7.207

30 (Sat) July 2016

Kyuri Asazuke

3.5

from Lawson’s

in our hotel room

(Via Inn Higashi-Ginza)

-Chuo, Tokyo-

with the family

Mission to Japan : Day 2 (see previously 7.206 Sushizanmai Deluxe).

In Tokyo.  Arrived last night.  Here for a tobacco meeting today.  WDJIZ, along for the ride.  Flying back to Manila tomorrow.

While we did have a proper dinner in a formal restaurant, and then more to eat at a beer hall afterwards, the most gratifying food of the day — as unanimously agreed by the clan — comprised the snacks that we’d picked up in the convenience store on the ground floor of our hotel.

Kyuri Asazuke is a Japanese cucumber dish.  Sliced cucumber (kyuri), pickled (tzuke) with salt+sugar+vinegar, though only briefly (asa), optionally seasoned with a touch of soy sauce and/or sesame oil, often garnished with sesame seeds.  Served as side dish with all manner of courses.  One of the most basic and popular examples of tsukemono (see also 7.169 Oshinko Moriawase).

The snacks from the convenience store had been intended for me, nibbles to accompany the Japanese whiskies that I’d purchased to slosh into the night.  However, once the others had ventured a taste, initially out of curiosity, they couldn’t stop.  All, including me, were impressed by the variety of choices and the quality of each and every item, as if prepared in an actual kitchen upon order.  Slowly realizing that something from the spread should be featured for this post, it was already too late for photographic documentation — the kyuri asazuke wasn’t necessarily the best of the bunch, but it was the only item that I’d taken a photo of (for no particular reason).