The rules are simple. Each contestant cooks and sells their dish in the event venue. It's an outdoor event like most "Taste of" festivals during the summer time in the U.S. Visitors eat the dishes and vote for the two best contestants. The system of the contest is like the NCAA tournaments--they have regional qualifier rounds; then the winners of the regions go on to the B-1 Grand Prix, the national finals.
This contest event has no doubt boosted the B-kyu Gourmet trend. Since its start in 2006, the competition has grown larger every year. However, this is not the only the event, of course. Smaller events are held all over Japan. Department stores and supermarkets have their own festivals as part of their sales event. Also, it is a popular subject that is featured in many magazines, TV shows, websites, and blogs. These dishes used to be only local favorites but many of them have made national fame. Contestants are not from individual restaurants in the local area. The community forms their own committee and a team and goes to the contest as a group. People like to plan trips with a goal visit areas serving B-kyu Gourmet. It is big tourism in Japan now.
So, here are the top five winning dishes of the Himeji B-1 Grand Prix (11/12-13. 2011)
Miso sauce Japanese fried noodle with chicken and lots of cabbage, which is a type of produce mainly from the Hiruzen area.
Japanese pan fried udon (thick) noodles with beef organs. Eating meat was taboo in Japan before the late 19th century; however Tsuyama was specially permitted to serve meat for medical reasons that originated the use of organs for the dish. Because of my interest in the history around the Meiji time period, and because Tsuyama is a big producer of the western scholars of the time, I have always wanted to visit there. I have searched about the area pretty often but I could not find very much about it for quite a while. But not any more. Lately, I get lots of search results talking about this dish!
Senbei (rice cracker) in clear soup with vegetables and chicken or fish. Their website says the impact this dish has on the local economy is impressive! About 536 million yen, they report. (about 7 million US dollars? I'm not good at math).
Japanese fried thick noodles with bean sprouts and pork. It looks a lot like the 2nd one to me...
Namie suffered badly after the tsunami and the nuclear plant incident.
Fried eggs over rice with chopped Japanese style BBQ pork in the bowl. Japanese BBQ pork is not like American BBQ pork. It's similar to Chinese BBQ pork but with a soy sauce base, and usually cooked in a sauce, not grilled.
Overall, you see many pan fried noodle dishes because the event is held outdoors. Yakisoba is a traditional Japanese event food, the 3 of 5 above are a kind of yakisoba. I think that is why. Well, Japanese are big carb eaters. Atkins never crossed the Pacific, apparently!
These are the top 5 of the B-1 Grand Prix 2011. Here's another B-kyu Gourmet rankings.
In Goo (a Japanese portal site), here are highlights of the "B-kyu Gourmet Ranking: I want to try this."
1. Sasebo Burger
Local hamburger in Sasebo, Nagasaki. The US military base has a base in Sasebo; you can expect this to influence their burgers. They have quite a few original burger stands in Sasebo.
2. Hitsumabushi
Rice with chopped grilled Unagi (eel) in Nagoya, Aichi. I think this is a long time known local specialty but bit too expensive for B-kyu Gourmet. This may be an A-Class local specialty.
Breaded fried pork cutlet with miso sauce. Also from Nagoya.
4. Tsukishima Monja
Tsukishima is a shitamachi (older residential area) in Tokyo. Monja is a thin pancake with lots stuff in it. This is monja, Tsukishima style. Why would I mention this? Because I'm an Asakusa native, another shitamachi area. Tsukishima monja is just so foreign to us!
5. Taco Rice
I've never heard of this but the description says it's taco ingredients such as shredded iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and ground beef over rice. It is reported to be a local dish of Okinawa, but I think other areas seem to consider their original local dish as well.
6. Aizu Sauce Katsu-don.
Breaded pork cutlet over rice bowl with sauce. The "sauce" without any explanation in Japanese means a type of brown sauce, like a thicker Worcestershire sauce which we use for breaded fried foods. Katsu-don is traditional breaded pork cutlet rice bowl dish made in sweetened soy sauce with eggs but this is with a "sauce". This is from Aizu, Fukushima.
Milk based curry from Sapporo and other areas in Hokkaido. I've never heard this either but I assume it's like Thai curry with milk instead of coconut milk...
8. Sobameshi
Rice in Yakisoba. Yakisoba is Japanese style chow mein, pan fried noodle with "sauce" (please see #6 above). This fried noodle is mixed with rice. It is is a local dish of Nagata Ward of Kobe, Hyogo.
Breaded pork cutlet with demi-glace sauce over curry pilaf and spaghetti Neapolitan (meaning the red sauce is already mixed with the spaghetti) from Nagasaki. I have no idea they call this Turkish.
10. Morioka Jaja-men (Zha jiang mian, a Northern Chinese noodle dish)
Hot meat sauce over noodles from Morioka, Iwate.
Here's another ranking of Jalan Gotouchi B-kyu Gourmet Grand Prix, from a travel agency Jalan's website. It is totally a different ranking. The ten in the yellow boxes are the top ten of their ranking and each links to a video.
You might notice that Japanese tend to be big on carbs! They also love breaded pork cutlets! You may not like so many carbs but lots of Americans I personally know love Yakisoba (Japanese pan fried noodle) and Tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet). Japanese people love to arrange things with their own twists. B-kyu Gourmet is one way you can see who real Japanese are.
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