sandy daza food tour japan

Sandy Daza to go on Japan food tour this year

• January 10, 2023

JTB has collaborated with Chef and television personality Sandy Daza to stage Japan food tours this year.

Dates in February will cover Hokkaido while March will go multi-city with Fukuoka, Hiroshima, and Osaka.

There will also be dates for April through July where the chef will take travelers on a unique adventure through the streets of Japan.

From ramen, sushi, steaks, seafood, and desserts, foodies will enjoy visiting the haunts frequented and approved by the chef.

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Sampling the best of japan in a one-night fukuoka food trip, metro channel team.

Love Japanese? Bring your friends and family, and experience a whole new level of Japanese cuisine in this one-night food trip around Fukuoka Japan with Sandy Daza .

Food trip tip: Fukuoka is best experienced on foot at night, when the food stalls start to open shop. Make sure to wear comfortable clothing and bring walking shoes.

There is nothing more Japanese-y than a bowl of good, piping hot ramen. And when in Fukuoka, there is only one place to go to satisfy all your ramen cravings.

Ramen Stadium is a food hall of sorts that’s home to all kinds of ramen. It serves to highlight different kinds of ramen since each prefecture in Japan has a specific ramen specialty, from the kind of broth to the noodles that they use.

READ:  The Hello Kitty Bullet Train Plus Other Hello Kitty-Themed Must-See Spots in Japan

For the season 6 of Food Prints, Sandy brings his foodie group to Shodai Hide-chan , one of the most popular places inside Ramen Stadium. Shodai Hide-chan is home to what Sandy calls the “Best Ramen in Town,” which has a tonkotsu broth and a nice big slice of Kurobota pork.

READ:  The Non-Tourist’s Guide To Tokyo

The Kurobota pork is a great choice for ramen since it has a lot of marbling, which means there are layers of fat hidden inside the meat strands. This makes every bite tender and melting in your mouth. Complementing the juicy pork neck is the rich pork tonkotsu broth and Hakata noodles, which are straight and thin-cut noodles.

Add to your ramen experience their unique ordering system, where you can choose your order via a vendo-like machine. Sandy says that when in doubt, always choose the item in the top most left corner of the screen, because that’s usually the best-seller of that restaurant.

READ:  Aichi-Nagoya Is A Secret Waiting To Be Discovered In The Heart Of Japan

Five minutes from the best ramen in town is the best gyoza in town—and it’s located at at the Nakasu food strip along the Naka river in downtown Fukuoka. This strip has always been an entertainment district since Japan’s Edo era, and the vibrant atmosphere has been preserved until today.

A number of food stalls line the Nakasu food strip, but for the best gyoza in town, head to Takechan, a stall that has been making and serving gyoza for 50 years now.

Their gyoza are bite-sized and made-to-order, so you’re sure that they’re fresh and hot. The gyoza features a perfect play of textures—from the bite from the steamed wrap, crunch from the toasted sides, and the nice rich ground pork filling. Pair it with the acidic vinegar and you’re in gyoza heaven.

Take note that the lines can be long—but Sandy assures that the long wait is worth it.

Chicken hot pot

End your night win an eye-popping multi-course meal that culminates with a hearty and traditional chicken hot pot at Hakata Hanamidori.

Hakata Hanamidori is the more formal destination of the night, encouraging guests to take off their shoes before they enter the dining area filled with chabudai, or short-legged tables used in traditional Japanese homes, and tatami mats instead of chairs.

The meal starts with a colorful and beautiful appetizer set that’s composed of green pea tofu, stewed chicken with apples, Brussel sprouts and grape seed blossoms with sesame sauce, boiled prawn and cauliflower, and uri and smoked salmon with vinegar jelly.

There’s also Chicken Sashimi, although don’t be scared to try it because it’s not really raw chicken. The chicken is cured and smoked, then cut into thin slices, which Sandy notes tastes like smoked salmon.

The star of the night, of course, is the Mizutaki or the chicken hot pot. The broth is made from kelp and water, before the chicken, tofu, and various vegetables are added.

Eat it with ponzu vinegar for a hearty soup experience that warms the tummy and the soul.

