Say Goodbye to 2011

This was yet another of those meals that made me ask myself, "Is that all?"

I mean, most of our meals consist of soup, salad, and a main dish, plus rice. This one was minus the soup, so it felt like there was something missing. I guess the cake was supposed to make up for that, however.

The main dish, the beef stew, was OK, but not what I was hoping for. I wanted a stew that was rich in potatoes, carrots, and meat, for instance, but what I got was mostly just small chunks of greasy beef, with not much more.

The bread wasn't much better, but at least I could dunk it in the stew to give it some added flavor.

The pumpkin salad was also a disappointment, because it was coated in that odd yellow sauce. Because of that, I couldn't stomach it and had to give it away. Why couldn't the Lunch Lady have drizzled some nice maple syrup over the pumpkin, for instance? Oh. I know why: Because that would have made it taste good.

The best part of this meal was clearly the (Christmas) cake, especially since we even had two flavors to choose from: strawberry and chocolate.

It's too bad that most of the kids chose to eat their cake using a paper spoon, though. Why can't they just use the spoon they ate their stew with? (C'mon Lunch Lady, ditch the waste!)

There was even some extra cake for those students who were still around and noticed it. I was satisfied with my one piece, but others were more than happy to get seconds. I even suggested to some girls that they make HVC earn his cake by guessing which of three boxes wasn't empty. Needless to say, he guessed right.

Total points: 6 (mostly thanks to the cake)

Yogurt Steals The Show

Curry! Yum!
Yogurt! Yum!
Cucumber!? Hmm...

Yeah, as you already know, I love curry.

OK, OK, let's not get carried away here. I don't exactly love curry (and today's variety wasn't the best we've ever had).

However, since curry is certainly on the list of Top 3 All-Time Best Dorm Meals, yeah, I love it. Yum!

And yogurt, well, yeah, I love the stuff. I even managed to get my hands on a second one, which made me even happier. Yum!

I just can't believe the Lunch Lady messed up with the salad, however.

Heck, with curry, who needs salad? Oh, yeah, I forgot: The Lunch Lady is trying to set that record for most days in a year serving cucumber. Sheesh.

Believe it or not, since I wanted no part of the salad but knew it was healthy, I dumped it on top of my curry and mixed it in, to the great surprise of the students sitting around me.

Hah!

I always love to shake things up a bit around here, any way I can, because most Japanese are so afraid to go away from the norm.

Oh, and check out the various ways the students eat the yogurt:

As you probably know by now, I used my spoon, which leaves me in the far minority.

Most students use the wasteful paper spoons to eat their yogurt.

A few students, who took both chopsticks and a spoon for their meal, used their chopsticks. (I've done that before just for fun!)

It's really too bad that I can't seem to convince students to stop using those ridiculous paper spoons, no matter how hard I try.

Total points: 7

Cucumber Sucks Bad, Octopus Sucks Good

Guess what? Today, cucumber was in our salad yet again! Go figure!

At least the cucumber was cut into thicker slices than normal, which somehow makes it taste a little better, and at least the salad included bits of octopus, which I really like.


Unfortunately, I happened to grab a salad that had very little octopus. That's why I decided to get seconds of the salad, and, in doing so, I made sure to take one that had a lot of the 8-legged creature's meat. Better yet, I was even able to give away the seconds of cucumber to HVC!

As for the soup, well, just look at it. Does that look like something you'd like to eat? Heck no! I did dig out some of the bits of meat that were in there, however, but then gave the rest away.

The fish was actually quite tasty. The only problem I had with the fish, as I've mentioned before on this blog, is that there were lots of bones to contend with. Luckily, I did not eat (or worse, choke on) any of them.

Oh, and the only reason I took rice again was that it was (semi-)wild rice. I'm telling you, though, plain wild rice tastes just about as bad as plain plain rice. Ugh.

I honestly do not understand the Japanese fascination with rice!

Total points: 5

(Note: There was no post yesterday since we had the day off in lieu of having to work on Saturday.)

Sick Joke?

As soon as I saw this meal, I knew it was danger. You see, today (yes, Saturday!) was the day the junior high school kids had their annual footraces and, since I planned to participate in the boys' 4.5 km race, which was scheduled to begin about an hour after lunch, there was no way I was about to eat that spicy tofu dish.


Believe it or not, the Lunch Lady had that same dish on the menu the day of this year's annual mini-triathlon, and I also passed on it back then. (One kid who ate his serving of spicy tofu had the unfortunate experience of puking it up the second he crossed the finish line!)

Is that just some kind of sick coincidence or what?

I don't know about you, Lunch Lady, but as far as I'm concerned, nothing good can come out of eating spicy food a couple of hours before an athletic competition.

The rest of the food on my tray looked fairly harmless, but, I kid you not, since most of the dorm food upsets my stomach to some degree, there was just no way I was going to touch any of it today.

