Izakaya Chronicles #1- Veggies! -

Leaf vegetables are expensive now. One cabbage costs something like US$4 at supermarkets around here, and the price of lettuce is said to be doubled in many places. It’s because of the cold wave and the heavy snowfall in the northern part of Japan this winter. At our izakaya, we see less and less green veggies used for makanai (employees’ meal) these days. With our carbohydrate-rich meal in front of us, we joke that leafy veggies are poisonous and bad for health, and that’s why we shouldn’t use them for our own meals. Some nights are just so slow that we have nothing to do but to indulge in cynical jokes. … I hope the snow in the north stops soon. * The rubber boots in the photo are what I wear in the izakaya kitchen.