It’s always Kanda, isn’t it? I’ve been meaning to take a picture of this shop for months. I think you’ll understand why.
Anyway, after another 10 minutes of random walking I came upon Blue Papaya (no pun intended), which I had seen before at some point, like pretty much everything else. There are lots of restaurants I haven’t been to, but not so many I haven’t seen. And the weather today, after heavy rain overnight and this morning, was humid and hot enough to make you think you were in Bangkok.
Going in, I flashed for a second on the mediocre experience I had recently at Kaotai in southern Marunouchi – the very utilitarian interior made me think the food would be lackluster. But the woman at the counter was super friendly; after making the mistake of saying hello in Thai, she kept speaking Thai to me at every opportunity. Fortunately the other phrase I remember is “I don’t understand, krap,” so I was covered.
The food here is dead cheap. You’ll want to get the set (Y880) to include a drink and salad. Getting coconut juice isn’t all that notable except that it tends to be expensive in restaurants in Japan (like most ethnic food), and it was great to have it in the set. I also love the cheerful repurposing of the glass – Cokenut juice?
Mama informed me that green curry is very popular with white people, so I got stirfried seafood. You know, it was really good. Spicy flavor, real herb content, fresh seafood barely cooked. And on the side, a little dish of somtam, unfortunately premade, but it’s hard to do anything to somtam that would make me dislike it; in my experience it ranges from good to awesome. And there you go. I’m eating lunch here every day from now on, so I guess that means I won’t have many lunches to post.
On my way up to Kanda I passed this guy sitting on a bridge, drinking beer and talking to a stuffed animal. I hate to admit it, but I thought about getting some more beers and having a seat to see what he had to say. That’s probably too far into local culture, right? He was asleep when I came back, so I let him be, and neither of us is any wiser for it.
Sometimes, I wish I was in…
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