I won't give it a zero, however, since on a normal day I would have at least nibbled at the tofu and had some of the soup.

Trust me, though: I wouldn't have liked either very much.

Total (virtual) points: 3

(Note: There was no post yesterday, because I missed lunch. I volunteered to play Santa Claus yesterday morning at a local elementary school and was treated to a delicious lunch afterward at my favorite restaurant in Gokase, Kajika.)

HVC And His Crew

The Lunch Lady didn't need a dictionary today, but I wish she'd stop serving cucumber. I suspect she must be trying to set a world record for how many times in one year one can serve cucumber.

Anyway, minus the ham (bloody hell, what's with the ham!?), the salad was actually pretty good today.


The soup was also pretty good, minus the ham. (Bloody hell, what's with the ham!?)

Finally, we have the "cheesy" chicken, which was also pretty good, even though it came with more onion and mushrooms than cheese.

Yeah, and for a few additional calories, I grabbed some (white) rice.

This was just a slightly-better-than-average meal, if you ask me.

Look at the extra picture I've included today, however, and you'll see that some students couldn't get enough of it.

I'm telling you, lately, a handful of sophomores have been doing quite a good job of impersonating champion eaters. Not only is "HVC" in on the action, as expected, but also some of his trusty henchmen.

They've truly been going to town, and it's a sight to behold!

Total points: 6

The Lunch Lady Needs A Dictionary

There were several problems with today's lunch.

For starters, there was apple, cucumber, and ham in what was supposed to be a "yogurt salad."

Are you as confused about that as I am?



I really don't know what a yogurt salad should like like, but if I had to make one, I'd probably put some yogurt and fruit in a bowl. Simple as that.

And you know what? I bet Gordon Ramsay would be proud.

What was the Lunch Lady thinking?

Yeah, and besides the yogurt salad that wasn't a yogurt salad, we had a fruit salad. The first problem with the fruit salad was that it didn't contain any apple, even though the yogurt salad (that wasn't a yogurt salad) did.

At first I wondered what was up with that, but then I realized that the apple was actually fresh, whereas the fruit that was in the fruit salad was from a can. God forbid we should ruin the (canned) fruit salad by adding some fresh apple to it. Blah.

The second problem with the fruit salad was that it contained balls of mochi and cubes of zeri, neither of which is a fruit. Double blah.

Another problem with this meal was that the "chili con carne" was actually no different from "pork and beans." What's worse is that in Japanese "chili con carne" is actually called "chili con kan."

What, my friends, is "kan?"

Is it really so difficult to write "chili con karune" in katakana?

Katakana, you suck!

Chili con kan, you suck, too!

Yeah, so my meal consisted of two bowls (I had seconds) of "fruit salad" and one bowl of rice.

Can you feel my excitement?

Oh, and someone please get the Lunch Lady a dictionary! Thanks!

Total points: 3

Lonely Fish

Just check out that little ol' piece of fish on that big ol' plate.

All I could think about as soon as I saw my plate was how lonely that fish must have felt.

I wonder if the fish was supposed to be served with cabbage.


Come to think of it, we haven't had cabbage for a while, so maybe that really is what's missing. In any case, something is missing from that plate.

The poor fish.

At least it tasted good, even though the sauce was a bit much.

The rest of the meal was a disaster.

I tried the salad, which, remarkably, contained cucumber (LOL/www), but it was a loser, so I gave it away.

I didn't try the soup, which I knew was a loser, so I just gave that away, too.

Great meal.

At least I was able to snag a second piece of fish, even though I had to wait until 12:50 to do so.

The wait was worth it.

Total points: 5

Too Much Cucumber, Not Enough Chicken

As all of you loyal readers (LOL/www) can tell by the picture, today's meal was a Family Meal.

Why else would I have both a spoon and chopsticks (what a waste)?

And why else would I have a plate for my bread (more waste)?

Oh, and too bad the members of my "family" don't know me well enough to make sure I got my grape-flavored yogurt drink rather than milk. Doh!

It's also too bad that today's gobo (burdock) salad had ... drumroll, please ... cucumber in it. Oddly enough, it also had bits of squid in it. I did eat it all, but I wasn't thrilled about it.

Dear Lunch Lady: I've had it up to here (I'm pointing at my neck) with cucumber. Enough is enough. And burdock has no flavor. It's useless. Squid, however, tastes good, so leave out the bad and just serve us squid. Got it?

As for the main dish, well, it's supposed to be some kind of chicken and corn concoction, or perhaps CCC (or C3). I have to say, the two main ingredients were pretty good, but what I don't understand is why we didn't get more chicken and why the dish had to be served in that soupy sauce.

Can you hear my stomach growling? Yeah, that's my stomach.

