Day 15 – Weirdest food item you’ve seen, and weirdest food item you’ve actually eaten.

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Surprisingly, I haven't really eaten anything that weird while being in Japan. I've had smelly things like natto and uncomfortable looking things like whole fish heads on platters.... but I suppose the oddest things I've eaten and enjoyed are these two: Horse Sashimi and Motsunabe (intestines hot pot). Okay, so that's pretty weird but... I think Japan has thrown off my sense of the "abnormal" and my reality has become slightly skewed since living here.... ("weird" in my mind equates with eating things like: house hold pets, pigeons and insects...).

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Unfortunately, the tasting of these two foods does not come with the most entertaining of stories. I tried horse sashimi when one of my friends was trying to get her boyfriend to eat it some random weekend early last year. Since the place we were eating at (Hirome Ichiba) doesn't serve it that often, the sashimi came still-frozen and had to thaw for a little while. It wasn't terribly mentionable in flavor but the texture was nice. I'd still go for maguro or salmon over it anyday.

Motsunabe was something that my Japanese friends had wanted me to try for months and months so finally, one Tuesday night, we trekked out to the city and found a good nabe restaurant that specialized in motsunabe. Although the idea of intestines skives me out, I've picked up a certain stubbornness when it comes to food here in Japan. I hate when my Japanese co-workers and acquaintances ask if I can eat something or act like whatever food thing they are telling me about is only Japan and that it's sooo typical foreigner to not like it/not have tried it before. I get really defensive (because I've been using chopsticks since I was small, thank you very much!!!) and insist that yes, I CAN eat it and in fact I LIKE it/don't really care for it because of the flavor, not because I'm foreign (as if it wasn't obvious that Japanese people who don't really like natto/fish/whatever exist as well). Anyway, despite my little rant there, I was really surprised to find the boiled motsu soft and flavorful, not chewy like I expected (since intestines have a lot of fat on them). It's also such a simple nabe and contains little more than the broth, motsu, green onions, bean sprouts, cabbage, and tofu (we added some dumplings for extra~).

What weird things have you guys eaten? Am I missing out on anything out there?!

A Night Out at Hirome Ichiba

This month's J-Festa Blogging theme is "Dining in Japan," so I thought I would share a little bit about the "hottest spot" in all of Kochi Prefecture: Hirome Ichiba. Lonely Planet even ranked the restaurant as the 5th most interesting thing you should waste time doing if you ever drunkenly stumble into this prefecture (since we are #1 in that department). But in all seriousness, Hirome Ichiba is the hangout of Kochi City. You will only find the place empty during the afternoon, and even then you can find people scattered about drinking beer and eating katsuo tataki. The establishment takes up the first floor of a two story warehouse-esque building made of solid grey concrete and filled to the brim with gift shops, bars, and small food "stalls" (parking on the 2nd floor). The rest of the space is filled with picnic tables and benches that you need to circle like a hawk in order to nab on a busy Friday/Saturday night.

People pack like sardines onto those benches on most Friday/Saturday nights.

The back of the building where the best bar tender ever resides as well as some amazing ice cream.

Since there are so many different shops and stalls lining the interior of the building, it's hard not to find something everyone wants to eat. A number of places offer standard, cheap, izakaya food like korokke, yaki-tori, assortments of fried finger food and beer. Other places are more specialized, and offer a specially made gyoza, ramen, takoyaki, karage, or donburi as the main draw to their particular shop. There are even a few non-Japanese food shops that offer Chinese, Korean, Indian and a shop called "Kei's Cafe" that offers a slightly more western-style menu including Jerk Chicken and Taco Rice. Of course, out of all of these things, the almighty Katsuo Tataki reins supreme and has one especially large shop near the front of Hirome.

