Going out for lunch

Today is already Thursday of the week my girlfriend and I said we were going to go to the Fresh Foods Market for lunch. Last night we said we would be flexible and see if today was the day. As I was heading out the door to the gym, Emily called we are on! After a quick cardio session and speeding through my shower we were off. I thought it would be nice to invite all of you to see where we went.
I have only captured a minute portion of the Fresh Foods Market which is in the basement of two department stores. The sights, sounds, smells and colors are overwhelming. The first time I went down there by myself I was so overwhelmed I had no idea what to buy - I left empty handed. Not this time!! We ate lunch there and brought dessert home.

Above is a tea display. The air around the booth was fragrant and some how very warming. I know come this winter, I will be trying some of the Japanese tea as I work on staying warm.

My favorite display - rotisserie cake? I have no idea since I can't read Japanese but I do know it was cake. Once again the aroma was so strong and delightful you wanted to lick the air (I refrained hee hee) We brought some home with us. I was surprised by the texture and flavor. I guess my mind was thinking exotic since it was on a rotisserie. Essential to my taste buds it was a very good pound cake with a creamy icing. Once I was over the fact that it tasted normal I was loving my treat.

A not so delicious looking display. Can you click on the picture and make it bigger? Fish in all of its eyeball glory. Needless to say I passed this section:)This display case showed numerous "meat" kebobs. I have already gone there once. Do you remember our Kamakura trip where I wrote that I can only hope and pray what we ate was tofu and not organ? I may try a kebob again but not unless I give it a really good look first.Oh my heavens - one of the most splendid aspects of Japan:) There are bakerys everywhere. As you enter the store you pick up a tray and tongs. Then as your eyes grow larger and larger you fill the tray with fresh baked goodness. At the register the clerk bags each item separately (so you can bring it home if need be) I have tried many a baked good and have yet to be disappointedI have no idea?? I think some of it is vegetables? Many some boiled eggs and raw something. But look you can get it on sale:) It is quite splendid how the Japanese use the English word for sale!! Not sure if they don't have a word that means the same in Japanese, but I love sales so am thrilled to see it in English. I loves sales except sales of this stuff.

Here is my lunch:) Mom are you proud I cleaned my plate:) Ok so I did give my friend half of two options. They were the tasty ones though.

If you want to learn about each item, look at the tray as if you are sitting in front instead of me using the picture at the bottom of the description not the top one. OK lets start with the back right corner: There are two beige foamy squares covered in sauce and stringy mushrooms. I believe the squares were tofu and cooked to an undesirable mushiness. The sauce was rather flavorless making the tofu texture that much more prominent. The back middle: These mounds were light brown in color incorporating multiple colored pieces and drizzled with a slight glaze. Delicious! Think strange but tasty meatloaf. Far left back corner a rice ball filled with torn green pieces of what I am now going to guess is sea weed. I found it very tasty with a shocking saltiness compared to the other rice ball I ate first. The saltiness was not over bearing and I would recommend this as a snack. This brings us to the top left corner where though you can't see it are a pile of vegetables and a yellow square. The vegetables were pickled giving me a unique and bold treat. I did enjoy these vegetables and would love to know what they are so I can buy more. The yellow square tricked me. It looked to be solid like a small biscuit. Oh no not a biscuit it was solid in a gelatin sort of way and tasted like gross eggs. I can eat scrambled eggs though I do add lots of goodies. This square was just not so pleasant! On to the middle front square two triangle pieces of a fried batter filled with green, yellow, beige and white. Don't you just love how I have to describe food. I can't say it was full of spinach, egg, cheese and almonds because it wasn't. I have no idea what the filling was but thoroughly enjoyed. I believe this was my favorite part of lunch - go figure the fried part right. Top right corner was a speckled pink rice ball. This is the item I started with because I thought it may contain fish. Making it best to get out of the way. I am sure it was fish but it wasn't so dreadful. A mild flavor spread throughout the sticky rice. All in all it was a great tasting lunch - a pleasant surprise!


Little Sadie trying to jump in the pictures on the right:)

Dylan did not get the opportunity to be adventurous with us today. We packed his lunch which he ate happily in his stroller.

Here is my friend, Emily and her three precious children, Sadie, Eli and Evelyn. Who all got delicious lunches from the bakery. You can't go wrong there (usually) Ok so after eating we went to a 100 yen store to pick up some goodies. After which we realized it was raining pretty good outside. Remember in Japan you walk! So here we were with no options but to get wet since Emily's van was parked on base and nap time was quickly approaching. Emily did have one umbrella oh but not me cause it was beautiful this morning:) So there we go out into the rain:) Good thing is I am not so sweet that I melt. Laughing we made it to Emily's van where she was kind enough to take these two soaked folks home. The purpose of the below pictures were to capture how wet we were which was soaked through and through. You can't really tell but I thought I would add them for Rory/Daddy and anyone else who misses our faces:)