The good, the bad and the umami

 This final post is dedicated to all things edible on our trip.

Let's start at the end, because we seemed to have jumped the gun a little and posted our last blog post too soon.  Our final evening meal was also our final lesson, which in fairness we should have learnt by now.

We aimed to eat some sushi at least once on this trip, for obvious reasons.  So... we found a highly rated restaurant nearby, but as it happens it was booked out (perhaps because it is so highly rated).  We don't accept defeat that easily, so we found and booked another.  When we arrived we were welcomed by an eccentric looking heavily pierced Russian with green hair dressed in a kimono looking thing (but not quite).  After some discussion, we settled on a few dishes and they were all really nice.  Well..those that actually made it to our table.  We waited patiently for the rest until about 9:30pm and decided to call it a night.  The Russian said no more food coming.  OK.

So we pay...OK.

Except...here is our lesson.  You need cash or physical credit card to pay.  Who carries physical credit cards any more??

Jake tried his hardest to negotiate and find a solution, the ideas man that he is.  He even tried to pay via uber eats service whilst he sent me home to get a physical credit card.  The Russian says NO!

So, I handed him the little bit of cash that we had with us and off I went to grab a cab.

Guess what?  You needed cash or physical credit card to pay for that particular taxi (all others on this trip have accepted paywave).  Thank goodness for Google translate!  The old Japanese taxi driver patiently waited for his money as I trotted off to get it from our room.

All is well that ends well.  Home by 11:30pm...still hungry.

Besides sushi, it seems that Ramen is a staple dish in Japan.  Ramen is a thin egg noodle soup in various types of broth (from thin salty light consume, to thick cloudy chowder like liquid).  It usually comes with some sliced meat like chicken or pork and weird looking veggies that we don't eat in Australia, like bamboo shoots and seaweed.  Sometimes, they throw in a half boiled egg and provided you drown half a jar of chilli powder into it, it is quite nice.  We had it a few times, including a particularly good one in Kanazawa.  

 

(yes...these are dumplings hehehe)

In Tokyo, there is an area called Omoide Yokocho.  It is full of tiny BBQ joints that serve yakitori, which is kind of like little bbq meat skewers (you know, satay chicken skewers you get for an entree at Regent Thai 😀).  Sorry, no pic.

Another delicious selection was Tonkatsu pork, which was one from a list of recommendations given to us by Joe the Hawaiian sake guide.  Kinda like a delicious fat Japanese style schnitzel with Asian BBQ sauce.  

The other thing we tried off his list is fluffy ricotta soufflé pancakes for breakfast.  They were the bomb!

I had lemon ones and honestly, the presentation was amazing. It came with perfectly cut cubes of lemon jelly on the side.

On a sweet note, although overall the Japanese deserts per se aren't to our tastes, we thought the waffles were amazing.  The Japanese just know how to get them to taste crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  They are almost as good as polish gofry.

 

A classy culinary experience was in the TeamLab precinct.  We just sat down to grab a quick drink before our booked session.  The ceremony that was our welcome was overbearing and too theatrical and we felt obliged to order $30 parfait for desert.  They were truly spectacular, assembled with surgical precision and delivered to our table by waiters wearing white gloves.

Jacob's reminded me of old ice cream place in Lodz, Poland called Hortex (which sadly is no longer there).

Don't think it's all fine dining over here. Jake had a hotdog which turned out to be a serving for 4.

And found some KFC flavoured chips 😀

Now to head home to practice making some Ramen Aussie style (with real vegetables in it minus the seaweed) and for some 'proper' sushi at Sydney airport.