【英语趣味课堂】日本的餐厅-Japanese Restaurant

Alex: So, you know how we were talking about restaurants? What's your favorite restaurant?

 

Danny: I guess my favorite restaurant is going to be this one a in the small town near where I live on the coast. It's called Kotora, and it's an udon restaurant.

 

Alex: Udon. What's udon?

 

Danny: Udon is a kind of thick flour noodle. And the udon itself is noodles in a soup, so it's noodle soup with a really delicious broth¹. I think maybe they make it out of fish and soy sauce and perhaps meat, so you get this really delicious broth with these really great noodles in it.

 

Alex: I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

 

Danny: Well, that's not even the best part. The best part is you get to pick various toppings for your udon. You can get fried² shrimp³, or fried vegetable , or you can get my favorite which is where they take an egg and crack it over right towards the end of the cooking and just barely⁴ cook it in there, and they do that with chicken. They have like chicken and noodles and they crack the egg over it.

 

Alex: Chicken and egg in the same noodle broth?

 

Danny: Yeah, in the same bowl.

 

Alex: That's interesting.

 

Danny: Yeah, it's like one big happy family.

 

Alex: Mother and child! So what does the restaurant look like? What's the decor?

 

Danny: Well, it's this really small restaurant. I think the owners actually live above it in the apartment, so it's this tiny place but like I said, it's in Japan, so it's a very, very traditional and Japanese. You walk in and there's this little hallway of the paper screen doors, and on the left there are a couple of actual sit-down tables but mostly the restaurant has all these raised floors with tatami mats.

 

Alex: Tatami mats? Now, I've heard of them. What are they?

 

Danny: Well, a tatami mat is a mat made out of reeds⁶, and they just put them on the floors instead of having maybe a hardwood floor, or carpeting or something like that. It seems to make the floors a little bit softer and cushier.

 

Alex: So you actually sit on the floor to eat?

 

Danny: So yeah, you sit on the raised floor on these little mats and you have these really low tables, and you get to sit off in your own room that's been sectioned off by these paper doors.

 

Alex: It sounds wonderfully Japanese.

 

Danny: Oh, it is. It's very cute and then if you want you can also sit at the bar and you can watch them make the udon noodles. It's so much fun.

 

Alex: Sounds very traditional.

 

重点词汇：

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

just thinking about it

 

 

I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

 

When we think or hear about food, or drink, or something enjoyable or not, we often say we feel a certain way just thinking about it. The speaker is saying they feel a particular way just thinking about something. Notice the following:

 

I get tired just thinking about work.

I feel sad just thinking about that movie.

crack

 

 

You crack the egg over the udon.

 

When you crack an egg over something, that means you break the shell of the egg so that the egg can fall out. People often crack the egg on the side of a pan⁵ or pot.

 

You need to crack three eggs to make an omelet.

I dropped the egg and it cracked open.

cushy

 

 

tatami mats make the floor cushier.

 

When something is cushy that means it is soft and comfortable. Cushy comes from the word cushion which is a large pillow on a couch⁷. If you have a cushy job or cushy life, that means you have a really easy job or stress free life. Here are a few examples:

 

These shoes are really cushy and comfortable.

He has a very cushy job.

raised floor

 

 

You sit on the raised floor.

 

A raised floor is part of a floor that is higher then the rest of the floor. In Asia, some restaurants have a raised floor that people sit on with their shoes off. Notice the following:

 

I like sitting on the raised floor more than sitting at a table.

sectioned off

 

 

You sit in a room that is sectioned off.

 

When an area is sectioned off that means a wall or rope surrounds the area so people cannot get in. Only people with permission can enter an areas that has been sectioned off. Notice the following examples.

 

The police sectioned off the crime scene.

Our party was sectioned off in a corner of the lobby⁸.

1 broth   

n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等)

参考例句：

• Every cook praises his own broth.厨子总是称赞自己做的汤。
• Just a bit of a mouse's dropping will spoil a whole saucepan of broth.一粒老鼠屎败坏一锅汤。

2 fried   

adj.油煎的；油炒的

参考例句：

• I ate everything fried.所有油炸的我都吃。
• I prefer fried peanuts.我选择炸花生。

3 shrimp   

n.虾，小虾；矮小的人

参考例句：

• When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
• When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。

4 barely   

adv.仅仅，几乎没有，几乎不

参考例句：

• The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
• He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。

5 pan   

n.平底锅；v.严厉批评

参考例句：

• The water had all boiled away and the pan was burned.水煮干了，锅也烧坏了。
• The eggs were frying in the pan.鸡蛋正在锅里煎。

6 reeds   

芦苇( reed的名词复数 )； 芦丛； 簧舌； 簧片

参考例句：

• Our roof was made of dried reeds. 我们的屋顶是用干芦苇盖的。
• Oaks may fall when reeds stand the storm. 芦苇耐风暴，橡树却会倒。

7 couch   

n.睡椅，长沙发椅；vt.表达，隐含

参考例句：

• Lie down on the couch if you're feeling ill.如果你感觉不舒服就躺到沙发上去。
• The rabbIt'sprang from its grassy couch.兔子从草丛中跳出。

8 lobby   

n.前厅，（剧院的）门廊

参考例句：

• As he walked through the lobby,he skirted a group of ladies.他穿过门厅时，绕过了一群女士。
• The delegates entered the assembly hall by way of the lobby.代表们通过大厅进入会场。