ENMEN and Sushi

I have been a bit busy lately and unable to update my blog. But I managed to go to Akihabara last weekend, and enjoyed some gourmet. I used to frequent Akihabara to see anime stuff before, but now the main purpose is to have good food. 

 Let me introduce "ENMEN", which is near Akihabara station. 炎麺 reads "ENMEN", and it would be translated as "Fiery Noodles". 

 I entered the Ramen shop in the basement, and it had some autographs probably by famous people. The shop's waitress spoke Japanese, but she seemed to be Chinese.

 I ordered Tomato Ramen, which was one of the specialties of this shop. You could choose spicier one. I think this Ramen had some butter in the broth, and it gave thickness to the taste. 

 And I had sushi for dinner at this sushi restaurant called "Sushi-zanmai". In this case, "zanmai" means "to indulge". So "Sushi-zanmai" would be "Indulge in sushi". 

There were 4 or 5 chefs, and one of them served these very fresh tuna sushi. One piece of sushi cost as much as 3 dollars. 

LAS VEGAS BURGER

Hey, people in Las Vegas :D This time last year, I introduced Miami Burger, and the Mcdonald's in Japan is offering a few kinds of American hamburger this year too. Basically this blog is about things of Japan, but when I find something foreign I feel urge to introduce it.

 I went to Las Vegas years ago, but I didn't have a hamburger there. I was a minor and wasn't even allowed in the casinos, so I made my bro buy some beers and had them in the hotel room to behave like an adult. 

Does this look delicious? In my book, the look wasn't very nice, but the taste was so-so. However, I felt strange after too much margarine was on my tongue. 

Most Japanese people are pro-America, because their pop culture influences Japan too. This is the ad for the burger as you can see. I know not everything about America is nice, but living in Japan we tend to be informed of mostly good things from the US like Lady Gaga, Hollywood, Manhattan and etc.  

Olive no Oka (The Olive Hill)

I like to go to Tokyo, and some of my recent posts were on the capital. But I remember some of my friends told me that they like to see where I live. The city I live in is about 60km from Tokyo, and it's far less populated and there aren't as many restaurants of course.

I was really into Italian several years ago, but people seem to like something different these days like Kaiten sushi. There are as many as 4 different Kaiten sushi restaurants in my area. But on this day I wanted to try this Italian restaurant named "Olive no Oka". "Oka" means hill. 

 Like other Italian restaurants, a drink bar (where you can have as many refills as possible) was available. This machine is pouring coffee in the glass. 

 I was a bit concerned about the future of this restaurant as there weren't enough people. The dishes I ordered were instantly served. 

The left is of course pizza, and the right one had much seafood. I don't remember the name for the latter, sorry.  The tastes of the two were good compared to other Italian restaurants. But I'd say they were just good. 

People say food is very expensive in my city compared to Tokyo. It must be because every restaurant in the capital is competing against each other, but when I have less tasty dishes for more money, I can't help but think people in Tokyo are fortunate.

Brownie and 万豚記 (Wang Tsu Chi)

I came to Akihabara this weekend too. It had been forecast it was going to rain or snow in Tokyo, but I had found online good restaurants in Akihabara. So we went ahead with what we had planned.

 On this day, the temperature was about 4 degrees in the morning, so I was wearing a down jacket. Still, it was very cold and I found it was hard to breathe because the cold wind slapped my face. 

Some blogs said this curry shop was the best in this area. It was about a 10 minutes' walk from Akihabara station. But it was 11:30 when I came here, whereas the restaurant opened at 12:00. So we were killing some time at a coffee shop.  

This is the rice and curry I ordered "Vietnam Curry". It tasted of coconut milk and the curry was spicy enough. It was very good, but what was surprising was this was served only 5 minutes after we took seats.  

And we had Chinese dishes for dinner. This 万豚記 was on the 8th floor of Yodobashi Akiba building.  

 And again, this Ramen (坦々麺) was served after a few minutes we ordered. The noodles were wide, and the soup soaked in them perfectly. You can have Chinese food everywhere in Japan, but this restaurant serves what you can have on the streets of China according to my friend who have gone to China before. 

This is dumplings that are called "焼売 (Shuumai)". Normally this kind of side dish comes before Ramen, but it was served after I told a waitress we had been kept waiting. As I watched the kitchen, the chef was yelling at a female colleague, and she seemed to be about to cry. I felt sorry for her.