Culinary Travesties, and Other Nagoya Fun

Nabe and Fusako had a lunch that they had to go to today. Something about reservations and not being able to get into the restaurant for six months or something goofy and otherwise outside of my realm of experience. I was free to goof off in the big metropolis that is Nagoya.

They gave me a ride over to the red cross hospital in the Yagoto area of Nagoya, where I had made plans to meet up with three former Starfish High students.

Sanae, Oshita, and Rui.

These three crazy kids are attending Nanzan University, a high-level private university. It's also Catholic, and as Starfish High is catholic as well, we have a bit of an "in" there. As long as the applicants pass the specific requirements, Nanzan sets aside admission spots for our school. With the "demand" to get into "Nanzan" being much more than the "supply" of available spots, Nanzan is a difficult place to get into. But these three did.

What with me being in Nagoya anyway, I contacted these guys and said I'd take them to lunch. Since a free lunch is always a welcome gift to a university student, they readily accepted. I figured it would be a good chance to check up on them as well.

Oshita suggested a restaurant called "Mountain" (sorry, Japanese only). I had been thinking about some stuff myself, but with Oshita's guarantee of "crazy food", I figured it would be entertaining to check out, if nothing else.

So we all met up and walked on over to Mountain. There was a line, but they gave us a menu and told us to wait.

Wow.

This place had some crazy shtuff on the menu. Banana split spaghetti. Tomato parfait. Sweet bean paste on toast.

Yeesh.

There was some normal stuff as well, and I decided to go with something along those lines.

Then they showed us to our seats and I made the worst mistake of my entire life.

On our way to our table, I saw a guy eating something that looked like a big hamburger on rice with some pineapple slices on it. Hmmm. Now that looks tasty. Plus, the menu had listed a hamburger-on-rice item, so I asked our waitress what the hamburger-looking thing was.

"Oh, that's not on the menu, but we can make it. It's called 'Ogura-don'."

I should have recognized that something was amiss when I heard the name, but I figured that was just what they called it. So I ordered one ogura-don. Sanae ordered the tuna and eggplant with tomato sauce spaghetti. Rui ordered the codfish egg spaghetti.

And Oshita ordered this.

That's right, the banana split spaghetti.

We all laughed and teased him. Little did I know what horror was awaiting me.

My meal came out next.

At first glance, it does look a little bit like a huge hamburger on rice, so I think you can understand how I would be fooled.

How wrong I was. I realized that when I heard the word "ogura", it wasn't a random name but a description of the item itself.

"Ogura" is sweet bean paste.

That's right. I ordered a sweet bean paste on rice meal.

One thing I should inform you of here is that I don't particularly like sweet bean paste.

Especially when it comes in huge dollops on top of hot rice coated in a strawberry sauce with kiwi fruit mixed in it.

The second I understood what I'd ordered, I lost my will to eat.

(I will admit that the comedic value of this is priceless, though.)

However, I decided to give it the old college try. (Plus, I was ticked off that the waitress didn't bother to tell me that the "hamburger-looking thing" was not hamburger at all and decided to eat it out of sheer rage.)

But rage will only take you so far, especially when you're dealing with THIS.

Ick.

The Nanzan Kids told me that I had to get a photo of the expression on my face, so here it is.

I fought a brave, but ultimately futile battle. I got about halfway through, but even with assistance from normal food, I just couldn't choke it down.

The white flag.

So I was pretty much out of commission for a while. We all went out for coffee afterwards. The coffee was good, but my stomach didn't like me very much.

The four of us hung out for a while, taking a tour of Nanzan U. Nice place.

Sanae and Rui had stuff to do, but Oshita joined me for a show that night at a club in Nagoya. My friends from The Bon (Scroll down to the picture. The two on the left are my friends.) were there, playing . Great show, although it would have been nice to see a little more of them. Their set was a bit short.

A rather ecletic group of bands played, but it was a fun show. I got to say hello to my friends before we cruised out of there, as well. Oshita and I parted ways, and Nabe came and picked me up.

It was altogether a good, although hot, day. The Nanzan Kids were doing well, which was something we were concerned about back at SH. And although my stomach still is not very fond of me, it is starting to consider taking me back.

Time heals all kindsa wounds.