O-cha, kudasai?

October 8 2003

Lunch in Gotunda.... a little strange.
The lunch spot we were in reminded me of the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago.  "No Pepsi, Coke"  In this case, despite the presence of menus, only two things were on lunch offer -- one kind of donburi and one kind of soba.  We're still not sure what exactly was in with the soba, it looked like it was just tofu to me.  The limited menu continued -- my colleague Brendan Crotty asked for a Coke -- not available, either.
But the icing on the cake was when I wanted some green tea at the completion of the meal.  "O-cha, kudasai" I asked, using one of the small handful of Japanese phrases in my repertoire.  This sent the waitress into a tizzy of some kind, one which of course I didn't understand.  My host eventually explained that the restaurant did not serve hot tea.  Hello, am I in Japan?  Instead, the waitress excitedly brought us over a different hot drink .... it was the water that the pasta was boiled in.  Ewww!  I don't even know what to call this -- and none of us at the table could understand why anyone would drink it.

Ed Brill | Tokyo, Japan Category:  Travel  Add/View Comments [5]

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  1. 1  anata no onna wa desu  | 10/8/2003 1:01:25 AM

    :)

  1. 2  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 10/8/2003 10:04:28 AM

    "o-cha, kudasai" = "green tea, please"

    "soba" = spaghetti type of noodles

    "donburi" = a cutlet of meat served over rice

    "tofu" = well, you probably know that one

  1. 3  Gayle  | 10/8/2003 1:58:10 PM

    So...did you kindly send it back? I can't imagine what they were thinking or why they would offer you this...and I'm even Japanese!!! LOL. How was it determined that it was pasta water? Did you ask?

  1. 4  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 10/8/2003 3:28:16 PM

    yes, it was served to us as pasta water, and explained as such. The restaurant did have a lacquer teapot and teacups, which she put on the table with the water. So it seemed like they must use those dishes for something -- maybe someone likes to drink pasta water?

  1. 5  Neil http://deaffirefighter.blogspot.com | 10/9/2003 8:24:29 AM

    Only thing I can think of is if they served the pasta water WITH the meal, then that would make sense from a cook's standpoint.

    Some people like their pasta "wet" and others like it dry. If you ever watch "Molto Mario" on the food network, you'll see he always says to add pasta water to a sauce if it's becoming too "dry".

    But as a stand-alone.. ugh.