I Should Never Have Tried This...(apologies vegetarians!)

I should never have ordered Kobe Beef in Kobe. No, not because the bill came to $104 for a single meal (actually, that's a bargain compared to Kobe Beef bought elsewhere). Because I do not want to go back to regular American beef ... not even the best filet mignon. (My camera battery is dead, so you don't see my actual steak on this blog.)

Why is Kobe Beef so expensive and so delicious? Some say it is because the cows that produce Kobe Beef are massaged every day and fed beer or sake. But my guide book tells me that it's more likely just the special way the cows are bred and the diet of alfalfa, corn, barley and wheat straw.

While the actual meat was delish, the way the chef prepared it in front of me was just as much of a treat. My steak chef spent as much time getting my garlic slices browned just right as he did cooking the beef.

I was jealous of the customer next to me, a Mexican college student who was traveling in Japan during a break from his studies in Australia. He order the "special Kobe Beef" at $154. He deemed it the best steak he has ever eaten, better than Morten's, better than Argentinian beef. Ah, I think I'll spend the $50 I didn't spend on the BEST Kobe Beef on a nice trip to the sushi bar. I am headed to Tokyo today and have a great tip on a sushi bar near the Tokyo fish market. (And I'll get that soy dipping right this time!)

Sushi Lovers -- A Lesson from Midori & Hisayo

While eating and drinking in a cute mom-n-son restaurant called Piccolo's last night, my host Hisayo and her sister Midori opened up with me, sharing their horror over a faux pas of foreigners when it comes to eating sushi -- we don't know how to use our soy sauce properly.

The proper way to use soy sauce with your sushi, they tell me, is to make sure you dip the fish side into the soy. And, by all means, make sure you do not dip the whole piece of sushi into the sauce. Just dab the end of your sushi, fish side down, into the soy. Foreigners tend to soak their sushi, rice side down, into the sauce. This collects way too much soy, overpowering the delicious fish.

Midori and Hisayo are experts in soy, by the way. Their family runs a soy sauce (shoyu) distribution business in downtown Ena.

And another tip: Make sure the fish side goes onto your tongue so you can fully savor the fatty tuna, eel or whatever is featured in your nigiri.

Seaside Sashimi

This is why my friend Sumire can be a little picky about her sushi and sashimi -- above is her mother's home 'cooked' raw fish, straight from the fish market in their hometown, Fujisawa. We made our own sushi with fresh crab, yellow tail, squid, fatty tuna, tuna, as well as other raw fish. Totemo oishiikatta!

Asa (morning) Gohan (meal) = breakfast

Minoru, my friend's nephew, chows down on a breakfast sandwich across the table from me on my first morning in Japan.

While this is not the traditional Japanese breakfast of fish, miso, rice, raw egg and fermented beans, it is a typcial breakfast in modern Japan. That day, Minoru's mom served us sausage sandwiches with lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise; grapefruit; broccoli; yogurt and potatoes. We drank both coffee and tea.

Eating Parent & Child

My first meal in Japan was one of my favorites: Parent & Child. No, I am not going cannibal!

Oyako Don. Oya means parent and ko means child. It's chicken, the parent, and egg, the child, over rice.