Shakey's Japan

I remember these pics. Steff and I went to Shakey's in Shinjuku Higashi guchi. It was the Sunday after my birthday, last year (i.e. 2007). We went to go exploit the lunch buffet, something like 1000 yen for all you can eat pasta, pizza, and other odd Japanese side dishes like curry and rice (yes, at a pizza parlor). They have the best green jello I have every tasted in my life (pictured left). He's so wiggly and while I'm not too sure what flavor he is, he just tastes so nice. But getting back to the pizza, as it is supposedly a pizza parlor, Japanese pizza is really weird. You just have to accept it. They have weird combos like ham and scrambled egg (these are all pizza toppings), bacon mayonnaise potato, and maccha shiratamako anko. The last one is a dessert pizza (green tea mochi balls with sweetened black bean paste).

The pasta flavors are okay. I'm not really a spaghetti person, but they have stuff like peperonccino (sorry if that's spelled wrong), basil and olive oil, meat sauce, and of course the Japanese of all Japanese flavored pasta, tarako cream spaghetti with nori. If you don't know what that last one was, it's better that you don't. Most foreigners I've met in Japan are really weirded out by Japanese pizza and pasta flavors. There's a restaurant in Hawaii called Angelo Pietro's that serves something like Japanese-Italian fusion cuisine. I think it's in town, by Ala Moana, but my friend ordered natto spaghetti from there. I'm not really a natto person, so the thought kinda gives me goose bumps, but I always say, to each his own.

Oh, this thing here on the left is like the most amazing thing at Shakey's. It's some sort of breaded potato thing. Not like French fries, but it's nice and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. I've never been able to figure out what it is, but it is very nice. He has some sort of peppery seasoning in the breading, not herby, but very savory. This Higashi-guchi branch of Shakey's is towards Isetan, on the Tsutaya side, in the basement of some building. I forget where it is exactly--I'm getting Daiwa Securities Building for some reason, but don't hold me to it--anyway, the entrance is in the back of the building. It's better to go early as it fills up quickly. Not many foreigners at this one, mostly young Japanese people frequent this joint.

This post isn't really about a cooking adventure per se, but I just felt compelled to document some of my food pictures.