Tanuki Soba Salad (たぬき蕎麦サラダ)
Good stuff when the weather gets hotter… The restaurant was a few blocks south of Joshinji.
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Posts tagged food
Chanpon Taro Takadanobaba 元祖焼麺 ちゃんぽん太郎
After eating ramen at Ippudo (一風堂) I was presented with coupons for free gyoza at Chanpon Taro, a chanpon restaurant that recently opened in the neighborhood. Never having tasted the stuff before I wanted to give it a try. I immediately became a fan of chanpon (pictured above), sort of a variation on ramen. However, I must say that each time I eat chanpon it is a little less good. That first bowl was the best, and now I’ve run out of free gyoza coupons. 🙁
I like the fact that both Ippudo and Chanpon Taro are smoke free, but next time I think I’ll be back at Ippudo.
Tuna head
Not the greatest picture in the world today, but it has a story to go along with it. I sort of sneaked the shot, as many stores don’t like pictures being taken inside. I don’t know if this store had that policy or not.
Anyway, I was on my way to see Outrage in Kawasaki, and I had a few hours to kill. Having once lived near the Mizonokuchi Station, I decided to visit the place for the first time in nearly 22 years. I checked out the old Itoyokado, which is in a new, much larger building than before. The grocery part of the store (my memory tells me that it used to only be groceries) is now in the basement, and it is huge–probably the largest grocery store I’ve seen in Japan, other than those on U.S. military bases. By American standards it would merely be large but anyway…
The cool thing about this store is they slice up a giant bluefin tuna right in front of the customers while explaining about all of the different pieces. The maguro (鮪 or まぐろ) parts are then auctioned off right on the spot. I say auction but the prices were fixed. The first customer to claim a piece by shouting out was able to purchase it so it felt like an auction. Each part went for 1,000 yen. Freshly cut maguro was being sold left and right. They were saving the head, pictured, for last.
In front of the head you can see Itoyokado was having a special on eel (うなぎ). Until Children’s Day (こどもの日) the price was only 880 yen. Note the koinobori on the sign.
Kao Tai カオタイ
Upon arriving in Japan nearly nine months ago and seeing the countless, cheap restaurants in the neighborhood I vowed to never visit one twice (in order to experience a larger percentage of them). I have not been able to stick to my goal however and have frequented about four or five places more than once.
One place that I’ve been to, three times now, is Kao Tai near Takadanobaba Station. The selection (and quality) have been different each time ranging from good to great. It’s the only place I’ve been to that always has foreigners inside. Sometimes as many as half the customers will be non-Japanese.
The food is better than the above photo may indicate. On any given day there are seven or eight different dishes to choose from.
The price can’t be beat. Only 780 yen for an all-you-can eat lunch. The address is 高田馬場 2-14-6, which is east of the station, just off of Waseda Dori on the north side. Look for a Thai Viking Lunch sign (not the one above which is right in front of the restaurant–not on Waseda Street) pointing you down the correct alley. I don’t remember if the sign is in English or katakana–probably a bit of both.
More Chinese Food
My last post on authentic Chinese food was so popular that I’ll show you some more photos of real Chinese food–not the stuff you will find in Chinese restaurants in the USA or Japan.
I went out for dinner one night with a bunch of my students. They did the ordering and nothing looked remotely familiar. They asked what Chinese food I tried before coming to China, and I rattled off about a dozen dish names. They hadn’t heard of any of them. In my wallet I had written a few things in Chinese that I had tried and liked, as well as some I had copied off the internet.
For instance, Sweet & Sour Pork is 咕嚕肉. I showed them the food names from my wallet, but the only one the restaurant could do was Sweat & Sour Pork, which you can see a small part of in the far left and front of the above photo. The Sweet & Sour Pork was different though. No vegetables or pineapple were included, just pork and sauce. At this restaurant it was better than the 咕嚕肉 I ordered at my hotel, which was more like Sweet & Sour Fat.
I’m not a huge fan of tentacles, although I have recently come to love Chanpon (ちゃんぽん) which has its fair share.
Wrapping up the Takeda Shingen Festival
It’s time to finally wrap up this series on the Takeda Shingen Festival I went to in Kofu last month. I’ll probably share some more photos from my day in Kofu later, but not in the near future.
I waited around with many other people for about an hour for the promised fireworks. They were to be fired off from the top of the castle site. Very cool I thought. However, the firework show lasted less than 1 minute. I kid you not. I’ve witnessed longer fireworks after home runs at baseball games.
The wait could have been worse were it not for all of the typical Japanese festival food available. What would you like? Yakisoba? Ramen? Takoyaki? Kakigori? Okonomiyaki? Udon? Yakitori?