Friday night after work we went to dinner with AFT. I have heard that they put on a great dinner, I can attest to that. It was such a cool experience. There were two cars waiting for us to take us to dinner, the Americans rode in one car and Toshi and Gotoh rode in the other car. We drive for about 20 minutes or so to this area of town seemed so Authentic Japanese. we were driving down roads that were like alleyways only one car would fit down at a time. We arrive at the restaurant and a bunch of men are waiting outside. We head up 3 flights of stairs to this room. The ladies are dressed in Kimonos and they ask us to take off our shoes. I immediately say a prayer that my feet don't stink and that my socks match my outfit and not white socks. They each come up and introduce themselves to us handing us their business cards and tell us where to sit. We sit on the floor, my legs barely fit under the table. Through out the whole dinner my legs would get cramped and I would have to shift positions. I don't know why they put themselves through the torture.
They created a meal for Joe and I that was different from the others, I was thankful because it was fish. Once everyone was seated one of the men from AFT stood up and welcomed us and told us that we would watch them cut the fish we were going to eat and we would have musical entertainment later. They present the butcher who will be cutting this fish. The fish is already lying on the table covered in white cloth, the hook and line that was used to catch it was lying next to it. They tell us that this fish will feed 30 people and it was caught this morning nearly 1000 miles away. They brought it in just for us. This was the largest fish I have ever seen in my life. When they removed the cloth the head was already separated from the body and the man went at it. As he cut he explained what part of the body it was, how they will cook it. It was amazing to watch it. I was surprised that I was able to watch him hacking away at the fish, but it was so interesting. I must say though it was more scary to watch him slice the meat for fear that he would slice his finger. While he was cutting the fish there are ladies knelt down on the ground and one lady is playing the drums. As he finishes each section he places it in a small wooden boat and hands it to a lady and takes it back to be cooked.
The meal was a 7 course meal. The have 3 people playing Japanese music during the first part of dinner. They were amazing, I have to research the instruments they used because I hadn't seen them before. The meal begins. The first two dishes were appetizers, mine was bamboo shoots and a mushroom onion salad. Both were really good, the onion was delicious it had been cooked for 3 hours so it was really tender and sweet. The bamboo shoots tasted like those baby corns. The 3rd dish was roasted Mallard Duck steamed with Grated Radish. I told Joe that I would try it if he tried it, he told me to go first. I took a bite of the radish, which was like a soup, then I took a piece of the duck meat. I put it all in my mouth, as I began chewing I became very aware of the rubbery texture. The piece of meat is too big to swallow whole and I dry heaved a little. I am trying not to think about what I am eating and I realize that Joe is watching my reactions, so I pulled a Kichiya and say mmm MMMM mmm. I finally am able to swallow this piece of meat. Joe takes his bite, and I can tell by the look on his face that he is not enjoying this either. I about lose it. I start laughing, but holding it in, but the tears just start flowing down my face. I couldn't look at him while he ate in order to stop laughing. The next dish was Tomato & Honey paste. This was served in a wine glass, it was a pale yellow jelly like substance with 3 tomatoes on top. It tasted like tomato juice, but jelly or runny jello texture. It wasn't bad it was different, something I never imagined. The main dish was a Beef Steak (tender loin of Oumi beef) & Seasonable vegetable and bread with Garlic Topping sauce. This was amazing. The steak was so tender like roast beef. Then they served Ochazuke (Pan stirred risotto with vegetable Soup) this was a soup with rice, veggie soup broth, and you add cucumbers. Finally, for desert they served Pear compote. This was good.
After dinner, they presented us each with a gift, it was a Table Runner with Japanese fabric. It was beautiful. I can't wait to put it on my table. Joe, Moe, and I headed back to our hotel, we laughed the whole way back talking about the food and the duck. It was such a fun experience I wish I was able to put it into words better.
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