"Wakako Zake" drama season one: Episodes one and two recaps

 Air Dates: January 8th to March 26, 2015 at 11:30 pm, Thursdays on TV Tokyo

 Theme song "The future scenario is up to you" by Charan Po Rantan

Main Cast:

 Rina Takeda as Wakako Murasaki

Kinuwo Yamada as Mii-san

Mizuki Watanabe as Abe-san

Yoshihro Nozoe as Taisho

Kenta Kamakari as Aoyagi

 This is a series I'm really going to enjoy and seems most drama fans also have felt the same way as the show as now had three seasons. Food dramas are a fun watch and though they may not appear so in recaps they are interesting and enjoyable views. First season of "Shinya Shokudo" is an absolute must watch, other series worth checking out in the genre are 'Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san" and "Kodoku no Gurume" which has had six seasons.
 These episodes are just 22:45 in length so will be able to squeeze two recaps into each post. All of the restaurants visited in the show are real plus the staff are the actual people who work at them. As the heading says have the first two shows for today with the title of episode one being....

'Salt Grilled Salmon'

 Rika plays the role of Wakako who is on screen 98% of the time, when she isn't it's because we're watching the staff in restaurants prepare her food. Wakako is an OL and a very efficient one as she seems to be thrown more work than any other employee in the office. All to her dismay too as most of her day is spent daydreaming about food, one reason Wakako works so hard is that the earlier she finishes the sooner she can go out on the town.
 Not to party it up as Wakako is a fanatic about food, she also savors the the alcoholic drinks. It's the end of the work day in this first episode and Wakako has a craving for salmon. She tries to check out  a new restaurant each time she goes out and it seems all seven days a week she does that. Wakako's stop was the Shake Kojima eatery and even before ordering she's can taste the salmon. Of course that's what she ordered but there are many varieties of the fish, for this show it was salt grilled salmon and naturally a drink has to accompany it.
 That's Japanese sake which Wakako says goes best with that kind of salmon. Watching Wakako eat during these first two episodes has been such a joy as to her food is more than just filling your stomach. Wakako treats every bite as a moment to treasure and every swallow of food or gulp of sake is such a joyous occasion.

 Wakako does mention quite often how eating by herself is so much more enjoyable than with a boyfriend, she does say the word boyfriend a lot but don't think she has one. To her right at the eatery were two men and one of them thought she was quite cute. That man ordered the same dish as Wakako which left her very impressed. But it's not just the salmon to her that makes the meal but what else is ordered with it.
 Wakako was let down badly as the man didn't have Japanese sake with his salmon plus he ordered a side of rice which is a no-no to Wakako. But that didn't dampen her spirits as the salmon she gobbled up was among the best she ever had, now it's time to head home. But on her way there Wakako said to herself the night's still young and checked out another restaurant, don't know if she was still hungry but Wakako was in the mood for more alcohol which she enjoys immensely. Not sure of the name of the restaurant Wakako stopped at, she tried spelling out the Kanji but couldn't.

 Above is a dish of Namerou which Wakako ordered special, the chef/owner told her even if it's not on the menu he'll make it. That impressed Wakako to no end and she savored the fine meal though it was a much smaller one. She's also very keen on what she drinks, once again Wakako had Sake but this time it was called Onekoete which was unknown to her. But she truly loved the taste and as you can see above Wakako told herself to slow down on drinking it.
 Still don't know the name of this restaurant but it is a place that we're supposed to be seeing much of in future episodes but Wakako didn't visit there in the second show. As mentioned in the beginning all of these restaurants are real, for the final two minutes of a show there's a promo for the places where they show their house specialties plus how to get there and other info like that.
 Just the one main restaurant this episode but there's two in the next show Wakako ate at. Once you take off the opening credits and the final promos for the eateries an episode is just about twenty minutes long so these recaps won't be too lengthy. Have a few more screenshots here for this first episode but don't leave just yet as after them is the recap for the second episode.

  Episode two: Fried Gyoza

 Was looking at all of the titles for the episodes and of course the main food for that show is the title. So naturally this show has to deal with Wakako enjoying gyoza which is made with garlic which she truly loves. I have much of that myself but I hang it on the doors to keep the vampires away.

 The idea to have gyoza came to Wakako when she was out to lunch with her two co-workers Mii and Abe. However the pair refused to have gyoza as they had to go back to the office after lunch, all afternoon Wakako zipped through her work in order to rush out to a gyoza restaurant. The place she picked was called Gyozasou Muro which was another restaurant she had never eaten at before.
 While in the first episode Wakako enjoyed the taste of Sake with her meals that drink doesn't go well with gyoza so it's beer she orders as the barley brings out the best taste in gyoza. Wakako was quite humorous while eating her meal, it was one bite of gyoza followed by a swig of beer and she repeated that act many times as she had ordered two helpings of gyoza. The staff thought she was a riot too but they did enjoy watching her savor their food that was made from scratch.
 That's a big difference between Japan and America as over there so many of these small eateries make their menu from scratch, over here most food is just processed and is so bland. Unlike the previous show what Wakako had to eat was enough for her and she headed home. But we didn't see Wakako at her apartment as I think all of the scenes are at a restaurant or her office.

 It's the next day and the big decision for Wakako at work was 'what delicacy shall I enjoy tonight?'.  Her selection was Nikkorogashi which is made out of squid and taro(potatoes). Wakako mentioned the word nimono a few times and think that's how the dish is prepared as the word means simmered.   The new restaurant this time for her was Daruma which is in Ikebukuro. For this dish it was back to Sake for Wakako but drinking it comes with certain conditions, it depends on what she's eating as the Sake has to be at a certain temperature. Sometimes it's cold, other times it'll be room temp and for Nikkorogashi it has to be lukewarm. Doesn't matter how the Sake is served as Wakako loves the taste of it, she does drink a lot of it but never enough to get tipsy though her tolerance level is high.

 For the most part that wraps up the events of the second episode, they may seem short but think the length of these two recaps is about as long as a regular 45-50 minute drama show. Know it's only been two episodes but this series is going to be a winner, can't wait to finish it so I can move on to the next two seasons.
 Won't do all of the recaps quickly though, first will do one tomorrow for episode three of the currently airing series 'Lupinrangrs'. So should have the next post for this drama either Tuesday or Thursday and am also planning on having a solo post for Rika. There was an event for the show so will post about that plus whatever else I can find for her, many more screenshots here from the second episode.