1 Name: Anonymous : 2006-07-09 14:50 ID:BVMqTUqO [Del]
Tanuki udon, unlike what its name implies, does not actually involve noodles served with chunks of raccoon-dogs. Like the infamous kitsune udon ("fox noodles"), it refers instead to a hot noodle soup or stew-like dish native to Japan, which includes a fried component to add texture and flavor to the bowl. In the case of tanuki udon, this is fried blobs of tempura batter, whereas kitsune udon uses fried sweet tofu. It happens to be one of the more popular dishes to be enjoyed by American otaku who've not had the chance to sample Japanese cuisine previously, and consequently it also happens to be one of the dishes which can literally make or break a take-out restaurant in an area near a college campus.
Sakaki's was discovered by Sarah Harrison shortly after her arrival on campus, not due to any greater wellspring of knowledge beyond realizing that the restaurant happened to share a surname with one of her favorite characters. Kelly Brookfield was hauled bodily to the shop after only one visit, where she too became enraptured by the food. It didn't hurt that the primary waitress and owner's daughter, Jennifer, was a very tall Japanese-American woman attending classes in her senior year at the campus. In short, Sakaki's became the de facto meeting place of the university's anime club. Many of the details of Inconsequential had been suggested there, either by the two organizers or by Jennifer herself.
The restaurant was on the fringes of what could be considered 'accessible' by convention standards, especially in winter. Nevertheless, Sakaki's was backlogged by at least an hour by the time Sarah ordered the food. She herself had ordered yakisoba-pan, a fried noodle sandwich; Kelly ordered her usual gyudon, a bowl of rice topped with seasoned beef and onions; and River, who had not had much exposure to Japanese food, ordered a bowl of tanuki udon, as it seemed to be reasonably vegetarian.