Back in Tokyo as of today, eating lunch in the greater Otemachi area.
You know that expression in English, ‘In a pig’s eye’? Well, there’s no corresponding expression in Japanese involving snake eyes. But there do seem to be some places called ‘snake-eye sushi’. This isn’t one of them – it’s ‘snake market sushi’. What the heck does that mean? I bet there’s a good back story, because they’ve been in business since Meiji 22 (1889 to you and I).
These guys haven’t been doing it since then, but the guy in the back seems to have been here for half that time. They actually had a sign out saying they were closed today, which really got me down after Ponkan and I walked over. As we were standing outside, me being disgruntled and swearing a little, the mama stuck her head out and said “Are you just two people? Come on in.” They seemed to have a private party upstairs, and everyone was going full speed on that, but they made time enough to give us lunch. Respect.
Weird – their lunches start with a seaweed salad. Where are we, America? You wouldn’t get jako on your salad in America, that’s the only difference.
Here’s the sushi. I got the ‘1.5 servings’ version because I just got back from America last night and am eating too much. The only differences from Pon’s regular Y1k lunch were a Y300 yen charge, an akagai, and a scallop (both forgettable). Everyone was discretely amused that I recognized the tuna as meji maguro; I was less amused because hey, it’s meji. The standouts were the snapper (next to the squid) and the cooked clams, battleship-style.