Friday, August 10, 2007
Just Wondering
I've been to an aquarium in Kagoshima, one in Fukuoka, and now one in Tokyo (where yesterday we met one of onechan's best friends from Fukuoka whose family was visiting family in the neighborhood), so I can't say this is true of every one in Japan, but it's enough to form a recognizable pattern. Which is: every single one of their on-site restaurants features a predominantly seafood menu. Why is that?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Whose on-site restaurants are we talking about?
In any event, I'm sure Gojirasan is responsible. BTW, is the "san" suffix gendered?
Is that a rhetorical question or a philosophical riddle?
I don't suppose they are supplying their on-site restaurants straight out of the aquarium basins, so I tend to think this might more an expression of the Japanese inclination towards seafood. Indeed, though unfortunately I've never been there yet, the first thing to come to my mind for Japanese cuisine is fish, not necessarily packed into sushi packs . I don't think I can remember ever eating Japanese in a way that did not involve fish.
Interestingly, and totally off the point, this also reminds me of the problems my parents used to have with their garden pond: the (bastard) koi carps in there used to have regular and not so nice visits by the locals heron population, which literally fed on kois for a while - until my dad installed a sort of sprinkler flak with a motion sensor: now, anytime a heron gets near the pond, the sprinkler will aim hectic water spouts at it, thereby deterring the bird and saving the kois. Of course, the sensor also registers any other life form as target, so you can always count on getting a spurious shower when you're looking for the (well-off) carps.
Sorry. The fish! How was it?
Very fast service--as it had to be--people were in line around 45 minutes just to get in the restaurant. Quality? Well, it came quickly.
And I should have clarified that you can find plenty of non- or low-fish restaurants in Japan--lots of curry places or noodle places or Italian places all over the place, just to name a few that aren't sakanacentric--but in these cafeteria-style or sit-down places I've been it's hard to find a dish without fish on the menu.
I think it has something to do with a joke even onechan understood. When we first saw an octopus (tako) in Kagoshima, I said, "Takoyaki!" (one of the favorite foods in Japan--fried octopus!). I think the reason onechan got it is b/c of Pretty Cure--in Max Heart, one of the adults runs a takoyaki stand. But now onechan repeats the joke wherever we go.
Bill, -san is genderless. Dan, love the koi pond story. My little brother and I tried to make a very tiny pond in the field behind our back yard in central NY one summer, and we had it going great, with frogs living near it and small fish in it--until a heron depopulated the place.
Wonder how all the koi ponds in Japan do it? I ahven't seen any anti-heron machinations....
Gojirasan protects the koi as well.
Post a Comment