ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

I had a lot of fun yesterday. At 10 AM my friend and student took me on an udon tour! He had offered to pick me up from my house, but being a nice fellow I offered to meet him midway. So I met him by one of our school locations, only to discover as we start driving to the first udon shop that we were going way past my home to Sakaide! I suppose that I will have to ask him for trip details since he is such a nice guy that he would probably be willing to drive out of his way to be a good host. Well, apparently we were headed to a nation-, maybe even world-famous udon shop. And man was it delicious! It had a strong broth and the noodles were perfect. It was such a small shop, one which I suspect also doubled as the home for its shopkeepers and owners. It was so cramped that it actually made me nostalgic for the Philippines. I plan on returning to this place! The second udon shop we tried was in Takamatsu, right by his work place apparently. Of all the shops in Takamatsu he decided to let me experience his personal favorite shop. If I had any capacity for remembering any Japanese names then I would tell you right now the names of these two wonderful and wondrous shops. But alas, most place names remain impossible for me to retain (I still have difficulty remembering the order and names of the stops on my usual JR train rides). But I will say that this second and last shop was by the sea near a hospital in the factory area northeast from the shotengai. It is a business person’s favorite apparently, as all those I saw standing in line and downing their bowls were in work outfits. It stood out for the abundance of seaweed available for toppings and the noodle line’s requirement that we the customer actually heat up the noodles ourselves in a noodle-cooking hot bath.

I have pictured below two bowls of udon from this last place by the coast. On the left you will see my friend’s serving, while on the right you will see a serving size pretty typical of my appetites!