Sunday, December 25, 2005
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Merry Christmas everyone. We've had a busy couple of days here filled with lots of exploration and culinary adventure. Yesterday, we took "Kuma" (my hot tamale car) out for a ride. Kuma means bear in Japanese. I figured a Japanese name would suit her better than ChiChi. And Kuma is a pretty awesome name, don't you think? Anyway, the adventures. Adventure #1: Drinking coffee. Piping hot. Out of a can. From one of Okinawa's ubiquitous vending machines. (It was good.) Adventure #2: Opening the door of a department store restroom stall. Seeing nothing but a hole in the floor (!!!) Peeing into it successfully. Adventure #3: Driving downtown on streets with no names with a map with no street names. Adventure #4: Eating at a Yakitori joint!
Ummm...#4 was great! Let me describe to you this accidental meal. Joe and I were turning around in some restaurant parking lot looking for this noodle joint we'd marked on our terrible map. But, before we could finish our turn and get back down the street, a man rushed out the restaurant door to direct our parking. Guess we'll eat here. The sign above the door was in Japanese but one little part said "Yakitori". Hmmm...yakitori...it sounded familiar. But what was it? We followed the man inside. It as a small little place. Warmly lit. Intimate. Pottery bottles lined one wall. Glass bottles on another. Over the bar hung wooden paddles with Japanese writing on them and numbers. There were no Americans. Ahhh! Just what we wanted.
The man, an older gentleman, with a big friendly smile, sat us a small wooden table and handed us a couple of menus. One side was in English, but still difficult to understand. Yakatori this, yakitori that. What was yakitori? I looked in my phrase book and nothing. We both decided on the yakitori dinner which came with a combination of 10 yakitoris (whatever those were), miso soup, an appetizer, and a desert. Frankly, I didn't care what it was we were about to eat. The atmosphere was great, and I'm a sucker for a good atmosphere. Joe and I sipped on our drinks and took in the scene. Joe looked under the food section of the phrasebook and compared the Japanese characters there with the ones written on the paddles over the bar. "Look at the fourth paddle from the end," he said. "It's chicken liver." I checked the phrasebook and then looked up at the paddles. Sure enough...chicken liver. Ummm...
The waiter brought out our appetizers. "This...is...Japanese...appetizer," he said. He placed a small plate before each of us. I looked at the appetizer in wonder. It was beautiful! There on one perfect little green leaf was a gorgeous mouthful of what looked like shredded chicken and on top of that a creamy swash of pastel pink sauce. Sprinkled over the sauce were about three or four purple, blue, and pink dots, also pastel. Like tiny dots from the "Icecream of the Future" stand that you see at the mall. "Is it chicken?" I asked Joe, smelling it. "I think so," he said. Like much of the food that we would consume that evening, I wasn't sure how to eat it. I looked at Joe for a clue. (After all, he is part Asian.) "Are we supposed to eat this all at once?" "Yeah," he said and popped the whole bundle -- leaf, chicken, sprinkles and all, in his mouth with his chopsticks. So I did the same. Wow! What an awesome flavor combination! The pretty little leaf was a mint leaf! And the chicken was soft and moist and the pink sauce was plum sauce (?), tart and smooth. And I have no idea what the sprinkles were about. But man, that was probably the most overall pleasing appetizers I've ever had. The perfect morsel.
But there was more! Next we were served miso soup, fantastic with hints of ginger in it, and two rather large triangles of rice. "This," explained the waiter (who seemed to know more and more English as the night wore on) "is...salmon...and...this one...is...miso...En.Joy!..." He bowed several times and went away. Again, I wasn't how to sure how to eat the rice ball/triangle. It sat like half of a diagonally cut sandwhich atop a strip of dry seaweed. I picked up the rice/salmon/seaweed with my fingers making a little packet of it and gave it a whirl...Gummy rice. Crisp seaweed. Salmon okay (a compliment for someone who doesn't really eat fish). Good. The miso one was better though -- a brown savory paste inside the rice. We took our time carefully eating our rice balls, sipping our drinks and practicing phrases of Japanese. I looked over to the Japanese family next to us. The little girl was busy tearing her rice ball to shreds with her chopsticks and delicately picking out the good stuff inside. Hmmm...
Finally we came to the yakitori. They were little kebobs! Chicken ones. Pork ones. Green chili kebabs. Bacon wrapped around tomato and bacon wrapped around (quail) egg. As soon as we finished one plate of them, or waiter would come out with another. Shrimp. Chicken heart. All piping hot. It was awesome. And then, after the last plate came and left and the sadness of a good meal coming to an end began to set in, then came the meatball, one for each of us, replete with a plate of egg yolk/soy sauce. "Tsukune," our waiter said. "Chicken meatball..." He pointed to the egg yolk/sauce combo. "This one...you...mix." Sensing my incompetence, he bowed several times and took my chopsticks from me, and then began whisking the yolk with them. Then he went for the meatball and with the chopsticks, cut it clean in half. He placed the chopsticks back on the plate, smiled humbly (I notice he didn't cut Joe's food for him) and motioned for me to dunk my meatball into the yolk. "Ohhh!" I said, amazed at it all. I dunked my tsukune into the warm gooky liquid. Ummm...Good! Like pushing your breakfast sausage around your runny egg plate. We completed the meal with ice cream. Green tea. Yuk! (Sorry, you can't like everything.) and ...what...was it potato ice cream again? Umm...yummy!
