Squid man
ika (いか or イカ or squid) seller at Inuyama matsuri
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Posts tagged food
RAW vs jpeg in food photography
unedited jpeg straight out of the camera
edited RAW Jolene’s Sweets cake
Previously I only used the .jpg files from my camera. Then I began shooting in RAW for difficult lighting situations. Slowly I’ve come to the point where I only shoot in RAW. Perhaps today’s comparisons can give you an idea as to why.
jpeg
processed RAW
unedited jpeg
processed RAW
居酒屋おたやん甲府中央酒場
Izakaya (居酒屋) with yakiniku in Kofu
Hanging out in a place like this on a hot summer night in Japan is one of many reasons I’m hoping to go back this summer.
BTW, the fans on the counter aren’t for the customers. They are for the cook to fan the flames just right to cook the skewered chicken.
Best ramen in the USA
Tonkotsu Orenchi Ramen (俺ん家らーめん) Santa Clara, California
We have no ramen shops in Southern Oregon. There are a few restaurants that sell ramen, but none of them are good. So when we get out of Southern Oregon we like to look for ramen. While in Santa Clara we decided to go to the #1-ranked ramen in the South Bay.
We had time to kill as the shop didn’t open until 5 p.m. We decided to find the place first and then browse shops nearby. However, when we got there at 4:20, there was already a line of about 30 people! I felt like I was at a popular ramen shop in Japan. We put our names on the list. By the time the shop opened 40 minutes later there were well over 100 people, and the place only holds about 50 or 60 people.
I’ve sampled dozens of bowls in Japan and about a dozen in the U.S., and this was the best ramen I have had outside of Japan. I had the tonkotsu (pork broth) bowl, pictured above, and Ellie had the shio (salt broth–photo coming soon).
The wait was well worth it. Word to the wise, if you are ever in the San Jose area, check this place out, but be sure to get there at least 20 minutes before they open. If you get there after that you probably won’t make the first seating which means you’ll likely be waiting an hour or more. Also, once they run out of soup they close so you may not get any (or your choice may be gone) if you show up after the first couple hundred people.
Katsu curry
Curry House CoCo Ichibanya’s katsu curry
Even though we had a CoCo Ichi near us when we lived in Tokyo in 2009 and 2010, I never tried the place until I went back in 2013 (pictured above).
I love katsu (カツ). I love curry (カレー). Someone put them together once upon a time as katsu curry.
Someone thought that adding meatloaf (ミートローフ) and cheese (チーズ) to this combination would also be a good idea (below). I passed on that concept.
cheesy meatloaf katsu curry @ Curry House CoCo 壱番屋
Japanese restaurant in Busan
I just tried to figure out the name of this place, but I couldn’t. It has been more than a year since my visit to Busan. However, this was a memorable evening in Busan.
I chose a Japanese place to eat as I hadn’t spoken (in any language) in a while and was hoping I could at least find someone to speak to in Japanese. This place worked for that. The signs were all in Japanese so I ordered in Japanese. A Korean customer heard me and came over. We spent the rest of the night conversing in Japanese. The owner/chef also spoke Japanese, having been born and raised in Kokura (near Fukuoka) before moving back to Korea decades ago. We figured out that he was born just before my dad served in the military in Kokura. Perhaps my dad saw him wandering the streets when he was a child. I told my dad this story before he died earlier this year. It’s a small world, and life is short.