Inabe, Mie

Our current home base is Inabe, Mie which is where the wife’s parents live. They have a big house in the country side, which includes a 2nd kitchen and bath so we are essentially living in an in-law portion of the house. Life out here requires a car and is a good 20 minute drive to a major train station, and along the way we see many rice fields and vegetable gardens. It’s an amazing contrast from the Osaka city landscape.

Hida Wagyu and Farm-To-Table Vegies

Japanese beef doesn’t need a lot of introduction, however the in-laws brought home some beef from Takayama which was as tender as it looks. The Hida Wagyu seems very popular and we grilled them up with vegetables picked in the morning from their organic garden. This is becoming a tradition when we visit them, and our daughter first started loving steaks when she tried wagyu this way a few years ago.

Ise Udon

Ise is famous for a shrine that we’ll hopefully visit in the near future. One of the local favorite dishes is Ise Udon, which consists of udon noodles mixed with a shoyu (soy sauce) based sauce, rather than the typical soupy broth. The udon noodles are softer and thicker than usual too, and in this case sprinkled with shirasu (tiny sardines), shiso leaf and runny egg.

Unagi

One of my favorite dishes that is hard to eat outside of Japan is fresh BBQ Unagi. One must go to a Unagi specialty restaurant where they prep and grill this in house. We went to a place that prepared ‘Kansai’ (western) style, which cuts the eel from the belly and grills over hot coals. My opinion is that this creates a more firmer meat and smoky flavor than ‘Kanto’ (Tokyo) style which has a steaming step before grilling. Our daughter is picky about seafood, but Unagi is closer to BBQ with a sweet sauce so she liked it. That’s a relief, since we’ll be going for Unagi as often as possible.