Pleasant thoughts

[indigo_rose99]

One of the rare perks of this traveling test of my endurance (30+ hours) is the chance to have two real Japanese meals.  The one on AmAir was pretty recognizable as things I have eaten at Japanese restaurants in the US.  The one on JAL....

It had:

• pleasant warm brownish rice
• hot miso in a paper cup
• a small bowl of noodles that I was to pour the mysterious bottle of "noodle sauce" over.  It was very Alice.  Too late, I discovered the wasabi on the edge. ("too late" = I had already swallowed a big lump of it)
  
• Four vegetable lumps.  One was carrot.  One was soy beans.  The other two were shades of brown in strange shapes.  I tasted them, but could not identify.  They tasted like a dull cross between a potato, an overcooked carrot, a turnip, and raw bread dough.  One of them bore a strong resemblance to a small egg.  It was kinda creepy.
  
• A section of fish on its own mini butchers block.  I was very proud of my chopstick technique that allowed me to cut it up.  ... *rueful grin* My hand now aches.
• A bowl of brownish liquid, with something white floating in the center.  Discretely watching my seatmate, I figured out that the brown stuff was clearish noodles.  I carefully tasted them -- cold, the broth more astringent than I like.  I even tried the white thing (mush?).  Unlike my seatmate, I did not finish that bowl.

Comments

[tiger-stripes.livejournal.com]

hey tasted like a dull cross between a potato, an overcooked carrot, a turnip, and raw bread dough. One of them bore a strong resemblance to a small egg. It was kinda creepy.

One may have been sataimo, which is a type of Japanese potato. When they're made right, they're really tasty.

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

So the white floating bit wasn't tofu?

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it was not tofu. It was... white. Not solid. It tasted like the liquid the noodles were floating in, but with a different texture than the noodles. Gooey.