SLC - Day 2
"This isn't my bed. Oh yeah, I'm in America. Weird."
It's about half seven in the morning and, as per usual, I'm hungry. I remember that the hotel did a free breakfast until eleven, so I swing myself out of bed, slip on my jeans and go out to see if anything decent was on offer. There was. The breakfast consisted of a humble range of breads, bagels, coffee, fruits, and juices. I grab abit of everything I pull out my mental to do list. First I had to contact my parents and let them know I'm safe (because my mobile doesn't work internationally and I couldn't figure out how to make the pay phones call Manchester either), second I had to get a general idea of what was within walking distance of my hotel i.e. food, and finally, I had to make a phone call to Jake Shannon, the guy who ran scientificwrestling.com, and double check all the details for training tomorrow.
After something whole grain, I slipped into the lobby to see if I could use the computer set up there. Somebody was already on it. Great. So rather than stand there, staring at the guy at the guy like a stalker, I figured I'd just head out and see what kind of food I'd be living on this week. My first impression was alot of fast food. I'd walked up the main road, for about twenty minutes, to see what shops there were and apart from the numberous fast food places there was a dollar store and everything else was car centric. Everything apart from one 7-11. Which ment there was one place I could use to stock my fridge (I made sure to get a room with a fridge). I grabbed some supplies and trekked back through the snow to the lobby to see if the computer had freed up. Oh yeah, snow. I'd traveled hundreds of miles from a land whose weather consisted of regular showers and cold temperatures, to one that I had assumed would be a little warmer. It turns out Salt Lake City was just as cold as England, but they have snow instead of rain. Anyway, I got back to the lobby and used the now free computer to tell everyone not to worry and to reframe from planning the funeral.
Back in my room to stock the fridge and finish my up with my to do list. Double check training is still happening (because I'm always paranoid of things being elaborate practical jokes) and how I'm getting there. "Yeah we'll pick you up from *such and such a time* in the morning. Your hotel is on the way to Billy's," says the voice down the phone. "That's cool," I think "I'll be able to meet the man himself before we have to train." Sorted. Actually a problem did develop. With my to do list done, I had nothing to do (obviously) until tomorrow and I had plenty of the day left. Then again I'd yet to look downtown. I'd walked up and down the main road but I hadn't ventured into downtown yet because the bridge, that would've ment it was a straight walk, wasn't there and I'm not the best at finding my own way. It's always best if I get directions first and a map. I got both and set off.
I won't bore you with the what essentially me browsing shops for a couple of hours, instead it's time to introduce a new section to these blogs:
The Adventures of Super Sushi Boy
Yeah, I like sushi. Scratch that. I love sushi. It's easily my favourite food on the planet. So when I saw there were a bunch of japanese restaurants in SLC I knew where I'd be eating every night.
In Manchester visited I've pretty much every japanese restaurant there is, so I'm a pretty decent judge of the stuff even if it is only in comparison to my hometown favourites. So let's get ready for:
Manchester vs. SLC *Round 1*
Representing the Salt Lake, in this round, will be the Happy Sumo. The contest will be fought with nine pieces of spicy tuna and a miso soup.
The first restaurant of the trip was a good one. You could sit and watch the food being prepared at the bar, or attempt to distract yourself with the sports channel. Since watching the sports would've been like attempting to understand japanese, I decided to focus more of the food infront of me.
First up was the miso soup, and it was in a very friendly sized bowl, meaning large, which automatically gained the place some points. That, and the soup being really good, ment the Happy Sumo was off to a good start. The problem was the tuna wasn't anything special. It tasted good, nay great, but then again all sushi tastes great to me, so the main meal didn't really stand out. Where Salt Lake fell short though, was in the lack of inarizushi and red bean mochi.
Inarizushi is sushi rice wrapped in fried tofu and it's a must for any sushi place because it is nothing short of amazing. Something else that equals amazing is mochi. Mochi is a rice cake that can be filled with numberous things to add flavour, red bean paste being the best. With both of these key components of anyones sushi experience missing, I'm giving this round to Manchester.
I pay my bill and head back to what had quickly become a home for me. I'd decided the best way to spend the rest of my day was reading and day dreaming about double underhook suplexs.
In the next post I finally meet the man himself, Billy Robinson
Jack G.
No comments:
Post a Comment