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
Thursday, 14 February 2008
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
Tea, Monday 11 February 2008
Cafe Sua, near joufuku-ji, Senbon-ichijouji.
Thai and Vietnamese food menu, ~850 yen lunches, Dinner courses from 2000 yen. Just tea today. Bitter milky chai 500 yen.
Lunch, Monday 11 February 2008
Leftover chicken stuff from last night
Warmed up rice from the 99 yen shop
Fruit juice
208 yen plus whatever the chicken stuff works out to be
Monday, 11 February 2008
Dinner, Sunday 10 February, 2008
Ingredients:
Chicken pieces
1/2 tin of tomatoes
1 small block of tofu
leftover spinach in the bottom of the fridge
madarin or orange
lemon
As much butter as you can find
garlic
ginger
turmeric
coriander seeds
mustard seeds
salt and pepper
Some dried basil leaves I'd forgotten I had hanging from the ceiling
Grind up the mustard seeds, coriander seeds and pepper in your nifty 100 yen mortar and pestle, until you get sick of it, or until you press down too hard and it tips everything all over the bench and the floor (and that's why we don't put the turmeric in yet)
Brown the garlic (as much as you like) in some butter over a low flame, and add some ginger (minced stuff from a jar, or chopped up, or you can get it in a tube like toothpaste over here)
Cook the chicken bits for a few minutes on one side. Turn over (don't shake them about) and add the ground up seeds, then a few shakes of turmeric, and some more butter, and squeeze some lemon juice over it.
Turn the chicken again after a couple more minutes. Add some more butter, because I know you're going to anyway. Cook the chicken through, then take it out of the pan and keep it in the oven or the microwave until you need it again.
Butter up the pan again, and throw in the (chopped) spinach, smoodged up tofu and some salt and pepper. Stir them around a bit, then pour in the tomatoes, but not too many. Mash the tomatoes up with your spoon or egg flip if the nice people in the factory haven't done it for you already.
Stir it around to get the burnt bits of chicken off the bottom of the pan, squeeze in the mandarin or orange, scrunch up the dried basil and simmer for as long as you've got time for. Add a bit of water if you need to.
When it looks and tastes ok stir the chicken bits back in.
Bit more salt and pepper, then dish it up with your favourite carbohydrate. Tonight had toast because I was rushing. Rice or decent bread or potatoes would be better.
Chicken pieces
1/2 tin of tomatoes
1 small block of tofu
leftover spinach in the bottom of the fridge
madarin or orange
lemon
As much butter as you can find
garlic
ginger
turmeric
coriander seeds
mustard seeds
salt and pepper
Some dried basil leaves I'd forgotten I had hanging from the ceiling
Grind up the mustard seeds, coriander seeds and pepper in your nifty 100 yen mortar and pestle, until you get sick of it, or until you press down too hard and it tips everything all over the bench and the floor (and that's why we don't put the turmeric in yet)
Brown the garlic (as much as you like) in some butter over a low flame, and add some ginger (minced stuff from a jar, or chopped up, or you can get it in a tube like toothpaste over here)
Cook the chicken bits for a few minutes on one side. Turn over (don't shake them about) and add the ground up seeds, then a few shakes of turmeric, and some more butter, and squeeze some lemon juice over it.
Turn the chicken again after a couple more minutes. Add some more butter, because I know you're going to anyway. Cook the chicken through, then take it out of the pan and keep it in the oven or the microwave until you need it again.
Butter up the pan again, and throw in the (chopped) spinach, smoodged up tofu and some salt and pepper. Stir them around a bit, then pour in the tomatoes, but not too many. Mash the tomatoes up with your spoon or egg flip if the nice people in the factory haven't done it for you already.
Stir it around to get the burnt bits of chicken off the bottom of the pan, squeeze in the mandarin or orange, scrunch up the dried basil and simmer for as long as you've got time for. Add a bit of water if you need to.
When it looks and tastes ok stir the chicken bits back in.
Bit more salt and pepper, then dish it up with your favourite carbohydrate. Tonight had toast because I was rushing. Rice or decent bread or potatoes would be better.
(late) Breakfast, Sunday 10 February 2008
Groan. Groan again. Darken room. Back to sleep. Groan. Wait for hunger pain to overtake head pain. Fold up futon (30 minutes). Open door to kitchen (10 minutes).