READ:  Love Japanese? Try These Delicious Japanese Seafood Recipes Easy Enough To Cook At Home

Watch Sandy Daza’s food tour of Japan on the Season 6 of Food Prints, returning to Metro Channel, channel 52 on Sky Cable and channel 174 on HD. Catch fresh episodes on Mondays, 7 p.m., and replays throughout the week.

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SNEAK PEEK: Sandy Daza explores the flavors of Hiroshima and Osaka on FoodPrints

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Chef sandy daza takes “food prints” to leyte, japan, and canada.

October 05, 2018 AT 05:59 PM

It’s all about mouthwatering lechon, savory ramen, and juicy steak this October as culinary royalty Chef Sandy Daza explores Leyte, Japan, and Canada in the sixth season of “Food Prints,” premiering on Monday (October 8) on Metro Channel.

• Chef Sandy Daza

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‘Food Prints’ season 6 to visit Leyte, Japan and Canada

• BY Krissy Aguilar
• October 7, 2018

Foodies are in for a treat as culinary royalty Chef Sandy Daza brings the sixth season of ‘Food Prints’ to Leyte, Japan and Canada.

Photo from ABS-CBN

Premiering on Monday, Oct. 8 , on Metro Channel, Chef Sandy uncovers mouthwatering lechon and authentic Singaporean bites in Ormoc, Leyte. He also visits the Queen Pineapple and the beautiful Lake Danaoa.

‘Food Prints’ is also set to take the viewers to the land of the rising sun as Chef Sandy takes 14 foodies with him on a Japan food tour.

Their tour will start in Fukuoka to try its famous pork broth ramen, mini gyoza’s, and the freshest seafood.

They are also set to visit Hiroshima for some seriously spicy ramen and the juiciest, plumpest oysters. An A5 superior Kobe beef dinner in Osaka will, then, cap off the Japan tour.

Canada will be Chef Sandy’s next stop to meet next generation chefs who are creating their own names by making new and bold dishes from local ingredients.

He also takes viewers to Alberta to indulge the best of Canada beef and see how cattle are raised. The chef will also explore breathtaking Lake Louise and try various juicy steaks along the way.

Chef Sandy is a food writer and host of the popular “Casa Daza” show on Metro Channel. He also owns the successful Casa Daza and Wooden Spoon restaurants. /cbb

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Living his dream and not working a day in his life

Sandy Daza hosts three food shows on TV and writes a column, making him one of the most recognizable chefs in the Philippines. 

He co-owns kiosks bearing his name that sell empanada and siopao in malls across Metro Manila. And he wears another hat: as a guide of culinary tours in Japan that he considers a “sideline” and a “dream come true.”

Sandy reached this stage in his life by traversing, not a straight path to success, but a winding road of hits and misses.  

It’s a journey that included involvement in student activism at the University of the Philippines (UP), running a family restaurant that went under, producing music shows, and publishing an entertainment magazine that did not pan out. In addition, he toiled at his food business in North America, to no avail. 

His foray into guiding food tours began in 2013 when representatives of the Japanese government visited the TV station where he hosts “Food Prints’’ and asked him to feature the cuisine in the cities of Fukuoka and Hiroshima, which were then not popular with Filipino tourists. Osaka, a city known to many Filipinos, was added to the list.

The invitation was for him to do six hourlong shows on the food in the three cities.

Sandy flew to Japan with a daughter for the first three shows, and then with his sister Nina, who is also a chef, for the rest of the shows. He and his team were escorted by guides who told them to eat at fine-dining places, a lot of which were hole-in-the-wall restaurants.

The shows perked his viewers’ interest, Sandy said in an interview with this writer last month on a Shinkansen bullet train from Fukuoka to Hiroshima. “Oh, Chef, we want to try the places you ate at,” he quoted them as saying.

“By some blessing from above,” he said, Pia Alfonso of the Philippine office of Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) saw the food shows and asked him if he could lead a culinary tour in Japan. His reply: “Of course! That’s my dream come true.” 

His first food tour was Fukuoka-Hiroshima-Osaka in 2015. “I had about 30 participants and we had a really grand time. You know, the food in Japan is very, very good,” he said. 

But now he chooses the eateries he features and replaces those that do not meet his exacting standards. “I’m not happy with just good. [The food] has to be exceptional,” he said. 

Pent-up demand

Sandy led his biggest food tour in Japan in 2022, just after pandemic-imposed travel restrictions were lifted worldwide. The 69 participants on one tour reflected the pent-up demand for travel.

