July 17, 2014

Kodoku no Gurume 4 ep.2: Feeling Asia

In this episode, Gorou-san goes to Ginza to see his friend who is about to open her photo exhibition.  She is a Vietnam freak and photos are about Vietnam.     

After saying goodbye to her, he walks around Ginza and goes into a Taiwanese tea house.  There he orders "Ten-Sai-Hana-Cha (天才花茶)": 天才 means genius and 花茶 means flower tea, and "Taiwan-Sensou (台湾仙草)".  I checked Taiwan Sensou on the web and found out it is called "Grass Jelly" in English and this jelly is popular not only in Taiwan but also in Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia. (Wiki).  Gorou-san liked the jelly more after he put "Kuro-Mitsu," brown-sugar syrup on it.  I think brown-sugar syrup here is similar to dark mollases.  


For his "main course", Gorou-san goes to a small Korean diner near the Shinbashi Station.

After an appetizer of myulchi bokkeum (stir-fried dried small fish), he eats various small dishes.  They reminded me of Dim Sum.



Gorou-san's selection were from top left to bottom right, 1) seaweed roll (Kimbap), 2) Bossam kimchi (steamed pork wrapped in kimchi), 3) Chapche (glass noodles stir-fried with sesame oil), 4) spicy fried squid and thin white noodle, 5) Cod Gyouza (Dumplings), and 6) Korean-style Tenpura.

I thought that was the end of his lunch, but oh, no.  He eats more, a big bowl of Samgyetan ramen.  This is something you can't eat in Korea.  Even in Japan, this might be only place one can eat such a thing.  Samgyetan is one of my favorite Korean food.  It's a soup made of a whole small chicken stuffed with ginseng, garlic, ginger and other herbs.

This time again, all the dishes made Gorou-san happy and satisfied.

In the last section, Mr. Qusumi had black bean Makoli, and he liked it very much.  I never knew black Makoli existed.  According to my web research, the liquid is not black, but rather grey.  So it is close to ordinary (white) Makoli.