Yokohama Chinatown Street Food

Yokohama Chinatown — the largest Chinatown in Japan and one of the largest in Asia — is as much a street food destination as a sit-down dining district, and the pedestrian lanes of Yamashitacho in Naka-ku offer one of the country's most diverse walk-and-eat experiences. The Chinatown developed from the mid-nineteenth century as Yokohama opened as a treaty port, and Chinese merchants, traders, and cooks established the food culture that continues to evolve through successive generations. Today the main approach lanes are lined with stalls and shopfront counters selling a staggering variety of Chinese-influenced fast food, much of it adapted over generations to Japanese tastes. Nikuman — steamed pork buns (baozi) filled with seasoned minced pork in a pillowy white dough — are the defining street food, sold piping hot from bamboo steamers at numerous counters, with each establishment claiming its own recipe and the queues to prove it. Fried sesame balls (goma dango or jian dui) — deep-fried glutinous rice dumplings coated in sesame seeds with a sweet bean paste or lotus seed filling — offer a contrasting crisp exterior to the soft, chewy interior. Taiwanese-style bubble tea, spring rolls, dumplings (gyoza sold takeaway from griddles visible from the street), and a rotating variety of regional Chinese candy and confections round out the browseable selection. The atmosphere is particularly lively during Chinese New Year (late January to February) and Golden Week (late April to early May), when food stalls operate at maximum capacity and traditional lion dance performances fill the main thoroughfares.