sizzle. Beautiful. The curry. It's dope. You see a close up. It looks like Twinkies, but it's not. Beautiful. They made a thing. I made my way around this kitchen. I'm deciding what I want. So many choices. Quality's high. I can actually afford all of it if I wanted to. So I'm really excited, right? Which one would I get? Alright, so everybody said to get the chanpong. That's the one. Champong. I know what I'm getting. Mission accomplished here. Okay, what does what we grab say about us? I went ham on the teppura and I put some of the chili peppers on top because I wanted to make it like kind of give me that Cajun fried food type feeling. This is my favorite thing I wanted to try eating. Musubi. Yeah. David, you have the traditional one. I have the traditional one because I'm the most traditional. Alright, why are we pulling out noodles of like, out of water? I have a comment. Actually they said that when they cook it in this, it gives the udon like a different texture. So it's a little bit more chewy than the rest of the udon that we're going to have. Out of the wood bowl. Kamau udon. So that's low key really good. You wouldn't think I had a lot of flavor. The ginger flavor is really strong in that. The bukkake means to jump on. The noodles are a lot more firm with the old one. That's really good. The bukkake udon is lit. Okay. Say you like this. I really like that one. Alright guys, I'm moving on to the champion. The champon. This is the one that everybody in the back told me to try. Champon. It was started at a Chinese restaurant in Nagasaki. It's inspired by a Fujinese dish. So let me try this. Oh dang, that does taste kind of Chinese. It tastes kind of like a dumpling because you have pork and cabbage. You have similar ingredients as a dumpling. Are you and Jeannie are going for the Spamasubis? Is that the noise you have to make? Can you explain how the Spamasubis is different? It's my first time having one. You never had Spamasubis? No. Wait, what? Yeah. That's why I was excited to try it. Spamasubis, we eat these all the time in the West Coast. Very Japanese American. You guys eat this all the time? Spamasubis, yeah. I'm so jealous. Everybody bring out their favorite fried item. Tamagoyaki. It's really good. It's really good. It's really good. You know like in bento boxes? Tamagoyaki is something that is always included but not. I've never saw it like fried. I'm giving this to my fried egg. Sambura egg. We are moving on to more udon here at Marugame. I have the kare udon. I don't know, it's either between this one or the bukake. I got the double nikutama. She is experiencing Japanese experiences on the West Coast. Okay, I got the mentai kamatama. That's really good. If you like mentai, it's not spicy at all. I want to point out something that I'm actually extremely attracted to. Which is this huge tempura broccoli. Like usually when you see tempura broccoli, it's not this big. I'm so excited about this. Yo, this is a chicken katsu udon. Oh my god. Oh no, there's a bone in it. Oh no, it's a stick. How is that? Your face? Your face? Gee, you've been to Japan. Why would people say that this is the most authentic experience that you can get now? This type of style works really well in the subways. The guy is going to work. You just want a quick flight but you don't want crappy food. In Japan they are really picky about customer service. Did you feel like that carried over in your family your jobs? Yeah. And I think it doesn't work in America. In New York there's no authentic Japanese people carrying on the restaurants or anything like that. It's always a different race carrying on a Japanese restaurant. Are you saying other races can't serve you as well? No, they can. But even like they explain here, they train really properly to understand the culture behind what you're serving. Right. And a lot of people just get infatuated with the idea without really understanding the culture behind it. Are you supposed to eat this? Are you supposed to pick at it? No, usually it's soaked into the broth and you eat it with the noodles. So not just like this? Is a fish cake with sushi rice? Actually mom used to make these growing up and she used to stuff. What do you mean? You said that we have the same mom. Even mom has packed this in our blend boxes. I also think it's because our mom spent some time in Japan. Alright. You know what I like about this? Because I love that light vinegar flavor on the rice. Here's my thing about potato croquette. It's like the vegetarian chicken concert where it's like fried the same way but there's no meat inside. Usually when you think of places that offer a very Japanese experience, you're thinking yo that's gotta be like 30-40 dollars a person. You could come out of here spending like 10 to 20. That's not a 40 to 50. I mean that's a pretty big difference. And sometimes that's the most authentic because everybody has expensive Japanese restaurants in their big city that they're in but do you have a cheap restaurant? You really eat what the working people eat. That's oftentimes the most authentic. Just like $1 pizza is to New York. You know how everybody eats that. If you feed the regular people, that is authentic. I'm gonna try this salmon sushi. David you know I'm the mixologist. So I'm about to mix up these two more sen eggs that I got. I'm about to dip on a gear nap. Do you notice over time that there's more Japanese concepts being direct reported from Japan to the US? The Ichiran, Ikinari and Marugame, Udon all pretty much feel the