Fukushima Restaurants (part 5)

(If you missed Part 4: Big Boy . . .  Click here)

Introducing . . . .

Sultan's Curry

I think I was 25 years old the first time I went to an Indian Curry restaurant.  It was fantastic!  About the same time I moved to Japan, Haidee and Cindy discovered a Sultan's Curry restaurant right here in Fukushima!  Ever since it's become a regular eating spot for us.

Haidee, checking out the menu.

Part of the joy of eating at Sultan's Curry is that it feels like you're stepping out of Japan for a moment.  The cooks and staff are from India, and therefore speak English better than they speak Japanese (just like us!). The menu is in English and Japanese, which makes ordering pretty easy (especially for me, Eric).  Whenever we go to Sultan's, there's a good chance we'll see foreigners (i.e. non-Japanese).

Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore . . . or Japan.

The food is amazing!  In the land of pork and fish, it's really nice to take a break and order a mutton curry, a chicken tikka, or a kebob.  You can choose your level of spicy-ness:  mild, regular, hot, or fire!  The curry sets come with fresh naan (pulled right out of the oven when your food is served) or saffron rice.  The waitstaff all know Haidee and me pretty well, including our heat preferences (Haidee - regular; Eric - hot) and our side preferences (Haidee - plain naan, Eric - saffron rice). Our favorite cook, whom we affectionately refer to as "our man," often comes out of the kitchen to say hello. Sometimes he brings a small dessert as a treat!  We've had some great conversations with him.  That's another refreshing change from the regular Japanese atmosphere:  people willing to talk and share openly about themselves!

Our Man

Haidee, enjoying a mango lassi.

Eric's curry of choice:  Mutton do piyaza, hot, with saffron rice.

Check out their entire menu at their website.

Fukushima Restaurants (part 4)

Continuing our blog posts covering our favorite Fukushima restaurants, here is part four . . . . .

To see our previous Fukushima restaurant posts, click the following links:
Kauri's Kitchen
Gusto
Genki Sushi

Big Boy

That's right.  You thought the Michigan-based Midwest hamburger restaurant chain only existed in America. Maybe you also thought that Big Boy was losing the battle in the competitive restaurant market (seriously, does anyone even see Big Boy restaurants in the USA anymore?) . . . not so in Japan!  Big Boy is alive and kicking!  And so is their hamburger.

Beef - it's what's for dinner!

"If you want 100% beef, go to Big Boy."  That's our motto here in Fukushima.  Pork and fish are more popular and far less expensive in Japan than beef.  If you do find hamburger on the menu, it's probably a less-expensive pork/beef mix.  At Big Boy, 100% American beef is what's for dinner!  Hmmm, there's nothing like cheap, subsidized, feed-lot raised, corn-fed USDA hamburger when you're feeling a hankering for something authentically American.  That being said, don't expect to find anything too familiar about the food at a Japanese Big Boy.  They don't serve the Original Double Decker that Big Boy became famous for (let alone any hamburgers or cheeseburgers at all!).  The all-you-can-eat salad bar (viking - バイキング - baikingu) comes complete with shredded cabbage, seaweed, cold okura, green beans, sesame dressing, and pitaya (dragon fruit).  The soup bar is Indian curry (Japanese style) and the famous corn soup.  They DO have a lot of cola products available at the Drink Bar that an American might recognize, and they serve plenty of steak and ハンバーグ (plain, oval-shaped hamburgers without a bun), but even the way the beef is served and eaten is a little different. . . and a lot of fun!

Here's the "hambagu" on the menu.

I said before that the hamburger is alive and kicking!  That's because each oblong, oval-shaped piece of ground beef is served medium-rare:  grilled on the outside and pink in the center.  It comes to your table sizzling hot on a cast-iron surface with a grilling "stone".  The server even puts a paper shield around your beef to prevent the spattering grease from landing on the table (or worse, on your face!).

Experience the sizzle captured on video!

After a minute or two it's safe to remove the paper shield and enjoy your food.  You may choose to cut pieces off the hamburger, dip them into a garlic or onion flavored glaze, and sear them on the grilling stone until it's cooked to your exact preference.  Or you can just enjoy the semi-raw hamburger that you'd never get in an American restaurant.  Either way, it's an experience!

The well-decorated viking salad bar!

Salad bar (part 1): hmmm, cabbage, okura, corn, and seaweed!