When everything was done, I sat back. It was Christmas Eve and I felt good. The food was superb and the waiter was fantastic. And, of course, the company couldn't be beat. It was one of those food experiences you hope for when you travel to another country. Probably, when we go back there again (we got a frequent diners card, after 5 visits we get 10% off our meal) it won't be the same. The flavors won't be so surprising and the colors not so bright...but you never know. Maybe they will! There's a whole menu of stuff we haven't tried yet. Anyway, I hope that you all had a wonderful and memorable Christmas.
We love you.
Kelly
Ummm...#4 was great! Let me describe to you this accidental meal. Joe and I were turning around in some restaurant parking lot looking for this noodle joint we'd marked on our terrible map. But, before we could finish our turn and get back down the street, a man rushed out the restaurant door to direct our parking. Guess we'll eat here. The sign above the door was in Japanese but one little part said "Yakitori". Hmmm...yakitori...it sounded familiar. But what was it? We followed the man inside. It as a small little place. Warmly lit. Intimate. Pottery bottles lined one wall. Glass bottles on another. Over the bar hung wooden paddles with Japanese writing on them and numbers. There were no Americans. Ahhh! Just what we wanted.
The man, an older gentleman, with a big friendly smile, sat us a small wooden table and handed us a couple of menus. One side was in English, but still difficult to understand. Yakatori this, yakitori that. What was yakitori? I looked in my phrase book and nothing. We both decided on the yakitori dinner which came with a combination of 10 yakitoris (whatever those were), miso soup, an appetizer, and a desert. Frankly, I didn't care what it was we were about to eat. The atmosphere was great, and I'm a sucker for a good atmosphere. Joe and I sipped on our drinks and took in the scene. Joe looked under the food section of the phrasebook and compared the Japanese characters there with the ones written on the paddles over the bar. "Look at the fourth paddle from the end," he said. "It's chicken liver." I checked the phrasebook and then looked up at the paddles. Sure enough...chicken liver. Ummm...
The waiter brought out our appetizers. "This...is...Japanese...appetizer," he said. He placed a small plate before each of us. I looked at the appetizer in wonder. It was beautiful! There on one perfect little green leaf was a gorgeous mouthful of what looked like shredded chicken and on top of that a creamy swash of pastel pink sauce. Sprinkled over the sauce were about three or four purple, blue, and pink dots, also pastel. Like tiny dots from the "Icecream of the Future" stand that you see at the mall. "Is it chicken?" I asked Joe, smelling it. "I think so," he said. Like much of the food that we would consume that evening, I wasn't sure how to eat it. I looked at Joe for a clue. (After all, he is part Asian.) "Are we supposed to eat this all at once?" "Yeah," he said and popped the whole bundle -- leaf, chicken, sprinkles and all, in his mouth with his chopsticks. So I did the same. Wow! What an awesome flavor combination! The pretty little leaf was a mint leaf! And the chicken was soft and moist and the pink sauce was plum sauce (?), tart and smooth. And I have no idea what the sprinkles were about. But man, that was probably the most overall pleasing appetizers I've ever had. The perfect morsel.
But there was more! Next we were served miso soup, fantastic with hints of ginger in it, and two rather large triangles of rice. "This," explained the waiter (who seemed to know more and more English as the night wore on) "is...salmon...and...this one...is...miso...En.Joy!..." He bowed several times and went away. Again, I wasn't how to sure how to eat the rice ball/triangle. It sat like half of a diagonally cut sandwhich atop a strip of dry seaweed. I picked up the rice/salmon/seaweed with my fingers making a little packet of it and gave it a whirl...Gummy rice. Crisp seaweed. Salmon okay (a compliment for someone who doesn't really eat fish). Good. The miso one was better though -- a brown savory paste inside the rice. We took our time carefully eating our rice balls, sipping our drinks and practicing phrases of Japanese. I looked over to the Japanese family next to us. The little girl was busy tearing her rice ball to shreds with her chopsticks and delicately picking out the good stuff inside. Hmmm...
Finally we came to the yakitori. They were little kebobs! Chicken ones. Pork ones. Green chili kebabs. Bacon wrapped around tomato and bacon wrapped around (quail) egg. As soon as we finished one plate of them, or waiter would come out with another. Shrimp. Chicken heart. All piping hot. It was awesome. And then, after the last plate came and left and the sadness of a good meal coming to an end began to set in, then came the meatball, one for each of us, replete with a plate of egg yolk/soy sauce. "Tsukune," our waiter said. "Chicken meatball..." He pointed to the egg yolk/sauce combo. "This one...you...mix." Sensing my incompetence, he bowed several times and took my chopsticks from me, and then began whisking the yolk with them. Then he went for the meatball and with the chopsticks, cut it clean in half. He placed the chopsticks back on the plate, smiled humbly (I notice he didn't cut Joe's food for him) and motioned for me to dunk my meatball into the yolk. "Ohhh!" I said, amazed at it all. I dunked my tsukune into the warm gooky liquid. Ummm...Good! Like pushing your breakfast sausage around your runny egg plate. We completed the meal with ice cream. Green tea. Yuk! (Sorry, you can't like everything.) and ...what...was it potato ice cream again? Umm...yummy!
When everything was done, I sat back. It was Christmas Eve and I felt good. The food was superb and the waiter was fantastic. And, of course, the company couldn't be beat. It was one of those food experiences you hope for when you travel to another country. Probably, when we go back there again (we got a frequent diners card, after 5 visits we get 10% off our meal) it won't be the same. The flavors won't be so surprising and the colors not so bright...but you never know. Maybe they will! There's a whole menu of stuff we haven't tried yet. Anyway, I hope that you all had a wonderful and memorable Christmas.
We love you.
Kelly
