Turkey and beef, two large Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, peas and carrots, and a good smothering of gravy. Delicious!
We went with my family and some friends - ten of us in all - for an £8.50 per person carvery, on the way home from the airport.
The apartment block smack in the middle of the photo is where we've lived for the last nearly two-and-a-half years. So very strange, and a little sad, to think we will never return to it.
No more waking up to fine views like this!
Much more practical when it's snowing!
Tonight being the 8th of the month, the restaurant called 八方園 (pronounced 'Happouen') does a 食べ放題 (all you can eat) dinner of 焼き肉 (grilled meat) lasting 90 minutes for 2980 yen (about £20) including a drink. We went along with a couple of friends of ours, Taro and Miho, and after all opting for a beer as our drink, then proceeded to order copious amounts of meat to cook to our liking on the grill in front of us.
What was interesting though was the セセリ (pronounced 'seseri' - the light meat at the bottom of the first photo). None of us knew what it was, so we asked the lady and were told it was meat from the neck area of chickens. It was certainly very tasty and we enjoyed more than one plate. We ordered a plate of everything on the menu just to try them, but I think everybody's favourite was the ハラミ ('harami') coated with salt (塩) and lemon sauce; it was fantastic! As a really kind gesture once we'd paid the bill, perhaps because we were the last people remaining in the restaurant, we were brought free strawberry ice cream. I'd love to go back again, but unfortunately we won't be around for the 8th of next month!
Well of course I wanted to bring Liz, my visiting friend, to my favourite eaterie Ichibun! The master seemed prepared too, as he surprised us with a couple of new dishes.
First up was a salad of まぐろ (tuna) on dressed cabbage, which was scoffed in an instant. Then he brought us a ドリア (doria), made with rice and seafood and covered with melted cheese. Finally after we had ordered and consumed a couple of our regular dishes (ramen etc) he brought us a complimentary dessert of lemon ice cream with berry compote and home-made strawberry jam. And as always everything else was 500 yen a dish (about £3.50). Hopefully Liz was convinced of Ichibun's calibre after that. (I'm seriously going to miss Ichibun's food!)
First let me state that these weren't all mine! There were many of us, and after coffee in Tully's this afternoon I decided that I had to take Liz to Masamura (マサムラ) as they're probably the most famous cake shop in Matsumoto (松本).
The four cakes in the photo coated with icing sugar are the main reason I love this shop; cream-custard filled choux buns (シュークリーム). The baby ones were 110 yen (about 70p) and the large one 200 yen.
My car's odometer on the way home displayed tonight's cinema seat numbers - 11,12,13. Spooky!
Even after finishing it I could easily eat another!
This weekend my friend Liz visited from down in Shiga prefecture, and her main objective (apart from to see me of course) was to see the snow monkeys, for which Nagano is famous. I hadn't yet been either so today was a great chance to go.
A great number of macaque monkeys come to Jigokudani Monkey Park (地獄谷野猿公苑) in the winter months to bathe in the hot natural water. Despite not having any snow coverage yet it was still fascinating to watch so many monkeys together, enjoying themselves and completely oblivious to the people taking photographs. I guess they must be used to it by now! I was particularly amused seeing the monkeys after they'd dipped their heads in the water. It was like their heads had suddenly shrunk! I commented that I thought it made them look a bit more like old men. There's a great website about the park and access to it and its environs here. The map provided helped us to find the lower parking area and from there we took the quiet 1.6km track through the forest to get to the park. Here are four of my favourite photos from the day.
Ingresso (イングレッソ) is a small Italian restaurant and wine bar owned by Mario (as he's been nicknamed), a portly Japanese guy with a great sense of humour and a real passion for Italian food and wine. He learned to cook in Europe and then opened the restaurant in its current location near Nagano station just over a year ago, having first run it in a different part of town.
At lunch time his complete lunch menu comprises starter, Italian-style bread (and olive oil), a pasta dish, and finally dessert and coffee for 900 yen (about £6). That's what we went for today (and in fact every time), as although there is also the option of just taking the pasta (and bread) for 600 yen (about £4), where's the fun in that! Today's starter was a wonderful truffle quiche with rocket. I then opted for the gnocchi, which came with a tomato and spinach sauce liberally spread with parmesan cheese, rather than the spicy tomato spaghetti with Italian sausage. I had that myself last time I came and it's great; unusual to be able to eat such sausage here in Japan. Finally was dessert of panna cotta with golden kiwi and fruit compote, with which I drunk an espresso. There is a blog which Mario frequently updates. I'll definitely be visiting again for lunch in the next couple of weeks.
The master of our favourite local diner, Ichibun, brought out a couple of surprises tonight when we visited.
First he brought out a large dish of pork stew, with which he served slices of fresh baguette. The meat was so amazingly soft and tender, and the taste was really delicious. We were all so surprised that he'd made it for us, and then... it was gone in a flash! We also ordered his potato okonomiyaki (made by adding potato to the normal flour and egg mix) and his Indian-style curry, plus a salad of daikon and scallops. (I took no photos of these.) As a dessert he surprised us yet again by producing home-made warabimochi (蕨餅), a jelly-like substance made in this case with just potato flour and water, and covered with a sweet black-sugar syrup and soybean flour. My mother-in-law then quizzed him on how it's made, and we couldn't believe how easy it sounded; just potato flour and water! Finally, the master brought out a miso ramen (味噌ラーメン) for us to share. Nice! Although by this time I was seriously full, so couldn't eat much of it. I'm really going to miss Ichibun and the 500 yen (about £3.50) lunch and dinner dishes.
Apparently (according to my other half) this is the best spicy ramen with tofu (マーボーラーメン) in the area. Actually the place we went to for lunch today is located opposite my old Japanese language school in the 川中島 (Kawanakajima) area outside Nagano city, so until March this year when I graduated we used to go here quite regularly. The restaurant's name is 永楽 (pronounced 'eiraku') and it is the only (thanks to the above-referenced statement declaring it the best) place I've eaten this ramen.
The slightly spicy soup contains mince and tofu, and underneath this top layer of meat and tofu lie the noodles. Very tasty! Reasonably priced too at 650 yen (about £4.50). It's not too clean a restaurant I feel, but in truth it's probably typical of a 中華食堂 (Chinese-style diner). Thankfully last year they finally made the main part of the restaurant non-smoking over the lunchtime period. I do wish they'd hurry up and outlaw smoking in all public places like other countries, but I sadly don't see that happening for quite some years yet. But at least it's moving in the right direction.
I was like a child in a sweetshop this afternoon when Amazon delivered my latest order. In fact I'd pre-ordered these lightsaber chopsticks a few months ago after first reading about them on TokyoMango. I ordered one of each of the three colours, and back then on pre-order they were 785 yen each (about £5).
After much thought I decided to open Yoda's smaller green ones to use now, and I'll keep Luke's and Darth's in Japan for my return. I guess I could then even create two mixed pairs of chopsticks, one red and one blue. Then every meal would be like a lightsaber duel between good and evil. (Oh dear.)They've recreated individual handles for each based on the 'real' lightsabers from the Star Wars movies. Opening them revealed some of the detail they've gone to - even the tiny button on the handles is painted green.
I'll be trying them with my first meal tomorrow, woooooooo!
From the Tokyu department store. Yum!
