I arrived at Shiokamaguchi, fully hyped to go to the restaurant I was recommended by George. I mean, he was talking about a teishoku (set meal) for under ¥1000, that looked like this. Monstrously huge.
So, I was INCREDIBLY disappointed when I found out the restaurant closed at 2:00pm. Plus it took a while to get to Shiokamaguchi station in the first place. I was totally devastated…
NO. Can’t waste time being “totes devo”. Have to keep going.
Hopped back onto the next train going towards Nagoya. I kept changing my mind based on things George was saying to me on Skype (in between bursts of “no reception”, because it is the subway after all). Finally, after much deliberation (and getting off the train at Gokiso, before dashing back onto it as the doors closed), I changed at Fushimi Station and found myself back at Nagoya.
Shiokamaguchi -> Nagoya (¥260)
So I set about looking for somewhere, anywhere that would have a decent misokatsu. I knew that there would be at least one restaurant in ANY restaurant area attached to the station, but for the life of me, the only one I spotted was Levels 12 and 13 above Takashimaya. When I got up there, I took one look at the prices of the restaurants, and hopped back into the elevator.
Whilst quickly running out of time, I finally found somewhere – Kitchen Nagoya, in the Umai Mon Dori (literally “Yummy Stuff Street”). I ordered the jumbo misokatsu set, trying not to pay attention to the price, and it came pretty quickly.
And wow, when they said jumbo, they meant it. Pretty damn big. Smelled so delicious also.
Oh by the way, misokatsu is a Nagoya specialty. It’s basically your typical tonkatsu (crumbed pork cutlet) covered in a special miso-based sauce. Kinda sweet sauce, hard to describe the flavour, but it’s seriously delicious. I want to learn to replicate that back at home…
The waitress kindly reminded me that I could get miso soup and rice refills for free, but I knew I wouldn’t need them with this meal. Even just the tonkatsu itself would have been filling… plus I didn’t have the time. I ate quickly, but slowly enough to savor every single bite. Then I paid, ¥1480 and left the restaurant, running to the coin locker area.
I passed a place selling flavored sweet potato snacks – hard to explain, but my understanding is that it’s similar to a cream/jam roll in composition, but instead of being spongy, it’s soft. The outside (purple) part is made of mashed taro (and sugar, I should imagine), and the inside was strawberry mousse. Since I was hurrying, I asked for one and was given the one, but when I ate it, I was wishing I bought more… It was ¥210 for the one though.
For my Filipino viewers – if this makes it easier, imagine that it’s strawberry mouse encased in ube halaya. Amazing! If I could bring it home to my family, I would, but apparently it requires refrigeration… (plus I can’t find it in Tokyo :()
Anyway, I got on the bus.. in fact, I was practically the first to get on this time. I suppose this is better than keeping everyone waiting. Going to sleep until I arrive in Tokyo…