We were not sure exactly what fare is on offer at this enticing
restaurant, but feel sure that it tastes better than its English description
might suggest!


On second thoughts, the food on offer may resemble the above, in which
case the description would be fully justified. Inexplicably, Jeff was
persuaded to try one of these cold soy noodle rolls - truly revolting!


We were surprised by the cost of certain types of food in our local
supermarket. Perhaps the hardest to comprehend is the price of rice, the
Japanese staple. A standard, 1kg bag of rice costs around 10 euros!
Although less than in the past, most Japanese still eat rice two or three
times a day (in fact, the Japanese word for "meal" is "gohan", which
translates as "cooked rice"). Thinking about it, though, rice production is
an extremely labour intensive process and labour costs are much higher
in Japan than in, say, neighbouring China; Japanese rice, used in sushi
is also fairly unique, and the government subsidies its production in
what is still a large part of the Japanese economy. Bread prices are also
very high: Japan has virtually no wheat production.

Food in Japanese supermarkets is presented immaculately, which pretty
much reflects Japan as a whole. A huge amount of food also needs to be
imported, and the authorities take great care to monitor the quality of
food imports as the effects of contaminated produce could be devastating
for an island nation with little variety to its locally-grown production.
Even so, the cost of faily basic fruit and vegetables is surprising!


Tightly-protected apples costing over 2 euros for a pack of two!


Now we count 8 strawberries per pack, each pack costing 3.5 euros, which
works out at nearly 50 cents per strawberry!


Cherry tomatoes! Hah! Too small for the Japanese, and so these come in at
a bargain 1.45 euros per small pack. Standard icebergs, however, cost
exactly the same!


The Japanese want big! Two standard salad tomatoes set you back well
over 2 euros!


A bit of vitamin C? It'll cost you - 8 mandarines will cost you nearly 5.5
euros!


The bargain of the lot, however, are the turnips! These are the local
speciality and can be seen everywhere. And they are enormous!!! Here is
Jeff reluctantly peeling a turnip that was to last us over 2 weeks!


We did manage to cook a lot at home, however, once we found out what
the least expensive types of food are. Here is María at our 'dining-room'
table, about to tuck into freshly-fried tempura!