Tuesday, July 15th: Katsu Dinner

When Stefan got home from work today, we decided to go down to the basement level of the building and try out one of the restaurants there. In all the subway stations, of which there is one in our building, there are cafes, restaurants and bars. These underground spots were a surprise to me. At T stations in Boston, there isn't even a vending machine to be found! Some of them are quite nice looking- these aren't just fast food dives. I had noticed at lunch time (when I had gone down to pick up something at the am/pm- another convenience store) that one was particularly busy and every seat in the tiny place was taken, even at the counter. There are probably only seats for twenty or thirty in each of these little spots in the basement of the Nihonbashi Mitsui basement and all of them look quite nice but are not terribly expensive.

So, we decided to give it a shot and walked past the four or five downstairs. Most were almost empty, save for the Katsu one we chose (the same busy one from lunch). We walked in and one of the waitresses immediately came up, bowed a bit and told us there were no English menus. Stefan was ready to back away, but I pleaded with him to give it a try. We were seated and handed a menu that had little pigs all along its border. Katsu- it's a restaurant serving only pork dishes. (The restaurants in Japan aren't like the ones back home in that they specialize in one thing- tempura, yakatori, or noodles- and don't offer a few dishes of all the types of cuisines.) Stefan said he would have never done anything like this without me. He looked skeptical, but I felt it was an adventure! Besides, it wasn't like we had no clue what it would be....it would definitely be pork.

There was no way for us to really communicate with the waitress, who looked a little overwhelmed that we had decided to stay. She made a sort of hand gesture that indicated pork skewers and we ordered two of those. I also pointed to something on the menu. Just randomly pointed to something and S ordered us two beers. When she left, hilarity ensued. We were sitting at the bar, in plain view of the two cooks, who clearly thought the whole thing was so silly! Stefan thought they were laughing at us, but it was not mean spirited. It was more as though they were laughing with us- we were also giddy at the fact that, really, we had no idea what was going to be served to us! Stefan said for all we knew, we had just ordered pig's ear or pig's hoof. Well, what came out were two perfectly seasoned grilled pork skewers! They were delicious...just perfect and perhaps the best thing I'd tasted since arriving.

Then the one of cooks kept coming round the side of the bar and I thought he was going to try and talk to us, but he kept losing his nerve. Finally, he came up to us and we tried to communicate- to no avail. He scurried off and came back with a printed sheet of paper with Japanese characters running up and down in four lines. I said out loud, "Oh, a special menu!" and so we ordered this. We could hear him in the back with the waitresses mimicking me "SPECIAL menu!" and "YES, PLEASE". So funny and all the staff was cracking up behind the scenes but tried to present a more somber face to us when they weren't hiding. Really, the two cooks could hardly keep it together- they were very young, in their early twenties, and kept turning away a bit to laugh. Then the one cook got to work right in front of us and what he brought us was a very small skillet with pork tenderloins rubbed in black pepper in a sweet-ish onion sauce. The sauce was so good that Stefan said he wished he had a spoon!

The second cook had at this point started something in a big wok that looked delicious- tofu, vegetables, a whipped up egg. We were sitting right in front of his station, separated by a plexiglass wall. When he looked up, I indicated that we'd like one, too. A few minutes later, a little stir fry with succulent bacon and shaved dried pork arrived. This was Stefan's favorite, hands down. At this point, Stefan and I were pretty pleased with ourselves for staying- everything that came out was divine!

The entire time, the staff was giggling and glancing at us, smiling. I think we may have been only one of a few Westerners who had eaten there, perhaps, and certainly one of the few who didn't leave once we realized there was no English menu (and given we spoke no Japanese ourselves). Stefan and I laughed the entire time as well- I had so much fun. We may not have shared the same language, but despite that, we could all still share a laugh.

2 Pork Skewers, a Pork Skillet and one Pork Stir Fry: $2050 Yen
Liquid Courage (courtesy of four Kirin Beers): $2400 Yen
The most delicious, authentic meal we've had so far,
with the most laughing we've done in a long time: PRICELESS

It was so silly and romantic- and delicious- and I'm so glad we stayed. This is a dinner I will never forget and is already one of my favorite memories of traveling with Stefan.