More yummy food!

Erik came back to Tokyo last night and is heading off tomorrow, so tonight Hiroshi and I took him out to dinner. I was working all day until late so we couldn't get to the restaurant until almost ten. We had wanted to go to Grand Central Oyster Bar in Shinagawa Atre (modelled after the real one in Grand Central Station NY) but they are booked solid for almost two months! I was shocked. Obviously it is a happening place. So we decided to go to a nabe restaurant in Gotanda instead that a student had recommended to me (another place I've wanted to go to for a long time but had never made it to).

We walked in just before last order. I don't think the staff were too happy about that. Oh well. The restaurant specializes in Akita (a prefecture in northern Japan) nabe. Nabe is hot pot - basically a broth that you put fish or chicken in with veggies and tofu. We ordered the fish one and some horse and whale sashimi as well. The sashimi was really nice! Sometimes horse is really chewy and tough which makes it hard to eat (at least for me). This was nice and tender. The whale was also nice and didn't cause the trauma that I had last time I had whale.

After our appetizers, the main dish came - a huge dish of things for the nabe including 6 whole fish! It was amazing. Apparently the fish are mating right now, so if you are lucky you will find a fish with eggs. I think all of ours had eggs in them (which I didn't eat). I still have issues with eating fish that looks like a fish (from being a former vegetarian) so usually I need to have fish that doesn't have a head, bones nor skin. I was ok with the fish in the nabe though. The restaurant has scaled the fish so the skin was almost non-existent. I ignored the head as much as possible and the flesh was so tender it easily separated from the bones. I basically did fish surgery on a small plate and dumped the offending fish-like parts into the scrap bowl - and then put the yummy fish flesh back into the nabe. Hiroshi just shakes his head at me.

We also had some nice sake. I haven't had sake in years. The last time I had it, students took me out, and to make a long story short, I ended up hugging the porcelain god. I'm glad I finally tried it again. It went perfectly with the nabe.

All in all, an excellent restaurant - and healthy! I'll definitely be going back again. This is a great place to go out and have a nice meal but eat something that isn't laced in fat and carbs. Yum!