Haguro-san December 19, 2009

looking down from the beams of the main shrine at Haguro-san

For the next part of our trip to Yamagata we caught a bus from Yamagata city to Tsuruoka, where we met up with our friends Sarah and Jen and then hopped on another bus to Haguro-san. My plan was to finally finish hiking all three of the sacred peaks of Dewa Sanzan: Haguro-san, Gas-san, and Yudono-san. It is said that the mountains should be hiked in the order of the life-stages that they represent: Haguro-san stands for birth, Gas-san for death, and finally Yudono-san for rebirth. The three peaks are popular with mountain ascetics known as Yamabushi, who hike the peaks in white robes and tabi split-toed shoes. Of course, there are plenty of other hikers in white robes who I suspect are tourists on Yamabushi tours rather than authentic religious pilgrims.

We got off the bus at the base of the mountain. I had been craving some Yamagata cherries, so we asked if there was a place nearby to buy some. The souvenir shop owners pointed us down the road so we walked a while to a you-pick-em cherry farm. The 10 to 15 minute walk turned out to be more like 20 or 30 minutes, and unfortunately, when we got to the farm they were already out of cherries for the day (due to a lower harvest than usual). They did give us three delicious cherries each to sustain us on the walk back.

After we got back to the base of the mountain we stopped at the public restroom in town before we started hiking. This cute little frog was hanging out next to the men’s room.

We saw this furry caterpillar on the sidewalk.

At the beginning of the hike we entered a lush, mossy forest of towering trees. This red bridge crosses a small stream.

Past the red bridge is a stone bridge that leads to a small shrine in front of a waterfall.

Next, we came upon the 600 year-old five-storied wooden pagoda. The pagoda is a national treasure that was constructed without metal screws or nails.

If you look closely as you climb the 2446 steps you might see some of the 33 figures of gourds, sake cups, bottles, or in this case, a yamabushi. We were able to find about 10 of them.

We also saw several “Yamabushi” hikers.

We stopped at a small tea shop that was perched midway up the mountain. I got a miso soup with tofu and Gas-san takenoko. Gas-san takenoko are thin bamboo shoots that grow on the slopes of Gas-san and are in season this time of year.

At Haguro’s summit, the dieties of all three mountains are enshrined since Haguro-san is accessible year-round.

Yamabushi receive a blessing.

A shrine for shoes

It was the season for ajisai.

We stayed at Saikan, the shukubo at the summit. Since there weren’t many travelers staying there, we had a huge room to ourselves.

I expected the meal to be vegan shojin-ryori, as it had been the last time I stayed there, but I was surprised to find that dinner included a grilled fish. The other dishes included wild mountain vegetables, Gas-san takenoko, goma-dofu (sesame tofu) with yurine lily bulbs, pickled eggplant, and Tsuruoka melon. My favorite dish was the sweet miso-topped broiled eggplant.

Breakfast on the other hand was vegetarian, featuring miso soup, rice, handmade tofu, and wild vegetables.

I was excited to find some vendors selling cherries in the parking area. We tried two different kinds and they were both delicious!

Saikan at night

Plan your own trip to Dewa Sanzan with Wikitravel.

Japanese food in the news November 18, 2009

I stumbled across some interesting articles about Japanese food while reading the newspaper today. The first was an article about the reduction of next year’s Atlantic bluefin tuna quota by 40% in an effort to save the species from overfishing. I was surprised to read that Japan has stockpiled 24,600 tons of frozen bluefin tuna, which is nearly double next year’s scheduled catch of Atlantic bluefin. Based on the numbers in the article, it sounds like this means that the country has about a year’s supply of tuna on ice (as Pacific bluefin make up the other half).

I try to avoid eating bluefin most of the time myself, but it’s amazing to me that with the species facing such hard times every sushi shop in town is still able to offer a plate of hon-maguro or otoro for just a few hundred yen. It just doesn’t compute.

Read more at Asahi Shimbun: 2010 Atlantic tuna quota slashed 40%

The other article was about growing imports of that seasonal fall specialty mushroom, the matsutake. According to the article some imported matsutake can rival the quality of domestic mushrooms for a much lower price. Perhaps I should check them out. I’ve heard that you can find these mushrooms growing wild in Colorado too, so maybe I can make a hobby of it after I go home too.

