[flushboing]

I was recently in Hagi, Japan, in Yamaguchi prefecture on the Japan Sea side of Japan. What a beautiful place. Lots of mountains, forests, seacoast. Hagi is a small, but famous historical village, and also well-known for its pottery. It's kind of a hike to get to, but well worth the effort, especially if you're travelling up to Tottori, or down to Shimonoseki or Kyushu.

Hanging out with a prominent local, we went to a place that has been described to me for a couple years. I've been told that this place serves the best, freshest sazae (best translation is turban shell, which looks like a small conch), as well as other seafood that is caught off the coast. The restaurant is called Tsubaki no Yakata, and it's really out of the way, in northern Hagi on the coast, in an area that is now a national park.

Here's the photo of the front entrance



The best way to explain directions is to find Mount Kasayama and the Kita Nagato National Park, where you'll find this sign.



On to the food, let me just say that I've had sazae tsuboyaki before, and I've never had specimens this fresh. I don't even know how to describe sazae, since it's almost a cross between oysters and snails, kind of chewy, but with a lot of essence of the sea. If you've ever had those little sea snails in black bean sauce that you get at dim sum parlors, these are king kong versions of those (without the black beans).





This restaurant is right on the coast, I think on the property of the national park, so the view is magnificent.



Besides sazae, Tsubaki no Yakata also serves other seafood, including a wonderful rustic sashimi plate, which included fugu (a specialty of yamaguchi prefecture), and just about the freshest grilled squid that I've had. In fact, the waitress/matron of the house let us know that the squid was actually caught earlier that morning.





Two other specialties of the house are wonderful comfort foods: a braised snapper, and to finish off the meal, wakame musubi (rice balls covered in homemade wakame). In the home kitchen, one doesn't tend to use the freshest fish to braise in this style, so this snapper was incredible as it's made with the freshest fish. The braise is with a sweetened soy/mirin sauce flavored with ginger.





This is the menu, by the way



We came straight here as soon as we rolled into town, so I was a bit disoriented, but if you spend any time in the Hagi area, Tsubaki no Yakata is definitely worth the trouble. It kind of reminded me of a place like Essex Seafood in the north shore of Boston.

Here's a Hagi Map, but this restaurant is off the map to the northeast a bit (I think).

... more to come

[flushboing]

Here's another site about Hagi that better describes its history and location in Japan.

[Abbylovi]

Wow. Thanks.

[jinmyo]

Amazing.

[flushboing]

When our prominent local host found out we were coming to Hagi, he initially thought to host us at his home, but since it turned out that there were going to be several others joining us, he made a call to his connections at one of the top ryokans in town to get us a room. It turned out that they were full for the peak fall season, but his connection at the ryokan got was soon able to get us in with the first cancellation. The evening activities were at Hagi Honjin Ryokan, considered one of the better ryokans in Hagi. Hagi Honjin is located high up looking over Hagi, and they have three onsens (hot spring baths). The rotemburo (or outdoor bath) is accessed by a tram you take to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time between check-in, greetings and dinner to get to the outdoor bath, but I understand it's pretty spectacular.

The dinner at Hagi Honjin may have been one of the best meals I've had in Japan. Although it wasn't high on creativity, the quality of ingredients and the cooking techniques were topnotch. We basically had one of the higher-end kaiseki menu, featuring many fall ingredients.

Here's the setup of the banquet.



The first set of courses were already laid out for us.



Clockwise from the top, we have a nabe (hotpot) with whale meat, a sashimi course, a fugu sashimi course, the main appetizer plate (with a fig in a sweet jelly sauce, a persimmon salad, a roasted and slightly braised chestnut, gingko nuts, an apple napoleon-type concoction, shrimp and egg custard roll, I think that last thing is eel, but I can't recall), miso soup, and a cook-it-yourself beef course.

A couple close-ups:





As you can see, the sashimi was pretty basic, but it was pristine. That uni, which had a darker hue than I'm accustomed to seeing was so sweet, and that squid was silky and so nicely textured. The main appetizer plate was just so interesting. That fig dish was so unexpected and wonderful. I probably could have just eaten it for dessert, but it was a nice counterpoint to the other salty flavors. And that serving of the apple napoleon topped with gold foil was also intriguing. I'm trying to recall what was in the middle of that sandwich, but the sweet and savory were a real good match in that particular dish. Beneath the persimmon slices was a mayonnaise-y salad with some seafood (again, can't recall the details), which I enjoyed. I love chestnuts, and this was also interesting with the added dimension of being simmered with a sweetened soy-type seasoning.

The beef dish was stunningly good. The beef they use is a local beef and is only available during a few weeks in the fall when a few are chosen for slaughter. From the way it was described to me, it seems like it's more prized than wagyu (kobe) beef. They were very instructive to make sure we eat it medium-rare, though I just ate it after just searing the outside, and my god, it was as tender as a good piece of ootoro.

Speaking of ootoro, it was a offered as a little mid-course:



The nabe with the whale meat was probably my least favorite item of the bunch, but it was well worth trying, but I think I'm beginning to realize that I'm just not much of a whale meat fan. It's very chewy with the blubber, and kind of livery in taste. Here's a shot of it:



While these courses alone were enough to sate me, they also offered a fish nabe course. I think it was some kind of codfish, though can't be certain. I managed to eat just a few bites.



