Fish, Doubled

The surprising thing about this meal is that I actually ate/drank my soup.

I guess I did that because there wasn't anything all that disgusting in it. I'm not exactly a fan of "alien" potatoes, but they aren't awful, and the rest of the soup was pretty harmless.


Also, since the weather was cold and the soup was warm, I couldn't resist.

I did pass on the salad, however. The girl I gave it to was surprised that I didn't even taste it first, but I've been around here long enough to know what I like and what I don't like.

The same girl was also the lucky recipient of the spoonful of daikon that was sitting next to my fish, which made her pretty happy.

And check this out: The fish was tasty enough that I got seconds.

It wasn't my favorite (salmon), but the spices that covered the skin helped to make the fish rather yummy, indeed.

Total points: 5

The Winner Is: The Strawberries!

Today we had the ol' family meal, which is obvious from looking at the picture, right?

I know I've mentioned this before, but what is missing from my tray is the milk that I gave away before I took the photo, as well as the yogurt drink that I normally get in place of milk. Maybe one day my "family" will get it right.


I also have to mention, as I have before, that I still don't understand why just about everyone insists on putting that bread on a plate. Ugh.

Speaking of bread, I bet you know that I dunked mine in that soup-like main course, huh? Surprisingly, it actually had quite a bit of flavor, but there was no way I was going to dig in, especially because of them beans. (Well, I did eat the one potato that was buried in there, but nothing else.) Luckily, giving the dish away, as always, was easy as 1-2-3.

The salad was also actually rather good, but I have no idea why the Lunch Lady is back to insisting on putting cucumber in every salad we get. Just check it out. It's almost like she remembered at the last second to toss a few slices of the green stuff in there. Ridiculous.

Despite the cucumber issue, I probably should have gotten seconds of the salad, considering it went from a side dish to a main course in a hurry.

All that was left to eat was the strawberries, which were great. Too bad no one offered me any of theirs, however, because I had plenty of room in my stomach to spare.

Total points: 4

A First -- Hump Day Curry!

I guess the Lunch Lady actually does use her head sometimes.

You see, curry is usually reserved for Fridays, but since we are going skiing tomorrow and Friday, today is basically this week's Friday. Better yet, the Lunch Lady noticed!


In other words, it's Hump Day Curry! Hooray!

I even managed to get to the cafeteria relatively early, which meant three things:

1) I was sure to get rice;

2) The servers gave me a rather big portion of curry; and

3) I was able to choose between vanilla and strawberry yogurt for dessert.

Life is good when you're not at the back of the line.

It's really a shame that the salad sucked, however, since that took away any chance this one had of scoring a perfect 10.

Total points: 8

(Note: Because we are going skiing for the rest of the week, the next post won't appear until Monday.)

Mr. And Mrs. Cucumber, Where Are You?

Today's meal was a tribute to 1955.

Since Mister Donut wasn't around until the following year, folks back then had to settle for deep-fried bread, instead.

I hope whoever came up with that idea didn't get a prize.

I'm not much of a fan of donuts, especially Mister Donut donuts (which I found to be absolutely terrible after finally having my first taste four years after I arrived in Japan!), but I'd much rather have donuts than fried bread.

I usually give away my entire three-piece portion, but today I decided to indulge in one of the pieces, for old times' sake.

The verdict: I had forgotten how flavorless fried bread was. At least I didn't have the feeling that the wannabe donut was going to make me sick.

Needless to say, it was easy to find takers for the other two pieces.

Obviously, the Lunch Lady equated the fried bread with rice, so besides the "side dish" we also got a main course, mistakenly (and humorously) called "porkbeans."

I'm not that interested in eating pork, and I'm certainly not interested in eating beans (Gas, anyone?), so I grabbed the bowl that had the most potatoes. At least those were good.

I could have had dessert, too, which was "milk pudding," but I passed on that as well, since I figured I would be eating mostly chemicals, rather than anything meaningful.

(Fried) bread and potatoes. Sure makes for a nice meal, eh?

Today, for once, I probably would have been happy to see my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Cucumber.

Total points: 3

Super Onigiri

Today's meal was a tribute to 1889.

Personally, though, I don't really see the difference between the food they ate way back then and the food we eat nowadays, in the dorm that is.

Can you guess what I thought of the soup?

If you said, "I bet you gave it away." you are absolutely correct!

I also gave away the umeboshi and the tsukemono, those two things next to my fish.

Yeah, so all that was left was the piece of salmon, the rice, and the seaweed paper (a.k.a. nori) to wrap the rice in. Well, I didn't actually have to wrap up my rice, but the point was to make a rice ball (a.k.a. onigiri), so I did.

