Embarrassing Japanese-restaurant moment

[scott]

Yesterday we took the kid out to a good local Japanese place for lunch. I really wanted some noodles--the one thing our town lacks is a good noodle bar--so I ordered some nabeyaki udon. When it came out, it looked really good, but after about two bites I just couldn't do it. For some reason, I recently got turned off to most fish (which is really weird, since I grew up in south Florida eating lots of seafood). The udon had fish paste in it, and some seaweed that just made me think of low tide. :-P  And normally I like seaweed!

 

I wavered for a while, since it was embarrassing to be picky about good food, but eventually I just ordered some ton katsu. I though they would just charge me for the extra dish, which would have been fine, but they took the udon back, took it off the ticket even though I said it wasn't their fault, and were *very* attentive from them on. I felt like a touchy customer who was being coddled to avoid a confrontation.

 

I may have to wear a disguise the next time we go there. :-/  And now I have to find udon dishes without fish paste that I can actually eat.

[disturbman]

Easy, ask them not to put some inside. But that's weird, most of the udon I know don't use fish paste as an ingredient. Normaly japanese noodle sups are all about meat, not fish.

 

My own way to avoid these, cook the udon home. It's very easy if you can find the noodles (you can actually use the one in the Korean noodle soups) and some miso or soy sauce at your local asia supermarket.

[Bernard]

Okay....since it says, "Embarrassing Japanese-restaurant moment" I'll share mine.

When I was in high school I decided to impress my girlfriend and take her to NYC. We saw a play and then had  dinner afterward. Trying to be suave and sophisticated (at the age of 17), I took her to a Japanese restaurant. I ordered California & Spicy tuna rolls. To separate the 2 different rolls restaurants put that "plastic piece of paper" that supposed to look like seaweed. As soon as I put it in my mouth, I realized what I had done and now the question on my mind was "how to get this plastic out of my mouth without my girlfriend seeing me". I thought I accomplished it until the waiter asked me if I wanted more "seaweed"? 

[Martijn Meerts]

I haven't been to a Japanese restaurant often enough to have an embarrassing moment =)

 

I did once go into a sushi bar with a Japanese national football (soccer :)) team shirt, they did look at me a bit weird. However, when I wore my shirt with large Totoro eyes and mouth on it, they had to smile :)

[David]

My story isn't very long. While at a business convention a co-worker and I where looking to grab something to eat after a long day. We saw a Japanese place that seemed alright and walked in only to find ourselves in a very posh teppanyaki kind of restaurant. Neither of us where terribly rich at the time, so after checking the price we awkwardly left.

[Kabutoni]

My turn. When in an Izakaya for the first time, I was with a Japanese family there, so they ordered. After receiving all the orders, they offered me to eat some Edamame (cooked fresh soy-beans in the shell). I haven't been observing how they eat it, so I ate the whole thing, instead of just the beans on the inside... They laughed at me when I said it tasted good, but you need to chew a lot.

 

At that same meal I ate sushi for the first time (it wasn't very popular back then in Europe). The taste was quickly met, but then I tried the raw shrimp sushi... Ate it with the whole tail... Not so strange, as I later saw people do the same thing, but I still got some strange looks.

[disturbman]

I think they wondered if you also eat bananas with their peels. Toni, a guy who likes his food crunchy!

[stevenh]

...as I later saw people do the same thing, but I still got some strange looks...

 

I still cannot work this one out... Tempura Prawn Sushi here is delicious, tail and all, as it's softer once cooked. I eat it all the time and dare friends to. But I still get my Japanese friends (when in Japan in restaurants) warning me not to eat it, when they do... but then some don't.

 

I'm trying to work out if the whole process of eating the tail is just weird (i.e. only weird Japanese people eat them) of if they are just trying to ensure we westerners aren't as cool as those darn easterners.

[Kabutoni]

I think they wondered if you also eat bananas with their peels. Toni, a guy who likes his food crunchy!

 

Well, I eat my kiwi's unpeeled, as I hate spooning them out or peeling those damn things. :P

[to2leo]

No embarrassing restaurant moment for me but I had a public one in Japan.

 

When I was at Nara, I obtained a bite size city map from the local tourist info.  Everything was fine until I went to Nara Park to look for deers.  Out of no where, one came up to me and I immediately thought she was just friendly, I told my parents to take a picture.  Little did I know, the deer was aiming for my brown colour "shika sembei" deer biscuit like map.  A laughing tug of war was brewing as I tried my best to pull back my only map!

 

By then, a group of onlookers (Japanese students) had gathered around me as they were busily snapping pictures and videos (fortunately it was before youtube days).  In the end, it ended well as the deer got 3/4 of the map and I had one of my highlights of my first Japan trip.

[cteno4]

back in the 90s when i was in japan for the first time at a scientific meeting i went off on a small side trip with another person from the meeting (he was from Quebec). we were on a small local train and he was trying to practice some of his japanese phrases to me from his tour book. he was just trying to practice his phonetics going down the list of japanese phrase. All of a sudden the group of japanese teenage schoolgirls erupted into laughter behind us. turns out he was reading off phrases like "i have eruptive diarrhea" and "my sore has puss" from the list of things that included medical descriptions to tell a doctor if they didnt speak english. luckily the guy was a ham and then proceeded to regale the girls with all the worst ones he could find. he had them rolling on the floor!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[scott]

But that's weird, most of the udon I know don't use fish paste as an ingredient.

 

Anybody have any favorite examples of non-fishy udon?

 

Also--what about kitsune udon? I've wanted to try that for a while, but not if it's fishy.

[disturbman]

Kistune udon?! With some Aburaage (also nicknamed Inari tofu)!!! Slurp! Miam! Yummy. Go for it. There is no fish involved, it's a vegetarian one.

 

If not, a simple Kare (japanese curry) udon that's just delicious and it might even be my favourite after my home cooked dark miso one. If not, the classic one with the poached egg and the chicken meat (don't remember the name of this one).

 

I wonder if there is one using tonkotsu (crushed pig bones) as an ingredient like the Hakata ramen.

 

If your local restaurant is inventive look for a dark/red miso or gyoza one.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udon

[lordwinslow2]

I had a rough time the last night in Tokyo before flying home.  The office took me out for drinks and what I will term "pot stickers" (some tasty pork and spinach nosh).  Well the place served beer in very small glasses (well small for a 400lb westerner).  So when the wait staff would bring me a beer I would down it almost immediately.  So they got upset and then started to bring my beer in a pitcher for me to drink out of, being very drunk at the time I didn't realize how embarrassing that was.

 

Then there was the trip to the rest room...and the conversation with the electric toilet in the woman's room.

 

Winslow

[Kamiyacho]

My Japanese restaurant story has little to do with food, but did teach me something about the effect of changing dietary habits.  The first day I worked in Tokyo my boss, and my boss's boss, (both of them Japanese) took me out to dinner.  My boss was perhaps 15 years older than I was, and his boss 15 years older than him.  My boss was also nearly 1 foot shorter than I was, and his boss even shorter still.  So we get to the restaurant and my boss's boss goes in first under the noren curtain.  My boss goes next.  Then I go in.... and WAM!, hit my head on the bar holding up the curtain.  I spent the next four years ducking.  And the 40-year old Japanese guy who now has my old job is maybe 6 inches taller than I am.