A Weekend of Eating

This weekend featured a lot group eating events.  There were no eating contests (as far as I knew) but I had a really great time at several different venues with several of our Yokosuka friends.

On Friday, we went to World Wine Bar for a Pascual Toso wine dinner.  The wine bar is one our group likes a lot up in the Motomachi District of Yokohama.  They have a great menu of food and wine and the atmosphere is really pleasant.  An added bonus is that one of the women who works there speaks excellent English and she is usually there.

We had 3 courses: an empanada-style tart cut into triangles, a corn/sausage/beef stew that was heavy on the vegetables and employed the concept of "meat as a seasoning" perfectly and a steak.  It was delicious and the wines paired really well. The group went in on a case and a half of the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva and half a case of the Malbec.  Ordering wine is awesome because the price includes delivery through the Black Cat system.  This means we didn't have to carry the wine and we could pick the exact date we wanted for delivery.  Oh Japan, I will miss you and your efficiency!

On Saturday, I went for a 5 mile run in the morning to get a long run in and take advantage of the break in the weather.  It has been so rainy lately!  Afterwards, SMS and I did a little YouTube camera review watching before heading up to Yokohama for a field trip.  First, we went to the Ramen Museum for lunch.  We tried a new vendor and got a salt broth and soy sauce broth ramen.  SMS was really happy to try a new place and it was pretty good.  My favorite is still the heart-stopping heart attack in a bowl Tonkatsu ramen, which is made with fatty-fat pork broth.  Yum!

After lunch, we headed to Kamiooka to go shopping at Yodobashi camera.  We bought the Fuji XQ2 since my old point-and-shoot was on its last legs.  It's an awesome camera with some great in-camera software so I'm really happy.  What's even cooler is that SMS was able to negotiate a price match with amazon.jp's price so we saved about 15%.  Yeah!  After our shopping excursion, we headed home and relaxed.  We had tuna cakes for dinner, which was a light, cheap choice after an afternoon of ramen and shopping!

On Sunday, we met up with friends at the SPASSO Oyster Market and had baskets of delicious seafood, grilled on our table mini-grills.  Oysters sometimes pop with vigor when being grilled which slightly freaked out a few of our friends.  It was definitely an experience.  I'm not sure if everyone will be heading back anytime soon but it was fun to do something so seasonal.  The oyster markets are usually open from Jan-Apr although it looks like SPASSO will be open until May.  I imagine this is due to the fairly chilly Spring we had, but really, I have no idea.

Afterwards, we headed up the hill behind the Yokosuka Art Museum to an awesome roller slide.  We used our plastic slide seats to sit and then launch ourselves down the really long slide.  It takes about 20-30 seconds to get to the bottom and it is so fun!  There are two turns and in between, a person picks up a lot of speed!

Getting ready for sliding adventures!

We all parted ways and then met up a few hours later in Kawasaki for a SoCal Mexican food fiesta!  Cactus Burrito is a delicious restaurant where Adam had made reservations, which is definitely necessary since the restaurant is so small.  Most of us ordered the SoCal burritos, which is carne asada and fries.  So good!  Mark and I had been once before although we've tried a few other times and we always seem to catch the rotating day off.  Sagoy, so sad in the past but so happy on Sunday!