I am back

Hi, I'm home now. It was a pretty interesting trip in the South West United States. My image of the United States has been changed in a lot of ways actually, but maybe it will be changed when I go North or East too.

I wrote that the Ministry of Agriculture said they will make a system to rate the quality of food served at Japanese restaurants abroad. Here is the page. But it received unfavorable criticism as "Sushi Police". Then the Ministry of Agriculture changed it, saying they won't make a "Certification of Japanese Restaurants," but rather a "Supporting system." But basically the contents have not changed. Ha -- at any rate, the Japanese government wants to monitor restaurants abroad. However, actually it was very hard to find a nice-looking Japanese restaurant on this trip. Las Vegas will be a target of the Sushi Police, and I must admit there are many tricky restaurants. Perhaps the menu looks okay but the rates are unreasonably expensive, or most of them are Chinese, Korean mix or something else that I don't know. I did not go to this one, but as long as I checked reviews, many Japanese recommended this Izakaya shop "Ichiza" in Vegas. By the way, did you know "French chefs seek UNESCO heritage recognition of French cuisine"? Japanese chefs can do that before sending for the Sushi Police.

In my trip, I ate a lot of Mexican food in Arizona and Mexico near the boarder. It was pretty yummy and cheap! In Japan, Mexican is very expensive, but finally some Mexican food restaurant chain lowered the price a little bit. This is the Mexican restaurant chain "El Torito" official site. The price of combination plates are $9 - $12. I think it was more before. Not a chain restaurant, I heard Posta del sole in Shimotakaido is good. By the way, I loved to eat Mexican food, but it was impossible for me to eat menudo, which I can't find anywhere in Mexican restaurants in Tokyo. Maybe good menudo would be different, but what I ordered smelled like a zoo....orz.

Comments

[Gwen]

I love Menudo!!! It's the best thing ever, the one in the shop near where I live in Georgia has wonderful menudo it is actually run by Mexicans. The soup doesn't smell bad when it's hot but when it cools yes it smells terrible, so try to drink it fast. Wow my mouth is salivating from thinking about it, since they only make it on Sunday!

[Mari]

Hi there
Tadaima! I would like to write about my trip and the U.S when I have related topic. I had great time basically, but I felt the U.S lost some charm a little. Maybe I am too synical or getting old to enjoy so simply.

[ttancm]

The sushi police is a bad idea I think.

Generally only Japanese run restaurants will be certified but there are good (for example) Korean run Japanese restaurants and bad Japanese run Japanese restaurants as well so just certifying restaurants that are run by Japanese isn't such a good idea.

Besides it's just a way for the government to try and sell more Japanese ingredients and make money off of the "certification system" which will of course charge restaurants to be certified =P

[lili]

Mari! I'm glad you are back!! yes Japanese food over here is quite overpriced. I learned the good spots with my Japanese class mates, I'm in OC, I usually go to Mitsuwa (a supermarket) its food court is pretty good, not fancy but very authentic.
I wanna hear more of your experience around here..
Yesterday bought some "devil's tonge" NEED to diet!! haha please comment more on that.
Merry xmas! :)

[Ryan A]

Mexican cantina's are a lovely environment, good drinks also. As for Japanese eatery in the USA, I think there tends to be "extra" costs with popular foods, and sushi is definitely popular.

When I was recently in Las Vegas, there was a place in a suburb called I Love Sushi. It was pretty good, and the price was average. Downtown Denver has a nice place as well called Sushi-Den.

[bshock]

On our last trip to Vegas, my wife and I ate at a sushi restaurant called "Shibuya" in the MGM Grand hotel. It had a bit of a "Blade Runner"-like atmosphere, and the food seemed quite tasty, though as vegetarians our choices were limited. Still, several Japanese people were eating there also, so it couldn't have been too horrible. I spent $100 for the both of us, including a nice tip (which I'm told is not a Japanese custom). So perhaps this was one of the unreasonably expensive places you mentioned.

[Marco Bresciani]

Hello Mari,
welcome back! :-)

I agree with Ministry of Agricolture to check Japanese restaurants abroad, because here in Italy there are so many "Japanese" restaurants managed by Chinese or Italian people and food quality is not as good as true Japanese restaurants.
Also, prices are quite high...

Instead, even if true Japanese restaurants have quite high prices... quality is so good! I've recenlty ate in three different Japanese restaurants: one "fusion" managed by Italian and Chinese (not so bad...), one completely chinese (very romantic place with aquarium floor but quality not so high) and "the one" :-) true Japanese... the only one with Japanese people eating inside...

Mari san, if you'll ever visit Italy I can accompany you there: http://www.tomoyoshi-endo.com/tomoy06g/index.html if you want I'll be your guide in Milan. :-)

Welcome back again to your interesting blog!

[Ken]

Welcome back! It sounds like you had a fun trip. Beside Mexican food, what else did you like or dislike?