Salad bar (part 2):  notice the dragon fruit on top!

Curry anyone?

Time to begin the first course.

Patiently waiting for the arrival of the beef . . . .

Thank goodness for the paper shield!

Searing the beef on the cooking stone.

Coca Cola - now there's a familiar sight.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer sushi to hamburger.  But every once in a while I have a craving for pure, unadulterated beef.  And I know where to get it . . .

Thanksgiving! (well, actually Kinrō Kansha no Hi)

Thanksgiving is obviously an American holiday, but that doesn't mean that we aren't able to keep the tradition going while living here in Japan.  November 23rd is an annual holiday here in Japan called 勤労感謝の日(Kinrō Kansha no Hi) that roughly translates to: "Labor Thanksgiving Day".  None of my English students were able to give me a good explanation about what is special about this particular day, other than it's a day off from work!  Joel and I were very thankful for that, as Saturday is hands down our busiest day of the week at ECC.  Since this Nov. 23rd holiday falls less than a week away from when all of our friends and family will be celebrating Thanksgiving in the USA, we decided it was the perfect opportunity for the six of us American missionaries (Cindy, Joel, Pamela, Nathan, Haidee, and me) to gather together and feast!

We had a lot of fun preparing some of the food.  Haidee and I bought a couple frozen chickens (very tiny, Cornish hen-sized birds) that just barely fit into our tiny oven, potatoes, and かぼちゃ(kabocha - Japanese squash) which turned out to be a lot more dense than the American varieties that I'm used to.  Pamela, Joel, and Cindy also brought some yummy food including:  pies, jello, spinach salad, green bean casserole and stuffing (with homemade sourdough bread!).  We truly were lacking nothing!

During our conversation after the meal the six of us went around the table and shared some of the things we're thankful for.  In no specific order, here are some of our answers:

• Successful completion of the GRE
• A relaxing summer vacation that allowed for time to explore Japan
• Plenty of household objects to chew on
• A job with wonderful students and co-workers
• Nathan (and being a mother, father, aunt, uncle, Godmother)
• Family celebrating traditions together
• Bible Study Fellowship
• God's continual presence with us at all times

The LORD was with us that day as we all enjoyed ourselves spending time in fellowship, feasting, sharing joys and sorrows, resting, and playing games.  We are blessed.

Enough said.  Here are the pictures:

Eric, baking the kabocha in our tiny oven, (the same oven that we baked the 2 chickens in the next morning) while simultaneously warming his feet!

The bird(s)!  If you look closely you will notice the extra legs and breasts. . . .

Delicious Food picture number 2!

Delicious Food picture number 3!

Nathan enjoying a little pre-meal ride in his cardboard box car

Nathan rolling around on the floor with Dad

The ladies (and Nathan) having an after-dinner chat over caramel-sweetened coffee.

Joel very carefully cutting his homemade pumpkin Bavarian cream tart

Nathan getting double-teamed by Mom and Aunt Haidee during the post-dinner diaper change

Haidee enjoying an after-dinner stretch.  Nathan enjoying an after-dinner plastic bottle chew.

Nathan "helped" his mom during the Spot It game. 

Brains under construction

"Haidee's and Eric's brains are currently under-going a temporary rearranging of contents.  Blog posts will resume when the construction project has been completed.  Thank you for your understanding." 

It's been a long time since we've written a blog post.  You may be wondering: "Where are Eric and Haidee?"  That's a good question!

For the past several weeks we've been brushing up on our quantitative reasoning skills - reviewing concepts like exponents, roots, linear and quadratic equations, geometry, permutations, and probability.  We've also been expanding our vocabulary to include words like, laconic, erudite, pulchritude, and refulgent.  It's not that we particularly enjoy the studying of random academia (although we do, at times, considers ourselves to be quite "geeky").  We are preparing to take (insert ominous music here), the Graduate Record Examination! 

The Graduate Record Examination (more commonly known as "the GRE"), is one of the most mind-draining, expensive, and, quite frankly, useless standardized tests on the market.  It's a grueling 4-hour marathon:  two 30-minute analytical writing sections, two or three 35-minute quantitative reasoning (math) sections, and two or three 30-minute verbal reasoning sections, all with a refreshing one minute break in between each arduous section, and a mere ten minute break at the half-way point of the test (just in case you have to use the bathroom or something).  Yikes!

