Super set
After a day of meetings, I was ready for dinner. We were meeting a business friend, so we planned a fancy business dinner on the top floor of a hotel at a nice Japanese restaurant. Oh yeah, baby.
There were three set courses to choose from, all very similar, so we just picked one. An annoying little thing was that I didn't get a menu. I was with my (older male) Japanese colleague and our (middle-aged male) American friend. Apparently with company like that, a young American woman doesn't need a menu. [A young Japanese couple sat across from us, and both got menus. I'm not quite sure what was up in my case.]
What a meal. There were about 8 courses: Silken tofu with walnut sauce. Little appetizer plates including herring with lime flavor, chestnut puree, and veggie gelatin (trust me, it's good). Sashimi, including one I hadn't tried called "purplish amberjack". Clear soup with a chicken-potato-onion dumpling. Grilled "swordfish" smothered in veggies (it wasn't really swordfish since it was pink. Whatever it was, it was awesome). Steamed black rice wrapped in thin slices of something called "tilefish," but this was another odd translation; it seemed to be some variation on tai fish. Cold soba noodles with dipping sauce. And finally, Japanese sweets such as mochi and something resembling marzipan. We washed it down with a cold draft beer followed by sake over ice.
The amazing thing is, this stuff isn't heavy at all. You get just a bite or two of each thing, and it's all very delicately prepared. I wasn't totally stuffed. I was "80% full"-- that's a Japanese phrase for "perfectly satisfied." It was supposed to be the right amount of food for a samurai to have before battle. If he is 100% full, he can't fight, but 80% full gives maximum strength.
On another food note, I splurged on a package of strawberries earlier in the day. $4 for a 10-oz package! But they were, naturally, really good strawberries. Who knows where they were grown-- perhaps in a greenhouse?
OK, enough food thoughts. Off to more meetings.
