A Very Expensive Meal

This place is recommended in Lonely Planet, Sven and I tried to hunt it out a month ago but we didnt have much luck especially because Sakae is like a labyrinth to negotiate. Japanese classes are divided into levels of fluency starting with 101 (me) then 102, 201, 202 etc. Those in 201 are considered to be more or less fluent. Anyway, the point is it took a group of 102 and 201's over an hour to find this restaurant so Sven and I didnt really have a chance. The restaurant specialises in chicken dishes so you can pretty much get chicken in any shape or form. Even raw chicken.

This is our plate of very very expensive raw chicken, its supposed to be a delicacy. Now, I am one for trying most things since... well, you only live once, right? But I have to admit that I was a little screamish about eating raw chicken. C'mon, Edwina Curry had a point; chicken nowadays is infested with samonella! There were five types of raw chicken on our dish and one of them was literally a bit of sliced chicken breast, like the type we get at Sainsbury's. Eeek! In the centre of the dish, we had chicken with fresh egg cracked on top, which might as well be called 'one bite to food poisoning'.

We deliberated the risk of eating it, even though we knew curiosity would get the better of us eventually. Plus, we'd already paid a ridiculous amount of money for it so we should at least have a taste. We wondered, if we died knowingly eating raw chicken and egg, would STA still pay our parents compensation for our untimely death?

The chicken pieces were tiny, as most things are in expensive restaurant, but there were 7 of us so we had to cut it all up into & liddly pieces so everybody was in the same boat. You know what, it didnt taste bad at all! I mean, it was bloody scrumptious if you could forget the fact that you were eating raw chicken. And we've lived to tell the tale.

We had other dishes too, and I had an unhappy incident when I bit into a 'chicken satay stick' to discover that it was in fact pure chicken fat. Yuck! So when they say we could get any type of chicken, they really mean any type of chicken. Sven and Felix had chicken cartilage, Kevin also mistakenly bit into chicken fat, but the whole experience was deemed to be entirely enjoyable and most of the dishes were really yummy. We'll be heading back though maybe next time we'll give the chicken fat a miss.