El Salvador is back in business! This means museum time [YQrtw Day 119 Aug 7]

Location: San Salvador, El Salvador

[I have been binge-watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and I’ve almost forgotten to write today’s post.]

After 6 days of holiday in El Salvador, the country is back into school and business mode. For the tourist, this is much better news as it means shops are finally open and there aren’t too many people on the streets.

For me, this means I can finally visit the museums.

Since there were only two museums on my to-visit list, I left the hostel at around 11am. Unfortunately, proper restaurants do not open until noon so I had to settle with a few mini pastries from a bakery and a cafe latte from a cafe.

I strolled back to Zona Rosa (the tourist area) to see the museums. Roads in San Salvador are kind of strange. The vehicles need to follow the road and make a big turn before it goes back to what should have been directly in front. That’s why I do not take the buses to Zona Rosa and prefer walking.

Walking in the El Salvadorian heat is quite a torture. Luckily, I have my umbrella from Sri Lanka or else I think I might get sunstroke. Umbrellas are also useful as defence weapons but luckily I haven’t needed to use it that way.

My first stop was the Archaeology Museum. For US$3, there wasn’t much to see there although I quite enjoyed the exhibit on religion in the country.

After the museum, I dropped by the restaurant in the compound. They have US$7 set lunches during the weekend. While eating, I started reading Love with a Chance of Drowning.

After the satisfying lunch, I had to trek up the hill to the art museum. I couldn’t figure out the entrance so I had to sit on the steps and stare out into space for a while.

I was glad to find the entrance in the end because the art museum is deliciously air conditioned. The exhibits were quite nice too.

Finding change for a bus ride

After the requisite museum visits, I was free (and quite bored). I initially planned to take the bus from Zona Rosa to the shopping malls but I realized that I only had 22 cents in change and US$10 and US$20 bills.

The buses that stopped had the fares written on their windows. One mini buses listed 32 cents and I remembered that the other mini bus I took was 25 cents. I don’t have enough!

So I had to walk a long way to the malls. However, I stopped to catch my breathe at one of the bus stops and found a big bus that charges only 20 cents. I hopped on, asked about the fare, gave my money and sat next to a fat man who decided to spread his knees even more after I sat down.

By the way, the big buses in El Salvador has turnstiles on them! TURNSTILES! I took a sneak shot of the object.

I bought some soap at the supermarket. Then I bought a local SIM card even though I would only be in the country for another 5 days. You never know when it’ll come in handy.

After the malls, I walked back to the hostel. I decided that I would visit Santa Ana tomorrow for 3 nights because I’m rather bored with San Salvador.

I searched for rooms in Santa Ana but strangely, they were all booked out on the online accommodation sites. In the end, I had to SMS one of the hostels. Fortunately, they arranged a room (through SMS!) so I will not be roofless tomorrow.

Eating Japanese in El Salvador

For dinner, I visited a Japanese restaurant I found on Foursquare. The restaurant was located in the residential area and was actually in a house! There wasn’t a proper sign outside and they only had a fluttering stand-sign near its door.

To enter, you have to ring the house doorbell and they will show you in. The interior was a dark mysterious red. The food was also mysterious since they only had sushi rolls.

I chose the OMG roll which had some unagi-like meat on top of my roll. The taste wasn’t something I was familiar with but it wasn’t as bad as the supermarket sushi I had in San Francisco.

After dinner, I head back to the room for some LBD watching. Now it’s time to go to bed since I need to wake up early tomorrow for check out.

CIao!

#FoodFri Glutton at Tsukiji, Tokyo

Tokyo’s Tsukiji is the famous fish market. Some guidebooks recommend visiting early in the morning at around 5 a.m. to catch the tuna auction.

Being the lazy glutton, I didn’t wake up that early. I did visit Tsukiji, but only for the sushi which was slightly disappointing.

