I wasn’t kidding when I wrote yesterday that my first meals in Japan was fast-food. Here’s the picture to prove it!
And that was just lunch – a teriyaki chicken burger of sorts, orange squash and fries. For dinner, I checked out McDonalds’ in the Kamitori shopping district and had what looks like a McChicken Fillet burger, fries and chilled Earl Grey tea to boot!
I can almost hear Matt hollering: “You should have given me your plane ticket, you doofus – I would have eaten everything Japanese plus some!”
It’s nothing to do with that I don’t eat Japanese. Rather, I ventured into several Japanese eateries and restaurants, only to walk out minutes later – because I couldn’t understand a word of what the menu was about, and had no clue how I was supposed to order to begin with!
On the upside: these two meals yesterday should be the only times I’m having non-Japanese, because starting from today, I’m having my breakfasts and dinners in the very safe, quiet with scenic view, Matsuri Restaurant inside the hotel – with amazing wait service to boot. This was for breakfast:
Which I sort of rushed, as I wanted to check out Kumamoto Castle early with the couple of free hours I had before meeting the college staff in the afternoon. But after the campus orientation and briefing, dinner was a more more leisurely affair which I’ll blog in the next post. For the time being, here’re a few pictures of Matsuri Restaurant at KKR Hotel Kumamoto.:)
“I can almost hear Matt hollering: ‘You should have given me your plane ticket, you doofus – I would have eaten everything Japanese plus some!'”
Wow, so you heard that? :)
My Japanese now, after a decade of non-use, is abysmal (and it was barely functional to begin with), so I can relate. Ann’s suggestion of Kyushu-style ramen, among other things, is spot-on, though. Maybe a colleague can suggest a place to try it later on during your stay and maybe even accompany you?
One of my favorite Japanese dishes I make at home is Sapporo-style ramen. It’s amazingly time-intensive, but it’s always been worth the hassle. One of my dreams is to go to Japan to have an honest-to-goodness authentic version of it!
And how about those interiors? I love the lines and their symmetrical flow, the natural color scheme and subtle lighting.
Matt, you actually make sapporo ramen O.O??? wow, it’s SUPER time intensive… takes like what two days to make one bowl? haha… the stock n char siew especially…
I’ve made it a total of 4 times. As you know, the stock is the most time consuming (in the version available to me, the stock takes a minimum of 16 hours, though, as you said, purists would surely dedicate even more time to it), but I also derive a lot of pleasure from the preparation. It’s always turned out all right to my tastes, though surely nothing in comparison to a finely prepared authentic version as can be found in Japan. More troublesome to me, however, is that the stock has tasted just a little bit different each time!
But boy is it ever satisfying to finally sit down and enjoy it when it’s done.