Two eggs, sunny side up. Salt and pepper. Toast with butter. Two coffees. Darken room.
Except that outside, the sun is making up for time lost in the snow yesterday. And there hasn't been any sun for weeks. Months. And the snow is melting. And just then the egg-grease starts to work it's magic. And then a whole day on the Dark Side of the Curtains is starting to feel less necessary.
So it's fresh air all the way to Nina-ji temple, where the snow melting from the roof sends a curtain of crystal drips down onto the pebbles in the trench on the ground, making the new best sound in the whole world. And where, as the drops gather and bulge under the eves, the sun refracts through them onto the timber behind in the new prettiest pattern in the world. And if you ride up the hill behind the temple into what the old maps say are fields, but are now houses, you come to a strange cluster of deserted huts and shrines in an empty hollow like the start of a ghost story, and a little further on to a broken stone staircase that leads up to a trail over Oouchiyama that brings you past a view down over the city to the tomb of emperor Uda (867-931, reigned 887-897), impossibly still under snow that hasn't been disturbed. And if, on the trail back, you look to the other side, away from the city, you see tiny huts and forgotten shrines all over the hills, usually invisible in the trees, now picked out by the snow that hasn't melted from them yet. And then it starts to rain and you coast down the hill for home, and on the way you find Senbon-shaka-do, that you've always meant to look for, and make it back in time to cook fabulous dinner, then get to Mu~ra to see Jazz and eat cake, of which more later.
New personal best recovery-from-crippling-hangover, then. It almost certainly had nothing to do with the eggs and everything to do with living in this extraordinary city.
Oh alright it was the eggs.
Two eggs, sunny side up. Salt and pepper. Toast with butter. Two coffees. Darken room.
Except that outside, the sun is making up for time lost in the snow yesterday. And there hasn't been any sun for weeks. Months. And the snow is melting. And just then the egg-grease starts to work it's magic. And then a whole day on the Dark Side of the Curtains is starting to feel less necessary.
So it's fresh air all the way to Nina-ji temple, where the snow melting from the roof sends a curtain of crystal drips down onto the pebbles in the trench on the ground, making the new best sound in the whole world. And where, as the drops gather and bulge under the eves, the sun refracts through them onto the timber behind in the new prettiest pattern in the world. And if you ride up the hill behind the temple into what the old maps say are fields, but are now houses, you come to a strange cluster of deserted huts and shrines in an empty hollow like the start of a ghost story, and a little further on to a broken stone staircase that leads up to a trail over Oouchiyama that brings you past a view down over the city to the tomb of emperor Uda (867-931, reigned 887-897), impossibly still under snow that hasn't been disturbed. And if, on the trail back, you look to the other side, away from the city, you see tiny huts and forgotten shrines all over the hills, usually invisible in the trees, now picked out by the snow that hasn't melted from them yet. And then it starts to rain and you coast down the hill for home, and on the way you find Senbon-shaka-do, that you've always meant to look for, and make it back in time to cook fabulous dinner, then get to Mu~ra to see Jazz and eat cake, of which more later.
New personal best recovery-from-crippling-hangover, then. It almost certainly had nothing to do with the eggs and everything to do with living in this extraordinary city.
Oh alright it was the eggs.
Dinner, Saturday 9 February 2008
Chinese place on the east side of higashi-oji dori between the railway line and mikage-dori
Suitably filthy noodle den with hunched, jacketed types reading comics. Ramen noodles aren't eaten with a spoon, so it would be incorrect to call it a greasy spoon, and in any case why single out spoons when it could equally be called a greasy wall or a sticky counter?
More or less the same, then, as every other grotty chive-reeker in the country. Except that the moment I walked in the man in the ghetto-blaster (greasy) on the counter knew, just knew, it was time to put on Beat it and then Billy Jean in a row. At which point the roof opened to let in a disco ball and let out the fireworks, the windows divested themselves of their muck and threw it up in a fog of disco steam, and the overcoats box-stepped their way in formation across the counter. Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it precisely one bonus point for you, greasy noodle lady.
Chashumen 550 yen.
Suitably filthy noodle den with hunched, jacketed types reading comics. Ramen noodles aren't eaten with a spoon, so it would be incorrect to call it a greasy spoon, and in any case why single out spoons when it could equally be called a greasy wall or a sticky counter?
