| Friday 21 October: First supper upon arrival in Gifu, Japan. Seafood bento (crab legs, crabmeat, raw & cooked scallops, prawn, salmon, salmon roe, sea urchin, etc.) from the Hokkaido Fair, plus various veg side dishes. |
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Saturday 22 October: We're invited for dinner with Atsuko and her family. Kamtchatka and horsehair crabs and shishamo (Hokkaido capelin). |
Clear broth with yam, konjac, leek, shimeji mushrooms and prawns. |
| Sunday 23 October: Our friend Nishio-san invites us for dinner at the organic Mitsubachi Shokudo (Honey Bee Diner). Right: Amberjack carpaccio, quinoa & lentil salad, green salad, mushroom salad, marinated squid. |
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John Dory with tomato and komatsuna sauce. Very deliate and fresh. |
Red seabream with rich bouillabaisse sauce. |
| Wednesday 26 October: I've always wanted to give this place a try, so why not this evening? (They'd put up those plastic curtains because of the rain, but usually it's all open, with a coal grill outside and tables spilling onto the street.) |
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A big oyster, enoki mushrooms & daikon, red seabream sashimi, dry sake from Tochigi, grilled dried amaebi, and a bowl of cabbage - and this is only a half portion! - simply with sesame oil, baby sardines and salt. Yum! |
A little later on. Additional orders of mekabu (slimy wakame root) and deep-fried fresh octopus. I'm good and manage to resist the temptation to order another glass :-) |
| Saturday 29 October: Lunch at the natural & organic buffet restaurant Soraku in Nagoya. Lots of veg (and some meat and fish) dishes with interesting flavour combinations. |
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Back in Gifu, dinner at our favourite restaurant, Nomura, where we're too busy to photograph most of the dishes. Oh well. Here's the sashimi. |
Fish called Kinki. Cooked in sweet broth with shiitake and burdock. The fish tastes great, and we like the fish plate too. |
Sunday 30 October: Family dinner at Tohtenkoh Chinese restaurant in Nagoya. My soy noodle salad. |
Snapper fried with lots of chilli - but these are pretty harmless ones :-) |
| Tuesday 1 November: We're invited to attend a meeting of the human rights foundation set up by my father. After an hour's discussion, Italian-Japanese dinner is served. Right: carpaccio of... amberjack, I think. |
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A plate of grilled salmon decorated with maple leaves... |
...and rabbits decorated with the same maple leaves. |
| Thursday 3 November: A 5-course lunch at Miyako Hotel. This is the middle course of various veg & seafood. Inside the bean curd pouch (top) are green tea soba noodles. |
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| Saturday 5 November: Another dinner at Atsuko's house. These amaebi (sweet prawns) from Fukui are really sweet! |
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Slices of various fish cured with kombu are also delicious, so are the fishcakes made with different vegetables. |
And there are grilled squid, scallops sashimi, and some sushi, too. |
| Wednesday 9 November: Dinner at Kisen. The chef had supplied abalones for dinner for the Crown Prince and Princess who were in town, and kept one for us :-) Very tender and delicious. |
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Big matsutake mushrooms. We had one grilled, the other deep-fried. |
And even bigger grilled tuna head. Apparently took two hours in the oven. |
Thursday 10 November: Another dinner at Nomura, where I'm too busy eating and only get to take a couple of photos. Plump oysters fried in butter. |
Lightly seared, sashimi-quality squid - very tender and full of flavour, absolutely yummy! |
Satruday 12 November: We're invited to Atsuko's house yet again. Ayu, the local speciality. |
Various sashimi, baby shrimps, peanut tofu, soft yuba (tofu skin) and veg. |
Sunday 13 November: We meet our friend Akiko from Tokyo, who's in Nagoya for a conference, and go to the izakaya En. Braised taro stems. |
Kinmedai sashimi, tuna avocado, aubergine with baby shrimps, yuba. All lightly flavoured and yummy. |
With each sake ordered, they give you a card with the logo and the origin of the product. We like this logo, for Amaneko (Flaxen Cat) from Akita. |
Akiko spotted these chicks at the station cafe: bavarois with crème caramel centre (made with Nagoya Cochin chicken eggs) with sponge crumbs on the outside. Too cute to eat! |
Monday 14 November: Last evening in Japan. We hit Marumoto, a new place near our hotel. Cucumber with fresh myoga (Japanese ginger) and grainy miso, sole sashimi and sake. Mmmm...
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Usakousa looking at the big salad with yuba and seaweed.
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