Dining delights

What fun we are having dining here. This is from a wanna be French cafe. The chef came out and made pics on our coffees as we were westerners and he knew we would appreciate it. The other had a bear on it. While the pics were cute the coffee was average and barely warm. Mostly they are surprised when we order hot coffee as everyone here has cold/ iced.

In most restaurants there are either pictures to go by or they produce a menu with a little english on it from under the counter. This is how we ordered the best Udon noodles we have ever had. There were 2 men making them from scratch and we had a simple bowl with a light soy broth and dash of chilli on top. We then chose a couple of the optional tempura items that were so light and crispy. Delicious!!!

A couple of on dining experiences that come to mind are:
Kyoto - cooking on stones about the size of dinner plates which were set into a half circle timber bar that 4 couples sat at. We each had our own stone to cook on and the chef stood in the centre to provide assistance.

Kyoto- again in the middle of our 2 person table was a large terracotta casserole type dish with an inner dish as well. The waitress then came out with a pot of glowing red charcoal blocks. She lined the inner dish with these and then lay a metal mesh grill on top. We then cooked our marinated meats on this ourselves. The pork menu showed a pic of a pig with arrows to the options available. We could choose from ear, head, tongue, foot, large intestine, small intestine, heart, liver, rectum, and finally 2 choices we were prepared to eat and latched onto were the loin and back. It was a fun night with the staff ever keen to make sure we knew what was gong on and that were were happy. It was very smoky when cooking but overhead was a individual exhaust hood which when sitting was only about 6" above our heads.

Last night here in Tokyo we wandered a couple of blocks and being a Sunday night many places were closed. Those that were open didnt seem too inviting until we found a noisy one that was quite full. Always a good sign we entered and were offered a place at a bench table for 4 that already had 2 men at it.

This was the first restaurant we have been to that had NO pictures and NO english. The waitress had about 3 words of English and our Japanese is zilch!! We had such a fun night. The guys next to us were helpful in a really fun way then also a couple at the table across started giving helpful comment with another couple at the next tale laughing along with us all. We noted alot of people were eating Yakitori (skewered and bbq`d meat and veg) so we asked if they had chicken and pork. The waitress was asking something we didnt understand and the guy next to us started pulling his tongue saying you want tongue? I said NO and leant to the side and patted my upper thigh. They laughed uproariously and nodded yes, and told the waitress the japanese word for leg of pork.

Next the man across was offering his dinner for us to try for ordering. We chose the raw cabbage with chilli dip. Very nice and he assured us good for health as he rubbed his stomoach. We were asked where we were from and the usual reaction here is "Australia!! ah good" then they shout "aussie beef"!!! It must be an ad here. Then the guy across also added whilst swinging his arms around in the air, he said "Ian Thorpe" very excitedly.

Near the end of the night, Mark bravely requested a green drink like one of them was having. He was a little releived in the end to find it was just iced green tea. We ended up being given a gift of a half carton of green tea which was pulled from one of their bags. Again we were told, very good for us!! It was a great night after our frustrating few hours in queues.