More or less the same, then, as every other grotty chive-reeker in the country. Except that the moment I walked in the man in the ghetto-blaster (greasy) on the counter knew, just knew, it was time to put on Beat it and then Billy Jean in a row. At which point the roof opened to let in a disco ball and let out the fireworks, the windows divested themselves of their muck and threw it up in a fog of disco steam, and the overcoats box-stepped their way in formation across the counter. Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it precisely one bonus point for you, greasy noodle lady.
Chashumen 550 yen.
Saturday, 9 February 2008
(Late) Lunch, Saturday 9 February 2008
Cafe Sora / Dog Salon Wonderful. Nishi Oji-dori, south of Kinkakuji, Kyoto.
May be the best prog rock song title ever. Even better, it's literal. Through the second, interior door for depraved canine experiments with ribbons. Left for small-ish bossa nova-ish cafe. Daringly, no bossa-nova music. Comfy couches. Nice warm timber floor we flooded with melting snow from damp shoes.
Atsuko complained her waffles weren't hot enough. Victor liked his Curry Gratan.
Miso stew with Kyoto vegetables and yuba (the skin they take off the top of the vats when they make tofu)
Came with yuzu-kosho (citron flavoured pepper sauce). Hot but tangerine-y and apparently a Kyoto specialty. Never heard of it before. Resolution: Eat more yuzu-kosho.
1200 yen. + coffee 210 yen.
May be the best prog rock song title ever. Even better, it's literal. Through the second, interior door for depraved canine experiments with ribbons. Left for small-ish bossa nova-ish cafe. Daringly, no bossa-nova music. Comfy couches. Nice warm timber floor we flooded with melting snow from damp shoes.
Atsuko complained her waffles weren't hot enough. Victor liked his Curry Gratan.
Miso stew with Kyoto vegetables and yuba (the skin they take off the top of the vats when they make tofu)
Came with yuzu-kosho (citron flavoured pepper sauce). Hot but tangerine-y and apparently a Kyoto specialty. Never heard of it before. Resolution: Eat more yuzu-kosho.
1200 yen. + coffee 210 yen.
Dinner, Friday 8 February 2008
Daitoryu yakiniku, Takahara-dori, Sakyo, Kyoto
Pig tongue
Thin pork strips
Beef pieces
Chijimi
Pig stomach
Fried rice
Fried noodles
Cooked on the grill in the middle of the table (except the chijimi)
Two people, with two drinks each, 6000 yen
Pig tongue
Thin pork strips
Beef pieces
Chijimi
Pig stomach
Fried rice
Fried noodles
Cooked on the grill in the middle of the table (except the chijimi)
Two people, with two drinks each, 6000 yen
Lunch, Friday 8 February
Medical Faculty Cafeteria.
Mackerel marinated in miso
kinpira with beef
tofu with chives, ginger, soy sauce
salty sesame beans
miso soup
rice
kintokimame
Cost: 440 yen
Mackerel marinated in miso
kinpira with beef
tofu with chives, ginger, soy sauce
salty sesame beans
miso soup
rice
kintokimame
Cost: 440 yen
Dinner, Thursday 7 February 2007
Dragonfly cafe, Shinsaibashi, Osaka
Non-smoking cafe. In Osaka. Osaka, Japan. Non-smoking. No, really, no smoking. Not even a little bit. Not even lights. Or milds.
Basil pasta - expected bog standard genovese, but the basil is in the pasta, not the sauce. Bright green. They should give this to kids who don't eat pasta. What kid doesn't eat pasta? They should grind up vegetables that kids don't eat and put them into pasta. Especially the colourful ones.
Since the basil was in the pasta, they couldn't very well use basil as a garnish as well, so instead they used.... Bacon. Bacon, the universal condiment, as the Chinese have known for 5000 years. Why didn't they bring that piece of wisdom back from the east when they were busy carving it up? What the hell were you at, Marco Polo? Where was your head, Francis Xavier?
Run by a nice Swiss chap who gives French lessons if you ask, and may also be a DJ (rumour not confirmed.) DJ events on weekends, apparently, and occasional exhibitions. Current exhibition was of not-especially-interesting photos of Kyoto and Nagasaki. Not bad, just not interesting. The sort of photos they use as ads in train stations. Unfortunately deserted on Thursday night. Deserves more people, since:
1> non-smoking
2> understands the place of Bacon on top of every meal
Bacon on a bed of green pasta, one beer, one coffee, 1090 yen. (Any drink is yours for 100 yen with a meal)
Coffee came with actual milk instead of that UHT anti-freeze you usually get.
