Random Meeting at a Restaurant

Last night we went to Nagahama No. 1 Ramen on Lau U Fong together with Mats' boss who is visiting Hong Kong. Nagahama is a small place on a back alley, but it is also our current favorite ramen place in Hong Kong (and since we really haven't had ramen until we came here, it's our current favorite ramen place in the world).

There are just three tables, each seating six people, so naturally you share table with random people. We got our seats, and ordered our ramen and an Asahi beer each. ("Yes, we know the bottles are big, but we still want one each.") Soon two more seats where taken, leaving an empty chair in the middle of the table.

We got our ramen, delicious as ever, and slurped away (you can't eat ramen quietly). A little while later the last seat was taken by a Japanese man. When he got his ramen, I realized that Yvonne and I had ordered way to much extra seaweed, so I offered the plate with my two sheets to the Japanese man.

He seemed utterly surprised at first, but accepted the gift happily. He ordered another Asahi to share with us, and we started talking. Mostly about Japan, but also about Sweden. When we told him that we are going to Japan in May, and mostly for the food, he gave us a number of tips on where to go and what to eat. Obviously, Fukuoka Prefecture, and especially the town Hakata is *the* place to go for ramen. He even tore out the map from his pocket calender and pointed out where it is. And where Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo is. And Sapporo, we really should go there, he said.

A random meeting at a restaurant turned out to make the dinner a really interesting and pleasant evening!