I’ve been watching some extreme budget cooking challenge videos from a guy in the UK called Atomic Shrimp, and I’m always surprised at how he can throw together a full meal (albeit sometimes a little sad or weird) on an absolutely tiny budget. He does this purely to challenge his creativity, not to try to demonstrate that it’s a viable way to cook and live. Basically, it’s all for fun.
If you had, say, ¥300 to spend on a shopping and cooking challenge to make **three unique meals**, what would you buy? No buying in bulk, you have to buy everything you cook **in one trip for ¥300 or less.**
The rules he usually plays by include:
* No using ingredients you already have
* No foraging for ingredients in the wild (sometimes he does challenges that include this)
* Water, salt and pepper are allowed
* Sometimes he allows himself one sauce or seasoning from his pantry as well.
Common issues he faces in his videos are that he doesn’t have enough fat to cook the food well, or he has too little protein.
Something I’ve noticed is that fruits and vegetables tend to be much cheaper in the UK than they are here, so the challenge would have to be approached differently.
How would you approach a challenge like this in Japan? What would you buy?
27 comments
Miso udon
Can you even buy more than 2 or 3 ingredients at a supermarket for less than 300 yen? As most things aren’t sold by weight the only answer to this would be 3 meals of the same thing.
Three unique meals for under 300 yen in Japan? Aside from some very basic udon, ramen, soba combinations I wouldn’t imagine it possible.
Scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, fried eggs 10 eggs goes for just below 300 yen. there you go XD
Three unique meals? Meaning I can’t buy a pack of tofu and split it up? No other meal that day can include tofu?
Mcdonalds app => 5 piece McNuggets + rice from home
Well if you’re not allowed to buy something in larger quantity, like 500g bag of pasta, buying ingredients just for 3 meals within 300 yen is difficult. In my mind, you can only get cup noodles for that.
I hope you like sandwiches.
Cheesy chicken katsu sandwiche:
* Cheese chicken katsu: 99 yen
* 8 slices of bread: 78 yen
* Cabbage (1/2): 89 yen
**Total: 266 yen**
>Sometimes he allows himself one sauce or seasoning from his pantry as well
Tonkatsu sauce
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Scrambled egg sandwich:
* Eggs (10): 199 yen
* 8 slices of bread: 78 yen
**Total: 277 yen**
>Water, salt and pepper are allowed
Pepper
>Sometimes he allows himself one sauce or seasoning from his pantry as well
Ketchup
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I’m out of ideas. Buy the cheapest bento they have.
Potatoes and Carrots are 50 to 60p a kilo in the UK. I’m always surprised how cheap vegetables are when I go back.
Cup ramen + rice
Cup ramen + bread
Cup ramen + egg
大根とひき肉
ひき肉納豆
ひき肉ともやし
You can substitute the ground beef for any canned fish if you don’t like pork. You can also do a lot of really nice dishes with dried seaweed.
I know the guy you’re talking about, and most of those are barely meals…. Also, he doesn’t play by your rules either, he is using left over bones to make broth which cost money to make.
So why not buy in bulk, and have rice every day?
Tanuki don
Without initial spending of seasoning, ¥300 daily by your rule is not healthy and more expensive (from sickness) in the long run than say ¥3000 weekly.
But, if we care not about health, I’d go サンディ supermarket, they’re everywhere in Kansai region, not sure about other regions.
* 1 pack udon
* 1 pack of kamaboko
* 1 pack of moyashi or nira
boil all in water, add soysauce in the end.
Yakisoba is dirt cheap to make.
> No using ingredients you already have
Does this include oil? It’s not like you can buy a spoon of oil – buying a whole bottle will be more than ¥300.
Miso Shiro, not the red kind, the kind made with tofu and veggies.
Hot, delicious, filling. . . I would guess, not too expensive.
9% Strong Zero, a bag of chips, a boiled egg and a raw carrot?
Edit: If bulk buying is okay – I think I could throw in some edamame and bean sprouts too.
Strong Zero: 125yen (from a 24 can rack)
Bag of chips: 60 yen
Egg: 20 yen
Carrot: 30 yen (10kg box for 2990 yen)
Edamame & Bean Sprouts: 65yen’s worth
TKG
Why would you want to. 100yen a meal but limited to 300yen total. Keep dreaming on that. Eggs are nearly 300yen a pack now.
Forget seasoning. Can’t afford it.
Moyashi, a half cabbage and noodles. And a 100yen seasoning.