This shop sits front and center in the Hirome Ichiba complex and serves only Katsuo Tataki (along with the standard white rice, miso soup and tempura-fried kimpira) in about three main flavors. They even have the kitchen area set up with a huge pane of glass so you can watch as they freshly sear the Katsuo you'll be eating over a roaring straw fire. Flavoring options include salt, tare, and yuzu, and each order of Katsuo Tataki is garnished with slices of garlic and a sprinkling of green onion and grated daikon.

Raw in the middle and perfectly seared on the outside. Yum.

Katsuo Tataki (#5) would rank in my top 5 Hirome Ichiba food choices. Along with it, I think I would have to add:

• bacon wrapped onigiri (#4)
• Hirome korokke (#3)
• cheese nan (#2)
• macha soft-serve in a waffle cone (#1)

I apologize that I don't have pictures of each thing..... if you tasted them I think you'd understand why I can never wait to take a picture. :P

Best bar-tender in the world, A-chan.

Last but not least, booze! If anything, Hirome Ichiba is the place that everyone in Kochi goes to relax, unwind, and down a few beers before the week ends/weekend starts. Every store in the place sells one of the following: cheap beer, chu-hai, nihonshu, or wine. The exception would be A-chan's middle bar, which remains as one of the few places that sells liquor and has such an adorable tender to go along with it (there's another bar that sits on the outside of the back of the building, run by an American). No fail, every time me and Matto go to visit him he will have shots of free whiskey and vodka waiting for us (and will subsequently take a shot himself). He's a dangerous man. Everything he sells is 500 yen and he's the one bar tender that fully understands that Americans don't like foam on their beer (and god bless him for it).


That about wraps it up for my post on Hirome Ichiba. If you ever find yourself lost and in Kochi Prefecture (because unless you're doing the 88 temple pilgrimage... why would you ever visit Shikoku?), come on over to Hirome Ichiba, located at the end of Kochi's shopping arcade "Obiyamachi," and find a tired salary man or drunken college student to share a beer with. :)

Just felt like I needed to share...

Just how amazing this day was. I woke up to a text from Atsushi, telling me we were invited by a band named "The Mad Wife" to play a show in Tokushima in January. I've seen them play before, and the one female guitar/vocalist is really bamf so it was super exciting to get invited by them to play a show!! We get to perform along with a band from Tokyo called "Elmoc," which is an all-female melodic punk band, "Four Tomorrow" who are from Tokyo, and "WHAT-A-NIGHT's" one of my favorite bands at the moment from Tokushima.

Then, once I got to work today, I found out that the photo I had submitted into the Aki City art contest on Sunday won a prize! And not just any prize (I won two last year that were really just recognitions), I won the prize where you get 1万 along with it!! Can't wait to go see the exhibit. There are always so many interesting pieces of art submitted.

Starts off as a huge pile and cooks down. Those lame-os were hiding behind the pile of cabbage.

Once it had been stewing for about 20 minutes.

And in addition to all that good news, Yukiko, Nat-chan, Ryoku-chan and I got to drive into the city and have some Motsu Nabe (which honestly should be added to the food post below). Mostu is intestines, and although I knew this, like I mentioned before I will give most anything a try if I hear it is made well. This was fantastic. I'm kind of in awe at how delicious intestines stewed in a pot with cabbage, tofu, dumplings, and green onion was. Not to mention how amazing the zousui was after (when you put rice and egg into the nabe and let it all cook and soak up the left-over flavors). We also went to AEON to get a birthday present for Nat-chan's older sister, and I was able to prep some gifts for De-'s birthday next week, and gather some ideas for Christmas gifts~ Gotta get onto making a design for my new years cards this year!

Although it's only early November and there are already Christmas trees and illuminations going up everywhere, I actually really love the early Christmas feeling and could care less that Thanksgiving hasn't come and gone yet. Who wants decorations of leaves and turkeys when you can have sparkly trees and lights?!

Day 06 – Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).

