For most of the last week Kuniko has been off in Paris for her business trip. While she has been away, I’ve used my newly independent status to go exploring more deeply in some areas of Kobe and Osaka that I rarely visit.
On the weekend I went into Osaka to check out the restaurant supply shops in Douguyasuji, near Namba. On previous visits I poked through the surface level, but this time I really went digging through the kitchen tools there. I delved into the back rooms, the second floors, and the basements in search of a few key items. Ultimately the trip was successful, and I brought home a really nice crepe pan that I put right into use on Sunday. I also got a small hand-size roller to make dumplings more easily, a carbon steel ladle to use for making egg wrapper dumplings over the flame of the stove, and some containers to hold fermenting kimchi. Big success!
Also, I looked through various spice and gourmet shops around Umeda but I didn’t get everything I was looking for – none of the stores I searched had two (admittedly obscure) ingredients: dried Persian limes, and Le Puy green lentils. I can find them online but the shipping charge is almost as much as the items themselves, so I’ll have to wait.
Sunday was spent making crepes and egg dumplings, and the highlight was struggling to flip the crepes in the air and catch them on the pan again. Unfortunately some crepes didn’t have a safe landing and further practice is necessary.
Yesterday after work I went exploring in the tiny Korea town near my workplace. The Nagata area has a small Korean population, and several Korean restaurants and shops. It is nothing like the size of Korea Town in Osaka, but it is close by and fun to walk through. However, this time I was looking for Vietnamese restaurants.
Recently there have been more and more Vietnamese people coming to Japan to work under a limited work program. The Japanese government is not calling it immigration (sensitive topic) but most of the Vietnamese people are screened through organizations in Vietnam and then dispatched to work in Japan, most visibly in local convenience stores which are understaffed due to the falling birth rate here.
One of my students mentioned recently that he walked by a Vietnamese restaurant on the way to our company, and so I did a quick Google search and found four(!) nearby Vietnamese restaurants. A few years ago there were none, so Korea town seemed to be evolving. Yesterday I went to check out the situation on the ground.
The first stop was a small restaurant on the south edge of the Korea town area called Koha Quan, and it was open with three young men working the restaurant. There was a Vietnamese lady waiting for a take out order inside, but otherwise I was the only customer. I had bun thit nuong, cold rice noodles with grilled pork, fresh herbs and a chopped fried spring roll. It was damn good, and with a splash of hot sauce I was totally satisfied. I could eat more, but I still had three shops to go. The staff was friendly and spoke a little English, and when they rang up my bill all the employees came up front to watch the guy operate the register.
I was feeling pretty happy as I left the restaurant but unfortunately my luck turned because the next two restaurants were closed. There were no hours posted, but one Vietnamese lady who was sitting inside one of the restaurants told me that they are open based on reservation, and so probably the local Vietnamese people call up and arrange dinners now and then.
The final place turned out to be not a restaurant but a Vietnamese grocery store, with a big selection of goods from Vietnam and some from China and Malaysia. The lady working there was quite young and very talkative. We spoke in a mixture of English and Japanese and she was so friendly (maybe I was her only customer of the day) that I ended up buying a bunch of rice noodles, spicy dried beef and some spices to help her out. The place wasn’t jumping on Tuesday afternoon, but I wanted to help support an influx of unusual food products into the area.
With that, I had surveyed the scene, so I went back home and finished my dinner with a little homemade kimchi and a strawberry smoothie. The heat is building here and combined with the humidity of the rainy season things are getting uncomfortable.
Luckily Kuniko will be back tomorrow, and a few days later we’ll catch a flight to Hawaii and get some R&R. I can’t wait!