I didn't get as creative as some of the students, however, who chose to add some fish and/or other ingredients to their rice to make a "super onigiri."

I probably should have done the same, but for whatever reason, the thought never crossed my mind.

Maybe next time?

Total points: 4

Mik-u Jagger

I took one look at today's soup and knew I wasn't going to eat it, but I didn't have to make an effort to give it away.

You see, as soon as the soup landed on my tray, あかり asked me if I was going to eat it. I guess she must have known the answer was going to be "No."

(As you probably can imagine, I'm not shy about sharing my thoughts about the dorm food with the kids I sit with, and some of them seem to pay attention!)

あかり's next question was if she could have the soup. I guess she must have also known the answer to that question was going to be "Yes!"

It's amazing how easy it is to please Japanese kids at lunch.

Luckily, I didn't have to give away anything else on my tray, though, or I might have gone hungry.

The salad, despite the pesky cucumber pieces ("They're baaaaaaaack!"), was fine.

The main dish, because of the many potato chunks, was better. (I purposely grabbed the bowl with the mostest!)

I even had seconds (It's called "niku-jaga," but I call it "Mik-u Jagger," ha!), although I did have to stop the food server from showing me too much lovin'. I mean, let's be serious here: It's not that good.

Unfortunately, even today's appearance by the lead singer of the Rolling Stones failed to help this meal much.

Total points: 5

Chopstick Challenge

The first thing I did when I sat down to eat this food was dump my rice over the main course.

See how greasy the pork looks?

I mixed in the rice to try to soften the effect I figured it was going to have on my poor stomach.

I probably should have just passed, though. I can't tell you how often I have had to run to the restroom in the afternoon as a result of having eaten a Gokase School Lunch.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the soup and salad, at least, were harmless. I made them even more so, however, by giving away that little piece of ham that looks so out of place in my salad as well as the three quail eggs that were sitting side-by-side in my soup. Thank you, HVC!

By the way, I should mention that I ate this meal left-handed. A few of the kids at school, perhaps all of them juniors, do that, so I try it from time to time, too. You can never challenge your brain enough, right?

Too bad the chopstick challenge doesn't increase a meal's score.

Total points: 4

Even The Fish Was Shaped Like A Wedge

Today's meal was a bit weird, but satisfying.

I guess what I mean by "weird" is that the meal wasn't exactly healthy, yet it tasted pretty good.

What else was weird is that I grabbed some rice, even though I don't really know why.

You guys know what I think of white rice, right? Yeah, so it makes no sense that I took some. I guess I must have been hungry.

Anyway, the macaroni salad tasted pretty good, but if I had a choice, I would have left off the mayonnaise. I'm not sure what I would have replaced it with, if anything, but I simply don't like mayonnaise. The mayo really wasn't overwhelming, though, which must be why I found the salad to be palatable.

As you can see in the second picture, HVC actually found the salad more than palatable. It looks like he had at least four bowls' worth.

As for the soup, well, I wasn't interested in eating it, so I gave that away. (Very few students or teachers ever waste their food, so I'm always glad when I can find a taker for the food I don't want.)

The fish was deep fried, so I probably should have passed on that, but it actually had quite a bit of favor.

The potato wedges also tasted pretty good, and were a surprise, since they weren't listed on the menu. Granted, the wedges were a bit cold, but I happen to love them, so I'll have to give a bonus point to the Lunch Lady for serving them.

A couple of the seniors I ended up sitting with after I got rid of my tray even treated me to some extra potato wedges, so I guess I could even say I had dessert today.

Overall, despite the drawbacks, this meal was one of the better ones I've had lately.

Total points: 6

Have Some More Rice With Your Rice

Umm... yeah...

If you know what my taste buds are like, you can tell just by looking at today's picture that I wasn't a happy camper at lunchtime.

As soon as I saw what was being served today, I thought to myself, "Rice and salad. Just great."

Even though I wasn't sitting with HVC today, I was sure that I'd find him and be able to offload my "undesirables."

Indeed, he took both the main dish (which I will call "Plate o' not-so-goodies") and the soup without hesitating whatsoever.

I then proceeded to eat my "salad," which hardly made a dent in my hunger (just check out that measly portion size!), as well as the rice, which, luckily, wasn't plain rice, but rather 大根菜ごはん (rice mixed with daikon greens).

It probably comes as no surprise to you that I didn't bother to get seconds of the "salad." I did, however, in the name of hunger, grab more rice.

Yeah, so if you think about it, my meal was essentially rice with rice. How nice!

Since when is rice a main course?

Total points: 2

Sue Take Key Don!