We've taken a few practice tests (both timed and un-timed).  I've found that the most difficult part of this test is the endurance factor:  by the third hour of staring at a computer screen, even a fairly easy reading passage is difficult to comprehend.  Mistakes become more frequent as the brain becomes more mushy.

We're scheduled to take the GRE on Monday, October 28th.  Your prayers are greatly appreciated!  In the meantime, (if you're as geeky as we are) enjoy a few sample GRE questions:  (for more, visit the official ETS website).

Scroll down to see answers.

1.

Scientists are not the only persons who examine the world about them by the use of rational processes, although they sometimes _______ this impression by extending the definition of “scientist” to include anyone who is ________ in his or her investigational practices.

(blank one): Conceal, create, undermine

(blank two):  intuitive, logical, haphazard

2.

The ________ nature of classical tragedy in Athens belies the modern image of tragedy:  in the modern view tragedy is austere and stripped down, its representations of ideological and emotional conflicts so superbly compressed that there’s nothing ________ for time to erode

(blank one):  unadorned, harmonious,  multifaceted

(blank two):  inalienable, exigent, extraneous

3.

Murray, whose show of recent paintings and drawings is her best in many years, has been eminent hereabouts for a quarter century, although often regarded with _______, but the most _______ of these paintings ______ all doubts.

(blank one):  partiality, credulity, ambivalence

(blank two):  problematic, successful, disparaged

(blank three):  exculpate, assuage, whet

4.

In the x y plane, what is the slope of the line whose equation is 3x-2y = 8?

A.  -4

B.  -8/3

C.  2/3

D.  3/2

E.  2

5.

In State X, all vehicle license plates have 2 leters from teh 26 letters of the aplabet followed by 3 one digit numbers.  How many different licesne plates can State X have if repetition of letters and numbers is allowed?

A.    23,400

B.    60,840

C.    67,600

D.   608,400

E.   676,000

6.

You have a 36 gallon tank.  Water is pumped in at a rate of 3 gallons / hour.  In order to fill the tank in exactly 48 hours, at what rate must water also be pumped out of the tank?

Answers: 

1. create, logical

2. multifaceted, extraneous

3. ambivalence, successful, assuage

4.  D. 3/2

5.  E. 676,000

6.  9/4 gallons per hour

Fukushima Restaurants (part 3)

It's time for Fukushima restaurant number three:

四季菜食

Kauri's Kitchen

四季菜食 - the kanji at the top stand for "Four Seasons Vegetables and Food"

Who doesn't enjoy a nice buffet lunch on their day off?  Haidee and I discovered Kauri's Kitchen (カウリキッチン) one Monday afternoon when we were at the Daiyu Eight Max (a mall here in Fukushima City).  It's become our favorite go-to spot for Monday lunches ever since. 

In Japan, a buffet is known as a viking (バイキング - baikingu).  I always thought this was referring to the Norsemen who (presumably) had ferocious appetites!  Apparently, though, that the word originated from the restaurant "Imperial Viking" in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which was the first restaurant in Japan to serve buffet-style meals.

The way it works at Kauri's Kitchen is that you pay for the amount of time that you're in the restaurant:  60 minutes, 90 minutes, or unlimited.  They also charge different amounts for men and women; they assume (probably correctly) that men will eat more than women.  I certainly makes sense, but I don't think something like that would fly in the USA. . .

They have an awesome salad bar and a large selection of food.  There's even three kinds of ice cream and a variety of other desserts.  I really should just let the pictures tell the story. . .

Good variety of pastas and salads (I like the spicy wasabi leaf salad with sesame dressing)

The Main Line:  Curry-flavored lotus root (れんかん）, sweet potatoes, omelet, roasted chicken, fish, and more!

Main Line #2:  You can see some soba noodles in the front, next to the pickled vegies, as well as some tempura on top

3 kinds of ice cream today:  vanilla, green tea, and strawberry

Also included for dessert:  fruit, homemade yogurt, vanilla pudding, and biscuit cookies

In the winter we could cook soup in a nabe pot right on our table.

Yummy!

A plate of Japanese vegetables . . .

Here's a nice link to a page that highlights all the Japanese vegetables.

The cool thing about the square plates is that it looks so artistic!

Dessert Time!  ice cream, jelly, sweet red bean with mochi rice

And finally, the most satisfying part of an all-you-can-eat buffet:  the leftover dishes that you don't have to wash!