Foreign growers cash in on demand for ‘matsutake’

Writing about Japanese food in the news reminds me that I also have yet to post this article from the Japan Times about Elizabeth Andoh and her upcoming book Kansha: Celebrating Japan’s Vegetarian Traditions.

Key ingredient in Japanese cuisine found in the mind

Yamagata and Yamadera November 16, 2009

Buildings on the cliff at Ryushakuji overlook the town of Yamadera below.

On the 4th of July weekend, we took Friday off and took a trip to Yamagata. I was inspired by my previous trip to Japan, when we spent 3 weeks studying haiku poet Matsuo Basho’s Oku no Hosomichi by following the same route through Tohoku. When we arrived in Yamagata on that trip, I caught a cold so I couldn’t complete the Gas-san to Yudono-san hike (I was deterred by the flying snow-rain at the cable car base) so I’ve been wanting to complete my unfinished trip since then. Plus, I remembered the area, particularly Yamadera, was so beautiful. We certainly weren’t disappointed this time around.

To get there we took the shinkansen to Sendai and then the local line to Yamadera. On my previous trip we were in Yamadera on the 4th of July too, and I remembered that the streets had seemed to be lined with cherry vendors. I was really looking forward to bunches and bunches of delicious Yamagata cherries. Unfortunately, this year’s weather led to a bad stone fruit crop, including cherries, so there were just a few sellers this time.

This carving is at the temple at the base of Yamadera. You can rub the statue where you’re having trouble to feel better. As you can see years and years of rubbing have made him so smooth and shiny. We saw lots of older ladies come and rub his feet before starting up the 1000 stone steps to the mountaintop temple of Ryushakuji.

A stone statue

The big main gate is about halfway up.

You can tie your omikuji here.

Looking up, you can see where water has worn rounded caves into the stone.

A small building on the cliff

The view of the town below (also called Yamadera) from the viewing platform.

Intricately carved dragons

At the top there is not just one temple, but many buildings, including this one, which appears to be the priest’s house, and a vegetable garden.

A string of omikuji.

A huge lantern.

me, Alex, and Alex

After spending the day in Yamadera we had a quick soba lunch before catching the train to Yamagata city. We met up with my friend Alex from Boulder, who is working as an ALT in Yamagata.

First we went to a nearby yatai center where we enjoyed some beers and local specialties. Just find a stall with open seats, pull up a chair, and order away. One interesting dish we tried was dashi tofu. Yamagata dashi isn’t dashi as in the kombu and bonito broth that’s used in Japanese cooking, it’s a finely chopped mix of okra, eggplant, shiso, and other vegetables and seasonings that you can plop onto your tofu. It’s neba-neba (sticky-slimy), but was surprisingly good; definitely better than that other neba-neba food, natto, in my opinion.

After that we headed to a tachinomiya (standing bar) called Maneki Buta. You might guess from the name that their specialty is pork. Alex recommended the grilled pork with daikon, raw on the inside and seared on the outside pork liver, and the gyu-suji nikomi. It was all tasty.

My culinary revelation with organ meats continues. Not only is chicken liver good, this raw on the inside and seared on the outside pork liver is pretty good too. It’s tender and creamy textured and cooked just enough.

See more from our trip at Alex’s photoblog.

Torikomachi October 18, 2009

Torikomachi’s jidori tsukune

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted any local restaurant reviews and I’ve been thinking it’s high time. So let’s take a look at Torikomachi, my favorite neighborhood spot for yakitori. You can find Torikomachi just south of Maebashi Station on the same road that leads to Keyaki Walk (the Kinokuniya entrance). Although you can find Torikomachi in Tokyo and other cities around Japan, the sign next to the grill says that they use Joshu jidori (Gunma-raised free-range chickens).

Torikomachi’s bar

If you come with a group you can get a table, but on busy nights, singles and couples usually sit at the bar. If you sit on the far side from the door you can watch the grill-master at work.

If you’re feeling hungry and not wanting to try picking and choosing from the Japanese-only menu, you can choose one of the two set courses in the back of the menu (for two). The “Ume” course includes chopped cabbage, jidori tsukune, one sumi-yaki chicken half to share, yaki-onigiri, tebasaki to yasai nikomi and vanilla ice cream or chicken soup. The “Take” course is all of the same items, except that you get an order of the hitsumabushi rice dish instead of the yaki-onigiri. The set courses are a good variety, but it’s certainly a lot of food, so if you’re not starving, you might want to put together your own selection from the menu.

