Nom nom nom nom

Hi guys! It's been quite a while since I updated my blog. My older brother brought it to my attention the other day and I realized I had an semi-adequate amount of pictures of stuff I've been eating and drinking to share with everyone. I've been kind of forgetful about picture taking. It's not something I'm used to doing.

Not pictured is my very disappointing trip to Red Lobster with friends. Not that my friends were disappointing- the food was. It's no big deal though, there are plenty of other places to eat on this island.

To start off, here's the Japanese eggs I've been telling everyone about. They aren't different except a little smaller and they come in 10 packs instead of a dozen. The whole reason I have them pictured is because most people who know me know about my ongoing struggle to reintegrate eggs into my life. For some reason eggs have been making me very sick for the past 4 or 5 years. I've been kind of courageous since we got here and for some reason, Japanese eggs do not make me sick. I have no idea why but I'm not going to question it, just enjoy the time I have to eat them.

 

Those of you who have been chatting with me now and then know I was paranoid about not having spam. I'm happy to inform you that there is spam at our grocery store. Not only that.. Japanese people are obsessed with spam. I saw this sandwich on a sign at American Village. At the time I was still paranoid about eggs but now that I'm aware that I can get away with it, I've been quietly plotting a trip to this restaurant to enjoy what looks like a very delicious sandwich. I know.. You all think Spam is gross. Sorry about that...


A trip to Okinawa, I was told, was not complete without trying taco rice. After my recent haircut, a friend and I went out to eat at a place called King Taco. It's a ticket restaurant. At ticket restaurants you purchase a ticket from a vending machine for the food you want. Then you hand them to a waiter/waitress/person at the counter, and they fulfil your order. My friend took me to this restaurant and I have had several fat kid fantasies about it since our first visit. Taco rice looked kind of... questionable at first. I looked at it with its cheap cheese and pile of lettuce and thought, "What on earth are people raving about?" ...Then I ate it. And had a revelation. It was the most magnificent thing I'd tasted. White rice, some kind of shredded velveeta type cheese, ground beef, and hand shredded lettuce with some kind of red sauce at the table. It was a combination that somehow worked. I was smitten.

 

This. This is taco rice.

 Besides the taco rice, we also got tacos. I had been forewarned about the massive pile of lettuce on the restaurant's tacos but when they arrived I thought that we had ordered a salad instead by accident. These aren't like any tacos I have ever had. They are made a lot like the taco rice.. minus the rice. The shells are thin and crispy but very fragile and light like the taco salad shells back in the states. They were also fantastic and are now subject to my fat kid fantasies. I've been bothering Frank for about a week now to take me to the tacos.

 

 Another place that was introduced through the same friend was Ramen Kagetsu Arashi. Arashi's, for short, is also a ticket restaurant. It specializes in ramen and fried rice. While I've had nearly enough ramen to last me a lifetime, I can never get enough fried rice. The fried rice is simply amazing. It comes to your table still cooking and you must stir it until it is done. They will put soy and garlic sauce in it for you and then leave you to enjoy your meal. My pictures of this just do not do it justice. We were starving when we went to lunch. There was no time for something like picture taking, only stuffing our faces.

 

 The portions are huge with the exception of the Gyoza sets and even those are a lot of food for one person. Frank and I split the fried rice. There were no leftovers to take home. I like it that way. Nothing to forget about and tsk over when you realize that it was wasted. So far this is probably my favorite place to eat out here. I'm not sure this will change with time as their menu has lots of things to try. I'm sure it will be a long while before I diverge from my familiar favorite. In fact, just looking at this picture is making me so very hungry...

A really popular drink out here is Qoo. It comes in weird sippy packages with jelly but since the texture of jelly makes me cringe I do not own any of these "Qoo" packets. The juice itself is fantastic. You can get huge bottles of it at the grocery store on base but it's cheaper to just go to the store in town and purchase it. My favorite is orange. It tastes pretty much just like Sunny D but just a hair less sweet. It is very good. As you can see, this large bottle is mostly empty. Mostly empty because it was filled with delicious.

One of the best things I've found out about living here is that canned alcohol is pretty much the norm. While back home most things that came in cans were absolutely vile the same does not apply to Japan. Pictured here? STRONG and STRONG ZERO. The Strong Zero is one I have yet to try. I'm not sure what rainbow fruit is pictured on the can but I can only assume it's going to be delicious. And possibly papaya flavored. The other one is Grapefruit flavored and remarkably sour. Getting drunk in Japan comes cheap if you're a lightweight like me. These cans were around 150 yen (Roughly $1.80 or so depending on the exchange rate. Don't quote me on that. My conversion math is terrible.) Either way, one of these is plenty for me to be very intoxicated for a decent length of time and somehow avoid having a hangover the next day. I'm assuming it is because these seem to be marketed towards other women who are around my shape and size. I'm sure there are some ladies who pound back seventeen PBRs here too but I imagine by and large most people take the better option. These. They also do not taste like alcohol at all, which I like because my older brother turned me into a booze snob by ordering me a proper dirty martini. Once. Ruined for life. Either way- these top anything you could throw my way back in the USA. I have tried other brands and flavors but keep coming back to these. The tartness of the grapefruit is just too appealing.

In other news, we got surround sound a couple of weeks ago. We also got Rockband 3. One of the big reasons I haven't been updating my blog is because I've been enjoying the surround sound and our new game. Other than that, things have been by and large uneventful. Frank was sick with Strep B and I quarantined him to the guest bedroom, fortifying myself with vitamins, and bleaching anything that gets touched. I'm hoping I was able to dodge the bullet. We'll find out in a few days, I suppose. For now, I'm feeling a-ok and enjoying the recent string of storms. I've been trying to catch some pictures of the lightning out over the ocean but it's a matter of luck with how quick it is. Until next time!