No matter where in the world you live, it's a good feeling to be become 'regulars' at a favorite restaruant.
Our restaurant is Ampresso, an Italian place with fabulous food only 5 minutes' walk from our house. When I walked in last night, the staff commented on the haircut.
If that weren't enough to assure me that we are valued customers, Satoru Ito, the owner and head chef, shared his recipe for a delicious sauce that goes with tuna carpaccio. He drew it in pictures with English and Japanese captions then explained it all to us step-by-step. Plus he gave us a litre of the special soy sauce from Kyushu we'll need to make the sauce. I guess we'll be making a lot of tuna carpaccio!
After dinner, Ito-san treated us to cake and coffee. Could you ask for anything better? What a nice guy!
Ito-san, who loves to fish and lived in Italy for a while, has a website. It's mainly in Japanese but there are lots of pictures and some of his Ampresso recipes.
The sauce for that tuna dish? Hurry up and come back as soon as you can and invite the Boy and I over for dinner!
Heh. You know we will. :-)
I'd love to go that shop if I were still in Tokyo!
Our family started fishing since we came to Oita, and very often we go.