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.)