At least the soupy sauce was good for dipping the bread in, because otherwise the bread would have been pretty darn tasteless.

I thought about giving away my dessert, but in the end, after hesitating for several minutes, I decided to dig in, after all. The "zeri" is certainly nothing to write home about.

I miss the days when we used to get tasty desserts! Ugh.

Total points: 5

Fluid Lunch

When I walked into the cafeteria today, I knew this wasn't going to be a good meal.

Just look at the main dish, after all.

All I did was nibble at it and then give the rest (which was 99% of it) away.


I'm also not a big fan of those candied potato wedges better known as "college potatoes," so after eating one of them and confirming that, indeed, I didn't really want to eat them although they were edible, I made friends at my table by giving them away.

Hooray for me.

Yeah, so all that was left to eat was the soup and rice. How wonderful.

Even though the rice was brown rice, rather than the white rice that we usually have, it pretty much sucked.

The soup saved the day, however.

Just like yesterday's soup, this one wasn't the best in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but it was warm and sort of soothing on yet another cold day, so I grabbed seconds.

Too bad my lunch basically consisted of fluids.

Ugh.

Total points: 4

Salt 'n Peppa Would Have Been Hamburger Helpa

OK! We finally got back to almost having what you could call a proper meal.

For starters, the soup bordered on delicious.

I mean, I really wouldn't go that far, but there was just something about it that I liked.


It certainly didn't taste outstanding, but it was warm, which was nice on this cold day, and it had some spiciness, which gave it a bit of zing. I liked the soup so much that I made sure to get seconds.

The salad, however, just didn't do it for me, because right now I'm really, really, really sick of seeing cucumber. The flavor of today's salad wasn't all that bad, but I just couldn't stomach eating another bite of the green stuff. No, thank you!

The hamburger wasn't exactly a winner, but it's hard to mess up hamburger. I would have been much happier if the mushroom sauce had been replaced by simple salt and pepper, but I was still happy to eat the meat.

Finally, we have the potato wedges. Since they act as comfort food for me, I was quite pleased with them, even though they were cold as stone. I refrained from getting seconds, however, since I didn't want to overeat.

Overall, this meal was one of the better ones we've had lately.

Total points: 6

Sloppy Sukiyaki

This one was yet another not-so-pleasant-on-the-stomach meal.

For one, my stomach wasn't happy because the meal wasn't very filling. See, I gave away both the salad and the soup. I simply looked at them, said "Yuck!" and passed them on to the first taker.

For two, my stomach wasn't very happy, because the remaining main dish, sukiyaki, was rather greasy. It tasted good enough for me to go get seconds, but not before I apologized to my stomach for putting it through the torture.

I wish the Lunch Lady knew what the difference between "food" and "slop" was.

Total points: 5

A Daikon And Fish Marriage Gone Wrong

This fishy meal wasn't very satisfying.

Surprise, surprise!

Yeah, so I gave away the soup, as I'm sure you guessed.

I did eat the salad, but it did nothing for my taste buds.


The fish was just fish. Why this fish is always served with daikon is beyond me. I just don't get the appeal.

There's nothing else for me to say about this one.

Blah.

Total points: 4

Dragon's City Does It Better

Cucumbers, anyone? Who wants cucumbers?

Yes, cucumbers. In the salad. Again. This is getting so old. Ugh.

And what's with the egg shavings? I just don't get it.

Salad: Passed it to HVC.


The soup wasn't much better. I've had this seaweed-and-bamboo-shoot soup plenty of times, so I knew it was edible, but after having a few tastes, I put my bowl down and decided it wasn't doing it for me. If anything, it was taking my appetite away!

Soup: Gave the rest of it to HVC.

All that was left to eat was the Lunch Lady's version of "Cashew Nut Chicken."

Frankly, I much prefer the kind I used to order at the Chinese restaurant down the street from where I grew up, Dragon's City Restaurant.

Dragon's City knows how to make cashew nut chicken, the Lunch Lady not so much.

OK, the dish wasn't that bad, especially because I mixed the rice in with it, but I could have done without all the grease. I even got seconds of it, but if you look at how much my "firsts" were, you can see why I needed some more food.

Total points: 5

Snap And Grab

Today's lunch was yet another that left me totally unsatisfied.

In a way, this kind of meal is like a "smash and grab," except that I would call it a "snap and grab." You see, I snap a picture and then let anyone who wants to grab (some of) my food.


I guess Wednesday's meal would have been a better qualifier for the "snap and grab" award, because today all I gave away was the main dish, but still, I think you get the point.

After ridding myself of the "hot mess," I hesitated for quite some time before I finally started to eat the salad, since I was worried that the creamy-looking stuff was mayonnaise, which would have ruined the salad for me. I have no idea what the sauce actually was, but at least it wasn't the dreaded mayo. With every bite I took, I kept imagining I was going to taste mayo, however, so it was hard to really enjoy the salad. I basically had to keep telling myself, "It tastes fine, really. It tastes fine."

