Why does the best food come from the strangest places?

There have been very few times in my life when I have felt the adventurous urge to eat somewhere completely bonkers, but on those occaisions I have found it to be the best food. In most cases I find that my fear of food poisoning, or getting shanked to death by a psychopathic muppet chef stop me from going to such places. This story is about two and a half of such instances where my sense left me and I tasted greatness...

The first and probably still the most memorable instance comes from my 2007 trip to South Africa. My family and I had just finished a visit to the apartheid museum near the Nelson Mandela memorial in Johannesburg(I think it was Johannesburg), and somehow after all of the shocking images and sad tales, we still found ourselves hungry... Some things never change.

It was a hot day, hotter than coals being broiled in an oven that was in the process of getting swallowed by a dragon (Close to ninety degrees, I don't do well with heat or exposure to sunlight). As we were walking away from the memorial to the caravan of tour buses we spotted a group of people hovering around the back of someone's car. While I was perfectly content to leave whatever it was alone, my more adventurous stepmother and father were keen on checking it out. Which turned out to be one of the better decisions made in the history of mankind.

At the back of the car was a very large woman, ladling out what appeared to be some brown slop on top of rice with veggies. That's right, this food was coming from the back of someone's compact! I was hesitant to say the least, but then the smell hit me. It was as if Zeus himself had come down and thunderbolted me right in the nose hole (a good thing). It was like smelling the Mona Lisa, or at least what I imagine smelling it would be like, they wouldn't let me get close enough... So much for wanting the youth to "experience" art.

Quickly we made our way to the front of the throng and purchased some brown slop of our own. It was lamb curry with chickpeas and some other unidentifiable vegetables. The taste was even better than the smell, and though the burn was enough to make me wonder if I would ever taste again, it was worth it. We ate our curry, and continued to live, despite the fact that it came from the back of a car (slim odds).

Now for the part that relates to Japan! Last night I once again found myself in a situation where my wits had left me and I was willing to take a chance on anything short of gutter food. What I found was somehow below that, in a manner of speaking. I apologize in advance for the blurry pictures, but it was dark, and I was full of deliciousness when I took them. 

It was around 6:30(around midnight for jet lag time) and I had been searching for over thirty minutes, attempting to find sustenance. For those of you who don't know me (Is that anyone who reads this? Probably not.) I don't do well with prolonged periods of starvation(1-3 hours without food). I become irrational, and for lack of a better word "hangry".

In any case, I was walking down an alleyway when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a picture of delicious curry. Outside of a small indentation in the alleyway was a sign advertising Indian food and an arrow pointing down. For a good while I stopped and stared at the brick wall, wondering if I just had to run at it and believe...

Luckily before I tried anything I spotted the actual door leading down into what appeared to be a basement. I was hungry, so I followed. I made my way into what was indeed a basement, with a tiny row of chairs surrrounding a small square in which an Indian chef was cooking. 

There was no one there, which is either a sign that the quality of the food is yet undiscovered, or the past patrons are in the soup... But I was filled with the hunger and I went in anyway! I ordered a simple chicken curry and garlic naan.

My fears evaporated in a matter of moments, when rather than pulling out a gruesome butcher knife with entrails on it, he instead pulled out fresh naan dough and began tossing it right in front of me! A few cloves of fresh cut garlic, a deep frier, and some gee later I was in heaven. Once again sense had lost a battle and the food of strange places had prevailed. The meal was delicious, and counter to expectations there was no food poisoning!!

For scale, that piece of naan was bigger than my head!!!!

After my success with the curry, I even decided to eat some more random food off of the street. Stopping at the first desert-ish stand that appeared, I ordered something that I could read, but had no idea as to the meaning. I was pleasantly surprised to find it was some sort of crunchy, maple cream filled ball of amazing.

Lesson here: The best food is found when you are lacking the sense to try the logical options!