Italian Pasta in Japan

Basically, the Japanese LOVE noodles. Like, more than NZers love alcohol or bacon or Iranians love kebabs or rice. Though probably even more. Cause they have noodle festivals! Entire festivals dedicated to noodles! Noodles of several kinds but mostly there are 4; ramen (the thin and yellow fast-food Chinese noodle), soba (the healthy brown one made of buckwheat flour), udon (round and thick like moi) and somen (supermodel thin like moi in the future). Which are eaten hot, cold, on their own with dipping sauce, in a soup, in a stir fry and even as a patty in a burger bun! So you’d think after a life-time of living and breathing mamas home cooked Japanese noodles, they’d venture out when it came to dining at Bona Petito… No. What do they order? What SOLE pasta CAN they order? You got it, SPAGHETTI.

It’s funny, even their supermarkets, only sell spaghetti in their Italian/pasta isle. To be fair, on the odd chance, I might see shells or bow-ties, though I’m sure it’s not the Japanese buying those. As for all of the other good pastas; fettuccine, ravioli, tortellini, gnocchi etc they are only usually found in international import stores. Oh and when it comes to lasagne sheets, only the tiny square sized ones are sold because Japanese don’t have full-sized ovens in their homes.

So you go to an Italian restaurant and the only sort of pasta you can order is spaghetti.Which is fine… only a firstworldproblem and all but like, they’ll have packets of tagliatelle displayed around the restaurant for fun or as decoration to tempt you but they don’t actually serve that, no. Or any other pasta for that matter. Just spag. Just more fu&king noodles. #myjapanlife

Lunch with a view (review I’ve lost count)

Turns out Mimasaka ain’t as shit as what I initially thought. Apparently, good old Confucius was right: everything has beauty, but not everyone can see it or something like that. For up in the mountains in Yunogo, there is a little gem of a restaurant called Yukuru Terrace and it’s B.E.A.utiful.

Yukuru terrace is where I’d take my mama (if my mama were in Japan) for lunch. You know what I mean? It’s one of those places. Lunch with a view, free-wifi (if she starts giving you a lecture), an abundance of artsy magazines (probably for the same reason), hot sun shining through the large glass windows and slow slow relaxing (yukkuru) ambiance.

But before you start punching the address in your GPS, there’s a few things left to mention. According to my Japanese friend, they only serve 15 meals per day. After that, it’s only coffee and cake. So, if you want to have one of the two lunch options on offer, you should probably go as early as you can – they open at 11.

Both choices are 1400 yen with an option of adding a tea/coffee and cake for an extra 300.

Of course, we did that because it takes insane self-control to turn down cake and overall, everything was great.

For 1700 we were given a garden salad, sweet potato soup, octopus spaghetti, bread roll, coffee and a slice of apple ricotta cake fit for an anorexic caterpillar – you know, the usual Japanese standard.

Vegan Wholewheat Spaghetti

1 yellow onion (diced, small)
olive oil
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can/jar of organic all-natural pasta sauce
1 punnet of mushrooms (diced or as is)
1 small thingy of broccoli (sliced to individual pieces)
1 large ripe tomato (diced, small)
1/2 packet of organic wholewheat spaghetti (or soba!)
salt and chilli pepper

So easy, hardly a recipe at all…
1.fry onion with a little olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat until golden.

2.add the tomato paste to the onion and fry for an additional minute – this is my mama’s secret tip and what gives her food it’s vibrant colour

3.add the entire contents of the pasta sauce followed by the remaining vegetables to the pan (mushroom, broccoli and tomato) then turn down the heat and let simmer.

4.While  the sauce simmers, boil the spaghetti as per packet instructions.

Drain, rinse and add spaghetti to sauce mixture then season to taste.

Cook for an additional 5 or so minutes then nomnomnom with loved ones or as I did, in the beautiful company of yourself.

For The Love Of Spaghetti

Working in an Italian restaurant requires some serious self-control. Honestly, I want to eat everything. Don’t take that lightly, by everything, I mean everything (parmesan shakers and pizza boards included). No, I am not insane, I’m simply drunk on the intoxicating fragrance that is cooked PASTA. But, of all the pastas, my absolute favourite (and the one my entire being lusts after) is spaghetti.

Spaghetti is my rock. Spaghetti is romantic (I’m referring to Lady and the Tramp styles) it’s fun to eat (slurrrrp), it doesn’t take too long to prepare and it more than satisfies my tumtum. What I’m trying to say is, if I only had time to save one pantry item during a zombie apocalypse, it’d be spaghetti. This morning I woke up with spaghetti on my mind (naturally) and I felt it’d only be fair if you joined my delirious cravings also. So, here’s a short (yet powerful) collection of four spaghetti quotes that’ll have you cancelling your current evening plans in order to make an impromptu reservation at your local Italian restaurant. Buon Appetito!

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”-Sophia Loren

“No man is lonely eating spaghetti; it requires so much attention.” -Christopher Morley

“Spaghetti can be eaten most successfully if you inhale it like a vacuum cleaner.” -Sophia Loren

“I like my spaghetti like I like my women. All over my shirt.” ― Jarod Kintz

Spaghetti Ice-cream. WHAT IS LIFE?!

Spaghetti-loving humans: prepare to get a little bit excited. Click here for my recent piece on ‘Spaghetti Ice-cream’.