The other thing about the salad was, as you might have guessed, the fact that it contained cucumbers, even though it was called "macaroni salad." I asked some of the kids I was sitting with what was up with that and the main answer I got was that Japanese regularly eat cucumber. You could have fooled me!

As for the bread, well, it was as bland as it could be, and it had no trace whatsoever of cheese, even though it was supposedly "cheese bread." Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Lunch Lady.

Luckily, the "meal" ended on a good note, with dessert in the form of "calcium yogurt."

While eating the good stuff, however, I gave some of my tablemates grief for using paper spoons to eat theirs, rather than the spoons they had already used to eat their "hot mess." After quite a bit of back and forth, the conclusion on the part of the paper-spoon users was that they are not wasting the paper spoons, since the spoons will be tossed into the garbage whether they are used or not. I find that hard to believe and ended the discussion by saying that the Lunch Lady shouldn't even be buying paper spoons in the first place.

Unfortunately, none of the kids I discussed the matter with told me that they would stop using the paper spoons in the future, so I guess I will have to try again some other day to get them to see the light.

At the very least, you could say today's lunch was educational, so I'll add a point for that!

Total points: 5

The Proof Of The Pudding Is In The Eating Of The Salad

Lucky for me, there was plenty of sesame dressing to go around today. Then again, I got to the cafeteria early.

In any case, the dressing made the shredded cabbage edible and also allowed me to consume extra calories in the form of plain ol' white rice (since I wouldn't have taken it had there been no sauce).

I wasn't so thrilled about eating the chicken, primarily because it was prepared "pork cutlet style." Fried chicken is still fried chicken (any way you slice it) and I really should have passed on it. Next time, I will.

The soup was a disappointment, even though I've had it plenty of other times and knew exactly what to expect. You probably can't tell just by looking at the picture, but that's supposed to be "pumpkin soup." Yeah, sure. Throw in some bits of pumpkin and call it pumpkin soup. Whatever rocks your boat, I guess...

Lastly we have the salad.

That could have been a real winner, since it had quite a bit of tuna fish in it. Unfortunately, however (for me, that is!), it also had quite a bit of daikon, which ended up nullifying the tuna flavor. Ugh!

Check out what the HVC (Human Vacuum Cleaner, a.k.a. Mr. Honda) thought of the salad, though. That picture is no lie. The HVC had seven, yes SEVEN, servings of the salad.

Unreal.

Total points: 4 (not 7!)

Scary Menu

This meal was THIS close to being the second "zero" in the past two weeks.

There's really not much that I can say about this one.
 
Can you guess what food I gave away and what food I ate?



If you guessed that all I ate was the rice, you're absolutely right!

Consider yourself a master of my blog...

This wasn't a meal, this was a scare.

A bad joke.

A crime.

Total points: 1

I Bet You Didn't Know That Cucumber Was A Fruit

The oddest thing about today's meal was the salad. You see, the menu says we were supposed to have a "fruit salad." I guess that makes cucumber a fruit.

Did someone not get the memo? Hmm...

At least the salad tasted pretty darn good, despite the one aberration.

The fish was also tasty, but I don't quite see the appeal of serving it in chunks. To tell you the truth, those chunks remind me of the one time we were served whale, since that was served in chunks, too.

The soup was a dud so I passed that on to the first taker.

Finally, the rice was just OK, as you can imagine, but at least it was brown rice. That's the only reason I took it, actually.

Total points: 6

Cold Turkey? Cold Pork!

The only really good thing about this meal was the rice topped with sesame dressing.

Right after taking this picture, I gave away the salad.

Next, I ate the soup, but it was as bland as can be. It was probably healthy, but I want flavor!


I then ate the sliced cabbage, which was a lot greener than normal but about as flavorless as always.

Then it was time to eat the main course, the pork. I've had this pork before and it's always cold, which simply ruins any flavor it might have had.

All that was left to eat was the rice, which I was able to top with my favorite sesame dressing, so it was rather tasty.

Too bad that by the time I went back for more rice, the only thing I wanted seconds of, the sesame dressing was all but gone. Ugh.

Total points: 5

Cat Food With A Spoon

Today we had the "cat food" version of the Hungry Menu for lunch, but at least I had a spoon to eat it with.

Normally, we have to use chopsticks to eat this meal, but now, whenever it's served, I ask the food staff for a spoon.



You see, with chopsticks, you're not really eating the soup, but rather scooping it into your mouth. Heck, there's practically no difference between doing that and drinking the soup straight from the bowl.

That's where the spoon comes in. The spoon makes eating this meal a lot easier and civilized.

