A friend called me out, so I went to Kobe for the first time in a while. It was a day trip, the friend who invited me isn’t exactly a foodie, and it was pouring rain, so it wasn’t the most fulfilling trip, but it beat rolling around on the floor at home. Lately I’ve been getting a preview of life as a lonely old man, so I head out anywhere whenever there’s a chance to travel. It’s tiring, but you do what you have to do to stay alive.
The menu at The Old Spaghetti Factory
The menu looks like a newspaper. The Old Spaghetti Factory is a spaghetti restaurant in the Renga Soko brick warehouses near Mosaic in Kobe. I’ve been to Kobe so many times, but this was my first time at the brick warehouses. Apparently it’s a family restaurant chain well known in places like the US and Canada. They say there are three or four branches in Japan. Being a family restaurant, it’s no great gourmet spot, but the prices are fairly low and the building itself is wonderfully old-fashioned, which really set the mood for a light weekend trip. The staff were friendly and pretty, too. It felt like I was on holiday in Kobe.
Bottomless bread
It tasted a lot like Outback’s bushman bread. Bottomless or not, the human stomach has its limits, so I think we ordered about three. There were two kinds of butter, and I think one of them was garlic.
Salad
Veggies are a must for good skin.
Spaghetti with meat sauce
Out comes a proper American-style meat sauce spaghetti. Nothing special, but if I had to put it a certain way, it tastes like home ^_^ When all you eat is authentic Italian spaghetti, you start to miss plain flavors like this. I should have ordered a large, but I was tired from driving, so I went with a regular. A day trip to Kobe is way too exhausting. Next time I’ll book a hotel for the night.
Ginger ale
I’m hooked on ginger ale these days. No alcohol, the fizz helps digestion, and it’s cheap and perfectly drinkable. If there’s something unusual on the menu I’ll order that, but usually I end up ordering ginger ale. I guess this is what they call personal taste.
Vanilla ice cream
Dessert is how the course ends. Considering the price, it’s pretty decent. Lately I’d been of the “price doesn’t matter” persuasion, so this was a chance to reflect. Ordinary people are perfectly happy with this much; I was the only one getting way ahead of myself.
After lunch we wandered around here and there, but there was nothing special.
An ordinary variety store
Step just a little outside Kobe’s busy downtown and it gets very quiet. We stopped by a shopping center and poked around. So quiet. The original plan was to head out of the city and enjoy some nature, but with the rain pouring down there was nothing we could do.
The view on Rokko Island
The rain just keeps on falling. Talk about picking the wrong day.
So we stopped at a cafe and I tried the roll cake
I hear Ashiya, an area near Kobe, is famous for roll cakes, and I’m guessing this place is in that tradition too. Getting delicious sweets even at a cafe you just wander into off the street is part of Kobe’s charm, I think.
And this is toast
Maybe the lunch spaghetti portions were a bit small, since everyone’s ordering something substantial enough to count as a meal ^_^
I just ordered a ginger ale.
First time I’ve seen a ginger ale like this. It had a strong fizzy kick.
Nankinmachi (Chinatown)
This is the street with Est Royal, my favorite dessert shop in Kobe. If nothing else is going on, I always end up there. I couldn’t take any nice photos because of the rain, though. Oh, and Kobe Port Tower, which had been under renovation, has reopened. If only it hadn’t rained, I could have enjoyed the night view. Such a shame.
Before heading home, we had dinner at a gyoza place called Akaman. We’d originally planned to eat at a Chinese restaurant in Nankinmachi, but it was expensive and there was no need to act like tourists, so we switched to a nearby place said to be cheap and tasty.
Sauces on the table
They say the mix is what matters, and the trick is to make good use of the miso at the back.
Two orders of gyoza
350 yen per order; they’re small, but tasty. What surprised me a little was that when we liked the two orders and tried to order more, they said they don’t take additional orders on weekends. I guess the lines get huge because it’s so cheap. It was raining that day, so there weren’t many people, though.
We ate cheap and well, and when we got up to leave, someone had walked off with the umbrella I’d left standing outside… Ugh… It was a fairly pricey one, so I actually came out behind. Living in a city, you always have to keep an eye on your own things. Looks like I’ve lost my touch.
Est Royal’s Marron Gascogne, which I bought again this time
No matter how many times I eat it, I still get that thrill I felt the very first time. I’d probably get sick of it if I ate it every day, but at a pace of once every two months, I think the thrill will last forever.