On the second day, I had Sanjo Curry Ramen, just I had planned.
二日目は、計画通り、三条カレーラーメンを食べました。
This board says, "Niigata Go Dai Ramen" (Five Great Ramen in Niigata), one of which is Sanjo Curry Ramen.
このボードには「新潟五大ラーメン」と書かれています。その一つが三条カレーラーメンです。.
300 yen per bowl. Very reasonable!
一杯300円。とても安いです！
I had been curious about the flavor. I was a little disappointed because it was just that, I mean, ramen noodles + curry.
どんな味かずっと興味がありましたが、そのままの味（つまり、ラーメンの麺＋カレー）だったので、ちょっとがっかりしました。
Photo taken from the back.
後ろから撮った写真。
I really wanted to have "Tsubame Se Abura Chuka Soba"(Pork Back Oil Chinese Noodles in Tsubame), which is one of the Five Great Ramen in Niigata, but I gave up on it, because I thought having another bowl of ramen would be just too much.
「燕背油中華そば」（新潟五大ラーメンの一つ）も本当に食べたかったのですが、もう一杯ラーメンを食べるのはちょっときついので諦めました。
Instead, I decided to have spaghetti from Hotel Italia Ken, a famous hotel in Niigata city.
代わりに、ホテルイタリア軒（新潟市にある有名なホテル）のスパゲティーを食べることにしました。
Amatriciana, 500 yen
アマトリチャーナ、500円
I was a little disappointed that they used frozen spaghetti...
冷凍のスパゲティを使っていたので、ちょっとがっかりしました...。
I felt sorry for the Italian lady, who had to manage the money, dress the spaghetti with dried basil and grated cheese, and serve the dishes to customers, all by herself.
たった一人でお金を管理し、スパゲッティに乾燥バジルと粉チーズを振り、お客さんに渡しているこのイタリア女性を可哀そうに思いました。
I talked to her, "It's tough working all by yourself!" She replied she was OK, and added something like, "The chefs are having a tougher time."
「一人でやってて大変ですね！」と声をかけると、「大丈夫、作っている人のほうが大変」などと答えてくれました。
Very good!
とても美味しかったです！
This is how the Grand Prix winner is selected: When you purchase one item, you will receive one coin, and you put the coin into the slot of the item you like. The item that gets the most coins will be the winner.
グランプリの勝者は次のように決まります。ある品を買うと、コインを1枚もらえます。そのコインを好きな品のスロットに入れます。一番多くのコインを獲得した品が勝者となります。
By the way, I got this mini towel from the Sanjo Curry Ramen booth.
ところで、三条カレーラーメンの売店ではこのミニタオルをもらいました。
They say that if you go to one of those restaurants that serve Sanjo Curry Ramen and show this handkerchief, you will get a discount.
三条カレーラーメンを出す店に行き、このミニタオルを見せると、割引してもらえるそうです。
13 comments:
Hiroyuki-san, my name is Felicia.
I am from Kokusai Daigaku, first year student.
I also went to the Gourment Grand Prix today. It was really fun.
Your blog is really interesting.
Hope we can meet someday :)
Chibi Tora: Thank you, Felicia, for your comment. I visited your blogs (You have three!). So, you are a Malaysian studying in IUJ? You must be intelligent!
Talking of IUJ, I think the international festival of IUJ is truly international.
http://hiro-shio.blogspot.jp/2008/11/special-report.html
We can meet there if you like (laugh)!
I wonder which dish you gave your coin to! The pasta looks excellent, although I wonder why they use frozen spaghetti...
I would have forgotten: I have seen many small towels of this kind sold in department stores. Apart from wiping on very hot days (I have seen men doing it in the subway), what is their use?
Have you ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? It's an excellent and extremely funny British book (it's the only science-fiction book I love). The towels' presence in Tokyo (which for some foreigners is almost science-fiction world) reminded me of the towel mention in the book. (I'm not sure if it will make you laugh without reading at least a bit of the book, but I found this website: http://www.towel.org.uk/)
Sissi: I gave my four coins to the four dishes I had, naturally!
