先日は車に乗ってから、窓の外にこの変なサインを見ました。
サインを読みました。目を丸くしました。「ちょっと待って。あれは日本語です。」
それは新しい日本料理のレストランです。私たちは昨晩レストランに行きました。高かったですが、とても美味しかった。夫は吸い物と焼き鳥を食べました。私はあげどふとすしを食べました。デザートはチョコわさびケーキ。ほんとに。面白かっただね。
Generally Speaking
The other day, when I was riding in the car, I looked out the window and saw this strange sign. I read it without thinking. Then it hit me. My eyes practically popped out of my head. Wait a minute. That's a Japanese word.
It turns out that it was the sign for a new Japanese restaurant near our house. Last night we went there for dinner. It was expensive but it was very good. My husband had suimono and yakitori. I had agedofu and sushi. (The sauce on the eel was amazing, not overly sweet and cloying as it is sometimes). For dessert we had chocolate-wasabi cake. Really! It was a very interesting combination of tastes.
質問とコメント
1. In Austin, most of the signs and billboards are in English. There are also quite a few in Spanish, especially here in South Austin which has a high Hispanic population.
2. It's really hard to express just how strange it is to see a Japanese word, especially one that is not obviously a place name (like Kyoto or Fuji), and to see it written in romaji with no other indication that it is connected to anything Japanese. I. knew it was a Japanese word, but my husband didn't. In fact, my guess is that 99% of the people who drive down South Lamar, have know idea what it means, or that it means anything. This part of Austin, home to honky-tonks like the Broken Spoke, Mexican restaurants, second-hand stores, and fast food joints, is the last place I'd choose for an upscale Japanese restaurant.
Permalink.
What is "chocolate-wasabi cake"? I'd like to see the photo, and try it if I can. How much "YAKITORI" is? And I love "AGEDASHI DOUFU". It is not difficult to cook. If you are interested in it, please drop by this site
チョコレ－トわさびケ－キってなんですか？写真みてみたいです。できればたたべてみたいです。で｢焼き鳥」はおいくらですか。ついでに、「あげだしどうふ」は私は大好きです。作るのもむずかしくないですよ。もし、興味があったら、次のサイトをのぞいてみてください。
Posted by: Mieko on June 4, 2003 10:08 AM
I wish I had taken a photo of the cake, but I didn't. The chocolate-wasabi cake was a flourless cake (almost a consistency of a mousse) made with dark chocolate with a little wasabi powder mixed in to give it a hot and spicy flavor. They trickled a little raspberry sauce over it. It was very unusual, but tasty.
In Austin, which is heavily influenced by Mexican cuisine, mixing spicy/hot and chocolate is not unusual. There is a sauce, called mole (pronounced mo-lay) which is unsweetened chocolate and hot chili peppers. Another popular restaurant used the idea to make a chocolate cream pie.
But this is the first time I've been to a Japanese restaurant which experimented with traditional Japanese foods. I guess this is what they call "fusion"--that is a mixture of styles.
Prices. I don't remember what each item cost, but the entire dinner for two, including tip, and one beer each, was $50.00. Now that's not much by Jason's standards, or Japanese standards. But we usually don't spend more than $35.00 on dinner out, and if we don't drink, we can be quite happy spending only $25.00.
Posted by: M on June 4, 2003 01:12 PM
Reading your blog entries, M, I can see you making brilliant pregress. It's really cool. :)
But I wonder what makes you write an expression like 「楽しかっただね」. 「～するだ、しただ」sounds much like the Tohoku dialect.
Posted by: Kiyo on June 6, 2003 12:50 PM
I don't know why I wrote it that way, either. Sometimes a Japanese sentence sounds like a couple of root ideas (the subject and the verb) followed by a lot of little nonsense syllables (wo wa ne da yo na nda nai ga ka) sprinkled in to spice up the sentence. I put in too many spices!
Looking back on it, maybe it was just a mistake. I probably forgot that to make "omoshiroi" informal, I should just leave off "desu" and not change it to "da".
But it's interesting that it makes it sound like I have a Tohoku accent. Does that mean I sound like I'm a country girl?
Posted by: M on June 7, 2003 05:24 AM
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