昨夜は、久々の睡眠時間2時間、早く寝ないとと思えば思うほど眠れない(涙)。みなさん、到着するなり作業開始。ガーガーとすごい音が鳴り響く家を、インテリアデザイナーさんに「大丈夫、わたしが責任もって作業を監督するので、楽しんできてください！」と見送られ、9時半ごろ、小雨の中を出発しました。

I had only 2 hours sleep last night, I hadn’t had such little sleep for a while. The more I thought I should sleep the less sleepy I felt! All of the workers for our renovation started working as soon as they arrived this morning and so we left the noisy house, being sent off by our interior decorator around 9.30am. She told us to be reassured that she would be making sure everything will go well while we are away and to have a good time in the rain. At least it stopped raining around lunch time.

今日は、Cliveden House というホテルに泊まりますが(夫がずっと泊まりたかったホテルだそうです)、家から2時間ほどでまっすぐ来ると早すぎるので、途中で The Oracle というショッピングモールに寄って、ランチやお買い物をしてきました。ショッピングモールに入ってすぐのところにあった「Osaka 」というレストランに入ってみました。メニューには、イギリスでお馴染みのチキンカツカレーがありましたが、カレーが不味そうな薄い黄色い色で、失敗したかと思いましたが(Wagamamaのカレーの色にそっくりで、Wagamamaのカレーは最悪だった)、案外美味しかったです。

We are staying at Cliveden in Berkshire tonight but we would have been too early if we’d come here directly so we stopped at a shopping mall “The Oracle” on the way, had lunch and did a little shopping. We saw a restaurant called “Osaka” as soon as we went in the mall and decided to try it for lunch. Looking at the photos on the menu, they didn’t look very authentically Japanese and the Chicken Katsu Curry’s sauce didn’t look appetizing at all, so I must say I wasn’t expecting them to be very good but they were much better than I expected.

「ライスクラッカーはいかがですか？」と言われオーケーしたら、しっかりお勘定に入っていました。どんなものが出てくるかと思ったら、ベトナム料理屋さんで時々出てくもの(写真を撮りそびれました)でしたし、テーブルに置いてある調味料もお醤油やガリと一緒にベトナムのチリソースが並んでいたりでちょっと不思議でしたが、メニューは名前通り日本のお料理でした。

First we were asked if we would like Rice Crackers and said yes, then realized it was going to be charged. I was curious what sort of “rice crackers” they were going to be but they turned out to be Vietnamese ones, served with Thai sweet and Chilli sauce. They also had Vietnamese Chilli sauce on the table as part of the seasoning as well as things like Japanese soy sauce and pickled ginger. The items in the menu looked all Japanese, though.

夫はチキン焼きそば、わたしはビーフ丼。焼きそばは一度 Wagamama で食べたものがお醤油で炒めてあって塩辛くて全然美味しくなかったので心配でしたが、(一口味見しただけですが)普通に美味しかったです。チキンの焼きそばって余りみないですし、ゴロゴロ大きな野菜が入っていて違和感がありましたが、味はソース焼きそばの味でした。ビーフ丼は少し甘味が強かったですが、こちらもまずまず。メニューを見た感じ見た目はなんちゃってっぽいものが多かったので心配でしたが、Wagamamaよりずっと美味しいと思いました。

My husband had chicken Yakisoba. We’ve had terrible salty yakisoba in Wagamama before so we were worried what it was going to be but it tasted like Japanese yakisoba with yakisoba sauce. As far as I know we don’t usually use chicken so that was unusual and the vegetables were in large pieces, which looks strange to me, but it did taste good. I had Beef Donburi. The sauce was a bit too sweet but enjoyable enough. At least what we had here were much better than what we’ve had in Wagamama.

 

夫が餡子を食べたいというので、抹茶ロールケーキの餡子と餅アイス添えをシェア。

My husband wanted to have bean paste so we shared Matcha rolled cake with bean paste and mochi ice cream.

他にガス入りのお水１本で、42ポンド(6000円)でした。内容の割に高いですが、海外の和食(？)なので仕方がないところです。シンガポールよりは安い。

We shared a bottle of sparkling water and the total bill was 42 pounds, which seems on the expensive side for what it was but this is outside of Japan so that is expected.