NAGOYA: Atsuta Horaiken あつた蓬莱軒 松坂屋店

I actually thought long and hard whether I should do another review of Atsuta Horaiken.

• Firstly because I actually don't think it value adds alot blogging about the same place and you're going to order the same food. 
• Secondly, I had a really bad bad bad experience here this time o the extent I don't think I could bring myself back to eat here next year because of fear. I'll elaborate further in this post
• Thirdly, I STILL HAVE 12 MORE PLACES TO BLOG ABOUT FROM THIS JAPAN TRIP! 

And Nick said to me last night " Ya... your posts are 1 year late, and you have the Korea trip posts lined up next and the New Zealand trip, and in Dec this year you have another Japan, Taiwan and HK trip to blog about wtf you are dead."

Wah, sometimes Nick really stresses me. And if you don't know me, I'm actually a very lazy person. So I got 2 days off ( yesterday and today) because I worked 7 days in a row for 13 hours daily. I'm actually quite tired because Nick made me get up at 8am to send him to work because he didn't want to drive.

And then a text message came in advertising for a locum crisis job today, and I hesitated for 5 mins. It was really good pay, if I did it today I would have earned 2k. So I texed Nick and he was like " Ayy, you're so lazy. If I were you I'll do it" so I said okay fine, and I texted the agency back but someone had already filled the position.

Am I upset by the fact that 2k just flew away? Nope, To be honest, I don't even care. I'm the kind who really hates doing unnecessary work. I actually am feeling REALLY REALLY TIRED and I just want to relax again today before work again tomorrow for 10 hours. Then Nick reiterated again " see, you're just so lazy"

YUP. I'M LAZY and I DISLIKE WORK. SO? SUCK IT UP LA, COMPLAIN SO MUCH FOR WHAT, you only have yourself to blame for not realising this early before the deal was sealed with a 1carat lol.

Anyway, so perhaps I should make good use of my laze at home day today to churn out a couple of more posts. And then I thought, okay, fine whatever, I'll just do another review of this restaurant because the last time I did a review on the  main shop ( read here) , but this time we were just feeling too lazy to go down to the main shop so we ate at their Matsuzakaya branch.

Nick really loves Unagi; this meal was probably the highlight of the Nagoya stopover.

There's 2 sizes, regular 3600yen

 and large 5100yen.

You can see that the diameter of the bowl is perhaps 1.5x bigger. I stacked them up after we finished for comparison ( top is regular, bottom is large)

NOBODY in the restaurant ordered the large except for Nick; the waitress was like " HONTONI? Large? ( Really?)

4 steps to eating Hitsumabushi ( please refer to my previous blogpost for clear instructions) 

But briefly, youre supposed to divide the rice into 4 parts 

1) Eat 1/4 just as it is 

2)Eat the other 1/4 with condiments 

3) Eat the next 1/4 with condiments and broth

Mix everything in 

4) Eat it in your favourite style 

Mine was the soupy way ( I love everything soupy) 

This time other than  just the hitsumabushi, I decided to order the Umaki ( Unagi in Tamago) as well  ( because I really love eggs right) Nick didn't eat any of it because he was too full from his large serve of unagi rice

 And I reckon this is root of my night terror.

4 hours after dinner, I started getting really bad abdominal cramps and projectile vomitting.
Up till midnight I was just in and out of the bed every 15-30 mins rushing to the toilet, clenching my abdomen, and every time I would have a diarrhoea episode + vomit. After midnight I got so tired of getting in and out of bed + I was getting really dizzy on standing so I just stayed in the toilet the whole night. I practically was on the floor, hugging the toilet bowl the whole night.

While Nick was soundly asleep ( I remember telling him I think I'm not going to make it and he asked me to just go to sleep. WTF, HOW TO SLEEP?! ) , I was just getting more and more hypovolaemic. I actually really had a thought of going to the hospital for a drip as I really couldn't keep anything down orally but I just couldn't move because of the bad crampy pain. And I actually wondered whether I was going to be so depleted of electrolytes and just have an arrest and die lol

Thankfully the frequency of diarrhoea + vomits sorta got lesser by 7am.
BACTERIA 0 VERA 1:D
And Nick woke up then, took my pulse ( I was so tachycardic. Heart rate >100 ) Nick got worried and rushed down to Lawson and bought heaps of Pocari Sweat ( Electrolyte drink) and just pumped me with it.

Moral of the story: Always bring a bag of 1L 0.9% NACL with 30mmol KCL + jelco kit to holidays.

Atsuta Horaiken あつた蓬莱軒  松坂屋店

3 Chome-30-8 Sakae

Open everyday

lunch: 11am-2.30pm

Dinner: 6.30-8.30pm

Sat & Sun open from 11am-8.30pm with no break time in between

NAGOYA: Atsuta Horaiken あつた蓬莱軒 本店

I think I might have mentioned briefly in previous posts, but I was living in Nagoya last year for a month attached to Nagoya University Hospital.

It was the second time being in Nagoya for me. The first.. I hardly did anything, it was just a flight in because all the tickets for direct flight to tokyo was sold out. I remember just having the kaiseiki dinner at Marriot Hotel ( which was amazing) and going to Nagoya castle.

So because I was living there for a month, I had plenty of opportunities to check out good places.

One of Nagoya's famous dishes is hitsumabushi, a dish in which cut eel is dipped and broiled in soy sauce and put on top of rice. 

My favourite place to have this dish is definitely at Atsuta Horaiken ( main shop). They do have a branch at Matsuzakaya department store, which is really convenient for travellers if you're downtown ( Just in front of Yabacho subway station). I've been to both the main shop as well as the branch ( seeee this is how much I love hitsumabushi), they both taste good. However, I would recommend to go down to the main branch if you have time, just for the ambience :D 

The main branch is located at Atsuta Jingu Shrine, it was founded in 1873. It's usually very crowded so my advice is to try and avoid weekends. I went in the middle of the week at 6.30pm and I surprisingly got in without a reservation/without waiting at all !

I always say go for the most expensive one, but this time, I went just for the regular 3600yen hitsumabushi.

I can't stomach so much rice and eel hence I couldn't do the 5100yen.

As per the instruction above, divide the hitsumabushi into 4 parts. This first one is to eat without any seasoning

The next part is to eat with all the condiments

This third part is to eat with the soup

This is my favourite way of eating. I think it's because I love soupy stuff. 

My friend and I Kendra enjoying this meal.

This restaurant is really not difficult to find ( hahah, I'm a hypocrite in saying that because I got lost trying to find this restaurant, again. lol. That's because I'm just hopeless at directions) But if you use your google map properly, and follow the smell of the smoked eel. You'll reach this main shop in no time (: 

Atsuta Horaiken ( main shop)

503 Godocho, Atsuta Ward, Nagoya

Closed every wednesdays

lunch: 11am-2.30pm

Dinner: 6.30-8.30pm

Atsuta Horaiken (matsuzakaya branch)

3 Chome-30-8 Sakae

Open everyday

lunch: 11am-2.30pm

Dinner: 6.30-8.30pm

Sat & Sun open from 11am-8.30pm with no break time in between