If you’re ordering a-la-carte, here’s what I’d recommend: first thing after you sit down, order one stick of the jidori tsukune (above) for each person in your group. The jidori tsukune is basically a chicken meatball that’s been slowly grilled and then served with a sweet soy sauce and a raw egg yolk that you can use to paint on another layer of richness on top of the sauce. It’s like a yakitori take on “oyako.”

Sumi-yaki jidori half

While you’re at it, order the sumi-yaki jidori half or whole. Order it right when you arrive because it takes about 30 or 40 minutes to cook. This is one of the best roast chickens that I’ve ever had. It’s slow-grilled over charcoal. The skin is delightfully crispy and seasoned with salt and garlic and the meat is nicely flavorful.

From the grill (clockwise from top left): yaki-onigiri, chicken liver, hanpen-cheese, aspara-maki

After you order your sumi-yaki chicken you have some time to check out the rest of the menu. There is a great selection of yakitori and kushi-yaki skewers. In addition to the usual chicken or negima skewers, don’t overlook the sunagimo (gizzards) and liver, which are nicely browned and smoky tasting around the edges and tender in the center. Mmm… I also like the hampen-cheese skewers (steamed fish cake with melted cheese), aspara-maki, and meat-stuffed shiitake mushrooms. There’s also a full-page list of flavored tsukune, but I think that the classic jidori tsukune is the best.

The yaki-onigiri is browned and crunchy on the outside and topped with a salty-sweet sauce. The charcoal grill gives it a little smoky flavor too.  You might be thinking, “oh, it’s just a grilled rice ball,” but trust me, it’s a darn good grilled rice ball.

ume-jiso sasami

One of the yakitori items that you shouldn’t miss is the sasami. These are chunks of the chicken tender that are seared on the outside but rare in the middle. They’re juicy and delicious. My favorite is ume-jiso sasami.

close-up view of ume-jiso sasami

Side-dishes (clockwise from top left): tebasaki to yasai nikomi, marinated okra (otoshi), hitsumabushi , torikomachi salad

Finally, why not try some delicious side dishes? You will get an otoshi (starter) when you sit down: it’s a small side dish of vegetables or sometimes spicy konnyaku. The best side dish (I think so anyways) is the tebasaki to yasai nikomi. It’s a stew made with long-simmered chicken wings in a miso broth with vegetables. The chicken wings are so tender that the cartilage is like gelatin and the broth is super thick and rich. It’s fantastic! The torikomachi salad is made with slices of barely seared chicken with Italian dressing. It’s pretty good, and when you’re eating so much chicken it’s nice to have some greens. If you didn’t get the yaki-onigiri and you’re craving some rice, the hitsumabushi is made with crispy chicken skin, slices of chicken, takuan, green onions and chile threads. First you stir it up and eat some, then you can pour the hot chicken broth on top and eat it like rice porridge.

Torikomachi is open every day except Sunday. There is another Gunma location in Isesaki.

Golden Week’s last stop October 2, 2009

On the last day of our Golden Week adventure we had a long stopover in Singapore on our way back to Japan. We checked our bags for our next flight and then headed out for some delicious dinner at Jumbo Seafood on the East Coast. Mmm…. it was so good. We had pretty much the same things that we’d had there on our previous trip, since we had such good memories of it and we couldn’t decide whether we preferred chili crab or black pepper crab. Both are fantastic. Along with our spicy sauced crabs we also ordered deep-fried man-tou buns (like tasty doughnuts for sopping up the chili sauce), bamboo clams, and lime juice. We dug in as soon as the chili crab arrived. As you can see it’s plenty messy so it would have been impossible to get a picture of the black pepper crab by the time it showed up.

Wouldn’t you know it, I just learned today that they even have two Tokyo locations. I don’t know what their prices are like, but it might be worth a try (It must certainly be cheaper than a ticket to Singapore).

So finally, here is the wrap-up of our Golden Week adventure:

Bali: Dinner at Mozaic

Bali: A day at the market and cooking class

Bali!

Java!

Singapore!

Alex’s Photoblog: Singapore

Alex’s Photoblog: Java

Alex’s Photoblog: Bali