By this time, several rounds of beer and sake went around and the group was boisterous. We had a karaoke setup as well, and that was being put into good use. Having had time to digest and work off some of those calories, I had just enough room to savor the last savory course that came around. This was takikomi gohan with matsutake mushrooms and uni. The matsutake was cooked with the rice and the uni was mixed in just before serving. It was simple and perfect.



The final final course was dessert. And it took a little while before working the appetite for it after the uni-gohan, but I'm glad I waited.



Looks pretty much like fruit, and it was. Except that one with the sauce all over the bottom was fantastic. It's nashi, or Japanese pears, which had been jello-fied somehow. I'm still trying to figure out how they did that. It had that intense sweet and slightly grainy texture like pear, but it was wobbly like jello. I think they must have pureed it and reconstituted it with gelatin. But with that vanilla cream sauce, it was a perfect end to an extravagent meal. And those pieces of persimmon and kiwi were quite nice too.

[omnivorette]

How gorgeous. More! More!

[flushboing]

Forgot to add the last bit of info.

Hagi Honjin Ryokan
Yamaguchi-ken, Hagi-shi, Chintou 385

If you look on the map of Hagi from this link, you'll see Hagi Honjin on the far right three quarters up on the map.

[flushboing]

And finally, I'll just talk a bit about Hagi's other well known food. It's called natsu-mikan. Mikan is not quite a tangerine nor really an orange, but something between the two, and natsu means summer. Let's just call it a summer orange. It's local to the area, as mikan are normally fall/winter fruit. Many of the shops around town sell these candied natsu-mikan rinds or slices of the candied dried fruit.





It has a tangier flavor than the normal mikan, with a citrus bite like yuzu. These candied rinds made nice snacks.

At Hagi Honjin, as most ryokan do, they offer a sample of local goodies in your room (a good enticement to buy some at the shop in the lobby). I got hooked on these babies:



It's jellified natsu mikan inside of a choux pastry. I wanted to buy a ton of this stuff, but I think it was pretty perishable with the pastry. I just bought enough to give as gifts for relatives in Tokyo and a few for me to have while traveling.

[flushboing]

Geez. How could I forget about breakfast at Hagi Honjin. We were in somewhat of a hurry to catch the bus to the train so we didn't have time to savor breakfast so much. But man, do they feed you to death at these ryokans. Here's what we had:



So let's see what we have. Simmered lotus root, egg custard, a piece of grilled mackerel, can't remember what that thing is on the top right, squid sashimi, simmered vegetables with konyaku, bamboo shoots, and burdock, and a salad. That's what's in the main bento box. Then there's a mini bowl of soba noodles in broth, pickled daikon (takuwan) and pickled plum (umeboshi). That foil bag contains furikake, which is a mixture of wakame, shiso, dried fish, and ume (plum) that you sprinkle over white rice. The empty coaster with the spoon was reserved for freshly made tofu.



Like dinner, everything was pretty much spot on, and it would have been even better for lunch or even dinner. I would have been happy with just the rice and soup for breakfast.

[tanabutler]

This is so wonderful. Thank you.

[mongo_jones]

lovely pictures. how much did these meals cost?

[omnivorette]

You ain't seen nuthin' yet. Buh buh buh baybee.

[flushboing]

mongo_jones, on Dec 25 2005, 02:02 AM, said:

lovely pictures. how much did these meals cost?

Good question. Since I didn't see a bill for any of these meals, I'll take a guess. The lunch at Tsubaki no Yakata cost something in the ballpark of $200 (20,000 yen) for 8 people. And we had way too much to finish.

The cost of the meal at Hagi Honjin is a little more complicated. I'm pretty certain that we got some special service and some freebies, but after checking on their website, something like what we had costs around $200 (20,000 yen) per person, but that price also includes lodging and breakfast. Pretty reasonable, isn't it? Actually, after checking through Hagi Honjin's website, I know we got a special deal, since that beef dish alone costs about $30 a plate a la carte.

[mongo_jones]

flushboing, on Dec 24 2005, 09:42 PM, said:

mongo_jones, on Dec 25 2005, 02:02 AM, said:

lovely pictures. how much did these meals cost?

Good question. Since I didn't see a bill for any of these meals, I'll take a guess. The lunch at Tsubaki no Yakata cost something in the ballpark of $200 (20,000 yen) for 8 people. And we had way too much to finish.

The cost of the meal at Hagi Honjin is a little more complicated. I'm pretty certain that we got some special service and some freebies, but after checking on their website, something like what we had costs around $200 (20,000 yen) per person, but that price also includes lodging and breakfast. Pretty reasonable, isn't it? Actually, after checking through Hagi Honjin's website, I know we got a special deal, since that beef dish alone costs about $30 a plate a la carte.

and how much does airfare cost? because i may need to go.

[flushboing]

mongo_jones, on Dec 25 2005, 05:39 AM, said:

and how much does airfare cost? because i may need to go.

It doesn't cost as much as it once did to fly to Japan. The best deals on flights from the US are from the Japanese travel agencies like H.I.S., Navitour, IACE, JTB, Tabit, Kintetsu, or Amnet (Japanese website only). The fall and winter (excluding the new years week) are typically the low seasons, and air tickets are the best value. My ticket cost $519 plus tax/surcharges this time around. Usually the taxes and surcharges don't add up to much, but because of the price of oil went through the roof this year because of hurricane Katrina, the surcharge for fuel added about $170 to that price. Still not bad, but a slight shock.

Also these travel agents will also take care of getting a JR pass, which is indispensible if you are traveling around Japan.