Prelude
Well, I promised a lengthy weekend post and here it is. But first, a shot of the yakisoba I had my second week here, stolen from a friend's facebook album.
There is squid and chicken on the right there, a bit difficult to make out. Yakisoba is great because the egg is all runny and mixes up with the noodles, which is like glue and allows you to really suck them down. Everyone knows that the faster you can eat noodles, the tastier they are (which is why soup noodles usually [but not always!] suffer on the deliciousity charts). I should have mixed in the ginger, which is something I did at the festival (see below). It doubled the deliciousity quotient, since the street vendor noodles were bland. No pictures, unfortunately. They just disappeared too fast.
We went to an okonomiyaki restaurant last Friday. It was pretty much an archetypal mom-and-pop (literally) joint, from the bar seating to the wooden signs detailing what treats were available for rapid, tongue-searing consumption. The matronly cook was quite skilled, as you'll see below; her quiet but efficient husband went around re-filling water glasses, handing her ingredients, and prepped the cooking materials. I'll let the pictures (and my captions, I suppose) do the rest of the talking.
Shop front
Interior
*Plop*
*Schlap*
Fast forward... see what I mean about skills? She had 10 of those bad boys cooking at the same time, and her spatulas were just flying!
Mix of mayo and okonomiyaki sauce, beautifully (and carefully) swirled together
Finished product. It took a lot of self-restraint to take this picture, considering we watched the okonomiyaki cook for what felt like a million years...
On Saturday, we went to the local miso factory. That dark miso soup paired with the tonkatsu in my October 15th post? Turns out it's the local miso, a red miso that is much stronger in taste (and in my opinion, complexity of flavor). Around here, most restaurants that serve miso soup will serve this Hatchō variety. We took a tour of the factory, which was fast and completely incomprehensible:
The factory front
Unused miso buckets
Fermenting miso in giant buckets with a billion tons of rocks pressing down on them. Looks cool. And no, I didn't see the "no photographs" sign.
Miso ice cream...
It was scrumptious, a buttery salty taste with a sweet finish. I will admit to being biased when it comes to ice cream, however
Udon Lunch
After the tour and ice cream appetizer, we grabbed a quick lunch of udon near the train station. While the others opted for a "deep bowl udon" which just seemed like a gimmick in retrospect-- it was served in a... deep... bowl... I opted for the house special, which was a dark miso udon with a healthy plop of hatchō for that complex, savory, looooong taste. The broth was really thick, almost to the point of being a sauce! I've included some udon-making pictures (this is for you, "family-bright"):
First, the dough is rolled out into a big circle
Next, folding occurs with the help of a stick (technical term, of course)
Pick up the folded dough...
...Then put it down and re-fold it. I totally got the hang of it just by watching
They slice up the dough into strips (hence the square shape of udon... I never knew, I always assumed it was machine made), and weigh it, because, well, they're Japanese
One of the top 5 bowls of noodles I've ever had. One of the exceptions to the soup noodle theory expounded earlier. Just look at that miso broth!!!
On Sunday, we went to two festivals. The first was in Gamagōri, where young men clad in white waded into water (bad combo, or good, depending on your point of view) carrying shrines. Again and again. After 30 minutes or so in the hot sun, we decided to move on to Toyohashi for a lively street food lunch. The Toyohashi festival seemed to be a celebration of the city itself, with youth groups and school groups marching and dancing festively (hence, a festival). Their enthusiasm was infectious, and the street food was greasy and delicious. Pictures:
Lots of people out to see the shrine pulling. Too bad my Japanese is bad-- I would've loved to find out exactly why this ritual is performed in the first place.
As usual, there was much cuteness-- in traditional festival garb, no less!-- going on.
There was much heaving and shouting going on as well.
A closeup of what was pulled across the harbor
I liked their slippers
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki! Just a good great ridiculous food weekend.
One of many different types of dancing. There was disco, funk, swing, pop... the list goes on.
This girl was walking nonchalantly with her partner's tail in hand. I found it amusing, for some reason
This young marching band was extremely good
Traditional garb, not very traditional dance.
So that was my weekend. This weekend is likely going to be spent looking for work, and possibly researching martial arts possibilities (Aikido? Judo?). I've been told that joining a dojo is one of the best ways to improve your Japanese, what with the camaraderie that develops through training and the meals that often follow. Stay tuned, I guess.
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