The Grand Prix winner was:
Tai chazuke (a bowl of rice with sea bream on top, with tea poured over it)
http://www.kokusai-gotouchi.com/catalog-5/detail_catalog-5_contseq_1.html
This dish won the Grand Prix at the first such festival last year.
The second place: Minami Uonuma Kirizai Tamago Don (a bowl of rice with natto, vegetables, and raw egg)
http://www.kokusai-gotouchi.com/catalog-5/detail_catalog-5_contseq_11.html
Third: Itoigawa Black Yakisoba (Yakisoba with squid ink in the noodles)
http://www.kokusai-gotouchi.com/catalog-6/detail_catalog-6_contseq_18.html
I waited for nearly 20 minutes to get my spaghetti. I guess if they had used dried spaghetti, I would have had to wait for 2-3 times longer.
I can't think of uses other than drying your hands and wiping off perspiration...
I haven't read the book, but I visited the website you gave. It sounds very funny!
I guess that one of the reasons is that the Japanese is rather obsessive to cleanliness
Thank you, Hiroyuki, for the towel explanation and the awards details. I would have loved to taste the yakisoba with ink.
The book is very funny indeed (this is why I loved it because I'm not a science-fiction fan).
I have noticed that Japan and Japanese are very clean and I loved it (if you knew how many times I have to change the queue here in supermarkets because people before me simply stink... and no, they are not homeless or crazy; not to mention trams and buses in my city, so it was such a pleasure to travel with clean people in the subway...).
It always puzzles me how well liked italian pasta dishes are all around the world. There has to be one global taste bud which loves anything related to noodles and tomatoes. I read about this event on Japan Times online and I thought: I wonder if Hiroyuki is going to visit and YES (laugh).
These towels are nice souvenirs. Going to collect some if I will ever make it to Japan (these and cheap paper fans and some wind chimes and and). Douglas Adams was a genius, sadly he died way too early.
Kiki: The Japanese have always loved noodle dishes, such as soba, udon, hiyamugi, somen, and ramen. And, as you may know, tomatoes are a great source of natural MSG. So, it's very natural that the Japanese love spaghetti (although "al dente" is all but forgotten in Japan).
Bokushi Dori is only a 15-minute walk from my house, and it was hard NOT to go there (laugh). (I went there by bicycle on both days.)
Kiki, I'm so thrilled to learn you also like Douglas Adams. So sad he died so young... I agree.
I often reread the parts of the Guide when I feel sad. Such intelligent and amusing books are very rare.
Hiroyuki, I wanted to say that tomato sauce is very umami but you have just did my mentioning MSG (which in Europe most people mix up with the concentrated powder, used too freely in cheap Asian restaurants).
(Going back to the towels, I have almost bought one with Moomins in a Moomin Café in Tokyo... but I thought it wouldn't be useful and bought spoons instead. I am so happy that Moomins are famous and loved in Japan!).
Hiroyuki: Only 15 minutes walking time, no wonder. If there is one reason to talk about Douglas Adams (beside the towel) in a food and cooking related blog: There is a wonderful scene in one of his books (The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul). The main character struggles and fights with his cleaning lady about who will open the fridge. The fridge was left untouched since a long time. Both are frightened of whatever may live and procreate in that special and closed filthy fridge enviroment and both don't want to be the first one who is going to open it. A great showdown... kitchen related problems (maybe not in Japan).
Kiki, I don't remember this scene at all, but do you remember the scene ("The restaurant at the end of the world" if I remember well the title) where the pig presents itself as a dish??? I loved it!
(Sorry, Hiroyuki, I hope you don't mind)
Sissi and Kiki: Moomins are very popular in Japan, even when I was a child (more than 40 years ago), but Douglas Adams is not so popular. I did some googling and found that there are some huge fans of him in Japan, too.
Maybe we (in western Europe) are more influenced by trivia english literature than people in Japan? Douglas Adams wrote very intelligent humorous trivia as Terry Pratchett did until resently (sadly Alzheimers disease is destroying his beautiful mind now). I like this so called "black" kinky english humor and Douglas Adams raised my interest in Quantum dynamics quite a lot - this fridge problem reminds on Schroedingers cat.
Besides it is kind of hard to find any books in our stores from japanese authors except Haruki Murakami (and he writes no trivia - I am a huge fan).
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