The Travel Bug & Food Bytes: Nabe Banzai!

This is a small restaurant located right across our hotel. It was closed the night before, but had been recommended by the hotel staff, so we decided to try it on our last night in Yuzawa.




The restaurant was slightly larger than the bars of the previous 2 days, and didn't have a counter area. Here's what the Japanese seating area looks like:


This place even had an English menu, even though the prices on it are pretty outdated.

We started with our usual sake. The lady really surprised me when she continued pouring nonstop and the glass overflowed into the saucer below. Apparently this is how they give "service", or in other words, "free extra stuff".


The starter was this "white thing" in the same dashi sauce with spring onions as what they use for onsen tamagos. I was happily eating it until I casually remarked that I didn't know what it was, and *Shinta "helpfully" pointed out that it was... fish sperm. That was the end of the dish for me. Somehow I just couldn't stomach it after that.

Since it was our last chance, we decided to order the "Yuzawa Chicken Hotpot (Nabe)" for the 2 of us. Each hotpot is specially made, and adding in the time it takes for the stock, veggies and meat to cook, we had a to prepare for really long wait in front of us.

To pass the time while waiting, we decided to order some side dishes. First was the "lightly fried Maitake mushroom", which came in a tempura-like batter. It was tasty but nothing particularly spectacular.

I wanted to try the deep fried garlic, envisioning crispy pieces of thinly fried garlic slices. Instead the batter covered garlic was soft on the inside and barely cooked. Really not what I had expected, and not as tasty or fragrant as I was hoping for.

The Nabe was still taking a while, so we also ordered the deep fried octopus with a special sauce. Like the fried mushrooms, the tempura batter was not too oily. Unfortunately there wasn't much to the octopus. The "special sauce" was sweet and not too bad, but I didn't really see what was so special about it.

Finally, the Nabe was ready. The steaming hot pot was bubbling and threatening to spill over, just as we opened the lid.

In my opinion, we shouldn't have bothered with all the other side dishes, and just waited patiently for it. The meat was very well marinated while the flavours from the mushrooms, cabbage, meat and stock was nicely mixed up in the soup.


Towards the end of the hotpot, they lady brought us some udon which was just perfect for soaking up the remnaints of the soup. *Slurp slurp*

So that's it for pigging out in Yuzawa for now. Next up will be endless eating in Tokyo!