Unfortunately, the soup had very little flavor and very little of anything in it to fill me up, so even after getting seconds, I was pretty hungry. Even those two skimpy little fish didn't do the trick. (I gave away the umeboshi and tsukemono.)

That's why they call it a Hungry Meal, though, right?

The best part of today's lunch by far was the dessert, which was a nice, sweet piece of persimmon. Yum!

Total points: 5

Beans? No Beans!

I was kind of looking forward to today's lunch, but the stew and bread were a bit of a disappointment.

As for the stew, well, the potatoes were fine, and most of the rest of the stew was OK, but I wasn't about to eat the beans.

Beans? No beans!

Before I went to get seconds, I poured the uneaten beans into my (then empty) salad bowl and joked with Naoki (the P.E. teacher) that I was going to request, "No beans, please." His response to that: "You mean, 'More beans, please!"

Minus the ham, at least the salad was pretty good, and the "ice milk mousse" that we had for dessert was quite tasty, too, so at least the meal wasn't a complete failure.

Total points: 5

Early Thanksgiving Gone Wrong

I guess this meal would have been a better choice for Thursday, but I can't really expect the Lunch Lady to know about Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I was happy to be eating pumpkin, even if it was served dormitory-style, mixed together with potatoes and bits of meat. Heck... I even had seconds.

The salad was more good than bad, but it really could have done without all that sogginess.

I passed on the "soup," especially because it contained bits of (sesame-seed) mochi, which I don't find to be anything special.

As is often the case, I again have to question the odd combination of food served today.

Total points: 5

(Note: Tomorrow is a holiday, so the next post won't appear until Thursday.)

Just Weird

This was yet another one of those meals that had some good points and some bad points.

The soup for instance was bad, so I gave it away, mostly because I wanted nothing to do with those quail eggs.

Yuck!


The salad was edible, but it tasted really odd. I mean, what the heck was that egg doing in there?

The main dish was actually fairly flavorful, despite the fact that the quality of the meat left something to be desired. Thanks to the bell pepper, however, which you could really, really taste, I couldn't resist getting seconds.

I wish the Lunch Lady would put a little more thought behind how she combines the sides and the main dishes when coming up with these meals.

Total points: 5

(Note: Because we had school today, Saturday, we don't have school on Monday. The next post will appear on Tuesday.)

Back Down To Blah!

The roller-coaster ride continues.

Following yesterday's rather good meal, we're back down to blah!

I gave away the soup as well as the main dish (an odd egg and tofu concoction) and was therefore left with salad and rice.

Lucky me. What a meal.

I even had seconds of the salad and was pretty close to having thirds.

If only there had been sauce to spice up the rice.

Total points: 3

From Worst To First

Well, not quite.

No, this meal wasn't a 10, but I did eat all of the food that was served today, which was a complete turnaround from yesterday's lunch.

Amazing!

The soup was bland but edible.

The salad had too much daikon (the white stuff that resembles onion in the picture), which made it a tad bit bitter, but it wasn't too bad overall.

The rice was yummy thanks to my favorite sauce.

The cabbage was good for the same reason.

Finally, the chicken was prepared nicely and was well seasoned, for a change(!), so I actually enjoyed eating it.

Holy chicken!

Total points: 6

My Big, Fat, Japanese Zero

This is the worst meal that we've been served since I began writing this blog. I simply wanted nothing to do with any of it it.

I actually walked out of the cafeteria when I saw what was for lunch, but I did so without taking a picture of the food, which left me in a little bit of a pickle.

Luckily, however, I ended up striking a deal with one of my favorite teachers: After getting my food and taking my picture, he would gladly take all of the food off of my hands.

Crazy, huh?

Good thing there's a teacher named Naoki.

And good thing there's a restaurant nearby called Kajika!

Total points: A big, fat 0!

Grill Me A Fish

This is the first time I can recall being served fish grilled in this fashion and I must say, it was actually  pretty tasty. I repeat: The fish was actually pretty tasty.

I'm telling you, if the food staff would just put a little more effort into giving the food flavor, this blog would probably be history.

Anyway, the salad, too, was pretty good, primarily because of the added almond slivers, which really took it up a notch.

The soup, however, was a disaster. I didn't even bother to taste it and simply gave it to the first taker.

You can't have 'em all.

Total points: 6

Forks: Overrated

This meal was another dud.

The salad was inedible, because of all the beans, so I gave it away.

The bread wasn't that great, either, because it had very little flavor, and, yes, I did dip it in the creamy "potato stew" sauce.


Trust me: The bread just didn't cut it.

As for the stew itself, well, it was simply way, way, way too creamy. And the cream was way, way, way too thick.

Finally, the dessert sucked, because, alas, it was "zeri."

(We used to get pretty nice desserts when we had family meals, but that seems to be the case less and less, unfortunately.)