Hey, hey!

Yo, yo, yo!

Today, I re-discovered the secret to guaranteeing myself a pretty good meal for lunch here:

Pick a (rare) day when there are only a few people to serve.

Today was such a day, because today the only folks who were at school were the seniors and about half of the teachers (since most of them had the day off because they had to work this past Saturday).

Few people to serve = Big money to spend

Big money to spend = Sue Take Key Don

(also known as ステーキ丼, a.k.a. "Steak over rice, oh how nice.")

Hey, hey!

Like, like!

Needless to say, it was good.

The salad was pretty good, too, and once again, luckily, was missing the "C" word. (Big smile!)

I did give away the soup, however, which of course lowers this meal's score, but giveaways are to be expected, right?

I'm telling you, had I not been watching my figure, I'd gladly have gone for seconds of both the steak and the salad. (Part of me really wanted to pig out, but I decided to be content with one serving./

Oh, and check out what I got to drink today: Pineapple juice!

I guess the kids are served juice on most weekends, but since I never eat in the dorm then, I never knew about this little treat. It turns out that there was some left over from this morning's breakfast (which must have been treated like a weekend meal), and I was able to snag one of the last two cartons! Hooray for me!

Now I need to figure out how to get most of the kids to stay away from school for the rest of the school year! If I can manage that, I'll be eating like a king!

Total points: 7

Friday Curry is Back!

Friday curry is back, at least this one time, but check out what else is back:

Cucumber!

So much for never seeing that guy again. Ugh.

Anyway, I can't recall ever having "カツカレ" (curry with pork-cutlet) for lunch here.


Usually when you order this meal in a restaurant, you get one big cutlet sliced into relatively thin strips. Instead, as you can see, we got two round cutlets.

Either way, though, the pork is still deep-fried, which is a no-no. That's why I gave away one of my cutlets. I probably should have just given them both away, but I let my hunger get in the way of my health. Not a good idea.

The only other part of that dish that I gave away was the tiny bit of bacon that was floating on top of the sauce. All the rest went happily into my stomach.

Indeed, I am a big fan of curry.

The salad wasn't as tasty as the curry, but it was pretty good (minus the one bit of ham that I gave away). The funny thing is, the menu said we were having "almond salad." Sure enough, there were some almond slivers in there, but not enough to warrant naming the salad after them. Why not just be honest and call it a "cucumber salad"? (Ha ha ha ha ha!)

The dessert, as promised, really was fruit, and I was very happy with the choice: Strawberries. They were a bit sweet, which is just how I like them.

I even managed to freak out a couple of students by eating the stems along with the berries, but part of my job is to make the kids here think differently, right? (Mission accomplished.)

It's a rare day when I can say with honesty: ごちそうさまでした！(That was a nice meal!)

Total points: 8

Don't Judge A Salad By Its Cover

Today's lunch was just more of the same.

I guess the surprising thing about this meal, just like yesterday, was that again the salad had no cucumber.

What's going on here?

Could the Lunch Lady reading my blog?

Is the fictional bet regarding cucumber over?

Hmm...

Anyway, I actually ate the salad, despite the fact that it looked terribly unappetizing. At first, I thought about giving it away, but I was at least willing to try it. Amazingly, it wasn't bad. I guess that's because the tuna fish stood out enough.

I did give away the soup, however, without trying it, since I was sure I wouldn't like that. You'll just have to trust me on that one.

The fish was just OK, and, as always with this fish, I had to be careful to not eat any of the bones.

Maybe the word "deboned" isn't in the Japanese dictionary.

I was no where near full after this meal, but I'm trying my best to watch how much I eat, anyway, so it's all good.

Total points: 4

Happy New Meal!

I'm back to eating dorm food again. This was actually the sixth meal of 2012, but since I just got back from vacation, it was my first.

Since I hadn't had the food in so long, I actually forgot not how it tasted, (no, no, I'll never forget that!), but rather to bring my camera to the cafeteria.

I didn't notice that until after I had grabbed my food, however, so I had to leave my tray at the table while I ran to retrieve my camera.

In all honesty, I probably shouldn't have returned, since the food pretty much sucked!

Lucky for me, though, when I went back to my seat, I saw the HVC sitting right in front of me!

As soon as I took today's picture, I simply passed the HVC my soup and my main dish. I almost gave him my "salad" (Oh, my goodness! No cucumbers!) as well, but decided to give that a try, instead. It wasn't great, but it was edible.

I saved the rice for "dessert," believe it or not, but I would have preferred something truly sweet (unlike the rice!), such as a piece of cake, a cookie, or even an ice cream.

Total points: 2

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