Thursday, October 15, 2009

Eye-talian

We went out to dinner last night. There's an Italian restuarant next to my mother in law's house which is about a block away. It's called "Green Dolphin". Since we moved here in July I have wanted to eat there and get some delicious Italian food as the Japanese cuisine, even though delicious, can become tedious.

As any married man can tell you, his wishes are secondary, and for three and a half months we went to a large number of other restaurants that either my wife or daughter wanted to go to. We even went to this horrible Denny's like chain restaurant called Gasto simply because they give kids a trinket with their meal. You get food and it gives you gas too.

That was all behind me last night. Finally, my wish came true.

On a Thursday night we were the only customers. The menu was lengthy, and it got really lengthy when I was reading it as I read verrrrrrrrrrry slooooooooowly in Japanese. The menu had sections for hamburg steak dishes, gratin dishes, chicken skewers, whiskey and other booze, ice cream, ramen noodle soup, oh and yes in case I forgot to mention, pasta. You can also get pizza, Indian nan, or Spanish paella if you order a day in advance.

Everything tasted OK in a Japanese sort of way. Rather than real Italian cuisine that I craved, it was actually Eye-talian, or Japanese cuisine labeled as Italian, but really Japanese cuisine in disguise.

I guess that's why the family likes to ignore dear old Dad when it comes to choosing a restaurant here in small town Japan.