Hanamiya, Kanda (葉菜海家)

This place was identified by a guy in Legal, who told my colleague from Retail, who took me there today, and we ate a lot. It's a little dark and grubby, but they say it has a line out the door most of the time (coincidentally, it's right across the street from Bistro Ishikawatei, which always used to have a line out the door and down the street, but today had no one waiting).

Fish is the recommendation. My colleague You had the grilled option (an obscure type of snapper today, akoudai), while I went with the salmon oyakodon. If you know your oyakodon, you'll know that the salmon version is raw salmon strips topped with salmon eggs. In this case, lots of salmon eggs. And pretty good salmon. You know, I've come to think of salmon in Japan the same way I do chicken in America - I'm not so excited, and I'm going to avoid it if I can, because I bet it's even more full of hormones and chemicals than other types of meat. This isn't a slight on Japanese salmon, of course, but unless they tell you where in Japan it came from, you can assume it's Chile or Norway, and Japanese salmon is seasonal and rare. I said this to You (learning some good vocabulary in the process, a couple words I've learned in the past but hopefully have embedded now), and he agreed that good sushi places probably never have salmon on the menu.

Enuffa my yakkin! It's Friday!

I would not give you false hope.
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