A ninJa Hog: Phoenix

The drive from Sedona to Phoenix was fine once I got onto the main highway. They were doing lots of construction on the roads in Sedona. And then when I got to Phoenix a couple of hours later, there was more construction! They had a bunch of lanes closed off and no left turns =(.

Since it was too early to check into the hotel, I went to eat lunch at Boston Market. I had a salad and sat down to eat and relax before my class started at 1pm. I was sitting in a booth, about halfway through eating, when a woman put her drink on the corner of the table. She put her tray on another table and then started to take her food off the tray and onto my table. I wasn't sure what she was doing, so I just watched as she moved everything over and started to sit across from me! I thought, "So people just share their tables here in Phoenix?" She finally looked up and saw me and looked very surprised! I said Hi =). I guess she thought I was someone else. We laughed and then her friend said, "I'm over here!" as she waved from the other side of the divider - I could only see her hand. We all laughed for some time. Even when she sat with her friend, I could hear them laughing about it.

I went to my class and we got out about 6pm. I went over to the hotel, checked in, then headed out to that Japanese restaurant I wanted to try. It was called Hana. It was already packed and I waited for an opening. They don't have a liquor license so a lot of people had brought their own bottles of wine. It was a nice small setting. A spot along the sushi bar opened up so I sat there, but I wasn't planning on eating sushi. I sat down and the chef gave me this:

There were 2, but I ate one before taking the picture.

It was some crabmeat on a tortilla chip! It was a nice delicate taste. I thought it was quite creative of them. And the owners looked Japanese to me. Their menu looked pretty authentic. I ordered Butaniku Ramen and Takoyaki. I hardly ever see Takoyaki on menus here in the US so I had to order it!

Again, it had 6 but by the time I took this picture, there were only 4 =)

Two women next to me asked me what I ordered and I told them what was in it. I asked the women if they had been to the restaurant before and if it was always so crowded. They said it's crowded after 6:30. We started talking and one woman was retired (but she didn't look young enough to retire!) and the other woman was a freelance writer. I told them about the class I came for and that I found the restaurant online and wanted to try it out. They knew eachother through a French class they were taking. We had a nice conversation. I ordered green tea ice cream and they gave soooo much! It must have been about 4 scoops (large scoops) in a medium sized dish. There was no way I was going to finish it, but I tried my best. I tried giving some away to the women, but they didn't want any.

I went to bed pretty early because I wanted to be well rested. I got up early the next morning so I could eat a good breakfast. I asked the front desk guy where I could eat breakfast. He suggested The Eggery...how could they not have good breakfasts with a name like that!

So I went there

And I like their style: a pot of coffee and a pitcher of water all for me! =)

I liked this place so much, that I went there the next day too. One day I had Bacon, Eggs and Potatoes, and the next day I had Oatmeal and a slice of French Toast. The first day I had a hard time deciding btwn the Eggs and the French Toast, so I had to return =). The service was good and so was the food.

The second night, I went to Boston Market again and ordered a Turkey dinner to go. And, I got a brownie =). So I ate in my room then reviewed some material from the class.