Oh, yeah, one more thing.

See the fork? That's for the salad. It seems that someone came up with the bright idea that the kids should get used to eating "western style" salads with a fork, rather than with chopsticks.

If you ask me, I'd say it's more important to teach the kids about being good to the environment. In other words, lets scrap the plate for the bread as well as the extra utensil.

A spoon is all we needed today.

Total points: 4

The Curry That Couldn't

I was really looking forward to this meal, which is perhaps why I was left a bit disappointed by it.

Besides the fact that I wanted no part of the salad, primarily because of the mayonnaise (but what the heck do apples and cucumbers have in common?), the curry just didn't do it for me this time.

I think that's because there was simply too much sauce and not enough "bite." Well, the first time around I suppose I had enough goodies in the sauce, but when I got seconds, the goodies were few and far between.

Otherwise it was the fact that the sauce was a bit too spicy in the wrong direction. I know that's a really strange way to put it, but that's what I mean. The spiciness was simply off, so I wasn't all that happy with it.

Even the dessert was a bit of a letdown, since I imagined what I grabbed was orange-flavored yogurt, whereas it was actually "zeri," which is more like Jell-O.

You can't win 'em all.

Total points: 6

しょうがある焼き！

I actually ate everything that I was served for once in a long time, but I don't remember eating the salad or the soup.

That tells you just how tasty they were.

As for the potato salad, well, luckily it was lacking in mayonnaise, which I'm not a fan of, but I guess that's also a big reason why it was so dry. It was also salty, which I found a bit odd but not all that surprising. I actually can't remember ever eating that kind of potato salad in the dorm before.

The ginger-flavored pork was pretty good, and as you can see, I even grabbed some rice to eat it with. I probably would have gone for seconds of the pork, too, but by the time I was finished they had stopped serving food.

Too bad for me.

Anyway, this wasn't the best meal in the world, but I'll take it.

Total points: 6

(Note: There will be no post tomorrow, since I will be on a field trip.)

A Shallow Halloween Meal

Let's start with the bad.

Since the salad contained both spinach (not exactly one of my favorites) and katsuobushi (definitely not one of my favorites!), what do you think I did with it?

If you guessed that I gave it away, give yourself a big pat on the back!

The soup wasn't much better. It was of the thick, starchy variety that I don't especially enjoy, and it had mochi in it, which is a big no-no.

Needless to say, I gave that away, too.

Now on to the good.

As you can see, my cabbage was topped with sesame dressing, which is always a big plus. As a matter of fact, there was so much dressing, I grabbed some rice and topped that off with the stuff, too.

Bonus points there, for sure.

Finally, we have the fish, which was neither bad nor good. I mean, I normally really like fish, but look at that piece that they served me. It looks rather over-fried, wouldn't you say? I'll say!

Yeah, so add it all up and you still come out with only a half-decent meal.

The main problem I had with this one, however, is that it had absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, which is definitely good for minus 1!

Wouldn't it have been awesome had the Lunch Lady gone out of her way just a bit and busted out the pumpkin pie? Or how about a pumpkin cookie? Or how about pumpkin soup? Pumpkin salad? Pumpkin decorations?

Sheesh!

I would have been happy with pumpkin anything...

C'mon Lunch Lady!

Total points: 4

(Note: I will be on vacation for the next week, so please be patient until the next time I post, which will be on November 9. Thanks!)

An "X" Factor Meal

Those of you who actually read my blog regularly can probably guess how many (or should I say "few"!) points this meal is going to get.

The main dish had to go and indeed it did.

The soup had to go, too, and indeed it did.


Hmmm...

In other words, this was one of those meals that consisted entirely of rice and salad.

I've heard of soup and salad, but rice and salad?

Not a good combination.

Picture me making a big, fat "X" with my arms.

Total points: 2

When Thursday = Friday

Today is Thursday, but we are going hiking tomorrow (rain or shine?), so this was basically this week's Friday meal.

Not only that, this was "Lucky Friday," the one Friday of the month that we get curry, which is by far one of the better meals that is served in the dorm.

Today we got what is called "dry curry," whatever that means, but I don't really care what it's called, because curry is curry and I like curry.

Except for the ham, the salad was even of the better variety, because it had almond slivers, which I really like and which we rarely get. Kudos for that!

Finally, we even got dessert, which you can't always count on, and this dessert, though rather plain, was still much better than some of the desserts we are served, so I was quite happy with it.

Yeah, so this meal was especially good, which is especially rare!

Hooray for the Lunch Lady!

Total points: 8

(Note: Although we don't have school tomorrow, we actually do have school on Sunday, so that's when you'll see my next post.)

Hungry Meal 2

Today's meal should have been called "Hungry Meal 2."

That's because when I left the cafeteria I was, you guessed it, hungry.

