4 posts tagged “food”
I just launched this service... and it seems pretty popular.
If you want something from Japan. Let me know.
Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and enjoyable times one can have in Japan is during the brief period when the cherry blossoms (sakura) bloom. As the wave of pink blossoms moves through the country, people gather (friends, school mates, or work colleagues) together to engage in a spot of drinking, dining and cherry blossom viewing.
Negishi Koen in Kanagawa has a thicket of cherry tress which you can't see until you top a rise... and before you.. well that photo is the best representation that I could take... but in the flesh it is breathtaking...
I am lucky - the cherry blossoms are yet to boom in Sapporo, so for the second year in a row I get to attend two hanami parties. Both times once in Yokohama and once here in Sapporo. Magic.
Photos from the hanami and sakura can be seen here.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
Submitted by Megan.
Without question it was 3-4 years ago I went to a Japanese seafood restaurant where I knew the waitress.
She served me up some very delicious dishes... but one of them was a whole fish... with instructions that I had to eat the eyeball.
I was repulsed by the very idea, but all the waitresses gathered around and dared me to... it was my challenge. So with 4 young attractive Japanese girls egging you on... what's a man going to do...
he is going to eat the bloody eyeball!
However the bigger challenge was picking this slippary sucker up with the chopsticks. My chopstick skills are good... but picking up this bloody eyeball was a bitch... and so I struggled to much of the amusement of the girls to get this eyeball on the sticks to my mouth.
Finally I succeeded. And I ate the slimey gooey eyeball. The "pop" was a bit unexpected, but the taste.. well it tasted like the sauce. So ultimately the event was in the idea of eating it... not the eating itself.
Smooth jazz plays filling the small restaurant with late night New Orleans ambiance.
Haroya is a small Japanese traditional style meal restaurant. With big rich dark wooden seats and tables, a rather large counter, it has a very old world style about it... but without old world discomfort.
The ambiance may be New Orleans but the place most certainly is not. The four waitresses busy themselves serving the handful of customers home made like meals. Which are delicious. They are presented immaculately with each part of the meal having its own plate or bowl.
Tonight I order the Mackeral Set (it sounds better in Japanese - さば定食 saba teisyoku). I will have to be honest and admit to not knowing everything that I'm eating. Rice and the mackerel, some tofu, miso soup and a small assortment of some vegetables that I'm not fully familiar with, there is also a small bowl of seaweed.
I make small conversation with the waitress behind the counter, whose name if I recall is Mami. My Japanese is limited so we are stuck to discussing where I'm from the weather in Australia and the oncoming winter in Sapporo. (As I write this the various weather websites I visit report tempratures ranging from -2° to 4°, what ever it is... one thing is for sure... it is cold outside).
As the meal is finished a steaming hot glass of tea is served but the guy sitting next to me orders some coffee, the smell of freshly ground coffee overwhelms me and I order a cup too. It is at this time I feel as though I should retreat to the back of the restaurant with some friends, some cigerettes (which is weird because I don't smoke), a bottle of port and more coffee and engage with each other in some philosopical conversation on the meaning of whatever...
But for now, I will have to settle for
Oh that is depressing... it is not until I turn it into English I realise how limited my Japanese is... and then I think about what I said... and how grammatically broken it is..."It's cold outside"
"yes it is, last week it was hot in Sydney, my friend said it was 40° at his home"
"really... that is hot!
"yes it is!"
Time to do some homework.
