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Penny has been bugging me to try other Japanese places. The general thinking is that since Sushi Ten being the only place she’d ever really been to, she wanted to make sure it was really good stuff. And I agree with her, in theory, at least.

So, last week we hit Takamatsu. It has ads on tv and has apparently won awards. It’s in a nice building in a good location in town. I got their beef curry and she got their chicken katsu. I wasn’t feeling like sushi at the time and, for some reason, neither was she.

She is now pennitent for her infidelity.

The curry was completely uninspired and contained more peas and carrots than it did beef – or even potatoes. Oh, and it was expensive too, and not that large of a plate. The katsu was actually quite good, they did, however, label it as ‘chicken tonkatsu’ on the menu. For those of you just tuning in: 豚 (ton) – pork, カツ (katsu) – cutlet. This was my first clue that something was wrong.

Actually, it was my second clue. The first clue was that there was a sign posted on the door in all three of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese – with the Japanese last. Sitting in down in the back room of the place, near the bright and shiny sushi bar, we were given menus that contained one short page of Japanese food and four pages of Korean.

My third clue was that I did not see a single Japanese in the place with the possible exception of the sushi chef. The majority of the staff was asian, but I am assuming that they were Korean (probably not Chinese). I know I didn’t hear a word of Japanese and didn’t recognize any Chinese, so I assume what they were speaking was Korean

Fourth, the prices were fairly steep, and while the presentation on Penny’s katsu was really quite good (they cut an orange such that it looked like a bird’s wings), the overall expense was more than half again what I would have expected to pay for the quality. The clientele was mostly young white folks who seemed to expect to pay that much for their food.

All in all… I give them points for the chicken. And that’s about it. They gave me a carafe of Sprite to pour myself refills – not in order to convenience me, but so the underworked wait staff could sit around and chat. I might be convinced to go back there some day when I feel like eating only sushi… but otherwise we will probably be sticking with the much cozier place where the girls noticed when Penny got her hair dyed.

Just because I’m silly and don’t necessarily want to sleep and don’t particularly feel like playing video games or doing anything for work or for Clarissa’s site, etc… I am writing on here.

This post officially inaugurates a new category. Yay food! I like food. A lot. If I could have only one channel on the television, it would be Food TV. After that, it is a toss-up between SciFi, Cartoon Network, and Comedy Central… actually, probably in that order.

I should talk about food. Hrm… what do I eat? Well, mostly, I eat grains (lots of wheat and rice) and vegetables. I get most of my protein from fish or chicken and while I love beef and pork with much cuddly passion, I am trying vaguely to reduce my weekly intake. I generally avoid sweets and don’t eat very much in the way of fresh fruit.

I am a sucker for fruit juices and am particularly fond of citrus flavours to the point where I am probably a walking vitamin C tablet with an ulcer just waiting to happen. I probably drink way too much soda (not much in the way of caffiene, just lots of carbonated sugar water), because even though I like juice better, soda is usually cheaper and easier to get – most places only offer lemonade as a non-carbonated flavour and I have actually been cutting back on the citrus as a result of acid problems that started a few years back.

I like baked goods, especially dairy and fruit flavoured things. I like caramel. I don’t like chocolate. I like pie more than cake (much love for mince and pecan, not so much for pumpkin). I like bread of all shapes and varieties. I like bread that feels like real food – none of this sissy bleached enriched white glue-flavoured garbage that people feed their children. I like whole grains and crusty breads that could break a tooth if you aren’t careful.

At one point in time, I was something of a root beer connoisseur. I could distinguish between about 10 or 12 different flavours by smell alone. Alas, this skill has faded. I can still identify quite a few of them and am still rather picky when it comes to the subject. My favorite brand still remains IBC, and that probably won’t ever change unless something phenominally better comes along.