Eat it

Ok, I have no idea what I had for dinner tonight and I think I want to keep it that way. Actually, I do have an idea and I’m not entirely proud of what I ate, but there you go.

The day started simple enough: conference, talks, lunch, more talks, then the SITTING AROUND began. This is the period where you find people you know and hope that someone presents a plan for dinner that includes you. This often isn’t too big of a deal, for example, in Houston every year it’s pretty simple as there are lots of people you know so if something falls through or you miss an opportunity, another one comes by.
Here, it’s more difficult. Not only do you hope you can find someone who wants to go to dinner with you, you hope you find someone who knows where there is a place to go, and you hope that one of the people going is Japanese, knows Japanese, or knows someone who is Japanese. I failed in the latter part. Instead I went to dinner with two folks from Washington DC, one from Chicago, and another from Albuquerque. We wandered a bit, finding one place that looked really good, whose name in Japanese we don’t know, but the English sign called it “Authentic Japanese Restaurant.” Descriptive, if not original. Anyway, I guess the Japanese word for “Authentic” is amazingly close for “Ridiculously expensive” for the meals on the menu started at 10,000 yen, or 100 dollars. No thanks.

We wandered a bit before finding a place called “Tori Tori” which was a yakitori restaurant. Fine, barbecued food, sounds good. We asked for “10 sticks of meat” and waited to see what they brought (keep in mind one of us was a vegetarian).
First was some chicken. Very good.

Next…Chicken gizzard? Never had it, never desired it. Well, I’ll try it. I don’t know what it tasted like, because I just remember being completely surprised by the texture…it was incredibly hard. Ok. Had it. Never will again.

Next was fish. Whole fish, of some sort. It was actually very good—cooked with lemon and salt. Yummy.

After that? Chicken skins with cabbage. Ok. Looked weird, but tasted very good.

Following that? Something. I don’t know what. I’m not proud I ate it. Let’s just say it made my soft-shell crab experience look tame. “Soft boned chicken” I think it was called? It’s pretty much as it sounds…lots of cartilage.

After that there were a lot of vegetables, thank goodness, and quail eggs. I don’t know, it blurs together. There were other things I wouldn’t eat normally. Oh, the soup which was “potato and chicken liver and other things stew” from which the vegetarian happily grabbed a potato, ate it, and then looked up at me only to say “That wasn’t potato.”

In the end, it was an experience. I tried new things. I didn’t enjoy all of it, but what I did enjoy, I actually enjoyed a lot. And thank god for beer. That washed away a lot of unpleasantness—both on the palate and in the mind.

Full day tomorrow—lots to do and I need to work on my talk.

I must now digest what happened today....in more ways than one. Later.