Tag Archives: Food

Japan | Kanazawa | Settling In

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It is a wonderful feeling being at the start of a long vacation when reality is beyond the horizon, and the question is what are we going to do over the next 24 hours.  Mainly it is focused on eating and drinking.

We had a great lunch at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art yesterday, with fresh cold pumpkin soup and a huge selection of meats and salads.

In the evening, Chika and I left Kai with his grandmother to put him to bed, and we went to explore on of the local isakayas (basically, a place for drinks and small plates).  It was excellent — both the food (sushi, snow crab tempura) and the drinks (beer and sake flight for me and plum wine flight for Chika).

Japan | Day 2 | Nagoya | 3 Generations

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Wow.  As if the first home cooked meal on the day of arrival was not enough, the family pulled out all the stops for the grand clan gathering — sashimi, sukiyaki, and shabu-shabu. It was great to see Kai playing with his cousins — an event sure to be repeated.  And while it was a bit old-school, it was relaxing to sit at one end of the table with all the fathers to have drink and food and try to translate English jokes to Japanese (in general, miserable failures but fun trying anyway).

Fugu Party

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I love getting together with long-time friends in Japan.  And there is no one more long time than my friends Anri and Yass.  I think I met Anri around 1994 or so on a plane ride returning from Tokyo (basically I passed out for the first 12 hours, and then we chatted for the last 2 hours before landing).  Every since then its been good times both state side and in Tokyo.  Last night was no exception.  Yass picked a fantastic fugu (a.k.a poisonous blowfish) restaurant in Ueno park — Innsyoutei.  Everything was excellent — the ambience, service, and the food (from first course to dessert).   Highly recommend it.

Okuizome

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While Kai intently watches us eating, he is still not ready for cheesesteaks or the like. But in Japan, there is a traditional eating ceremony or okuizome which symbolizes the hopes that Kai would never worry about food in future.

Ramen

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To most Americans, ramen is the college students most economical sustenance — cheap starchy noodles and MSG packest which could could be made in a simple hotpot and sell as cheaply at 10 for a dollar (at least back in the 80’s when I was in school).

But on the other side of the world in Japan, Ramen is as passionate as any western form of simplely purveyed foods such as pizza, burgers, and tacos can be.  Probably even more so.  The recipes are fairly similar — noodles with various meat/vegetables served in a choice of broths (salt, miso, soy) — but the differences while subtle create the passion for the best.  The broths cook in huge pots over the days and are the most heavily guarded secrets — even the staff aren’t told for fear they might go renegade with the recipes.

Today we went to Chika’s local shop, Kazuki.  There are 100’s ramen shops, and probably just as many blogs just about Ramen, so I won’t go into the details of my novice experience, but this piece from the New York Times was quite good.