Friday night I met up with Antoine after my classes, and together we tried to search out an alternative burger source since our favorite burger place, Star Child’s, went out of business.
Burgers are a big deal. Star Child’s had been doing it the right way, grilling the burgers, big patties, and lots of fresh vegetables and toppings like avocado and real cheddar cheese to make it seem like a burger from back in the United States. Unfortunately, they are gone, and we had to follow up on a couple of rumors before we decided to try a new place tonight – Freshness Burger.
At first when we went in it looked like just another burger chain. The good news was that they had a really big burger on the menu, not just the usual McDonald’s sized burgers. We both ordered the big one, and then drank some Miller beer out of bottles and waited. They also had lots of condiments and hot sauces sitting around which I considered another positive sign.
The burgers came and they reminded us a lot of In-N-Out burgers. They were really good, and although they weren’t grilled they satisfied the burger craving I had. I put some hot sauce and garlic chili sauce, and that made them taste even better.
It took us less than a minute to eat the burger, much to the surprise of the staff, and then we hit the road for our next stop. We walked through Chinatown looking for a seedy Chinese drinking hole but surprisingly almost everything was closed up at 9 p.m. on a Friday night. There were a couple of places that looked spooky and mysterious, but they weren’t the kind of places that two foreigners just walk into. I’d like to find a good place to drink in Chinatown, though. The atmosphere there is really interesting.
We ended up drinking a giant beer at the Sapporo German-style beer place, talking religion, Japan, and driver’s licenses. Since we kind of had a late start to the evening it was already getting late, so we went for one last drink at the Spanish restaurant that Kuniko and I had visited a while back.
We had a glass of port with a big plate of cheese to serve as dessert, and I talked a little bit with the lady working the bar. I asked about all the California wines on the wine list, and it turns out that her husband is the owner and he has a lot of interest in California wines. I told her a little bit about my background, and she soon brought over her husband from the kitchen and he talked with us for a long time. It was really nice to chat with him, and he asked us a lot of questions about what we are doing and also about my background in wine.
We stayed for about an hour, and since the place was pretty empty I think the staff didn’t mind at all. We promised to come back for dinner sometime, and then hit the road. Antoine stopped in the bathroom on the way out, but there was somebody in there. While we waited patiently chatting with the owners suddenly there was a banging noise from inside the bathroom – and it was loud. The owners flinched and Antoine and I looked at each other, but what do you say in that situation? A moment later a drunk foreign guy came out mumbling and walked by us back to his table. Scary.
Anyway, we got back to the station and each went our separate ways. Kuniko was home watching movies when I arrived, and we stayed up until about one a.m. or so before finally heading to bed. The typhoon continues to approach slowly, and it should be arriving right in the middle of the weekend. The good news is that Kuniko has lots of time off because of the bad weather. She might get a very rare three day weekend out of this. My rain dancing is starting to pay off.
