My quest to find inexpensive but still tasty meals led me to this dish:
Is your mouth watering yet? Mine sure was when I caught a glimpse of this pasta dish with spicy sausage slices and egg. I was even more pleased to see the price!
One Coin Meal
In Okinawa, as well as other parts of Japan, there are meals referred to as "One Coin Meals". These meals usually come in at or just under ¥500 getting the name from the number of coins required to pay for the meal. Sometimes restaurants have special One Coin Meal days where you can get an entire ramen set, for example, for one coin. Others simply refer to something which can be purchased for one coin as a One Coin Meal.
So where did I get this meal? Well . . . . Lawson. No need for a fancy sit down restaurant, this was a grab and go! The pasta itself came in at ¥398 which with a drink brought me just under ¥500. Now I am sure that there are some of you out there shaking your head at prepackaged pasta from a convenience store but I have to say this was pretty good. Everything was fresh, sauce was tasty and so was the spicy sausage. The portion was decent size as well, surely more food then you would get at any Italian place for this price.
As for the hubby he went with one of his favorites, katsudon. The meal was the same price (if I remember correctly) and again came in just under one coin after he grabbed a tea. Unlike pasta, katsudon has a few characteristics which can be lost in prepackaged meals. There doesn't tend to be as much juice and the egg is not necessarily the same but every with that being said this meal was very good.
Overall we both decided that we would certainly get both of these options again especially if we are in a pinch for time and want something other than a sandwich or onigiri.
If these options don't look that great to you don't fret, there are a number of different options available at various convenience stores around Okinawa. For specialty dishes like pasta and katsudon, however, we recommend Lawson or Family Mart.
Have you tried one of these before? Let us know what you thought!
I have not tried these yet, but they look great! One question, how is the egg on the katsudon prepared? Is it scrambled or just whipped up and poured on the hot food? :)
ReplyDeleteThe eggs is already cooked on the prepackaged katsudon shown below. However, it was also mixed with some katsudon sauce which gave it the same consistency of the eggs on standard katsudon.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDelete