Japanese Cuisine

I may just be very hungry for three weeks in May. Here's why.

Em, Hilda, and Gin and I went out to eat during the Priesthood Session of Conference. We went to Hibachi House to eat, and although Emily had eaten there before, she thought it was a Chinese place. I was excited to find out that it was Japanese food. Yes, a chance to get my first real taste of what I'll be eating in Asia! In my language study groups, we've been learning how to order foods at a restaurant, so once I found something on the menu that we had learned in class, I wanted to order it .. .even if I didn't quite know what it was.

So, I ordered Miso soup, and I even tried ordering it in Japanese (Miso shiru onegai ishimasu), and cucumber rolls. The lady said, "Miso soup, you mean?" Well, yeah. Then, I tried asking how much it cost, "Ikura desu ka?" and the guy responded in English. And I got weird looks when I said "Arigatoo gozaimas" (thank you). So much for speaking Japanese! They must've thought it was a little weird that I was trying to speak Japanese in an Americanized Japanese restaurant.

The soup was basically broth with tofu, seaweed and onions, and it wasn't awful, but it certainly wasn't great either. It was my first taste of tofu, which is weird stuff if you ask me. I remember learning about it on the Food Network; it takes on the texture and taste of what it's cooked with. I guess the rest of the soup wasn't very good because the tofu tasted funny.

The cucumber rolls were basically sushi without the fish. I hate cooked fish; really, you think I'd like raw fish? I don't think so. The rolls weren't bad, although the seaweed texture is a little weird. Obviously I still have a lot more practice with chopsticks to do. After several tries, I finally picked up one roll with the sticks, but then it plopped big time in my soy sauce/wasabi mixture, which added to the weirdness of the taste. So, I wasn't eating much of what I ordered, so I went back to order some beef kabobs; those can't be harmless, right? Well, the first two beef chunks were alright, but then I realized that the beef wasn't cooked all the way through .. .like at all. So, I ate the peppers and the pineapple.

So, I was the most adventurous of the group, but I ended up eating the least. Go figure. Good thing I'm going to Peru on my mission-Peruvian food is rill good! And rill substantial, too. =)