Actually, I can call plenty of our meals Hungry Meals, but because this one followed a "real" Hungry Meal, the name fits.

After giving away the main dish, which primarily consisted of tofu and "alien" potatoes, all that I was left with was a tiny, tasteless salad to go along with four, forgettable drinks (soup, water, tea, and juice).

Nuff said.

Total points: 2

Hungry Meal Strikes Again

This is a repeat meal, which we last had on June 17.

The big difference is, this time I remembered to ask for a spoon, which made eating the "rice soup" that much easier.

There's really not much left for me to say about this one.


As I've said before, it's actually not all that bad compared to some of the other meals we are served.

I mean, at least this one is safe to eat and I'm not afraid to get seconds.

Total points: 4

The Not-So-Magnificent Seven

This meal was one of the more pathetic ones, on several levels.

For one, this was a "Family Meal," which explains why I have both chopsticks and a spoon, as well as why my bread is on a plate.

For two, unlike many Family Meals, this one didn't come with dessert.

For three, the bread was boring ol' white bread and it didn't come with a spread, such as honey or chocolate, as it usually does.

For four, the soup was about as close to hot water as you can get while still calling it soup.

For five, the soup contained a random piece of ham. (What up with that?)

For six, the salad was a disgusting mix of cucumber (what else?), ham (what else?), and other unappetizing foods. Believe it or not, I gave my salad away.

For seven, the chicken was deep-fried, so I gave that away, too.

In other words, my lunch consisted of a big piece of white bread (or should I say, a giant hamburger bun?), watery soup, and a small pile of cabbage.

Joy joy.

Total points: 2

To Give Is Better Than To Receive

Right after I took this picture, I looked for someone to give my main dish to. Well, right after I took this picture and right after I picked out the few pieces of mystery meat that were buried in there, that is.

I also gave away my soup, but I gave that away without tasting it, since that wouldn't have served any purpose.

All that was left to eat was that salad, which wasn't very good, either. At least it had tuna, though, a fact that saved this meal from being a zero. I even got seconds, because I had to eat something.

Total points: 2

(Note: I'll be on a business trip tomorrow, so the next post will be on Monday.)

At Least It Wasn't Deep-Fried

Unlike yesterday's meal, rice really wouldn't have helped much.

The salad was the usually big question mark. This time, my question was: What do apples, cucumber, and ham have in common? Answer: They don't belong in a salad together.


The soup was also more or less a big question mark. Someone even decided to toss a piece of ham in there, probably just to annoy me.

The main dish, chicken was covered with mushrooms, which I'm not really of fan of, so that took away from it. Nevertheless, I can't ignore the fact that the chicken wasn't deep-fried, which is a huge bonus.

Why can't the chicken be broiled every time?

Total points: 4

Stomach-Not-So-Happy Food

(Apologies for the long layoff. I'll be adding pictures in reverse order...)

Today's lunch looked pretty normal and harmless upon first sight.

As soon as I took a bite of the salad, however, I was quickly reminded that this was dorm food, not restaurant food.

Let me put it like this: "Have some salad with your salt."

I looked at some of the students who were sitting near me and gave them this look like: "Are you kidding me? That salad is salty!" Most of them seemed to agree, with one even giving me the two thumbs down in the form of the ol' hand wave in front of the face.

The soup was just OK, but I do have to admit that I did enjoy the two fish balls that it included. I can eat those things all day, even though I have no clue what they really are. Perhaps they are the Japanese version of Spam?

The main dish was some sort of Chinese concoction that included chunks of fish. I figured it would probably taste OK, but as you can see I topped it with some rice in an attempt to keep it "safe." You know, the rice was supposed to soften the flavor, if you will. I can't really say I liked it, but I didn't dislike it, and, since I was hungry, I even got seconds of it.

That probably wasn't such a great idea, however, because my stomach doesn't seem to be very happy at the moment.

What else is new?

Total points: 5

You Say You Want A Revolution...

What a great way to start off the week in style. Not.

Just look at this food. What's with the fascination with white? Can a brother get some yellows and reds for a change?

The salad was OK, and, since it included tuna rather than ham, I actually had seconds.

The soup was just OK, too, although I have to say I did like the chunks of potato.

The main dish was pathetically bad, and I didn't even have to taste it to know that. No, sirree. I gave that food away in a big hurry.

The funny thing is, the kid I gave it to often gives me lip when I give away my food ("You should eat your food, not give it away!"), so I was actually shocked that he took it off of my hands. It took him about ten seconds to think about it, too, and while he was doing so I would have bet a million bucks that he was going to reject my offer. Amazing things happen, I suppose.

You can see that I also took rice, because it wasn't just plain rice but rather rice plus chestnuts. I thought the chestnuts would help give the rice some flavor, but I was wrong.

