Supper in Obihiro

Here are some pictures of dinner in Obihiro last night with Kevin, Yuki and Natsue. Cardinal turned out to nothing like I was expecting. The space it self is hard to describe. "Small" is one word to use I suppose. When I think of "trendy", I think of a restaurant like Earls or something, but Cardinal was very different. It specializes in what it describes as "World foods". While the food is served Japanese style, meaning it's put in the middle of the table for everyone to pick at, the choices were very exotic. Take a look at some sample images below. Smoked ham from Spain. A BLT wrap (top right of the image). Just look at all that bacon! My chest feels tight today. Natsue's honey toast took forever to come out. We joked that they were baking the bread and harvesting the honey by hand. I'll admit the wait was worth it, the toast had a consistency nearer to cake and was delicious. The whole meal was excellent.




We had needed to make reservations weeks ago because the restaurant had become so popular. We were sitting near the door - every seat is near the door because the space is so small - and saw no less than six couples turned away. The place itself would be nearly impossible to find unless one had specific knowledge of it's existence. In the nature of all good Japanese restaurants the location is deeply hidden away among back streets, narrow alleys, dark doorways, and long staircases. The whole restaurant is nightly staff by only two people; doing duties as both servers and cooks. A situation that I am pretty sure is illegal in Canada but goes unnoticed here. I took the image below in a lull between two groups of fourteen; one can make out the entire kitchen in the picture. Next we stopped at one of the coolest kareoke bars I have seen; Ninja Kareoke. The whole interior is designed like a traditional, but touristy, Japanese street. But when one steps into the little private kareoke booths, one is again transported back to ultra-modern Japan complete with video projector systems, hifi-sound, wireless mics, and leather benches. What fun!