Non-smoking cafe. In Osaka. Osaka, Japan. Non-smoking. No, really, no smoking. Not even a little bit. Not even lights. Or milds.
Basil pasta - expected bog standard genovese, but the basil is in the pasta, not the sauce. Bright green. They should give this to kids who don't eat pasta. What kid doesn't eat pasta? They should grind up vegetables that kids don't eat and put them into pasta. Especially the colourful ones.
Since the basil was in the pasta, they couldn't very well use basil as a garnish as well, so instead they used.... Bacon. Bacon, the universal condiment, as the Chinese have known for 5000 years. Why didn't they bring that piece of wisdom back from the east when they were busy carving it up? What the hell were you at, Marco Polo? Where was your head, Francis Xavier?
Run by a nice Swiss chap who gives French lessons if you ask, and may also be a DJ (rumour not confirmed.) DJ events on weekends, apparently, and occasional exhibitions. Current exhibition was of not-especially-interesting photos of Kyoto and Nagasaki. Not bad, just not interesting. The sort of photos they use as ads in train stations. Unfortunately deserted on Thursday night. Deserves more people, since:
1> non-smoking
2> understands the place of Bacon on top of every meal
Bacon on a bed of green pasta, one beer, one coffee, 1090 yen. (Any drink is yours for 100 yen with a meal)
Coffee came with actual milk instead of that UHT anti-freeze you usually get.
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Backlog: Himalaya
Himalaya: Nepalese restaurant
6th floor of a building on the west side of kawaramachi between Oike-dori and San-jo.
Dark soft warm cavern with carpets and rugs and sashes for your arse and for the walls and for the roof and a candle the only light. Nepalese food whose authenticity I can't vouch for but it tasted well enough. Floor slopes down spookily into toilet lined with plastic ivy.
Stir-fried mutton with chilli and vegetables all salty and spicy and good
Spinach and cheese curry like salty green cream
Meat dumplings in tomatoe-ish sauce contained meat and were dumplings.
Butter Naan the size of a respectable ironing board
Hot Chai like sweet spicy pink cream
Cost: 5400 yen for two people with two drinks each
6th floor of a building on the west side of kawaramachi between Oike-dori and San-jo.
Dark soft warm cavern with carpets and rugs and sashes for your arse and for the walls and for the roof and a candle the only light. Nepalese food whose authenticity I can't vouch for but it tasted well enough. Floor slopes down spookily into toilet lined with plastic ivy.
Stir-fried mutton with chilli and vegetables all salty and spicy and good
Spinach and cheese curry like salty green cream
Meat dumplings in tomatoe-ish sauce contained meat and were dumplings.
Butter Naan the size of a respectable ironing board
Hot Chai like sweet spicy pink cream
Cost: 5400 yen for two people with two drinks each
Lunch、Thursday 7 February 2008
Busy today. Bento lunch box from the union lady who parks outside the hospital at 12. Re-heat in wet lab microwave, eat at desk.
Pork tempura
Beans in miso
steamed vegetables
potato salad
rice with shiso
Cost: 400 yen
Pork tempura
Beans in miso
steamed vegetables
potato salad
rice with shiso
Cost: 400 yen
Dinner, Wednesday 6 February 2008
Renais again. With Nemoto and Yoshimura from the lab.
katsuniramoyasai-don (pork with chives and vegetables on rice)
Tofu with shallots, ginger and soy sauce
Salad of cabbage and carrot
Cost: 480 yen
katsuniramoyasai-don (pork with chives and vegetables on rice)
Tofu with shallots, ginger and soy sauce
Salad of cabbage and carrot
Cost: 480 yen
Lunch, Wednesday 6 Feb 2008
Renais, the union cafeteria on the main campus.
katsudon (pork cutlet with egg and onion on rice). Egg a bit overdone. Otherwise passable.
Salad (Cabbage and carrot and a bit of cucumber)
Tofu with shallots, ginger and soy sauce
Cost: 555 yenkatsudon (pork cutlet with egg and onion on rice). Egg a bit overdone. Otherwise passable.
Salad (Cabbage and carrot and a bit of cucumber)
Tofu with shallots, ginger and soy sauce
Cafeteria busy even at 2 pm, and smelly with wintering nerds.
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