“Suddenly, everybody wanted to travel. So I brought my son. We had two buses. My son was on one bus, I was on the other. I told him what to say. The next day I transferred to the other bus. We were happy,” Sandy recalled.

By JTB’s count, he has led “between 30 and 40” food tours, including 10 in a span of just three months in 2022—all in Japan—and seven this year as of October, including one in South Korea.

Of some 550 participants so far, the youngest was three years old, who came with his parents and a grandfather, and the oldest was a woman of 90 who joined the Sapporo, Hokkaido leg before the pandemic.

JTB introduced a food tour in Hokkaido also in 2015 and in South Korea in 2017. Both tours are led by Sandy.

Some participants have joined his tour twice, attesting to its attractions.

How is a food tour different from a garden-variety guided tour? Said Sandy: “A food tour is comfortable because we don’t wake up too early. You’re relaxed, and there’s not a lot of walking. There’s shopping, too.”

He introduced fruit-picking—strawberries, pears, melon, or persimmon—some three years after the tour began.

In the Oct. 20-25 tour in Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Osaka, there was time for handpicking persimmon on a farm, shopping at outlets for global brands, visits to fish markets, a stop at a peace memorial museum, and a boat ride to a world heritage Shinto shrine.

“Everybody is happy as long as they are comfortable when they wake up and they enjoy the food and shopping,” Sandy said. “The first day, [there is still some shyness to interact with others]. The second day, we really make a whole family.”

Denim jeans, T-shirt

Sporting his “uniform”—T-shirt, Levi’s 501 and rubber shoes—Sandy sits at the front of a bus full of foodies when moving to and from the assigned hotels. The bus has a “Chef Daza Food Tour” sign plastered on the windshield.

Occasionally he holds the microphone to explain something, not the scenic spots, but the food soon to be enjoyed. For the tour in October, the dishes were ramen, sukiyaki, sashimi, tonkatsu and tempura , and Hokkaido crabs, followed by dry ramen, yakiniku , oysters, unagi , grilled Kobe beef and shabu-shabu .

A dinner at a restaurant in Hiroshima betrayed Sandy’s background in basketball and affinity to UP, where he spent two years each in high school and in college.

As we participants were enjoying yakiniku (grilled wagyu and vegetables), Sandy, a smartphone in his left hand and chopsticks in his right, did a live report on the men’s basketball game between UP and Ateneo de Manila University. 

“UP lost, OMG!” he exclaimed at the end of the game that went into overtime.

Standing at 5’10” and a half, Sandy was a member of the UP High School basketball team. He had a half-court concreted at the family home in Area 1 of the UP campus where he practiced his shots and hung out with friends.

Still seared in his mind after more than five decades is a televised basketball game in which he bungled a shot: “I was nervous and took a shot. Butiki patay (The ball hit the edge of the backboard). `Daza out,’ said the coach.”

Before he became a basketball player, Sandy was into tennis, swimming and badminton. He takes pride in once holding the Philippine swimming record for 13-14-year-olds.

He eventually shifted to basketball because, he said, “girls don’t watch swimming competitions.”

His stint with the UP High basketball team ended when he was kicked out for flunking his English and math subjects. He was also caught copying from a classmate during an exam.

But he suspects that there might be another reason for his getting kicked out: He might have earned a teacher’s ire for being an escort of Maricris Llamas, who won the “Lakambini” beauty contest.

From UP High he transferred to St. Martin Technical Institute, the precursor of University of Life, which accepted kickouts from schools such as Ateneo, Aquinas and De La Salle. The sections were based on height, he said.

Diliman Commune

Sandy returned to the State University in 1971, enrolling at UP Manila and taking courses in UP Diliman, where he got involved in a fraternity and in student activism.

He recalled being part of the Diliman Commune, in which students, faculty members and residents erected barricades on campus in February 1971 in solidarity with striking jeepney drivers protesting a fuel-price increase. 

“I was there when the Metrocom (Philippine Constabulary Metropolitan Command) could not gain entry because of the barricades. I was going around the campus,” Sandy said. 

The Metrocom pursued a group that included Sandy when the police finally broke through the barricades.

