i was really hungry.

i first saw ajiten when driving down ford road in canton on the way to ikea. i saw its name, “AJI TEN” in red lights, but did not know what it was until another day, while driving by, curiosity took over and i drove into the parking lot to find out once and for all. it was a japanese restaurant!!! at first i did not have high hopes for it being anything other than an overpriced suck-hole of people with too much money eating bad sushi, considering other japanese restaurants in the area whose name will not be named..but i stalked around outside of it in the cold in my coat with gloveless frozen fingers to look at the menu in the window. i could only read a portion of it because the glass was dripping wet with condensation, but i could make out that most of the stuff was under nine dollars!! this is an OMGsteal considering comparable meals in the area will run you at least 15 dollars.

aji ten menu circa february 2008, now slightly different

time went by and the snow melted and the seasons changed. i drove by ajiten many more times but did not ever go inside.. until friday!! chris and i went to aji ten!! going to a new restaurant is one of the best things in the world (probably in the top ten) so i was SUPER EXCITED. i’m surprised anyone can find it considering the construction in the parking lot and the giant wooden tunnel you have to walk through to get to the door, but once you do, you shall be greatly rewarded! after we walked in the door, a lady in the back flung her arms around signaling to us to sit wherever we wanted. we sat at a booth but unfortunately i did not sit where i would be facing the TV playing japanese game shows, but i will consider this when making a seating selection next time. we were brought a menu, and a second, dinner special menu. the regular menu included a lot of ramen.

i tried to choose my meal carefully, as i usually suffer from post-ordering-stress-syndrome, another condition called “dish envy”, and general deep regret about my decision. after much contemplation and flip-flopping, i decided to get the green tea noodles. i had never heard of such a thing before, but i’m always up for something new. the japanese waiter guy asked me if i had ever had it before. i told him no, but i was going to try it. he told me it was “green! eehh,ahhhh,green tea!” i said, yes i know. he asked me if i was sure i wanted it. did i make a bad decision? i looked at him in horror. i asked him if it was good (it’s a legitimate question! do YOU think it tastes good?) he said “it’s like regular food for me!!” but he wasn’t sure if i would like it. i told him i would try it anyways. chris is a champion orderer and always orders the most astoundingly mouthwatering thing on the entire menu, totally blowing what i eat out of the water every time. this time, he got the chicken katsu curry. we also ordered two sushi rolls, an eel roll with cream cheese, and a crunchy tuna roll.

the sushi came out and it was amazing. like really. i mean, if you are going to eat an eel, in the form of sushi alongside cream cheese is a good way to do it. the crunchy tuna roll was crunchy and tuna-y, i guess.

chris’s dinner came with miso soup and a not-pictured salad, because it was half eaten by the time i took a picture of it.

the katsu curry came out before my green tea noodles. i always have to have a bite of all the food around me, so i ate some of it. it was one of the most delicious things i’ve ever tasted. i say that about a lot of things, but i eat a lot of extremely delicious things so it is always a very true statement. it was on an enormous brown and black plate. japanese curry is so F. good. i try to keep my blog G-rated or i would use obscenities to describe its deliciousness. it came with a giant, steaming pile of white rice. the curry was thick, and not spicy like indian curry. actually it tasted kind of like a currified pot roast with rice and breaded chicken, except thirty times more delicious than a pot roast. i suffered serious dish envy.

my green tea noodles came out. they were the kind of noodles that come on a box. japanese people always yell at me for eating them wrong. the first time i ate them it made sense to me to pour dipping sauce OVER the noodles and a little japanese lady came over and scolded me for doing it wrong. this time i did not stupidly pour my dipping sauce over the noodles like the stupid american that i am, but APPARENTLY i was supposed to mix the wasabi, green onions, and radish from the little dish INTO the dipping sauce and NOT put it over over the noodles, as a japanese guy very plainly told me. i have no noodles-on-a-box etiquette and i am starting not to care. i hate when i accidentally order noodles that come piled on a box.

anyways, i got over it. my noodles were very green (much greener than pictured) but didn’t really taste like tea. they were kind of bland without their sauce, but good with the sauce they were. it was a soy-saucy tasting kind of a broth deal. if there is an official name for something like this besides “soy-saucy broth” then i do not know about it. a glob of wasabi did not dissolve and i ate it whole by accident and practically burned holes into my sinus cavities.

our meal of giant katsu curry, green noodles on a box, and two rolls of sushi was only 24 dollars!! the sushi was not even a necessity, and we totally could have eaten a delicious japanese dinner for 16 dollars! so thank you aji ten for providing delicious, affordable japanese food to an otherwise deprived area!