Two Weeks of Eating in Japan, Chapter 8.

Ironically, for me at least, there wasn’t much fried rice on the trip. I genuinely thought that I was going to chicken out of so much food on this trip and find solace in a bowl of inoffensive, tasty grains of goodness.  As it turned out, we ate it once, in a ramen restaurant in Kyoto called Gion, on Hanamikoji-dori.  It was a wonderful find, the day after our sad sushi across town. In fact, now I think about it, it might have been the same evening, just a little later on, as I remember us still being hungry after our first fateful dinner.

A grubby dive of a restaurant, this counter restaurant almost had us hightailing out of there as soon as we stepped in the door.  It looked like it was packed with locals, most of which were drunk. We were seated between a guy who was almost passed out in his noodles, and an American couple, who ordered after us and eyed up our special “Ass meat” ramen enviously. We ordered it with a side of fried rice. It was lovely stuff, served with pickles and nuts that cut through this greasy but flavoursome and well-seasoned heap of stodge. It complimented the ramen well, but, as the noodles were substantial enough, unnecessary, much like the sushi that preceded it.