Plain + plain (still) =  plain.

About the only good part of today's meal is that drink with the green lid that is sitting on my tray.

It's some sort of yogurt drink. The reason I have it is that I'm lactose intolerant and therefore don't drink milk.

For the past few weeks, I've been giving my milk to a student who asked for it, but, since I'm actually still paying for the milk, it only makes sense that I get a drink that I like instead. That's where the yogurt drink comes in.

I didn't actually get to choose what to have as a substitute, however, so I may have to ask for yet another substitute, because this drink has a really odd flavor.

Who has ever had grape-flavored yogurt, after all?

What's wrong with strawberry yogurt? Or how about raspberry yogurt? Banana yogurt? Plain yogurt?

Hmmm...

Just the fact that I can even have something other than milk is a minor miracle in itself.

About a month ago, I noticed that a girl had the yogurt drink instead of milk, so I asked her why. It turns out she is allergic to milk (or is perhaps also lactose intolerant) and was therefore allowed to switch to this yogurt drink.

Voilà!

The idea then sprung into my head that I could probably get the yogurt drink, too. It just took me a while to finally ask for it. (Truth be told, it took me more than four years to ask for it!)

The Lunch Lady approved my request in a heartbeat, but I guess she had to ask for official permission, anyway.

I know that because this morning the high-school vice-principal came over to me, sat down, and said, "Yama-san, starting today you're getting yogurt for lunch."

On my way to the chow hall, I got the same message from the principal. As he walked past me, I expected him to say his usual "Otsukare sama desu." ("Thanks for your hard work."), but, instead, he said, "Yama-san, starting today, yogurt?"

Several of the kids noticed, too, and some of them seemed jealous.

Revolution, anyone?

The Missing Soup That Wasn't

It's amazing how often we get cucumber in our salads.

Has the Lunch Lady never heard of bell peppers, tomatoes, or croutons, for instance? I guess those are just too expensive, so watery cucumbers it is. Don't forget to throw in some ham, though, that staple of all dormitory lunch salads...

Yuck!

One good thing about today's lunch was that we had bread instead of rice, but for some reason we didn't get soup. Maybe the bread costs too much?

Then again, check out the main dish. It's soup! I could have done without the "creamy mushroom" part of it, and I wasn't sure what the chestnuts were doing in it, but I did enjoy the potatoes, as well as the carrots (that belonged in my salad). I can't say I was a big fan of the "soup," but I was hungry enough to get seconds.

As for the dessert, well, I didn't even attempt to taste that and simply passed it on to the first taker.

Total points: 6

Naked Rice

This meal was a disaster.

For starters, I don't want to eat fried food, especially fried chicken, so I gave away the main part of my meal. Just imagine I've airbrushed the chicken out of the picture and look at what's left:

Nothing but bland, bland, and more bland.

I finished the soup, but it was practically flavorless and full of mushrooms, which I don't like. Rather than giving away the soup, though, I told myself what most Japanese people say about their food: "It's good for you." and ate it.

The salad was a big disappointment. All that shredded daikon ruined it and no amount of "It's good for you." helped me eat it.

Just about all that was left was the rice, which turned out to be the biggest joke of the meal.

As you know, I almost never take rice. One of the few times I do is when there is goma (sesame-seed) dressing. Because there was goma dressing today and I knew I'd be passing on the chicken, I took a bowlful of rice.

Little did I realize the goma dressing wasn't goma dressing.

Nope. That goma dressing was more like oil-and-vinegar dressing.

Dear me.

Naked rice.

Not good.

Total points: 2

Cucumber: The New Rice

First things first: The only reason I took the rice this time is that I knew this was yet another meal that was going to leave me hungry.

The soup simply wasn't that good, but what else is new?

The salad was decent, because it had tuna fish in it.


What I want to know is, what's with the cucumber again? I have a feeling cucumber is the new rice.

As for that piece of fish: It tasted about as bland as it looks, and I don't like daikon, so I gave that away.

Overall, this was your average blasé meal.

Total points: 3

Flavor-less Flav

This meal is weird on several levels.

Just check out the salad, for instance.

Cucumber? Again? You've got to be kidding, right? And ham? Again? I repeat: You've got to be kidding, right?


Oh, I see you tried to liven things up by tossing in some corn. Gee, thanks. That sure is a lot of corn. Not.

And what's with the stringy, slimy, white stuff? Ugh. More flavorless flav...

The soup was OK, but I'm not saying that because it tasted good. No. I'm saying that because it was warmer than normal, so it was nice to have on this relatively cold day.

The main dish was a bit odd, too, because it was not all that appetizing and there was very little of it. That's why I took the rice.

I figured that if I at least added the rice to the main dish I'd have more food and I would be able to stomach it.

My plan worked. Hooray for me!

Total points: 4