The phrases, *"This is the best 〇〇 I've ever had” or “This is the best 〇〇 I’ve ever had in my life”, are phrases I've said so many times for delicious foods and drinks I've had, since I came to Japan a little more than 3 years ago.

I think I have said this phrase more times in the past 3 years than I have in my entire life prior to Japan.

Even inexpensive food in Japan is more delicious than much of the food in the United States. It is also a lot less expensive.

For example, when it was my first time eating sushi in Japan I said, ”This is the best sushi I’ve ever had!” and it was just conveyer-belt sushi (回転寿司). I was also saying, “Wow!” a lot. Everytime I ordered on the tablet and then sushi came *zipping so quickly to where I was sitting, I was really surprised.

It seemed in my first days in Japan, I was saying that phrase all day, everyday:

• ”This is the best matcha I’ve ever had.”
• “This is the best yakitori I’ve ever had.”
• “This is the best nabe I’ve ever had.” 
• “This is the best tonkatsu I’ve ever had.” (Well, at that time it was the only tonkatsu I had ever had!)
• “This is the best matcha ice cream I’ve ever had.” (As you may now have noticed I like matcha a lot.)

This list would be far too long if I wrote every time I said this phrase!

I was saying this phrase, even when it was Western food!

• “This is the best hamburger I’ve ever had.”
• “This is the best pasta I’ve ever had.”

Every fruit I like has been the best in Japan, and every dessert I’ve seen looks as if it were made in heaven.

I still say this sentence a lot. There is always new food to try and I still find surprises when I go to new places.

How about you? What is the best 〇〇 you’ve ever had? When and where did you have it?

*「This is the best 〇〇 I've ever had」は日本語で「これは今まで食べた中で最高の〇〇です」です。過去形は「It was the best 〇〇 I ever had」です。

*  zipping: to move rapidly; to move very fast.