Beijing Jumbo

The Long Island Ice Tea is one of the strongest cocktails. A urban legend says, it has been invented by a house wife who didn't want her husband to discover she was drinking, so instead of taking some amount from one bottle, she took small amounts from every bottle.
Wether this is true or not, a Long Island Ice Tea is rather a drink that you take when you want to get drunk, and is rather not a drink that you order because of the enjoyment of the good taste.


I found the food equivalent to the Long Island Ice Tea, and it is called Beijing Jumbo.


Ikebukuro, where I live, is  a very vivid place with many restaurants, bars, drinking places and food shops. You find a big variance of really delicious noodles here, so one could say this is the speciality of this area.

Of course I already have my favorites (I went to university here, so I still now where to go - I also came here just for eating when I stayed on business trip in Shinagawa, 30 min away from here). But also, I also still try to find new places and discover new restaurants, new food, make new experiences. 
For example I discovered a really good place last Friday and discovered some new food, such as fried whole garlic with miso or tori karaage with salt and cinnamon. Very yummy!

There is one shop where I remember from 7 years ago, because at times, there was a queue of 20 people outside of the place. I've never been there because I don't like queuing for food, but on Saturday the timing was good and I bumped into the place when it was empty (empty meaning that there was nobody waiting but of course, all the seats were taken).
On the door, a big sign said "No.1 hot & tasty in Japan".


It is quite usual to buy a ticket for your food from a vending machine before you sit down on your table, also in this shop. Usually, you'll find some explanations about what is what, so you have an idea of what you are ordering. I front of this vending machine, I was lost. The buttons contained only names, non significant names. After reading for a while, I just took the Beijing Jumbo.


And what I got was big - no, it was jumbo, hot, spicy, red, did I say it had enormous size? and it was fiery, pungent, piquant and completely chili. I think the only 3 ingredients where noodles, hot spiced oil (Ra-yu) and chili.
The challenger who I am I ate it all, but I'm still wondering if I should rate this as mistake or as an experience.
My stomach is still voting for the latter.

Further random food pics with no relation to this article :)

Sweets: Mister Donuts and self made cappuccino, Anna and self made pan cakes :)