I am typing this on the plane on the way home from Japan. By the time I upload it I’ll be back at home of course but right now it is 10:50 AM UK time but my body thinks it is 8 PM back in Japan. I thought this would be a good time to do a round up or list some highlights of the holiday, or at least start one! I think this may go on for some time, writing up highlights of my holiday for my blog!
I shall start with food! My top 10 favourite dishes from my holiday in Japan!
1) Hakata ramen: This ramen is so different to any ramen I have tasted before. It is pork based and nothing is wasted in going into the soup for the ramen. I have not tasted anything so vital with meatiness since eating wild boar stew in the south of France. The Hakata ramen made me want to go out and perform a ceremony in thanks to the pig for giving up its life and energy for me to eat it in this ramen! Tasty does not do it justice. The noodles were slightly thinner than the ones I normally get in ramen in the UK and the onions in the ramen were wonderful so fresh and flavoursome!
2) Mount Aso beef stew. I ate this in a railway caff! Real honest hearty food cooked in front of us by the cheerful chef who also was in charge of the station shop! It was the seasonal special meal and came with fresh local salad which was also delicious! The beef again tasted fabulous like it had been running about on the fertile slopes of Mount Aso only that morning! The stew was thick and had seasonal mushrooms in it as well!
3) Japanese apples the size of pumpkins! I didn’t dare eat the really huge apples which literally are the size of a melon or a small squash. I did eat the ones that are about the size of a grape fruit! They were lovely fuji apples with the sweetness of red apples but the texture of a crisp green apple. They are expensive at about 70p - £1 each but well worth it. They are packages in their own protective sleeve which resembles an Elizabethan ruff! Due to the typhoon that hit just before we arrived there was a glut of applies in Japan that had fallen during the storm and needed to be eaten! So I helped out! Interestingly I caused real fascination for a young Japanese girl who watched me eat one of these large apples on the train. I must have appeared like a savage to her, biting into it. I noticed that apple is usually served sliced and most of the apples are just too large to bite into and eat comfortably!
4) Clam soup and Japanese red wine: When we arrived at Nagasaki we didn’t notice anywhere to eat near by. It turned out there were plenty of places a short walk away but we didn’t want to go exploring on our first night there and so decided to treat ourselves to a meal at the hotel restaurant. It receives very good reviews although a little pricey. The restaurant is a French Japanese fusion - very interesting. We had a fabulous 4 course meal but the highlights for me were the soup course - clam soup. I had not tried clam before but this soup was delicious! The little clams were still in their shells and the clattery shells were very pretty and the meat very tasty. As I was having beef as my main I opted to try a glass of Japanese red wine. I have to say it is one of the nicest red wines I have had in a long while; very easy to drink but full of flavour! Unfortunately I don’t know what its name was!
5) Chestnut cream cake and tea: I had these at the Glover Garden Tea Rooms in Nagasaki. I have not been able to eat much in the way of cakes or puddings over the last few months due to a stomach complaint and I am supposed to stick to a low fat diet, but I let this slip in order to try the sweet chestnut cake. It was beautiful. I savoured every last bite! The tea rooms were delightful the kind of establishment sadly dying out back in Britain.
6) TakoYaki Octopus balls in a boat: The sound delightful don’t they? They actually look great and taste even better! I had been watching the cook continually turning the doughy balls with octopus in the middle, to make sure they are evenly browned all over, for days when we were first in Hakata. It wasn’t until our return that I got to try them. A wonderful treat with the sweet sticky sauce all over them!
7) mystery udon at Tosu station: On our way to Kumamoto we had a half hour wait for our connecting train we had asked for extra time to change in case the station was hard to navigate. Of course being Japan it was totally smooth and easy to find our way around! But having the extra time meant that I could stand at the udon stand and try some mystery udon with a potato cake in it! I think i may have unwittingly asked for the breakfast udon either way it was delicious! I just wish that we had udon stands on our train station platforms at home! I’d eat there every night on my way home!
8) Mapo Dofu in Nagasaki China town: I had tried mapo dofu back home once but it had been an odd affair and Jase had told me it wasn’t at all like the real thing. So where better to try the real thing than Nagasaki China town! It was fantastic, so soft tofu with a rich meaty sauce that is both hot but delicately sweet. We have tracked down a recipe and I am going to try to make it at home!
9) Omu rice: It is no delicacy it can be found in any cafe or izekaiya in Japan it is what it says - omelet covering rice and rich meaty stew. Cheap and cheerful and total comfort food!
10) Ginger ale kit kats! Yes the world’s finest invention it’s a kit kat but it tastes exactly like ginger ale! I could only eat a small amount due to my avoiding fatty foods but it tasted good!
I know it was top 10 but I do have an 11 again from Nagasaki where we tried manju - again I could only have a tiny bit due to it being very fatty pork in a soft bun but unlike the usual pork buns sold in convenience stores etc. this is an open bun and they are everywhere in Nagasaki! Very tasty but could only eat a bit!
I should also give an honourary mention to the mushroom burger from freshness burger that was in fact a large portobello type mushroom in a bun with all the usual gubbins. Very odd but very tasty!
So ends my food odyssey of Japan 2009!
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