Media: obama ate only half the sushi course
T K A P US President arack bama may have enthused publicly about the sushi he was served at an e clusive ichelinstarred restaurant, but he stopped eating half way through the meal, reports said yesterday.
Pictures showed bama being served sake by apanese Prime inister Shin o Abe at the counter of the tiny Tokyo eatery, as part of a meal billed as a chance for bonding, at which neither wore a tie.
ut a report yesterday said instead of making small talk and savoring apanese delicacies at Sukiyabashi iro dubbed the world’s best sushi restaurant and the sub ect of the 2011 documentary “ iro reams of Sushi” bama umped straight into discussions about trade.
The owner of a yakitori grilled chicken restaurant that sits in the same basement as the e clusive diner told Tokyo Broadcasting System that bama had put his chopsticks down at the halfway point.
The man said a sushi chef from the restaurant told him the leaders’ chat was uite formal, the broadcaster said.
Unlike bama, Abe munched the whole way through the offerings from - year- old legend iro no, who serves around 20 pieces of sushi one by one at the customer’s pace, it said.
oth men emerged from the restaurant to declare the meal had been a success, with bama telling a crowd of ournalists and well- wishers “That’s some good sushi right there” and Abe saying they had discussed “a wide range of topics in a rela ed atmosphere.”
Chief government spokesman oshihide Suga refused yesterday to be drawn on e actly how much the US president had eaten, saying only “It’s true that he ate a good amount.”
“I can tell from his e pression he was very much satisfied,” he added. The dinner “played a great role in building trust between the leaders as they had talks in a rela ed atmosphere.”
Trade is one of the thornier issues at play in the three-day visit, with the two leaders under pressure to make progress on auto and agricultural market access issues blocking agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.