This is what a sitar looks like when you play it for about 100 people squeezed into a bath house.
There is no way to describe what it sounds like.
There is no way to describe what it sounds like.
Saturday 1 March 2008
Thursday 14 February 2008
Lunch, Thursday 14 February 2008
Medical cafeteria (the nicer bit with the blue chopsticks)
Pork cutlet with grated daikon
rice
Miso soup
Cabbage salad with something called Rainbow Dressing
500 yen
Pork cutlet with grated daikon
rice
Miso soup
Cabbage salad with something called Rainbow Dressing
500 yen
Dinner, Wednesday 13 February 2008
Renais, closing time.
Mabou-don Chinese chilli-tofu on rice
Cabbage and carrot salad, with some beans
Miso soup (rubbish tonight, for some reason)
mandarin
480 yen
Mabou-don Chinese chilli-tofu on rice
Cabbage and carrot salad, with some beans
Miso soup (rubbish tonight, for some reason)
mandarin
480 yen
Lunch, Wednesday 13 February 2008
Cafe Bon Bon, French place on Imadegawa-dori on the other side of the river. Or on the other side of a blizzard, today.
Stick of warm bread for starters, with a little salad (lettuce with Thousand Island dressing). But the bread had no sugar in it. At least, not the cake-ish amounts of sugar bread seems to cop at most places. Points.
Chicken breast with cream sauce was the main. Served on something like boiled cabbage. Or maybe the sauce was boiled cabbage, or sauerkraut or something. Couldn't tell. I thought the sauerkraut was salty, then realised there were big lumps of rock-salt all over everything. Not to worry, salty is fine. Only.... the chicken had that special taste that chicken can only get if it's been frozen and microwaved. The coffee list was long, but it all comes from one of those machines that do all the grinding and brewing themselves. Instant, in a word.
I don't want to complain. It has one of the best locations in the city, the main bit of the restaurant has a lovely high ceiling that makes it feel all airy, there's a loft, as well as a glass conservatory thing where you can look out over the river, and you can eat at tables, or sitting back in comfy lounges. The people were friendly, it wasn't too crowded or too dull. If you take a good book, it's one of the better places in which to stay away from work.
Next time I'll just have a sandwich.
Daily lunch special, including bread, salad, and drink, 900 yen
Stick of warm bread for starters, with a little salad (lettuce with Thousand Island dressing). But the bread had no sugar in it. At least, not the cake-ish amounts of sugar bread seems to cop at most places. Points.
Chicken breast with cream sauce was the main. Served on something like boiled cabbage. Or maybe the sauce was boiled cabbage, or sauerkraut or something. Couldn't tell. I thought the sauerkraut was salty, then realised there were big lumps of rock-salt all over everything. Not to worry, salty is fine. Only.... the chicken had that special taste that chicken can only get if it's been frozen and microwaved. The coffee list was long, but it all comes from one of those machines that do all the grinding and brewing themselves. Instant, in a word.
I don't want to complain. It has one of the best locations in the city, the main bit of the restaurant has a lovely high ceiling that makes it feel all airy, there's a loft, as well as a glass conservatory thing where you can look out over the river, and you can eat at tables, or sitting back in comfy lounges. The people were friendly, it wasn't too crowded or too dull. If you take a good book, it's one of the better places in which to stay away from work.
Next time I'll just have a sandwich.
Daily lunch special, including bread, salad, and drink, 900 yen
Dinner, Tuesday 12 February
Keniya (Grub And Coffee And Booze Shop), Mikage-dori, east side of intersection with higashi-oji-dori.
Boiled mackerel (flesh goes good, skin goes all stretchy and funny)
Meat and konnyaku (jelly type thing made from the starch of wild potatoes, flavoured with fish stock. Dictionary gives it as 'devil's tongue', which would be a good name if anyone had ever used it)
Rice
Thousand island cabbage (with onion)
Miso soup
780 yen
Boiled mackerel (flesh goes good, skin goes all stretchy and funny)
Meat and konnyaku (jelly type thing made from the starch of wild potatoes, flavoured with fish stock. Dictionary gives it as 'devil's tongue', which would be a good name if anyone had ever used it)
Rice
Thousand island cabbage (with onion)
Miso soup
780 yen
Wednesday 13 February 2008
Lunch, Tuesday 12 February 2008
Koanosuke Thai cafe, second floor of the building where Peace Cafe used to be, Western side of Higashi-oji at Hyakumanben.
Green curry level four spice (spiciness can be ramped up or down)
with extra bits (+50 yen)
and Chai afterwards (+150 yen)
Spicier than expected, tasty green curry. Vegetarians ok, as contains nothing but vegtables and frozen potato wedges, that may contain meat. I like the potato wedges because they remind me of that lyric for the ages (with thanks to Mr White): I got a backyard with nothing in it, except a stick, a dog and a box with something in it.
Basic curry: 680 yen
extras 100 - 200 yen.
Green curry level four spice (spiciness can be ramped up or down)
with extra bits (+50 yen)
and Chai afterwards (+150 yen)
Spicier than expected, tasty green curry. Vegetarians ok, as contains nothing but vegtables and frozen potato wedges, that may contain meat. I like the potato wedges because they remind me of that lyric for the ages (with thanks to Mr White): I got a backyard with nothing in it, except a stick, a dog and a box with something in it.
Basic curry: 680 yen
extras 100 - 200 yen.
Dinner, Monday 11 February 2008
まんゆう軒（Manyu-ken）, on marikoji-dori, just north of higashi-ichijo-dori.
The posters in manyu-ken are:
The posters in manyu-ken are:
- Ayrton Senna's head for the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix
- A large airbrush picture of Disney characters on a tall ship, with a 2008 calendar along the bottom, that recently and commendably replaced a large airbrushed map of the world, with Disney characters in explorer hats with binoculars looking at geographically appropriate cartoon animals, with a 2007 calendar across the bottom. Aside: Are there any non-domesticated Disney characters (assuming Ducks are domesticated insofar as they wear sailor-suits)? Aside: Do mice count as domesticated (since their co-habitation with humans is presumably (in the absence of confirmation from some kind of talking mouse) opportunistic)?
- Picture of yacht with squiggles on it for a regatta on Lake Biwa in 1986 (inside of toilet door)
- Toyota racing car from the 1992 Le Mans 24 hour race (back wall of toilet)
- Small sticker I think is another yacht, but haven't got closer enough to see
- The menu
- The daily special board (actually a board, not a poster)
Along the southern wall are arranged comic serials, and a small bookshelf houses the weekly rags, as well as newspapers and back issues of Playboy. In Japan Playboy is a general interest tabloid with a scattering of daft giggling bikini girls. While this means it can be left about in cheap restaurants, it is unlikely that Hunter S. Thompson could have reported on the Kentucky Derby in quite the way he did with a fake press-pass that said プレイボイ instead of Playboy.
Food: cheap and honest. Better than it needs to be. Miso soup is especially good. Shiro-dashi to remind you that you're in Kyoto, well salted with strips of daikon and tofu that stays firmer than usual.
Grilled mackerel with soy sauce and grated daikon
Thousand-Island cabbage
rice
miso soup
600 yen
Food: cheap and honest. Better than it needs to be. Miso soup is especially good. Shiro-dashi to remind you that you're in Kyoto, well salted with strips of daikon and tofu that stays firmer than usual.
Grilled mackerel with soy sauce and grated daikon
Thousand-Island cabbage
rice
miso soup
600 yen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)