Eating with Kris

So, eating with Kris for a week was quite the challenge. Two of his favorite TV shows are No Reservations and Bizarre Foods, and I think he was trying to create a similar experience. Above are the eel spine crackers I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. They kind of look like waffle fries in the picture, don't they? I tried some of the stuff he ordered, but some was just too weird for me.

This was a little yakitori (grilled chicken) place we went to for an appetizer while waiting for a reservation. Here Kris had horse sashimi.

This is a teeny restaurant. Maybe 8 tables, plus that little counter you can see off to the left. Also, when it's warm they put crates outside to make some al fresco room.

Here we are at shabu shabu. I love this. You get a pot of broth and all the food comes out uncooked and you cook it yourself at the table. The meat is cut into super-thin slices and only takes a few seconds to cook. We came to this same place with Lindsay and AJ. Yum!

This is Kris at Mt. Takao with dango, which are mochi (pounded rice) balls that are grilled and brushed with sauce. This kind was flavored with black sesame. It was tasty.

This is a pot of chanko nabe. This is the traditional post-match meal for sumo wrestlers. Many sumo guys open chanko places after they retire. This is the "before" picture. It cooks on the table, and then after you eat all of the meat and veggies, they add rice to the broth to make "Japanese risotto." The rice is my favorite part.

We ate chanko nabe with my English class, then went out for beers after. Say cheese!

Here we are at Kris's favorite place in all the world. This is a tiny sushi counter inside the Tsukiji Fish Market. We actually got up at 4:30 am (!) to see the world-famous tuna auctions, then ate sushi for breakfast. This place seated about 12 people.

You can just point to what you want on the board and it comes with miso soup, pickles, and tea. Many of these places specialize in donburi, which is a rice bowl. The fish comes on top of the rice, rather than in rolls or individual pieces like nigiri sushi.

Here is a close up of Gen's bowl. He ordered chu-toro (medium fatty tuna) and uni (sea urchin).

This is all three lines up. Gen's is on the left, mine in the middle, and Kris's on the right. Kris got the same thing as Gen, but added ikura (salmon roe). I had regular tuna and chu-toro. Kris said this was the best meal he's ever eaten in his life.

OK, this is monja. It is not my favorite thing. It's like okonomiyaki, which is sometimes called Japanese pizza or Japanese pancake. It's a batter with cabbage and onions, and then whatever toppings you like. I like okonomiyaki, but monja has a much looser batter and it's just not my favorite. Anyway, this is what the raw ingredients look like. This is another place where you cook it yourself at the table.

Here is the okonomiyaki bowl. We got pork and egg. The monja group had cod roe and cheese.

So this is what it looks like while cooking. First you cook the veggies and meats, then you pour the batter on top. For okonomiyaki, you just mix everything up together.

Here's a shot of the monja after the batter and cheese was added. They got another type of monja after this one, but I forgot what the filling was. I also had yakisoba, stir-fried noodles. We didn't get shots of all the crazy stuff Kris tried or made us try. Let's see, there was also grilled pork liver, chicken heart, marinated shark cartilage, fried chicken cartilage, fermented fish guts, tripe, and many other things I wouldn't eat. But it was fun for Kris, so we did our job!