The other day Mike and I went on a massively long walk. The sun was gorgeously bright, the sky was a brilliant winter blue and the air was crisp but not too cold. It was one of those rambling walks where we didn’t have a destination in mind – we were just walking, talking, and taking in Tokyo. Eventually we realized we were hungry and upon this epiphany, I realized that my feet were throbbing a little. It was definitely time for a snack and a drink or two.
We found a cute little cafe that had an early bird happy hour going on so I had a couple of deliciously freshly-squeezed grapefruit chūhais. If you haven’t had a chūhai before and you like light fizzy drinks, you’ll LOVE chūhais. I’m obsessed with shochu highballs! Have you had them? They go down really easily, but like most deliciously light drinks, if you’re not careful, you’ll drink entirely too many and end up very, very drunk at a laughably early time of day. True story.
Afterwards, our inebriated selves (okay, my inebriated self) decided we HAD to go shopping so I dragged Mike to the dollar store. “Dollar store?” you might be thinking. Yes, the dollar store (it’s actually a 100 yen store). Dollar stores are amazing in Japan. I can’t get over how many amazing things they can sell for a dollar. The majority of the items are quality made in Japan products. I’m talking about awesome kitchen goods like ceramic ginger graters and customizable alphabet cookie stamps. I’m a true dollar store fanatic and that’s when I’m sober. Imagine how I am in a dollar store with my inhibitions lowered.
Let’s just say I came away from that whole experience 12 mini-mini ramekins richer. After I sobered up I said to Mike, “why the heck did I end up buying a DOZEN tiny ramekins? Who can these even feed? They aren’t even big enough for ants!” His adorable answer was that the ramekins seemed to make me really happy. Also apparently I wouldn’t let go of them and told him many many recipes I could use them for. If only I could remember them now…
What I did end up doing, while I was slightly intoxicated, was come up with this burger. I wanted a burger, I wanted grilled cheese and I wanted an egg on top of it all. Behold, the ultimate hangover brunch: a medium cooked egg with a still slightly gooey yolk inside a burnished burger patty on top of frico style grilled cheese buns. Seriously heaven. Bonus: My feet felt great after I bought the ramekins.