Food

Why, yes, I can!

At TY Harbor (previously mentioned here). Though more than 10 times the price of the equivalent item at Mickey D's, it did come with chips (North American: fries) and salad and all-you-can-drink cold tea which I couldn't quite identify, and all things considered (like taste) is better value for money (especially when Someone Else is footing the bill).

Kthxbye.

For just 1680 Yen, this Ise Shrimp and American Sauce Linguine of Scallop Sitting on a Nest of Spaghetti can be yours. Well, not this plate in particular because the restaurant is very attached to it as a way of visually presenting their culinary virtues to passers-by.

伊勢海老&帆立のアメリカンソースラングイネ

The most important question is of course: how do they stop the spaghetti sliding off the plate?

The omnipresent but slightly behind the times in a the-shops-probably-look-much-as-they-did-25-years-ago-kind-of-way coffee shop chain Doutor has latched on to the Seattle style with its relatively new "Excelsior Caffé" (sic) cafés. A stop-over at Gifu station provided an opportunity to sample Starbucks Japanese-style with this exquisite morning set (モーニングセット) consisting of a boiled egg, kafeore (カフェオレ, café au lait) and a croissant containing various animal and vegetable products. All for 450 Yen.

Well, it was OK. The hard-boiled egg was boiled and the croissant was crescent-shaped. The coffee had milky foam on top. The WLAN reception was zilch. All in all a representative Japanese breakfast experience.

Links: Excelsior Caffé, location.