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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Dinner@ Inakaya (Tokyo)

This is one of the fun dinner I had in Tokyo on our last night, at Inakaya in Roppongi. ( the link with addresshttp://www.bento.com/rev/2672.html).

I had so much fun mainly because it was a new experience, and also because everyone there was very nice to me.

As you can see, we have 2 chef kneeled before the guests seated before them, divided by the array of fresh seafood and vegetables. So the guest get to pick anything you want from there and the chef will cook it freshly before you, and served hot straight to you via a long wood flat spoon kinda thing. I tell u, the food i so oh my god fresh and yummy that apart from salt, it doesnt need other sauces and the food turn out beautifully sweet and tender!!!

The chubbier chef on the right looked stern at first when when he saw my wide eye grin, he gave a chuckle at me. Everytime when I go すごい (sugoi)!!! He kept grinning at me. I prob look idiotic to him or he just prefer someone appreciating the food he served, compared to the poker face
locals and looking overwhelmed caucausians.

In between, the staff also pounded rice to make sticky rice for us. We have a choice of red bean or raddish, I choose raddish. It was fun to see them pound the cake and after I had taken pictures of them with permission, they jokingly offered the pounding rod to me and asked if I want to have a go! If there were less people, I might, but I declined politely.

When we ordered the fish, the guy was very nice. He noticed we didnt eat the fish correctly with the sauce and sides, so he came over to show us. When we were done with the body, he even came to me and started talking in Japanese. I didnt quite get him and so he asked for permission for him to use our chopstick to demonstrate his meaning. So he flipped the fish head inside out and there were flesh under the jaw. he took that and gave it to me, saying its for lady and he managed to dug out more meat from the head for my husband. It was amazing on the hidden meat! I would never know! In between, he even said we should suck at the fish head and he had that sucking sound which had me laughing quite happily. He grinned. (we noticed he didnt do half of what he did for us for the caucasians guys seated a corner away from us.. so i guess its not a standard practice

Ok, one of the fun side was I get to order it in my smattering basic Japanese. Those I have no idea (which are many!!) , I just point, and the waiter would state the name for me. It wasnt until 2 hours later when we were leaving, I realise that they have an english menu because they passed it to this indian-french girl next to me. I was like "Hey!! how come I wasnt offered one?!" Oh well... I guess they assumed I wanted to learn or overestimated my Japanese....

Towards the end of our meal, the 2 chefs changed shift with another 2 chef and we had this clapping hand ceremony. I had a video but yet to load it. Before I left, I thank them for a very interesting and fun night. The guys laughed when I said interesting. Maybe interesting wasnt a word they were expecting? Hmmm...











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