Aomori City is the northern most capital on Honshu and it’s known for its famous summer festival, the Nebuta Matsuri.

The Nebuta Matsuri is, arguably, what put Aomori City on the tourist radar, but one of the best things about Aomori City is the food.

Aomori is a foodie destination for those who love to try local delights and also eat some of the best international food that you can get in Japan!

Read along, keep this post open when you head over to Aomori for the Nebuta Festival and are looking for a dope place to feast on!

Local Aomori Cuisine

Miso Curry Milk Ramen 

Aomori is famous for two types of ramen and this is one of them.

Miso, curry, and milk  are steeped together in a luscious soup to create an instant stoner classic. It sounds like an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink melange, but the flavors work together to balance each other. Miso and curry add depth of flavor while milk gently rounds everything out.

You can find miso, curry, and milk ramen at a lot of ramen joints in Aomori City. If I had the time (and stomach!), I’d love to have tried bowls from different shops to compare which flavors they choose to emphasize. We went to to Ajino No Sapporo Onishi (link below), and while it was a novel bowl of ramen, the flavors fell a bit flat. I’d like to try a bowl that has a stronger curry flavor next time!

Niboshi Ramen 

Niboshi ramen might be one of my favorite styles of ramen. Niboshi ramen broth is made from steeping sardines, and the it tastes like a deeper, more savory udon broth. It is lighter than most variety of ramen broths, and it goes down the hatch very easily.

You might think that the flavor would be very fishy, but at Ramen Tsuji, the flavor of the broth reaches a perfect balance of deep umami with a hint of fishiness.

Ramen Tsuji seems to be a local favorite as there were families, business men, couples, and more, eating ramen when we went. Also, it’s located in a hotel which makes it a little hard to find, but all the more special when you do find it!

Nokke Don 

Nokke (pronounced noh-keh) Don is a really fun experience in Aomori City where you can browse a fish market to make your own DIY custom sashimi bowl! 

At Furukawa Market, you start by grabbing some tickets to exchange for toppings. It’s 1300 yen for 10 tickets. I recommend getting 10 tickets because once you start browsing the stalls, you will want everything in your bowl! 

After that, you can start browsing the aisles of stalls selling fresh seafood. Once you come upon a stall with seafood that you like, you give the shop owner a ticket (or two, or three, depending on the price) and they’ll plop the seafood right on top of your steaming bowl of rice! 

These are the sashimi bowls that we ended up making! There are classics like salmon, tuna, and tamagoyaki, but you can also find some uncommon seafood too. We got some squid eggs, which I’d never had before, and it was absolutely delicious!

If you want to read an in-depth guide to making Nokke Don, I wrote up a guide on my tumblr! Check it out if you want the scoop, but this is definitely a place you should check out in Aomori if you love seafood!

English Toast

When I first saw the words “English Toast,” I was confused. What made toast, “English,” and why was it on sale in Aomori City?

Upon some asking and googling, English Toast is considered one of the soul foods of an Aomori local.

In it’s most basic form, English Toast is crystal-like pebbles of sugar sprinkled on top of margarine slathered between two huge slices of white bread. Sugar, fat and carb. Can’t go wrong with that.

You can find English Toast at almost any convenience store in Aomori, and during the Nebuta Matsuri, they have a special festival version featuring cassis jam and orange marmalade. This one was really good and if you can get your hands on it, you should!

International Cuisine

To my extreme surprise, Aomori is an amazing city for sampling global cuisine.  I expected to find a deep reverence local Japanese cuisine, but the gourmet scene in Aomori is an exciting venue for international food!

French Boulangerie

Boulangerie & Fromagerie Mont D’or is near ASPM, main tourist building in Aomori city, so you really do not have any excuse to not check this amazing bakery out.

On this day, I got a Provence baguette sandwich that had a generous amount of salmon, eggs, olives and tomatoes on a bed of romaine lettuce. This was one of the best baguette sandwiches I’ve ever had in Japan. The baguette had a perfect texture while the fillings were prepared perfectly.

Also, the sandwich was a pretty big, almost as long as my forearm! For less than 500 yen, you can eat this gourmet sandwich. I would never be able to find a sandwich like this for that price in Tokyo which makes it all the more worth it!

Mexican

We went to Penthouse after spying their Mexican-inspired menu on ground level. We walked up four flights of stairs that opened up into a large, inviting space complete with brick-lined walls. The vibe of Penthouse is something that you can easily find in Tokyo – it’s chill, cozy, cool, but in Aomori, it isn’t a common site.

The menu is Mexican-inspired with tacos, fajitas, and other Japanese-twists on Mexican flavors. We ordered guacamole as we weren’t so hungry, but more so looking for a place to relax. The guacamole that we got was some of the best I’ve had in Japan! I know I sound like a broken record when I keep saying, “it’s the best in Japan,” but when they hand smash the guac in a mortar and pestle, let you choose which avocado to use, and ask you how much cilantro you want in to the dish, you know it’s a winner. 

Penthouse is a perfect if you need a place to relax in Aomori city. By day, Penthouse is a chill cafe serving up tasty Mexican-inspired dishes and by night, it turns into a cozy, hipster bar. The staff are also really friendly and are fantastic conversationalists. 

Did I mention, they also have hammocks that you can lounge in? Oh, and a ping pong table if you feel inclined to play.

Cantonese

L-A-R-G-E portion alert! You better come to Higashi Shida hungry or you will be defeated by the dishes here!

Higashi Shida serves up Cantonese cuisine that has been tailored to suit a Japanese palette. This means there are flavorful noodle soups and lot’s of Chinese-style teishoku sets which include a main dish, rice and multiple side dishes.

I was craving rice after having eaten noodles and noodles for days, and the stir fried pork with ankake sauce hit the spot and more! It was so big, but also so flavorful. I couldn’t stop shovelling food in my mouth. The garlic-chive dumplings were also such a star dish at Higashi Shida.

Service is also top notch here with one of the most earnest young waiters helping us out and flexin’ his English.