Mexican food is a rarity in Japan. Delicious Mexican food is even more difficult to come by. When I lived in Kumamoto there was one restaurant with a chef from Mexico. Unfortunately the food was not the Sonoran style I was raised on. Lots of seafood dishes, no carne seca. Oh the horror. So when I moved closer to Tokyo, I thought I would have more opportunities to have an ol' taste of the southwest. Well, that is kind of true. I did find a place in Ueno called Sol Amigo that has a decent menu, though the first time I went there, there was something on the menu that struck me as odd. Taco balls. I will be the first to admit, it scared me. I thought they might have been tako balls (octopus balls). So I passed on them. That is, until today. I got an order of tacos, quesadilla and taco balls. The description was all in Japanese, and what I could make out in my weak Japanese, was there was cheese. The tacos arrived first, then the quesadilla. And finally, taco balls.


Fried goodness. But what lay inside?


Glorious cheese.

The lighting in the restaurant was not the greatest for photos and further examination. These pics were taken with my cell phone, so not the greatest quality. The taco balls came with shredded cabbage and ketchup. Yes, ketchup. I tried a lil piece with the ketchup and it was not that great. I had some salsa left over from the complimentary chips and it tasted much better. There may have some chili pepper inside the balls, but I really couldn't tell. The cheese was just so darn delicious. Wonderful, fried cheese. Oh how I love thee.

After a lil searching online, I found the Sol Amigo website and menu. And of course, taco balls with a brief description was available. The translation program I have provides this mysterious nugget: The lovely rice ball where with the ろ け る cheese entered. I checked my Japanese dictionary for ろ け る (rokeru) but there was nothing listed. Any guesses?