Recipes

We were out in a smaller town by the ocean to go to the hot springs and stopped at this little place for lunch.  I thought it was just going to be a whatever type place because it was the size of a large closet and the kitchen looked even smaller.  But when my food arrived, wow!  I ordered udon noodles with tempura.  But it also came with a bowl of sashimi (raw fish).  Shrimp, squid, and a bunch of other fishes.  Also pickled vegetables, and tofu.  I normally don’t go for the raw squid, but this one was really fresh and actually good!

Breakfast:  I LOVE plain white Japanese bread.  It doesn’t look like much, but when lightly toasted with a little bit of butter, it’s amazing.  My friend from college introduced this to me for the first time and I loved it ever since.  And everyone I’ve introduced it to since loves it as well.

Lunch:  More pasta.  Mine was a tomato cream sauce with crab meat, and Aya’s had salmon, salmon roe (fish eggs), and seaweed.

Dinner:  Hamburg, salad, a side of vegetables, and black sesame tofu.

Marinated pork filet, with a side of diacon, potato, carrot, onion, okra, and tuna, miso soup, and rice.

We stopped for Italian today. Of course it’s not your typical spaghetti and meatballs. It’s pretty typical for restaurants to have many of their menu items on display in the window. This works well for me since I can’t read the menu. I find the pasta places look the coolest with it all on display.

Mine had shrimp, Japanese mushrooms, a soy sauce based sauce with butter, egg and seaweed. Aya had the combo, one with a tomato basil type sauce, and the other a cream sauce with crab and shrimp.  Aya’s came with dessert, but we shared. It was a chestnut pudding with black honey sauce, and a scoop of green tea ice cream.

Lunch:  We stopped at the grocery store and got some boxed lunches (obento) to take home.  This is one of those things that fascinates me.  So different from we can get at our grocery stores back home. 

Dinner: Nagasaki Sara Udon (thin crunchy noodles, vegetables, pork with sauce).