Ickle Me Pickle Me Tickle Me too

If you don't know what the title is a reference to, shame on you. I had written about Honda ya once before and have gone a few more times since then. Here's a short blurb of the last visit w/ some family during Christmas break.

I noticed this time, as we were seated, we were given some free house pickled cucumbers or pickles, wtf? LOL (I hate that word, but it seemed right to use it here) seriously what's the difference? And more importantly, where did word pickle come from? It's a funny little word, giving a short, light tickle on my brain every time I say or think of it. (Research shows that 50% of the people who read this just said "pickle" aloud). According to WikiAnswers, "English got the word pickle from Middle Low German pekel, which means 'sharp in taste.' Words like pike and picket also derive from the same source as pickle." But I digress. These pickles (roffle) had a pleasant spicy note to it.

For the starters, we ordered some nasu miso (eggplant). If you like eggplant and have never tried this before, this is something worth checking out. Nutty and not too salty...I want to learn how to make this.

and stewed kabocha, which was served cold. Sweet and salty. I ate the rind too. Another thing to try making; I found a recipe on a blog called "The Sprout and the Bean."

My cousin went for the Udon with mountain yam (grated tororo), but she didn't like it because the yam made everything else too gooey.

After some deliberation (they offer a wide variety of food on their menu), I decided to be boring and ordered the kimchi ramen again. I was disappointed that it wasn't as spicy as last time, but still a nice thing to have on a winter night (take that with a large block of salt as I do live in southern California).

The service was slow this time around. The other times I haven't had any complaints, but our waitress just wasn't on the ball that night.

With some dessert at Yogurtland(my goodness, it's ridiculous how many of these are popping up with its dopplegangers right across the bloody street), we drank hot cocoa and ate popcorn by the fireplace while playing a lopsided game of Monopoly, in which my sister killed us all. Needless to say, I don't have a strong desire to play that game for a while.

Of course, we ordered some skewers from the grill, but I didn't take any pictures of those, seeing how I had enough already from the last post.