#contains seafood

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I am—if we are being honest—not happy to be back in Japan right now, but look: my favorite reasonably priced washoku place that is NEVER open for lunch anymore decided to open for lunch! Regardless of what's going on with my life, I am very grateful to be able to eat such delicious and lovingly prepared food.

My favorite bites were the hamachi (young amberjack) sashimi, the green beans wrapped in pork belly and simmered in sweet soy sauce, and the bit of simmered daikon that is mostly hidden behind the fake grass.

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In-flight meals! For lunch, beef bowl with green beans, salad, cold soba noodles, some kind of shrimp ceviche with fruit(????), and fruit salad. I am kind of wary of airplane shellfish under the best of circumstances, but the combination of watermelon and cilantro and shrimp was kind of nice?

For night breakfast, cheese omelet with mushrooms, potato, sausage, and a tomato, plus yogurt and a roll. Am I the only person who likes airplane eggs? Always happy to get airplane eggs.

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Marinated binchō maguro was on sale! Bought some shiso (perilla leaves) and cucumber and had myself a fancy little lunch on the balcony. Now to figure out what to do with the rest of this shiso :)

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Big izakaya dinner in Amami Oshima this time last year! I can't remember exactly what everything was but I enjoyed the new sea vegetable I tried in the first picture and also the moment when they said "野菜になります" (yasai ni narimasu / "Here's your vegetables") and put down a platter of boiled pigs trotters, kelp, and fishcakes. I was like ".......vegetables?" and my dining companions said, "Yeah, that's what they call side dishes here." Whatever, everything was delicious.

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Tom Yum Kung Cup Noodles! These are the instant noodles we buy the most, by far. They’re really flavorful, and a nice balance of spicy and sour.

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Lovely breakfast danish from St Germaine: cheesy mentaiko (spicy cod roe) with burdock root and lotus root. Not listed but of course mayo too. Great texture, nice flavor, happy morning.

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Finally, real ehomaki yesterday! Here are the conditions: (1) you need to eat one facing the lucky direction (this year, south-southeast), (2) you have to eat the whole roll, all in one go, without breaking or cutting it, and (3) you have to do it in silence.

We were gonna make our own but the supermarket ones looked so good I couldn’t resist. Only one got eaten the proper way (though I did laugh a little... but it still counts, right?). We ended up slicing the rest for a sushi party. Which felt lucky in its own way.

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From the summer, a really truly shockingly delicious marinated tuna bowl at—stay with me here—Japanese Denny’s. I was really impressed with the quality of the fish. Just... melt in your mouth. Amazing.

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Dinner at a very shibui kushi-katsu place! Breaded, deep-fried skewers of sea bream, lotus root, mochi, crab claw, oyster, cheese, pickled ginger, onion, and more. Finished with a really yummy motsu nikomi (tripe stew) with lots of root veggies and a splot of spicy, green yuzu kosho.

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漬けマグロの塩ダレ野菜炒め定食 // MAGURO & VEGGIE STIR-FRY SET

From an Okinawan place I’d been curious about! The fish was breaded and fried, then tossed with veggies in a simple salty sauce. Comes with rice, clear soup with wakame, pickles, and kombu with tofu. Really tasty and satisfying, and it felt wholesome!

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Mini pizzas and yummy hot sauce! Creamy shrimp and mushroom on the left, chicken teriyaki on the right. I took my husband to lunch to pick his brain and thank him for a favor, then made him watch me eat a shrimp head! Lucky guy.

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エビマヨ味トルティーヤチップ // MAYO SHRIMP PIZZA TORTILLA CHIPS

I don’t know when it’s going to stop surprising me that shrimp flavored chips taste good. Maybe when they stop smelling so intense—these were a bit off-putting, nosewise, but really very tasty!

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An unexpected combination but really, really good! I already knew that edamame and cheese are a killer combo, so what had me wondering was the addition of okaka, or dried bonito flakes mixed with soy sauce. You see it as an onigiri filling sometimes, but here it’s mixed into the rice to make the whole thing savory and delicious. Thumbs up!

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The sushi portion of the restaurant opening I won tickets to, GENTLE! (Italian portion here.) The sushi was fantastic, especially the chutoro and eel, and I tried barracuda for the first time, in a water pepper sauce. There were some fusiony elements, like black truffles with the sea bream rice, and interesting takes on traditional dishes, like crispy/silky sesame “tofu” with crabmeat. Also, beautiful plates.

It was all really delicious and a very cool experience. Everyone seemed very accommodating for different tastes/diets and was clearly really passionate about the food and ingredients. If you have the budget for a special dinner in Tokyo, I’d definitely recommend it!

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Green papaya salad! Normally I’ve had this as a Thai dish, som tam, and it’s been quite spicy, but this version is from a Vietnamese restaurant and wasn’t spicy at all! Still very tasty. I don’t know if that’s the traditional Vietnamese way, or if it was changed for Japanese tastes—which is possible, because it had a hint of shiso flavor? Which worked surprisingly well.