Chasing Chimichangas

I have been on a quest for several years now to eat Tex-Mex food in as many places around the world as possible. So far, I've found it in Prague, Finland, Rome, Paris, Oxford, and on a cruise ship sailing Alaska's inside passage. The chance to eat Tex-Mex in Tokyo was positively titillating. One of my guidebooks actually featured "Rosita," a great place to grab a taco in Tokyo.

Another fact my guidebooks featured is that Tokyo does not have a system of addresses anything like the U.S. Most of the streets do not have names at all. Buildings are numbered in the order they were built, not in order down the street. What addresses are provided merely narrow the location down to a few blocks in a certain neighborhood. Even taxi drivers generally can't locate your destination unless you can show it to them clearly marked on a map.

This is all to say that despite an hour or more of searching with three of The Husband's coworkers, we could not find Rosita and ended up eating Indian food instead.

However, I was not daunted, and The Husband and I returned a few nights later armed with additional information such as the name of the building where Rosita was situated. Notice I said "was." After a quick and efficient search of the correct neighborhood, we spotted a sign for "Rosita - Mexican Food." Success! Optimistically we headed down the stairs, but were soon informed in halting English that Rosita is closed. I hid it well, but I was crushed.

I did have some information on another Mexican restaurant, but it was in a completely different part of town, and we didn't have hours to spend scouting out a new neighborhood to decipher the totally inadequate "address" I had. In defeat, we decided to eat at Shakey's Pizza.

It appeared that all was not lost because Shakey's featured "Mexican Nacho Chips" on the menu. "Good enough!" I declared. Behold, the "Mexican Nacho Chips:"



Those are actually Cool Ranch Doritos. Seriously. Cool Ranch Doritos.

Regardless of my nacho-related disappointment, I enjoyed my "Fisherman" pizza topped with shrimp, smoked salmon, tuna, and squid. The Husband thought he was playing it safe ordering a tomato and basil pizza, but they sneaked some anchovies on there, too. Those darn Japanese - so weird.