same as they do in Japan. That's how it should be. Like green tea, right? You were talking about matcha? Yeah. Americanized green tea is that I take a little offense to because green tea isn't just like a product. There's like a tea ceremony that's affiliated with it and both of my grandparents are actually green tea teachers. They're grandparents who are matcha masters. Are you just singling out like those white guys who did it? Because I feel like everybody's doing matcha everything. They are but they're... No that's fine but like to put a bamboo whisk on a blender is like... I think it's just the green tea. I take it personally because I was like raised around it. But at the same time I get it that like in order to introduce a culture to a different group you need to tweak it a little bit to have that like exposure at the same time. Make matcha ceremony? I got an idea. Let's have a drink sake one cup. You guys I'm gonna be honest when it comes to other cultures I often google things. Basically in Japan if you're pouring you don't necessarily have to put your arm like this or anything but you do have to have the label up and it's a two-handed pour. Calpico sake. Straight face favorite udon. Kare udon. I think the Japanese curry has a really refined subtle flavor. Obviously I like other styles of curry too that have more cake and more spice but it's just a nice easy eat. I like the bukkake udon. I loved actually the kama udon. The first one it was like the simplicity and the ginger flavor I really liked it. It's actually a flavor I don't have a lot. I like the noodles from the other udons better than the kama. The kama udon felt different. No so I like the dip for the kama but I like the other noodles better because they're chewier. I prefer the chewier noodles. What was your guys' favorite fried dish or tempura? The tamago yaki is something I've never had before and that's why I definitely think you guys should definitely come check out Marudame. You're gonna try things that you can only try in Japan. No Doug, you know what it was like? You know how at the carnivals out here they fry everything? It was kind of like that in a Japanese way here. They were like yo tamago, we're frying it. The inari. I think that that is actually my absolute favorite. Are you very proud of Naomi Sake? Yeah. There's some controversies that happen but it's okay. What do you think about the controversy that it sparks because for the longest time Japan is a homogenous place. But then it's like now you have these people representing Japan that they don't look Japanese. They get hypocritical depending on the situation you know like when they're representing the flag it's like oh yeah you know we support you 100% but then when it comes to like you know the racial factor and like the nitty gritty then it turns like questionable. Do you think it's gonna bother Japanese people if all their top athletes are just half black? I mean let me just tell you it's possible. Shout out to Yuta Watanabe though but Roy Hachimer is probably better. What are some other things that you would like to see come over from Japan that you think have more global appeal to the Western market? Animal cafes. They have the Hedgehog Cafe right? I went to those things in Japan. But don't you think it's not just the cuteness it's therapeutic too? It is, it is. When you hold mammals it releases like serotonin or... They just need to have certain regulations so that all the animals are treated well. Everybody's clean handling them. There's no abuse or like you know all that stuff. Do you know what's something that came from Japan that blew up in America? Shiba Inus. That's the dog I want. Here's the one thing I would like to see come over. High quality bento boxes like from Lawson's or from like 7-Eleven. High quality convenience stores. Thank you so much for doing this episode. Is there anything last thing that you would like to say about being a second gen Japanese but growing up in America? Be weird guys, stay hentai. I take it. I gotta say my major takeaway from this is that it was really cool to get a full Japanese experience at this price point in America. I've never seen anything like it. I think you're gonna see more of these like quote-unquote you know affordable experiential food concepts come over to America. I think spots like this where you have to pick your own food out are teaching people to be more cooperative and work with each other. Because someone could easily sneeze and cough all over that temper over there and just ruin it. But when you walk into here you don't feel like doing that. Also I think it actually teaches portion control because you have to pay on the car piece by piece. So what are you gonna do? Get a bunch of stuff and then throw it away? Alright everybody thank you so much for watching that video in the comments below. Let us know if there's any other Japanese chains or spots that we should check out in the area. Because we love to see the authentic Asian spots come over to America. Or if you don't have the time or the money to take a $2,000 flight to Japan to spend $15 dollars coming to Marigame. Alright shout out to Gini. Just behind the camera. Alright everybody. Gochisousamadeshita. Two! We have to give a huge gigantic shout out to our biggest sponsor of all time. For whom without them none of this would be possible. I gotta give a shout out to our sponsor. You guys. No seriously you guys have been the sponsor of our entire channel. 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