Sandy recalled a close friend, Dodie Tan, a member of the Chosen Few band and a brother of Jimmy Tan, who was president of the UP Student Council in 1972-73. “We prepared ‘subversive materials’ for Jimmy. We went around the campus to a vacant lot where we dumped the materials, which others would pick up,” he said.

Before martial law was imposed nationwide in September 1972, he joined the Beta Sigma fraternity. “Our final initiation was on a Sunday, and the day before that martial law was declared,” he said.

The Daza residence at the back of UP Infirmary became a waystation for some activists and frat brothers, a few of whom went underground to elude arrest. 

The imposition of martial law marked the end of his stay at UP and dashed his hopes of joining the collegiate basketball team.

Sandy’s involvement in student activism so alarmed his mother, the culinary icon Nora Daza, that she sent him to France:  “ Natakot ang ermat ko doon sa activism. So she had me study at the American College of Paris, while I worked as a waiter and cashier at the family’s restaurant.”

Nora Daza, considered “the Julia Child of the Philippines,” was a restaurateur, cohost of a radio program, host of TV cooking shows, columnist, and best-selling cookbook author. 

She earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from UP and a master’s in restaurant and institutional management from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. 

She established restaurants not only in Manila (Au Bon Vivant and Galing-Galing) but also in Paris (Aux Iles Philippines) and, upon the invitation of the Philippine government, in New York (Maharlika). 

In Paris, Sandy rose early each day to buy supplies at a market that, he said, was similar to Tsukiji, Tokyo’s wholesale fish and seafood market. 

At the restaurant he was unconsciously absorbing what the cook was doing: “While waiting for the dishes, you watch the cook work without noticing it.” 

But one day the cook left, seized by a whim, Sandy said.  “ Sinumpong at lumayas na lang.” 

He was forced to man the kitchen. He prepared appetizers and, to his surprise, the customers didn’t notice any change in taste. His confidence in his ability to cook boosted, he went on to take some courses at Le Cordon Bleu school of culinary arts.

After two years in Paris, he enrolled at Cornell University. In 1977, he earned a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management. His sister Nina is also a Cornell graduate.

Arrogant and humbled

Sandy went back to Manila and was assigned to manage Au Bon Vivant. 

“I was arrogant as a fresh graduate from Cornell,” he said. The restaurant lost money and closed down in 1979—a “very humbling experience,” he said.

He realized that school did not prepare him for running a restaurant: “It was totally different” from what was taught in school.

His next move was to form an entertainment company called Interbros, while his brother Bong set up Intertrading. Success eluded both ventures.

Moving on, they came up with an “artista” magazine and produced the shows of the Music and Magic band. These, too, did not catch on.

Sandy had to move on yet again. In 1983-84, he was involved in setting up Northern Foods Corp. that produced tomato paste in Ilocos Norte province. He was president of the company that he deemed “successful.” 

But the People Power Revolution in February 1986 led to the “sequestration” of the company. 

The change would fling him into the world of cooking shows. In 1987, he and Nina were informed by their mother’s secretary that, on her instructions, they should take over her TV show “Cooking with Nora” because she had left for Paris. 

“Wow! We were terrified,” Sandy said. “Nina and I talked about our fears on the show. Interestingly, it became natural, and I enjoyed the show. Later I realized that ‘there’s money to be made here.’”

But the allure of Canada proved irresistible. In 2001 Sandy and his family migrated to Canada; they stayed in Vancouver, where he worked as a courier. 

Eventually, he put up a cooking show that ran for eight years and gave him the idea that a restaurant should be his next project as he was already known in the area.

So he established a restaurant, which flopped. Its location was bad, and it had a staff of one or two. On weekdays he was the cashier and waiter. “I handled everything, including going to the market. I was having a hard time,” he said. 

By 2010 Sandy had had enough. He weighed the words of a friend—that he was not someone special abroad but had cachet in Manila. He told his family: “Let’s have a look in Manila. If you like it, we’ll stay. If not, we’ll come back.”

His children found Manila to their liking. But questions about his ability to run a restaurant after the failure in Vancouver troubled him. “I asked myself, `Can I still hack it?’”

In 2011 Sandy and a business partner opened a restaurant, Wooden Spoon, on Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City.  It was named Restaurant of the Year for 2013. (An image of him holding a wooden spoon is now his trademark in his cooking shows.)

