Japanese Oden – Eating on a budget series

Who loves oden as much as I do? ??

Oden, in my opinion is the Japanese version of Yong Tau Foo (without the rice/mee/bee hoon), that’s warm and comforting to the soul.

Oden is typically sold as takeaways in convenience stores during winter, as well as during cool periods during other seasons, such as typhoon period during rainy summer. They are priced individually (pick and mix selection) and packed in 2 bowl sizes. My favourite is to eat them as dinner or supper during cold snowy winter. 

Known as the Japanese rice cake stew, Oden comes in a variety of selection, like rice cakes, radish, tamago, fish cakes, Konnyaku (jelly-like stuffs without any taste), seaweed, octopus, and many other meat stuffs.

Take a look at the below menu for selection. Even scallops are available at 75Yen a piece.

A typical bowl of oden. The ordering is simple at any Konbini (24 hours convenience store). Just grab a bowl, pick and choose your items and place them in the bowl, followed by adding in the soup. The cashier will let you know how much to pay for them.

Oden soup are delicious too and having a hot bowl of it really soothes the coldness during winter. After buying from the convenience store, we will normally finish up the bowl of oden right outside the store in the snowy night. Awesome feeling!

A standard bowl of Oden costs between 300 to 500 yen depending on the ingredients chosen. This is considered a budget meal and enough to satisfy your midnight hunger.

These are also available for takeaway, usually bought from super market. You can bring it home and heat it up before consuming.

Have you tried Oden in Japan before?

For other “Eating on a budget in Japan”, see here.