Food tastes better in the countryside

In the last installment of my Nagano series, let’s talk about food.

I’ve to say that my taste buds were spoiled at literally every meal. I have the restaurant info but addresses in Japan are notoriously hard to hunt for, so good luck in finding these culinary gems.

Taisentei

This snug traditional Japanese restaurant is a classy soba joint where the hushed atmosphere would make you savour their delightful soba noodles quietly. You wouldn’t want to talk much anyway because it was that good. I took the photos from their website as I lost mine when I reformatted my Macbook recently.

The tempura was just excellent — very crisp and light so you would actually crave for more.

A friend had the cold soba set and I had the warm one. Judging from the silky texture of the slippery soba noodles, I would imagine the cold version to be heavenly. What was unique about their warm soba was they floated a miniscule piece of yuzu (Japanese mandarin) skin that took away any heaviness in the broth. The portions were smallish but as you can see the set is quite filling with its numerous tiny dishes.

Website: http://www.tamariya.org/

Azumino Gyoza

Mmmm…. These lil’ babies slid down my throat way too easily. I always prefer sui gyoza (steamed dumplings) and these were just sensational — lightly savoury and the minced meat tasted fresh.

Normally, just two or three pieces of yakigyoza (grilled or pan-fried dumplings) would be enough but my plate of five felt just right. The crispy skin was so skillfully done and the centre was soft and juicy. You can’t really go wrong with yakigyoza but few can achieve that mysterious balance of crisp and succulent simultaneously.

Website: http://www.art-8men.com/azumino/

Tori Kokoro

Just a disclaimer, the name of the restaurant is likely to be wrong as I’m not reading it as a kanji compound. For those who don’t know, different kanji combinations alter their pronunciation. The direct translation of the restaurant name is chicken heart but I’m sure it’s more about passion for chicken. Okay, our Japanese lesson is over at this point.

We waited outside in the cold for almost an hour and a half, so even staring at the skewers of raw meat made me drool a little inwardly. The cramped, busy shop was bustling and noisy, which is a first for me as I usually patronize yakitori izakayas in Tokyo that are quieter.

We even got full view of the grilling action going on behind the bar. You can’t see it from the picture but the guy on the left had quite a bit of salt in his hat as he was quite dramatic when he sprinkled it over the yakitori he was cooking.

I was so hungry that I didn’t take ANY pictures except for these. It’s a house specialty where chicken meat is coated in cheese and flour, which is deep-fried and then covered generously with shaved daikon (radish) and doused with soy sauce. It was very unique and tasty with its unusual ingredients.

The smooth slivers of chicken were divine and it’s not often I get excited about birds. I think they actually peeled off meat from the wings because the texture was extraordinarily slippery. Other winners were shishito (Japanese green peppers), shiitake mushrooms, chicken wings, engiri mushrooms, and tsukune (minced meat). It was awesome and we rolled outta there with bellies full of yakitori.

Address: Matsumoto Chuo 1-2-24 Yamaga Building, Matsumoto City, Nagano
Tel: 36-9757 (I think the area code for Nagano is 026 but you’ll have to run a check on that)

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