5:55 PM - Japanese food - Rachel

People think of japanese food as sushi. I know a lot of people were worried about me coming to Japan with my declared dislike of seafood. Fair enough, they do love their fish and seafood here. But there is plenty of other styles than just sushi. We are trying as many different types as we can.

At first, we played it fairly safe, ordering the readily recognisable `kairi raisu` from the array of plastic food plates outside tourist-friendly restaurants. This is a non-spicy curry-flavoured stew served on rice. It does the job. Then we ventured into the noodle bowls range in the plastic display. This proved misleading, as what I took to be vegetables and noodles in broth, actually had squid and prawns in it. Guess the plastic food shop lacked the right model. (BTW any requests for plastic food? - there`s a plastic food shopping district in Tokyo. Really, it`s no hassle). Anyway, I gave it a go, and turns out the squid was very tender and edible.

Steve decided it was time for sushi. We had great fun trying to recognise items as they passed on the conveyor belt. I was very excited to spot what looked like a satay/peanut type mix wrapped in seaweed. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a traditional japanese dish called Natto - fermented soybeans. They are kind of sticky, with a distinctive, hard-to-describe flavour. Even Steve couldn`t stomach this one. The friendly chef helped us explore more options. `Challenge?` he`d say. I think the best was salmon, cucumber and cream cheese wrapped in seaweed. Very good.

On Yakushima, we tried some more unusual dishes, thanks to some very friendly japanese people we met there. Naoto gave us some dried japonica plums. I managed only a bite, but Steve thinks he could develop a taste for them. We also came to our first restaurant with no english: `Tsubone`. The ladies prepared us a whole range of dishes. We had fried potato balls, served with green tea powder, fried chicken, and then a particular favourite, okonomiyaki. It means `Man`s meal` and is an omelette with bacon, ginger, herbs, and beautifully decorated with mayonnaise and a brown sauce (thick soy?). Very tasty. Steve tried a local liquer called Midake - kind of like a gentle whiskey. They gave us passion fruit to finish, and filled Steve`s halves of fruit with more Midake, a combination he particularly liked. It was all so good, we had to go back. This time, we tried some shellfish steamed in alcohol. They tasted great. Yes I liked them. Unfortunately, it seems shellfish doesn`t like me. Ah well. A big thanks to Soari who came back to the restaurant with us and interpreted for us.

 

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