Food Fun Friday- Ramen Baby!!

Welcome to the 2nd edition of Food Fun Friday.  It's already 9PM here, but for you state-siders it is still pretty darn early.  I am sad to say we only got off base to eat once this week.  Today I was on a mission to eat sushi, but unfortunately the whole dang town had the same idea and the line was out the door at our favorite "cheap" place to eat sushi.  Instead of driving to the nicer (more expensive and probably crowded as well) sushi joint, Sissy and I headed to the mall once more.  This time we hit one of the little restaurants, instead of eating in the food court. 

In Japan you'll notice that most of the restaurants either have big colorful pictures of their food, or an actual plate or two (and sometimes many many plates) of "display food".  It is like they prepared the dish, but then preserved it somehow so that it can be on display.  It reminds me of the fake fruit bowls back in the 70s and 80s.   Except of course everyone knows better than to try and take a bite of the food dispplays here.

So we picked by looking at the food display- a little ramen restaurant.  Here they have the  ticket machine where the customer places his or her order.  Usually they have the menu items in English, but not this place!  Lucky for us the waitress spoke very good English and she helped us place our order.  A kids plate for Sissy, pork ramen for me, and some gyoza to share.  Sissy's plate had fried rice, orange Fanta, and peach Jello.  Of course it was all very delicious (oishi).

entrance to the ramen restaurant at the mall

food display in front of the ramen restaurant, kind of weird, but it is very helpful for those of us who can't read sticks!

"kids' set"- they don't say "combo" they say "set" here, so I always ask for the kids' set for Sissy.  She got a toy as well.

My delicious pork ramen.  The white thing with the pink is a slice of boiled egg with a design done with food dye of some sort.  Did you know that slurping your noodles is totally acceptable in Japan?  In fact, it can be considered a compliment to the chef.  The men are much more boisterous than women in their slurping.  I have to say it always make me giggle.

GYOZA!  If you are unsure of what to order (read- scared), then order the gyoza, I haven't seen anyone mess it up yet- it is always TASTY!

For desert we stopped at the crepes place.  I LOVE CREPES.  Yum.  I have always ordered the dessert crepes, with ice cream or whatnot.  But next time I think I will try one of the savory crepes, for example the teriyaki chicken looks mighty delicious.

Atlanta Crazy Crepes, these guys are everywhere- very popular (and yes I have a punch card.)  Their motto is "Hold it in your hands, Love it in your Tummy!"  Yes indeed!

our crepes, best food invention ever

My final mention for food is a favorite of mine we discovered in one of the millions of convenience stores.  (I plan on devoting a post to 7-Eleven in the future.)  We thought it was just frozen fruit- but when you bite into them you not only get the fruit, but vanilla ice cream on the inside.  So yummy!

fruit/ice cream balls, what more can you ask for?

Itadakimasu!