Taco Rice and Lots and Lots of Garlic!

WARNING: MY EXPERIENCE IN OKINAWA IS QUICKLY TURNING INTO A CULINARY EXPERIMENT.
In addition to my "places I want to see" and "things I want to do" lists, I have now created a "places I want to eat" list. Total fat kid status, and I am having to intensify my work outs and cut down on what I'm eating during the week as a result, but its also totally worth it!

So I have a new favorite food: TACO RICE

No, I'm not talking about Spanish rice that you get in a mexican restaurant. I'm talking about basically the ingredients of a taco slammed on top of rice.

Taco rice is a very popular Okinawan dish. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first, but at lunch with some girls the other day I had some delicious taco rice and it has officially won my heart. I highly encourage all my lovely friends and family back in the states to make this dish at home- it is super delicious and so simple! Taco Rice is definitey on the menu for dinner tonight, but as I'm trying to eat better I might try to make it with brown rice and groud turkey instead. Maybe. I'm not sure if I want to ruin an amazing thing! Here is the link I'm using as a recipe:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://hansen2000.com/recipes/recipesImages/tacoRice.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hansen2000.com/recipes/ourRecipes/tacoRice.html&h=288&w=400&sz=133&tbnid=uK4HtIfrOY4AfM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtaco%2Brice&zoom=1&q=taco+rice&hl=en&usg=__vlnJ_ijU6kM1bHWVnx6LNrknJvk=&sa=X&ei=Zpt9TczEIMGHccj4tLgG&ved=0CEUQ9QEwBw

Turf and I went out with another couple this weekend to a restaurant called Arin Krin, otherwise known as the garlic restaurant. Yes, garlic. The building comes complete with giant garlics painted all over the outside. The menu was very extensive and most dishes cost around $4-$7, so we ordered several different things to sample: Garlic Pizza, Baked Garlic, Garlic Noodles with Bacon, and Sweet and Sour Chicken (yes, with garlic). In the picture are some garlic fries and garlic steak that Kendall and Trevor ordered in addition to their own garlic pizza and a different variety of noodles.

The food looked delicious, but tasted just good. This may have been a result of the massive overload of garlic that we were experiencing, and the meal was pretty much void of any other flavor besides garlic. I liked the pizza the best, but think I probably could have made something similar myself. The sweet and sour chicken is unlike the sweet and sour in the states. This had more of a peanut sauce/maple syrup/garlicy flavor. Turf really enjoyed it- it wasn't my favorite. This is definitely a place you can only go to once in a while, but I think we may go back just to sample some of the other items on the menu.
The baked garlic was probably the most interesting item. It was just that: two bunches of garlic baked and served on top of corn. It had some sort of sauce on it, and you just pull out the cloves and eat them with the corn. Surprisingly, it didn't taste a whole lot like garlic! They also had deep fried garlic, which I might try ;)