Encouraged, he and his business partner opened a branch in Rockwell Makati in September 2013. It became a roaring success, he said: “It was always full. We were running out of food.” 

He and his business partner parted ways in 2017-2018.

Sandy then put up a restaurant in Kapitolyo, Pasig City, but it turned out unsuccessful.

Kiosks, etc.

It was at this point that he joined forces with his cousins and established the “Casa Daza by Chef Sandy” restaurant in UP Town Center. Sales were anemic. 

It paused operations during the coronavirus pandemic and reopened when restrictions were eased as a downsized and nimble “Casa Daza Specials by Chef Sandy” that sells empanada and siopao from kiosks. The business has grown to 16 branches and counting.

Besides the kiosks, he has three food shows: “FoodPrints” and “Casa Daza “ on Metro Channel and “Lutong Daza” on Net 25, where he teaches a guest how to cook a dish. 

He also writes a column for Manila Bulletin.

Despite the many food tours he has led, Sandy, now 71, stays slim and fit. He inevitably puts on weight while on tour, but he sheds the extra pounds by reducing his meals back in the Philippines to just one a day.

Over the years, the tours have expanded his circle of friends that he now considers family. He still meets with members of his first tour.

And Sandy has not lost his mojo in leading food tours. Just three days after the five-day tour in Japan last month, he led another one in South Korea.

He best describes his vocation through this adage: “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

See: Food, friendship and more on a tour with a chef

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A taste of Japan at home

Where to go for authentic japanese food in manila, at a glance.

I jokingly tell my participants, I only choose the Japanese meals that will make you involuntarily think of your loved ones while enjoying them.

I now frequent Japan because of my food tours. I love Japan! I believe most travelers today zero in on going there instead of Hong Kong, which used to be the place to go for Filipinos. Last year, I went there six times while the year before that I went nine times. Every time I have a trip to Japan, I feel nothing but excitement. Food is exceptional, people are kind and polite, the country is clean, and shopping is fun because there are bargains all over. 

More than anything, I enjoy seeing the participants enjoying the food I have chosen. The dining places I choose cannot be just good, they have to be exceptional. I jokingly tell my participants, I only choose the Japanese meals that will make you involuntarily think of your loved ones while enjoying them because you want them to experience what you’re eating.

There is a problem with traveling there a lot though. Even the best quality food of Japan, I need to take a break from—those include A5 Wagyu, ramen, high-grade unagi etc. Another problem is many people have come to love Japanese food. So in most of my invitations to dine out here in Manila, including the invitations from my own kids, it is mostly to Japanese restaurants. So as not to offend, I just go along and eat a burger after. 

There are only two or three Japanese restaurants I can walk into with a sincere smile in Manila. Sushi Shokunin is one and another is one I discovered—or  should I say rediscovered?—a few weeks back. At these two restaurants, I can order dishes they don’t have in Japan.

Most Sundays, I play badminton at 9 a.m., then I head back home to freshen up to be ready for church by noon. My daughters join me most of the time. I know what’s on their mind after service—late lunch. I also know what kind of cuisine. After getting spiritually full, it’s our tummy’s turn.

Yūgen is a fairly new Japanese restaurant in the Pearl Drive area. This place used to be called Marafuku, which used to have good food. Today, it has changed—and the food is even better. The once open kitchen is still visible from the dining area but now covered with glass so we the diners don’t smell of food when we leave like we used to. To me, Yūgen makes the best prawn tempura. It has great sushi rolls, baked oysters, sashimi, and all the Japanese dishes now considered common in Manila. I only mostly order a spicy tuna salad and kisu tempura or fish tempura. I love these simple dishes. My kids also love Yūgen’s yakitori, fried rice, and black ramen. This dry ramen is new. Never seen it at any other Japanese restaurant here or abroad. Sarap!

I’ve been eyeing the grilled hamachi head with just salt. There are so many things on the menu. But for someone who has become choosy with Japanese food, I’ve been very happy with the salmon sashimi, spicy tuna salad, and my fish tempura. And I have my loved ones beside me also enjoying the same food, which gives Yūgen plenty of plus points. 

Yūgen has become our family’s go-to Japanese restaurant these days. Check it out! You’ll enjoy it 100 percent!

Would you like to join us in our Korean food tour and Japanese food tour in March? Text or email Melody +63 917 624 2819 or [email protected] . 

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