chick murray

obvious things aside, there's little I really miss from Scotland. when you have a good reminder though - it jogs the memory something chronic. like going for dinner tonight.

my brother-in-law's back from singapore for a week and we were chatting at the driving range over some tea and a cigarette last night, as guys do. apart from reminding me that osaka is actually hotter than singapore because of the humidity (remembering singapore is on the equator) he was mentioning a french guy he knows there who speaks Japanese very well. anyway - he was mentioning that although he's skilled, he does speak like a woman. an unfortunate side effect of having the bread knife teach you, but an effect one must consider none-the-less.

so the father-in-law rocks up this evening to take me to curry with mates in tsuruhashi and I have this on my mind. it's funny - we get on very well in a low but increasingly communicative relationship. Junichi is your typical Osakan male - with full on dialect. to say he asks friends if they're making money would be an understatement. we're doing pretty well tonight, both of us becoming more adventurous with our language - me trying not to sound too feminine. and we get to tsuruhashi - where douglas junior made the movie. you know. black rain. tsuruhashi is raw - both culinary and culturally. it's the real, modern, urban osaka - visually grotesque but bursting with amazing food and very genuine people with some great anecdotes. there are less sword weilding bikers these days though.

after picking up a seemingly random man (Junichi tends to keep his cards close to his chest) the curry shop we ended up at was both authentic and tasty: nan, lassi, long grain rice, samosas, the lot. five others joined us including Yuka and it felt strangely like being back in scotland (indian curry is scotlands national dish). it was interesting to watch the locals slightly perplexed with the food and saying "karai" (spicy) alot and asking for chopsticks and not too sure about the foriegn beer and definitely not into the rice. it's a funny thing isn't it - the japanese are particularly proud of their rice. it is nice though. just not with indian curry.

so my father in law works at a major food-sauce company who supply to trade and the mystery guest we met on the street was one of the chefs. I found out tonight that there's nothing worse than sitting across from a chef who works in a major food sauce company - they eat far too clinically. but tonight I shall rest well with a belly full of pukka scran.