Going Japanese on Our Post Thanksgiving Dinner

I took a trip to the capital city for my four-day holiday last week. It was nice to be with  family and friends even for a short time. I took advantage of the time and went Christmas shopping . I also had a post Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and closest friends. The original plan was to have a traditional Thanksgiving  dinner complete with roasted turkey and cranberry sauce but my cousin J had to leave the country for her visa renewal. Instead we indulged in a delicious Japanese set meal at Ootoya Restaurant not far from home. Despite the absence of  Thanksgiving dishes, we had a wonderful time spent catching up. To me, that mattered most.


We browsed the menu. The set meals looked good and appetizing. It was difficult for us to decide what to order. Drinks had to come first so my friend and I ordered hot green tea, another friend wanted mineral water and my sister asked for cold soymilk which by the way was so good that I regretted not ordering it.

Hot green tea and cold soymilk

My sister had this udon noodles. I was so preoccupied  being too excited to share  my adventures that I didn't bother trying this. Sis said it was good. I trust her judgment.

In our circle of friends, the rule when eating out is not to order the same thing so we can get to try different stuff.  The salmon which one of them had ordered wasn't available so both of my friends had ordered the same set meals. We let it pass this time M and Dr. R.

Ootoya's set meal consisted of rice,seaweed salad, shredded radish,steamed egg tofu, grilled fish, miso soup and pickled vegetables

My sis also ordered potato croquette. She had to give it  away  when she found out it had beef in it. The crispy outer layer and the soft potato filling complemented each other. Delish!

Miso soup and steamed egg tofu

Seaweed salad,shredded radish and pickled veggies

This charcoal-grilled mackerel I had  was more flavorful. I asked M and Dr. R  to have a taste  and they both agreed it's way better than the ones they had.

My charcoal grilled mackerel.