Sunday, June 15, 2008
Food in Japan
So, I don't really write about it here too much, but I have definitely joined a subculture of snobby eaters, a self declared "foodie". For a foodie, I try not to be too snobby; I'll eat what is in front of me for sure (I am still a good Midwestern girl), but may experience what Tim and I call "eaters remorse" when I eat something that is maybe not as good as expected, or I waste a meal on something not great, just because of the missed opportunity to have a great experience. So I guess that makes me a food experience maximizer. Anyway, enough of the negative aspect of foodie-dom. The good aspect is that travel offers me a whole level of experience for food. I was dreaming for weeks about the opportunity to experience Japanese food, and I have to say it lived up to my every expectation! With only one or two "food remorse" events :)
So, here is my food blog from Japan. Highlights only. I will try and do more posting about Chinese food, as well as some of the adventures going on in our kitchen at home. Maybe you all will become foodies too...
On our first day, we wanted to eat somewhere authentic. Tim's requirement was: somewhere without an English menu that looks quintessentially Japanese. What we didn't know at this time was there are not too many English menus in Kyoto. The first spot we peeked into had a cool looking sushi bar, but no people (too early?). We pressed on. We tentatively stuck our heads under the linen curtains and slid the paneled doors aside checking out other spots we thought were restaurants. We finally decided on another restaurant that fit the bill, went to sat down, and were questioned by the sushi chef, "You speak Japanese?" We shook our heads. He simply said "No" and pointed to the door. Rejection! yikes! Now our search got desperate. We also didn't want to dine where the menu was in plastic recreations in the window (not technically an English menu, but somehow not so... authentic. And after our severe rejection we were tentative. Finally a back alley lead us to a place with a magazine clipping posted outside of the door showing one of our favorite dishes - rice with sliced sashimi tuna and seaweed flakes on top. Peeking in, we saw a sushi bar with a salary man sitting inside having a beer. We stepped in, pointed to ourselves and said, "No Japanese". The guy behind the counter said, "That's OK, I can speak English." We sat down. The menu he presented was all Japanese, but he helped out. "Do you like... Sashimi?" Our heads bobbed up and down. A plate of thick slices of bonito was presented. The best sashimi of my life (to that point, we still had 4 days in Kyoto to break the record!) We also ordered our favorite rice bowl, some sesame/peanut spinach, and a dish of tempura. Everything was fantastic. The bill? $34, including drinks. Not terrible. And we got exactly what we wanted for our first night in Kyoto.
Day two started out with a leisurely Japanese style breakfast at our hotel. The proprietor took the opportunity to explain the meal. It is based on rice and miso soup, which there was a bowl of each. Then a small dish of vegetables, some baked salmon, sliced egg cake (basically egg seasoned with salt and sugar and cooked into an 1.5" cake) and a packet of thin dried seaweed sheets that are to be dipped in soy sauce and eaten with the rice. That last one is way better than it sounds, and is addictingly salty. I later bought some to take home. This fantastic take on breakfast was artfully served in our quiet zen-ful dining room off the garden. Wonderful start to a leisurely day spent visiting temples in the rain.
Dinner day 2 was also a highlight. We wandered around (Tim and Laurel style) for about 2 hours before poking our heads into a tiny sushi bar. This one was a step up from the "working class" one we had seen the day before. All Japanese menu, but upon sitting down we were presented with a poster size picture menu of all the sushi on offer. We started off pointing to the cuccumber maki roll and sea bream (Tai). We were slightly flustered, but when the first rolls came, we couldn't complain - there it was again, that heavenly, wonderful raw fish. Mmmm. Not knowing what to order next, I tried to ask for water by pointing to the guy's glass next to me. What I didn't know is that that glass was actually full of shochu (a sake-like liquor)! That was enough to start up a conversation with the couple, the man was a university professor with perfect English (who also helped me order my water). Tim decided on a shochu, which he has loved since a trip to a sushi restaurant in San Francisco. We ended up talking to them for the rest of the night. They helped us order a sashimi taster plate with one slice of whatever "the master" recommended. The plate turned out to contain cuttlefish, which we did NOT like, and blowfish, which we didn't know what it was until the next day when we saw it in a market! That we did like. We also got a sushi plate with 8 different fish and found that Tai is definitely our new favorite fish to have raw. Yum! After we had spent a considerable amount of time there talking, eating and drinking shochu, the owners showed off the garden in back. A tiny space about 4' x 3', it was a intricate Japanese garden, apparently designed by a famous guy. Pretty cool. This ended up being our most expensive meal, but was worth it for the company and fantastic sushi, which was now back on the top of our list!
The next days passed allowing us to sample more Japanese food, some wonderful, some not so. No trips to McD on this trip, although we did have some yogurt and granola breakfasts. And a night I would rather not remember where we got denied from at least 20 restaurants (who knew you needed a reservation on a Saturday night??), but ended well at a yakitori restaurant where we did cook it yourself Japanese pizza. I also inadvertently ordered some cold noodles one afternoon covered with "mashed mountain yams", with the yams kind of resembling whipped raw egg whites. Oh, and they also came with a raw egg on top. That was interesting...
