xbuzzerx
CE&P Secret Police
I'd post that I'm not a fan of cilantro, but I can't think of anybody here who probably wouldn't have guessed that already. I have an extremely poorly developed palate.
I do like a Japanese restaurant here in town called Domo. With a name like that, you might expect nothing but California rolls and teriyaki chicken. But it's run by a northern Japanese guy who specializes in "northern Japanese rural cuisine". One notable thing about the restaurant - no soy sauce on the table. I was told that adding soy sauce after the dish reaches your table implies the cook doesn't know what the fuck he's doing.
Oddly, the restaurant is mainly a sidelight for the owner - the place is mainly an aikido academy, and many of the students live above the dojo and work in the restaurant.
Lex
That's definitely how "real Japanese chefs" are. Americans are really used to the "variety menu" type of one-stop Japanese food restaurants where the cook isn't really a specialist at any one thing. You pretty much know the place is authentic if they don't leave out a lot of seasonings for you and if the menu is pretty limited to one area of food-- tempura chefs, sushi chefs, teppan chefs etc. are considered totally different training and specialties in Japan, even ramen and udon chefs are separate despite both being noodle soups. So usually restaurants have either ramen or udon but rarely both. If they have both it's like a Japanese Dennys as far as quality.
This place near me with a tempura chef from Japan got (in)famous on yelp for putting this sign up, which they later had cast in metal for outside by the door:

Also at this placed if you asked for a different kind of seasoning salt or soy sauce or whatever... the chef WOULD ask you what was wrong with the way he prepared it and put you on the spot.


he can't be my boyfriend if he can't deal with me like that. someone really has to like me in order to deal with that. you know, that's one reason why i'm not on facebook spewing my inner thoughts, acting a fool and saying crazy things because people will misunderstand and take them the wrong way instead of just seeing that i'm just being me. they may think that i'm crazy when i'm just joking around being silly because they're used to seeing me in a certain setting, behaving myself, acting normal.