Just got back from a trip to get something to eat. I ended up in Ueno, after wandering around Tokyo / Ginza districts. VERY expensive over there, and nothing really appetizing to me. Well, there were probably some great places, but nothing that would let in a schlub like me. I knew Ueno wouldn't let me down, and it didn't!
I wandered through a somewhat sketchy area. It's laid out like a grid. Some of the smaller cross streets had nudey bars and some had Korean restaurants. Who am I to judge? Anyway, I didn't really want Korean at 9pm so I kept up the search for a Japanese place where I could get some yakatori, which is one of my favorite snacks. I found a really small place filled with Japanese sarariman, so I popped in. An energetic and friendly young lass met me at the door and pointed me to a seat at their tiny little bar. I guess it's only in America that a single patron can demand a booth. Then the fun began (fun for me, but I'm sure painful for her).
They had no English menu. This was a problem as I read Japanese even worse than I speak it. That basically means I can read nothing. So, using the phrase I've been practicing (and which, to me, perfectly sums up the arrogance of being an American), I ask "Ee-go ga hanasemasuka". Can you speak English? She giggled nervously and signaled she spoke very little English. It was to laugh. To make it easy, I said "ok. chikin yakatori." She then pointed at the menu, indicating I had to make a few more decisions. This was not good. We kind of went back and forth a few times, each of us trying to advance the ball. At one point I thought I'd just say "just order what you think would be good." Of course, my limited Japanese doesn't go that far, so I had to think of another plan. After I pointed to a random selection (she affirmed that I was looking at the correct part of the menu, at least) she tried to describe what kind of meat it was. She then drew a little pig's head on her notepad. Adorable. Yes, give me the flesh of the pig! But we still weren't done! Evidently there were different little dabs of... something... on the yakatori. I don't know! Fine, I just pointed to two different ones. At one point, she said "wasabi?!" I quickly said "oh, no, sorry. I meant THIS one", pointing to another. My bantering tone was hopefully not interpreted as douchey. She then proceeded to get out a menu with different parts of the pig labeled! Awesome. We were now pointing at different parts of the pig trying to find common ground in our limited mixed-language vocabulary. I admit I kind of just randomly pointed to things here and agreed when she asked for a confirmation. It was starting to seem like she was spending too much time with this one gaijin customer and I didn't want to get her in trouble.
A few minutes later she brought me a plate with two decidedly small yakatori skewers. The chicken was great. The pork was a little... Confusing. I'm really not sure what part of the pig this was, but I had a feeling it wasn't something one would normally find in an American restaurant. And that's ok! It's just that it was a little tough for me to get down. But get it down I did. And it was pretty good.
All in all it was worth it. At least for me. She's probably still annoyed with me, but that can't be helped. It's part of my charm. I really should have taken a picture of the pig she drew. OH, and the grand finale was when I had to pay with a 10,000YEN bill. For a 504YEN meal. How suave is that?!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment