The day before Christmas, we attended a party of fellow Pinoys. Of course, where there are Pinoys, expect nothing but good ol’ Pinoy food. Unfortunately, while Pinoy food is undeniably yummy, it usually consists of meaty dishes. Think adobo, kaldereta, paksiw, binagoongang baboy and sisig. All that oil and fat. Mmm, hmm.

So we decided to repent for our sins the next day and stay away from meat for a change. Too much meat is simply unhealthy, you know? I perused through a free magazine featuring several restaurants in Tsukuba, and found one where we can eat seafood. To my delight, there was a restaurant not far away from where we lived. The restaurant is called 天竜本店 (Tenryuu Honten). It is located on the Tsuchiura Gakuen Sen, just after the Nishi-odori intersection.

We ordered a 9-item course dinner, yes, 9 items for each one of us. The course is called あったかなべお膳（Attaka nabe o-zen). Nabe means “pot,” and “nabe ryori” refers to the food that is cooked or boiled in a pot. Aside from the nabe ryori, we had the usual Japanese food like tempura, sashimi, sushi, chawan mushi, cantaloupes for dessert, and four other items the names of which escapes me.

This photo shows the assorted tempura (top right), sashimi (bottom right: raw tuna and shrimp, among others). The covered one at the bottom left is chawan mushi. The big pot at the top left is just for holding the ladles and the chopsticks.

Chawan mushi is a steamed side-dish served in small bowls. (Chawan means “small bowl,” mushi means “steamed.”). It is like the famous Filipino egg-pudding or “leche flan,” minus the sweet taste.

My stomach used to turn when eating raw fish; but surely even that has changed over the years of living here. Incidentally, my favorite is the salmon (orange one at the top row).

This is the seafood nabe. Perfect for the cold weather!

We finally got our seafood “fix.” The only problem was, there was just too much food, we felt like bursting! 🙂