Silly foriegner in our restaurant

Tonight I had one of only a few examples of service in Japan which I could fault. Now I've been here nearly a year and the service has been impeccable largely, until tonight when I was laughed at.

Now this bad service wasn't done to me directly but I don't think the staff at Denny's Family Restaurant knew that I knew what they were up to.

Tonight I ordered a serving of gyoza and Chinese noodles. Usually you get served soy sauce to dip the gyoza but tonight they didn't bring any. The noodles come served in a huge bowl but the bowel is full of a stock like liquid. I hate noodles submerged in juice. Anyway I requested another bowel. I was observed tipping the water out of the noodles into the other bowel which they thought was funny and there was a couple of kitchen staff at the kitchen door having a good giggle to themselves.

I then got the waitress over and requested the said omitted soy sauce. I could gather from what was said amongst the gathered staff in Japanese (for which I speak very little but can gauge the drift of some sentences) that they were basically saying "what the hell is he going to do with the soy sauce." I'd already beached their noodle creation so maybe I was going to drown it in soy. Anyway the waiting and kitchen staff all sort of hung around and watched wondering what I was going to do. I was so tempted to order a bottle of ketchup because ketchup and Chinese noodles (much like the Maggi 2 minute variety back home) are tasty with lashings of tomato sauce! But I didn't on this occasion.

I go to Denny's often because it's next to my house, nutritious and cheap. I'm on a mission to go back there and butcher their food to my tasting, annihilate it with tomato sauce, separate the solids from the juices and leave a knife upright in the butter just to give the staff a thrill at the habits of the foreign community.

I hate being watched and giggled about!

Food! Food! Fantastic Food!

It's official. I think I'm getting a real taste for Chinese food. Although I'm not exactly living in China, Japanese folks serve up a lot of food with a Chinese origin. What's more is that you can easily procure Chinese food at a convenience store.

Jacob and I, on the occasion of a belated birthday outing for myself, visited a renewed Chinese restaurant on the 12th floor of Times Square in Shinjuku. This was a great chance for us to indulge in some of the fine Chinese delicacies I have come to enjoy.

One such thing is gyoza (as pictured) which is a dumpling style thing which you dip in soy sauce. It's simply devine. I could order plate fulls of them. We ordered a steamer with six of them and enjoyed every one of them all the same. We also had the most devine steamed bun things (the official name I am not sure of) stuffed with a pork mix. We finished off with a generous helping of rice that had egg mixed through.

I suppose, if it was more carefully analysed, the Chinese things which I've developed a love for are only a small sample of the wide range of Chinese cuisine available. There are probably many things that I wouldn't even consider sampling, but what I've tried so far I've become quite addicted to.