The next major food highlight was on our last night in Japan, when we did a cooking class! I will post about that next, since this post is getting long.
So, here is my food blog from Japan. Highlights only. I will try and do more posting about Chinese food, as well as some of the adventures going on in our kitchen at home. Maybe you all will become foodies too...
On our first day, we wanted to eat somewhere authentic. Tim's requirement was: somewhere without an English menu that looks quintessentially Japanese. What we didn't know at this time was there are not too many English menus in Kyoto. The first spot we peeked into had a cool looking sushi bar, but no people (too early?). We pressed on. We tentatively stuck our heads under the linen curtains and slid the paneled doors aside checking out other spots we thought were restaurants. We finally decided on another restaurant that fit the bill, went to sat down, and were questioned by the sushi chef, "You speak Japanese?" We shook our heads. He simply said "No" and pointed to the door. Rejection! yikes! Now our search got desperate. We also didn't want to dine where the menu was in plastic recreations in the window (not technically an English menu, but somehow not so... authentic. And after our severe rejection we were tentative. Finally a back alley lead us to a place with a magazine clipping posted outside of the door showing one of our favorite dishes - rice with sliced sashimi tuna and seaweed flakes on top. Peeking in, we saw a sushi bar with a salary man sitting inside having a beer. We stepped in, pointed to ourselves and said, "No Japanese". The guy behind the counter said, "That's OK, I can speak English." We sat down. The menu he presented was all Japanese, but he helped out. "Do you like... Sashimi?" Our heads bobbed up and down. A plate of thick slices of bonito was presented. The best sashimi of my life (to that point, we still had 4 days in Kyoto to break the record!) We also ordered our favorite rice bowl, some sesame/peanut spinach, and a dish of tempura. Everything was fantastic. The bill? $34, including drinks. Not terrible. And we got exactly what we wanted for our first night in Kyoto.
Day two started out with a leisurely Japanese style breakfast at our hotel. The proprietor took the opportunity to explain the meal. It is based on rice and miso soup, which there was a bowl of each. Then a small dish of vegetables, some baked salmon, sliced egg cake (basically egg seasoned with salt and sugar and cooked into an 1.5" cake) and a packet of thin dried seaweed sheets that are to be dipped in soy sauce and eaten with the rice. That last one is way better than it sounds, and is addictingly salty. I later bought some to take home. This fantastic take on breakfast was artfully served in our quiet zen-ful dining room off the garden. Wonderful start to a leisurely day spent visiting temples in the rain.
Dinner day 2 was also a highlight. We wandered around (Tim and Laurel style) for about 2 hours before poking our heads into a tiny sushi bar. This one was a step up from the "working class" one we had seen the day before. All Japanese menu, but upon sitting down we were presented with a poster size picture menu of all the sushi on offer. We started off pointing to the cuccumber maki roll and sea bream (Tai). We were slightly flustered, but when the first rolls came, we couldn't complain - there it was again, that heavenly, wonderful raw fish. Mmmm. Not knowing what to order next, I tried to ask for water by pointing to the guy's glass next to me. What I didn't know is that that glass was actually full of shochu (a sake-like liquor)! That was enough to start up a conversation with the couple, the man was a university professor with perfect English (who also helped me order my water). Tim decided on a shochu, which he has loved since a trip to a sushi restaurant in San Francisco. We ended up talking to them for the rest of the night. They helped us order a sashimi taster plate with one slice of whatever "the master" recommended. The plate turned out to contain cuttlefish, which we did NOT like, and blowfish, which we didn't know what it was until the next day when we saw it in a market! That we did like. We also got a sushi plate with 8 different fish and found that Tai is definitely our new favorite fish to have raw. Yum! After we had spent a considerable amount of time there talking, eating and drinking shochu, the owners showed off the garden in back. A tiny space about 4' x 3', it was a intricate Japanese garden, apparently designed by a famous guy. Pretty cool. This ended up being our most expensive meal, but was worth it for the company and fantastic sushi, which was now back on the top of our list!
The next days passed allowing us to sample more Japanese food, some wonderful, some not so. No trips to McD on this trip, although we did have some yogurt and granola breakfasts. And a night I would rather not remember where we got denied from at least 20 restaurants (who knew you needed a reservation on a Saturday night??), but ended well at a yakitori restaurant where we did cook it yourself Japanese pizza. I also inadvertently ordered some cold noodles one afternoon covered with "mashed mountain yams", with the yams kind of resembling whipped raw egg whites. Oh, and they also came with a raw egg on top. That was interesting...
The next major food highlight was on our last night in Japan, when we did a cooking class! I will post about that next, since this post is getting long.
# posted by Laurel @ 7:59 AM 
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Oh man, you gotta study up on a Japanese phrasebook and get in that "no English" restaurant... who knows what gastronomical mysteries lie behind those doors!
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