A Food Post For Sally

A few things to know about Japanese food:

1. most of it is めちゃくちゃおいしい　-that is, very delicious
2. most of it is delicious even if you are not such a fan of raw fish
3. I love Japanese food, but there are some things that are not so delicious

Here is a rundown on some of the food I've eaten so far:

>sushi- I love sushi and especially love going to the conveyor belt sushi restaurants (I'll explain those some other time). My favorite kind is sashimizushi (the kind made with raw fish), especially tuna and salmon sashimi. LEAST favorites are the purple-looking squilla sushi I had a few weeks ago (wikipedia tells me squilla is some sort of shrimp-like crustacean) and any sushi featuring mayonnaise (such as the corn and mayonnaise sushi). Seriously, mayonnaise?

>Udon- The delicious kind of noodle, part 1Charity and I watched a movie about udon last week and it was great. Eating udon of course, was even better. After watching that movie and craving udon for a few days, Charity and I went to an udon restaurant and had udon with tempura. SO GOOD! The thing about udon, though, is that it is one of those kind of noodles you are supposed to slurp when you eat. I have been working on my Japan-specific eatings skills and while my chopstick using skills are improving pretty nicely, my slurping skills are still subpar. Even the 10 year old kid next to me at the udon restaurant put me to shame with his slurping. I still have a lot of time to practice, though, so hopefully by the time 4 months have passed that 10 year old and I can have a rematch that will make mumsie proud.

>That brings us to tempura-Tempura is something maybe I would expect from the Iowa State fair before I'd expect it from Japan. Still, I can't complain. After all, it is めちゃくちゃおいしい. Tempura is vegetables or shrimp that are battered and deep-fried. My favorites are the sweet potatoes, squash and asparagus.

>Lastly for now, umeboshi. The other day I bought onigiri, a triangle-shaped rice clump that always has something in the center, i.e. fish flakes or beef. I was unpleasantly surprised to find something kind of sour and vinegary and not tasty in the center. The culprit of my unpleasant eating experience was umeboshi, a pickled fruit that is supposedly kind of like a plum. Except I like plums. For the record, I know a lot of people who love umeboshi, so maybe you would, too. To each his own, I guess.

Did I mention how many kinds of pickles there are in Japan? Pickled ume, radish, cabbage, cucumber. The only thing missing is dill pickled cucumbers. Where are my dill pickles?

Did I mention how many kinds of pickles there are in Japan? Pickled ume, radish, cabbage, cucumber. The only thing missing is dill pickled cucumbers. Where are my dill pickles?