Saturday 26 September 2009

Tempura House/first meal

Its all surreal at the moment but that is the lack of sleep, i expect.
I met Yoshiro and his wife (who's name has escaped me) at the hotel reception at 6pm.
They took me across neon streets to a smaller street in Shinjuku area to a traditional tempura house. Shoes off and we entered a medium sized room and sat legs wrapped in uncomfortable places (especially after a long day travelling). They took over, which i am pleased happened. A waitress came out and showed us the raw ingredients, which then asked me if that was OK. How did i know, there were things there i had never seen!
What followed was an introduction into tempura eating and thats not the same as my local in Brixton. There were small dishes of salts (sea, wasabi, +?), radish paste dishes that you mixed with a soya sauce tea. The starter i won't have again. I tried not to show the distaste on my face (which is difficult to hide) but it was a mini paste shape thing, that was so rich ad salty that I had to almost down the beer. Yoshiro got his electronic translator out, it translated into urchin eggs! I had not idea urchins had kids...Other more successful tempura dishes were lotus fruit, hen of the woods (mushrooms), manila clams, eel, squid, jellied agar with the usual accompaniments
A lovely introduction and the I was the only western there! And chopsticks skills did not let me down. My hosts walked me back to my hotel and we made arrangements for the first teaching day onMonday. Oh yes that's why I am here.

I have to comment from previous post: arrival. This hotel is amazing in terms of views. At night it really is a sprawl of lights, that do not seem to end.
However, I could not live here. There is not enough greenery.

3 comments:

  1. I can just imagine your old blue shoes lined up with all the others! Were your socks clean? I wish I'd been a fly on the wall when you ate the urchin eggs....! What an amazing introduction though to Japanese cuisine.
    Think green, think green, think green...
    kxx(666666)

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  2. Hi Jack
    Thanks for sharing your amazing experiences. i will follow every day. Hope the teaching goes well. Maybe Adrian"s typography teaching will come in handy after all!!!
    Lots of love
    Pxx

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  3. mmm...food sounds interesting!
    I would love to have seen your face LOL!!
    I bet you can't wait to get back to your veg patch.

    Maria
    xxx

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