As I didn’t want to walk around with an open guidebook, I roamed the outer stalls of Tsukiji and missed the inner market.

Tamagoyaki

I broke my fast with a tamago-yaki, or grilled egg, on a stick from Yamanaga. It wasn’t the most famous tamago-yaki stall in Tsukiji but the egg tasted yummy.

I ordered the warm tamago-taki which came on a styrofoam plate. There was some shredded white radish with sauce which gave the sweet grilled eggs a balanced flavor.

Sushi at Tsukiji

It is sacrilegious to visit Tsukuji without eating sushi. So after my tamago yaki, I went off to find my breakfast.

I stopped at the main chain of Sushizanmai. I had to wait outside before I was ushered into the restaurant before I was seated at the counter.

I ordered a sushi set which was disappointing. I was not as yummy as I thought it would be. I suspect I ordered a lower quality set.

From my side of the counter, I saw the chefs work. One took a fish out of the tank, sliced the flesh off its bones and served the slices on a plate.

It was a bit horrifying watching the fish die in front of my eyes. But I forgot about it after I bit into my piece of onigiri.

Ramune

When I walked back to the train station, I passed by a stall selling drinks for 100 yen. I picked ramune which tasted like ice cream soda. At the top of the bottle, there is a frustrating marble rolling around which sometimes blocked my from enjoying the drink.

I never figured out how to get the marble out. But some people have videos of how you can do it.

Checkout my other Glutton in Tokyo posts

Day 1: #FoodFri Glutton in Kamakura + Tokyo
Day 2: #FoodFri Glutton in Tokyo 2

#FoodFri Glutton in Kamakura + Tokyo

In case you don’t know. I love Japanese food very very much.

During my short work trip to Japan, I had a few days to roam around eating.

Instead of flooding everyone with too many yummy food, I’m splitting the meals into different days.

For today, we’re having meals from Day 1: Lunch at Kamakura and Dinner in Tokyo.

Day 1

Zaru soba at Kamakura Karari

I took a side trip to Kamakura on day 1 because my N’EX and Suica package includes the Kamakura stop.

I was really hungry when I walked on the streets of Kamakura. But I did not dare pop into casual-looking but surely expensive cafes so I wandered around.

I found several people waiting outside Karari. I entered the doors but was asked to wait outside and write my name on a piece of paper.

Kamakura soba restaurant kitchen — Karari restaurant kitchen

It was an open kitchen concept restaurant. The chefs fried tempura while the customers watched. The second floor was for tour groups so I was stuck downstairs.

The meal was great. I loved the free flow of cold tea as well.

Yayoiken at Minami-senju

The restaurant near my hotel at Minami-senjuu had coupon machines at the door (like Nakau!).

I chose a pork chop set because Japanese katsu is delicious! There’s even unlimited refill of rice if you’re hungry.

Unfortunately, my pork smelled in a bad way. At least the miso soup was ok.

#FoodFri California rolls are undeniable

Who says my #FoodFri has to be about good food? Not everything I put in my mouth taste yummy–especially that mouthful of detergent I once accidentally sipped.

So today, I shall show you one of the most disgusting meals I had in the US. Hmm… I think it’s the *only* disgusting meal I had.

I knew I needed to eat sushi in San Francisco but I was too timid to enter posh looking shops. In the end, I picked up a sushi set from Safeway supermarket.

If I could travel back in time, I would devote all my energy to change the course of my life around 8-9pm May 23. I would stop myself from buying this set even if it means physically forcing Marty McFly out of the time machine.

The wasabi tasted suspiciously like chilli. I wonder if they put jalapenos in it.

The California roll was sad. It has the traditional avocado in it–leaving me feeling “UH?”. The not yummy taste could not be covered up by the wasabi. Sad!

The salmon. Is this San Francisco? How could your fish taste so bad? They must have been made in China.

But what can I expect? It’s supermarket sushi. (Although I still can’t believe Cold Storage sushi can be better.)