The thing about me and food and Japan, is that every time I've come here, I've started liking/loving a certain food that I hated before. I'm the type of person who will give food I find disgusting a second chance if I'm told it's been made well. I blame most of my preferences on the fact that I was never given/never ate/never bought the right thing in order to make me like that particular food. I hate octopus and will continue to hate octopus until someone puts some good takoyaki in front of me and it's not like eating a rubber band. :\

Thus far, Japan has turned me on to eating (which I disliked before):

• onions (all because of katsudon)
• mushrooms
• salmon (first cooked and now also raw)
• tuna
• leeks
• squid (never thought I'd eat this...)
• eggplant (Aki eggplants are sweet~)
• tofu (I used to be able to eat it when it was heavily seasoned, but now I crave plain firm tofu and agetofu when I'm hungry)

 On the other hand, I think I hate corn even more because of how many ridiculous places you'll find it (on top of pizza or in pasta with meat-sauce, for example), I don't like jako (those little dried fish with the ever-staring eyes), and I don't like fish that aren't cut into pretty slices for sushi/sashimi (like whole fish heads and bodies...).

GROSS

Don't let the cute flower carrot fool you. GROSS

 And speaking of food in general, I was never a terribly good cook/baker before coming to Japan. My mom and friends used to make fun of me because I'd find ways to mess up refrigerated cut and slice cookies. I'm not sure how that was possible... but now-a-days I bake when I'm bored and cook meals for friends and at parties (people actually say I'm good at cooking, which I never thought I'd hear in my life). Not that I could never cook, per say, but I just never made any effort to make interesting dishes when I lived on my own in collage. It was always easy stuff; stir-fries and sandwiches that just required whatever was lying around the house (except when I decided to splurge and go get bulgulgi beef to make bibimbop).

Curry Omurice

Best karage and miso soup ever

Soup with vegetables and thin-sliced pork

So yeah, I appreciate Japan for how much wider it made my taste-preferences and for taking soo much care in making food at restaurants. I don't think I've ever been dissatisfied upon going to a restaurant or cafe. If the place doesn't make the best whatever, it will still make a really good version of it and be reasonably priced. :)

Speaking of food, I made tempura with my Monday evening dinner buddies yesterday! My house smelled like an oily mess after, but the tempura came out really well (did tofu, mushrooms, green beans, eggplant, onions, and broccoli) and I made this interesting green onion dip with tofu, onions, and garlic~

Mid-Week Food Spam!

Other than thinking of how excited I am about going home for a visit in 2.5 weeks, I've been reading a health book and trying out lots of good, healthy, recipes! It's been fun (albeit expensive to be buying so many more veggies than I was before), and I think it's totally worth the extra effort some of these take. Most of them don't take any more time than my usual lazy food, and they are so much more delicious!! That, and making the salmon one yesterday opened my eyes to the fact that my oven/microwave has a "grill" function which I assume is the same as broiling.

Ham, cheese, and chive omelet with tea and vegetable juice for breakfast.

Nabe lunch. I got the idea from the morning show I watch, "Mocco's Kitchen." Has eggplant, orange pepper, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, garlic, wakame and chicken broth in it. Nabe-ed over a flame for 10 min and seasoned~

Broiled salmon with fried onions, garlic, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Love salmon <3

Yesterday, I cut squares out for the quilt I'm planning on making. Thus far, I have 30 squares each of 3 types of fabric. I need one more color and then I can start stitching it and putting on the back, etc. I'm excited to finally have a quilt again! I left this adorable one my friend made for me in High School back in the US. It had a huge strawberry on it and said いちご in hiragana underneath. I don't wanna do anything that fancy, but I'm excited anyway. Other than that, I went over to Nat-chan's house round 7:30 and watched Burlesque with her. Great movie! I liked that a lot better than Chicago and actually, I don't usually like musical movies but this one made it much more natural (not too hard with the premise). おすすめ！

Dekopon Darake

I was given 20 dekopon at taiko today from taiko master genji. I can eat a lot of dekopon, but I don't know if I can eat 20 that are at the peak of ripeness. I think I'll have to go on an orange diet next week. Screw smoothies, I'll just eat three for dinner every night. :D