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The Japanese sure have a thing for food-themed amusement parks. Whether it be ramen, ice-cream, okonomiyaki, or period style eateries, there will be an artificially created homage somewhere that pays tribute to a particular food.

Ikebukuro’s Gyoza Stadium was no exception. Located in Namco Namja Town in the immense sprawling shopping mall known as Sunshine City, the Gyoza Stadium gathers a dozen or so famous purveyors of Japan’s moreish dumplings, and plonk them into a mock “stadium” to compete against each other (sound familiar?)

First, a word about Namco Namja Town. Namco is a company better known for making computer games. Namja Town is a huge indoor amusement park featuring carnival-style games and various themed sections, like a Haunted House and “Hell Town”. It is usually very crowded but on the weeknight we went, it was virtually deserted, which made the experience extremely creepy and freaky! Imagine blaring loud carnival -style music and the occasional maniacal clown laughter with hardly anyone around, and you start to get the picture.

We persisted because Namja Town also has several themed food sections, like Ice Cream City, Dessert World, and the Gyoza Stadium. The Stadium was actually done up like an old-style food alleyway, dotted with stalls selling different styles of the Japanese take on Chinese pot-stickers. Touts from each stall beckoned us to sample their wares. We were completely in a spin, not knowing quite what to order but more bewilded by the bizarre scene: a mock food park with blaring noise, and stalls spruiking to hardly any customers.

We finally decided on a stall selling ‘normal’ looking gyoza. After a quick fry-up, the gyoza arrived with a small serving of bean sprouts. They were quite tasty - crunchy on the outside, with a yummy filling, though they were a little light on the meat. Gyoza Stadium also introduced us to true Japanese beer. Not the stuff in Australia that is brewed under licence in Australia and slapped with a Japanese label, but the bona fide and mighty Kirin Ichiban. Crisp, clean and pulled from mini kegs into cardboard cups, it was the perfect accompaniment for washing down the greasiness of the gyoza.

We tried two different types of gyoza at the next place. The first one resembled an okonomiyaki , with a generous slathering of mayo and sprinkling of what looked like seaweed powder or aonori, like the stuff you sprinkle on instant yaki soba. It was very yummy indeed.

The second type of gyoza was a straight pan-fried version but accented by a squeeze of lime, then dipped in white pepper. I did not heed the advice from the cook to go easy on the pepper, and was rewarded by a fit of sneezing.

By the time we arrived at the last place, we were getting quite tanked. The stall owner turned out to be Chinese, and recommended two types of gyoza - a very nice straight pork dumpling, and their store speciality of “cheesy” gyoza. Sounded gross, but it actually tasted quite good!!

We staggered out of Gyoza Stadium and wandered around the rest of Namja Town, including the other food parks, although we didn’t try any more food. Dessert World served all kinds of cakes, pastry, and ichipan, with seating provided on wrought-iron outdoor style furniture. Ice Cream City, as the name suggested, sold all kinds of ice-cream, some with extremely bizarre flavours, such as squid, octopus, and Indian curry flavour ice-cream, as this guy discovered (be sure to watch part 2 for more ice cream horror).

Definitely an experience, Namja Town is well worth checking out, but perhaps at a time when there are more people around. It’s the stuff of nightmares when deserted, though the Gyoza Stadium served up some mighty fine beer and tasty dumplings.

Written by ElegantGourmand on December 15th, 2007 | Tags: Dumplings, Gyoza, Japan, Theme Parks | Category: Uncategorized |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL