The other day, I visited Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture for business purposes. When I asked an acquaintance from Iwaki about a recommended restaurant to eat something delicious, I got a slightly worrisome answer.

"There is a shop where you can eat crab pilaf while watching the flamingos."

……eh…?


The situation was so surreal that I couldn't swallow it, so I decided to go for the time being. Go to "Restaurant Mexico Flamingokan" where you can eat crab pilaf while watching the flamingos.


Take a bus from Iwaki Station and get off at the Sawame Crossroads bus stop. The appearance of the shop is like a restaurant, like an aquarium, or like a treasure house ... It's a mysterious visual.


When you enter the store, tables and chairs are lined up neatly on the spacious floor, and comfortable jazz music is played. It's not a fashionable restaurant! When I looked at the center of the shop ... There was a flamingo . Moreover, there are quite a few. When I counted it, there were 16 birds.


Since it was past lunch time, there were few customers, and he said he could sit in his favorite seat. That's why I got a window seat with a dozen flamingos in front of me. This seat is closer to the flamingo than I imagined, and I mean ... it's very realistic.


I can't concentrate on reading the menu because there is a flamingo right next to me. The clerk said, "The number one recommendation for the store is the crab pilaf." Yes, today's purpose was a crab pilaf while looking at the flamingos. I immediately ordered a ladies size (1,380 yen) for crab pilaf.


● Eat traditional crab pilaf

The store's crab pilaf is a traditional menu using snow crab, which has been offered since its establishment in 1970.

You can choose crabs with shells or peeled crabs, but since this was my first experience, I chose shelled crabs. The first thing that came in was a bowl of shells and jasmine tea to wash your hands.


Peeling the crab makes your fingers greasy, so you should rinse it with this jasmine tea. Certainly, when I rinsed my hands with jasmine tea, the smell of crab disappeared in addition to the greasiness.

Then Crab Pilaf came to the table. Snow crab is piled up on top of the rice with its shell.


Cut the shell with crunchy and scissors and peel for 10 minutes (clumsy). Finally, I succeeded in picking out the delicious parts of all the crabs. It's finally a real meal.


With the round, fluffy and cute buttocks of the flamingo on the side, pilaf with the peeled meat. … It ’s delicious !! The scent of rocky shore comes out of my nose. The fluffy cooked rice has a crisp texture and is well coated with the taste of crab. I feel like I can feel the richness of "Kanimiso".

The plump crab meat is also delicious, which is also the best. This dish is packed with all the delicious elements of snow crab!


Actually, I ate jumbo swordfish just before coming to the store, and honestly my stomach was bread, but it was so delicious that I ate it easily. It's also because it's simple and doesn't have any extra greasiness.

● Observe flamingos

Now. After concentrating on the crab pilaf, turn to the flamingos again. I'm proud of being an animal lover, but it's the first time I've ever been able to observe flamingos so closely. My curiosity about flamingos started to grow and I couldn't stop.


If you look closely, each bird has a different size. Females are a little smaller than males. And each color is different. The gradation of pink and orange is glossy, and everyone looks very graceful.

The flamingos also seem to care about this from time to time, as they are at close range to a level that would definitely have been attacked without the glass dividers. I drank water, suddenly raised my face, stared at my eyes, and after a while I drank water again.


Among them was the darkest vermilion flamingo, but I expected him to be the leader of the flock. He rushes around his head, constantly looking around and occasionally making a menacing voice.

And when he suddenly screams, there is also Gayamingo who always puts in a good hand. Is this the order of flamingo society? Very interesting.


Those who groom their hair, those who stretch their wings and one leg, those who rub their neck bent into an "S" all the time on their torso, those who sleep on one leg, once every 10 minutes Percentage of fights to nearby flamingos.

It's becoming more and more like a human being, and each flamingo becomes very adorable. Did I notice that I was looking at the flamingos for almost an hour?


At the end, the clerk took a commemorative photo with the flamingo. I noticed later that, strangely, I was wearing flamingo-colored clothes that day. Is it because of this that the flamingos approached me without any particular caution?


● Why flamingos in the first place?

I asked the clerk why it is a restaurant where you can eat while watching flamingos.

The former president, who was originally involved in the pelagic fishery, was fascinated by the beauty of the flamingos he encountered when he visited Mexico. It must be pleased, "he said.


By the way, the store name "Mexico" means "Mexico". In Spanish, the official language of Mexico, Mexico is pronounced Mexico.

Mexico has 2 stores in Fukushima prefecture and 3 stores in Ibaraki prefecture (the main store is the Iwaki store I want to visit this time). In addition to the delicious crab pilaf, you can also enjoy a rare and surrealistic experience of seeing flamingos up close while eating, so why not stop by when you pass by?