While in Japan, we went out to eat on weekends. We had two favorite restaurants that we made sure to go to at least once a month. Not only was the food good at both, but we got to be good friends with the owners/ proprietors. Both were Mom and Pop places, run by family members.
Jiro's
Jiro's was within easy walking distance from our apartment. Actually, both of our favorites were. We often walked when the weather allowed it.
Dad cooked, daughter served, and Mom helped prepare and cashiered. It was a family affair. |
This was another of my favorites: seafood spaghetti, a fried shrimp, a fried mussel cabbage salad, and yogurt with fruit sauce. |
Hana Dining
Our other favorite was Hana Dining. Ordering there was easier. We always, always, always got the same thing. In fact, after a few visits, they didn't even wait for an order- they just prepared our usual. It came on a tray and we always feasted with our eyes first. Isn't it beautiful? Rice, Miso soup, Fried katsu and shrimp, cabbage salad, dipping sauce for the shrimp (tasted like egg salad), tskumono of some kind. Then, there were always two other dishes, but what was in them was different every time. Cook's choice. They were always delicious.
The lady in the center was the owner/ cook/ proprieter- Hada san. She was very nice. Behind her is her son. He helped cook. He spoke a little bit of English, too. |
This photo was taken a different night You can see the side dishes were different. |
Oh, I forgot to mention. There also was a little dessert. Usually a small bowl of fruit of some kind. Again, it was never the same twice, but always delicious. |
It was kind of dark, but this is Ken in front of Hana Dining. |
We miss Hana Dining- a lot! |
PS We had one other favorite place. We actually went there most every week. Sakata eikaiwa was about 40 minutes away and started at 6:00pm. We often went over to Sakata in the afternoon and did visits before eikaiwa started. Class finished at 7:00, then we always stayed after visiting with class members. We usually stopped on the way home and did our grocery shopping at a big store we liked that was between Tsuruoka and Sakata. We usually had the elders with us, so took them home. It was then nearly 9:00 and we were hungry. So we would go to a local fast food place on our way home, Hotto Motto and get Japanese fast food.
The food was inexpensive and good. Our favorite dish was the chicken nan ban. We didn't discover it until near the end of our mission. After that, I ordered it every week. It was less than five dollars and delicious. It was a chicken cutlet with a tartar-like sauce on top. It came with a package of sauce to put over- kind of a sweet and sour sauce. The combination was delicious. It had a little tskumono with it and a teaspoonful of potato salad and a bowl of rice.
So, though Hotto Motto wasn't exactly fine dining (it was take-out only), it really is the place we went the most often and we both enjoyed and appreciated the food after a long day.So, there you have it: Our three favorite restaurants in Tsuruoka. We are really missing them!
No comments:
Post a Comment