More Adventures in Eating in Japan
Last night I had dinner with a Japanese friend. We went to a cozy, cute and casual Italian place (one of her favorites) in Aoyama. The menu was all in Japanese and so she translated some of the dishes for me that I pointed to and I made up my mind fairly easily. She recommended the uni pasta to me as I had never had uni pasta before. That was definitely something I had not seen on a menu before. The Japanese really like to add their own unique touch to Italian food and I figured this must be one of those dishes – kinda like salmon roe pasta. The uni pasta was quite good, light, buttery uni flavor and bits of uni in the sauce. Apparently the chef added extra uni since he heard this was my first taste of uni pasta. When I did a search on Google…I mean Bing!…I was surprised to learn that several American restaurants also served a version of uni pasta. Granted, because I’ve had not so great experiences with uni in the US , I think I’ll stick to the Japanese variety.
My friend ordered a carpaccio for her appetizer and offered me a bit. It was covered with a mayo sauce and herbs. After I took a bite, I realized what the carpaccio was made of. I have now eaten chicken carpaccio! And if you thought cooked chicken is tasteless, wait until you try chicken carpaccio. The mayo and herbs did make it a little better but then again, that means I ate raw chicken and mayo together. I’m slightly surprised I’m not sick today. I would never eat chicken carpaccio in the U.S. knowing what I know about the U.S. poultry industry. I’m sad to say I did not get a proper picture of my meal last night…perhaps I will drag Henry there to try the uni pasta.
Last night I had dinner with a Japanese friend. We went to a cozy, cute and casual Italian place (one of her favorites) in Aoyama. The menu was all in Japanese and so she translated some of the dishes for me that I pointed to and I made up my mind fairly easily. She recommended the uni pasta to me as I had never had uni pasta before. That was definitely something I had not seen on a menu before. The Japanese really like to add their own unique touch to Italian food and I figured this must be one of those dishes – kinda like salmon roe pasta. The uni pasta was quite good, light, buttery uni flavor and bits of uni in the sauce. Apparently the chef added extra uni since he heard this was my first time eating uni pasta. When I did a search on Google…I mean Bing!…I was surprised to learn that several American restaurants also served a version of uni pasta. Granted, because I’ve not had such great experiences with uni in the U.S ., I think I’ll stick to the Japanese variety.
My friend ordered a carpaccio for her appetizer and offered me a bite. It was covered with a mayo sauce and herbs. After I took a bite, I realized what the carpaccio was made of. I have now eaten chicken carpaccio! And if you thought cooked chicken is tasteless, wait until you try chicken carpaccio. The mayo and herbs did make it a little better but then again, that means I ate raw chicken and mayo together. I’m slightly surprised I’m not sick today. I would never eat chicken carpaccio in the U.S. knowing what I know about the U.S. poultry industry. I’m sad to say I did not get a proper picture of my meal last night…perhaps I will drag Henry there to try the uni pasta.
