Some Shots of Our Last Meal

In a few of my posts I've shown some the food I've eaten this trip. Some of it has been pretty good. Some of it then… a little more exotic. I will have to admit when we were in Kamakura that I loved eating at McDonald's. Ordering that number three really hit the spot.it doesn't mean that I didn't like eating in Japan this trip, but sometimes there's nothing like the taste of home. In Tokyo, I found an Outback Steakhouse in Shinagawa, at Chili's in Asakusa, and a Sizzlin in Sinjuku.

I don't know why someone would want to go to a Sizzlin when you can get a Kobe steak, and there are many times when there is a Japanese flayer to the menu. Just because I could get American food in Japan, doesn't mean that it was ever a main staple. In fact, most of the time I focused on many of the delicacies of Japan, Korea, and other Asian cultures whose edibles are well known in Tokyo. Our last meal in Tokyo was no exception.

The team didn't get many dining experiences together outside of the office because we were constantly slammed adjusting to our client's needs and preparing for the next day. In fact, we only had team meals outside the office, and far last night we were sure to take taste Japan home with us. We went to a small Japanese restaurant near Tokyo station down from the Big Echo Karioki Bar. We had our traditional appetizer of lightly salted peas, but our feast quickly turned to a more exotic mix of choices.


The first interesting food of the night was soy soaked conch mussels that were still on the shell. The picture doesn't do justice to the size of the actual shell that was larger than human fist. Some people at the table ate the conch straight out of the shell while others poured the mixture of conch and soy over the bed of salt that supported the shell. It's actually provided two different flavors. The first with a heavier soy taste and the second a taste of the ocean.

 Was it good? If you like escargot it was. The most interesting part of this food selection was presentation. I've had oysters on the half shell and clams over a bed of linguine, but there was something odd about the presentation of the conch.

Here's a picture of Kevin eating a piece of conch. It really puts in perspective the size each bite within the shell. The hardest part of eating the conch was picking it up with the cheap chopsticks provided by the restaurant.

The next yummy morsel will probably make some people's stomachs turn, and I had a lot of debate within myself whether to actually try to eat it. It wasn't because it looked disgusting or other people who made bad faces when they ate it, but I know that most whales are endangered. I'm not comfortable eating something as a delicacy simply because it's rare. That being said, the Japanese love eating well, and it didn't taste too bad.  One of my friends called whale bacon, but it had more of a taste of cow tongue or ham than bacon.

Would I eat it again? It didn't taste bad, but it's not something I would choose off the menu. I'd like to see a few more whales in the ocean before eight whale again.

There were a few things I didn't eat, but I did get a picture of. I can't tell you how this tasted, and at that point I didn't think of getting someone's opinion. By the time I got around to getting a piece of this fish, it was already gone. I guess the best thing I can do is say somebody like it at the table or I would've got a bite.

As you can see, by this time our table was getting pretty full, and although it came earlier in the middle, I say when the more interesting dinner choices for last.

This platter was a mixture of sashimi plucked straight from the ocean. In fact, I can truly say this is the freshest sushi I've ever seen. When the platter landed on our table, the skewered fish at the top of the platter was still twitching. Richard thought it was the wind from the air conditioner blowing the fish's tail or vibrations from the floor, but we quickly ruled out in two ways. First we blocked the platter from the wind and lifted it off the table. The tell of our fish still twitched. Second, we could see the fish twitch on the second platter before derived table. It doesn't get much fresher than that. Minus the twitching fish at the top platter, this was a phenomenal plate of sashimi.

This mill is a great way to end our workshops in Japan and spend time with our Japanese counterparts. My Japanese coworkers were great host. Hats off to you guys!