Can do some sort of udon or ramen
Stir fry
And raw
This breaks the rule/price I guess, but how has someone not said Saizeriya????
>No foraging
Darn, I love me some dandelions and have been interested in finding some acorns recently.
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Ok, so 300 yen. I’ll have to guess some of the prices based off memory. I’ll spend significantly less than 300 yen just to off-set small pricing mistakes.
Natto (3 cups for 60 yen), one for each meal.
Pack of ramen noodles (probably like 30 yen)
Moyashi (basically free, like 20 yen maybe)
A potato (60 yen?)
3-Pack of eggs on Weekly Egg Day (60 yen)
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Plate one:
Natto, moyashi shio ramen with egg
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Plate two:
Natto, egg benedict, and potato wedges
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Plate three:
Natto, scrambled eggs, leftover ramen and moyashi mixed into salad-pasta concoction.
A tall can of highball.
Jokes aside, soy products are pretty cheap here and fresh veggies from local producers abundant. If you got a rice cooker, that combo is a pretty cheap and easy way to meal prep.
I like atomic shrimp videos too. Fun thought experiment. I guess i’d do:
Eggs 108 yen per 10 (i know this isnt allowed in the rules, but you can buy them at this trial price on a specific website)
Moyashi 30 yen pack
8 slices shokupan 78 yen
Aburaage pack 78 yen
Total: 294 yen.
I cant think of 1 sauce or seasoning that could last all 3 meals, but if i’m allowed 1 seasoning per meal then i’d do:
Breakfast: faux chawan mushi with egg, chopped moyashi and (i think) mentsuyu.
Lunch: miso soup with aburaage, fluffed up egg and moyashi, toast bread to get croutons. (what an abomination lol)
Dinner: turn everything into an omelette with mayo as the seasoning and sandwich.
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I’ve been thinking about making similar videos for fun, but i think 300yen is too low for the challenge to be possible at all. 500 would probably be more doable, plus its still one coin.
These rules sound extremely silly and very made-up so I wouldn’t pay them any mind. Especially, if he doesn’t allow seasonings to be used from home beyond salt and pepper. Surely, a similar challenge in Japan would allow soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar. Putting those misgivings aside, I would make ma-bo tofu.
going to gyomu super would help.
1 pack yakisoba ¥20
1 pack udon ¥29
1 pack soba ¥29
3 pack tofu ¥55
1 pack instant miso soup ¥79
1 pack moyashi ¥20
meal 1 yakisoba
meal 2 miso udon
meal 3 miso soba
or those thai instant soups in a box are cheap too.
Don’t really have the creativity to think up actual meals, but here’s some ingredients that you could use as a base for ultra cheap meals:
* Bean sprouts cost about 40¥ a bag
* Cabbage 1/4 cut for probably around 60¥
* Green onions are about 150¥ for a normal bunch; I’ve seen small packages of precut green onions, not sure about the cost since I’ve never bought them, but maybe 50-100¥, considering the size?
* Cheap garlic can be found for 30-70¥ a head
* Tofu 30-40¥ for a pack
* Eggs cost about 15-20¥ per, maybe a little more, even when buying small packs of 4
* 牛脂 (chunk o’ beef fat) is usually available for free next to the nice beef in super markets
* Cheap seasonings available in the form of small packets of pickled ginger, wasabi, soy sauce free in the sushi aisle
* Single serving pouches of dressing near the boxed salads for 10-30¥ each
* Single serving packet miso soup 10-30¥; could also use this as a seasoning rather than soup
* Packet rice (or if you’re lucky enough to live near a super market/bento store that sells just rice) for somewhere between 50-100¥ for 2-300g
* Single packets of instant ramen can sometimes be found for 50-100¥; 5 packs of just raw noodles are about 150¥, so maybe you could find a smaller pack for under 100
Ok from this you could probably make some fried or scrambled eggs for breakfast, some fried rice for lunch, and cheap yakisoba or ramen for dinner in under 300¥. If you use the free gyushi as your oil, free salt/pepper/soy sauce or the single packets of dressing as seasoning you could probably get pretty far with just stir fried veggies, too
I love watching the Atomic Shrimp challenges, but no idea how you could transfer it to Japan. His 1 pound challenges would equal something like 200 yen, and that is impossible here. If you want to do those kinds of challenges I would recommend starting high and working down.
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Maybe try 1 day at 1000 yen, next challenge 600 yen and find where it becomes impossible for you.