What a lovely place Nara is.
We arrived in the evening with our only plans being to check into our hotel room, and find the restaurant that our friend had raved about. The restaurant was incredible! Literally every single morsel was a taste sensation. As we have come to love in Japan, there was no menu. We were given the option of 3 or 5 course, lots of ingredients or less variety. We opted for the ingredient rich, 5 course menu paired with a local sake and a plum wine.
We were served a mixed sharing starter with home-made tofu, Japanese potato salad, mackerel nigiri and spicy tuna sashimi. This was followed by a fish broth, fried mackerel fillets, wagyu beef and egg stew, salmon roe sushi (as a pallet cleanser) and all finished off with a bowl of “dipping noodles”. At each stage the chef/owner/waiter Fumi-Fumi brought out our dish and explained the origin of the food, why he had chosen that particular ingredient, the way he had cooked it and how it would be best enjoyed. It was honestly one of the best dining experiences we’ve had.
On our day of exploring we started by completing an activity Martin had wanted to see in person. The famous Mochi Making. This dish is a rice based pudding of sorts which is filled with sweet beans and is coated in what we have assumed is some form of peanut powder. The process to get to the finalised delicious desert for involves a pressure cooker (not that interesting really, though the machine does shake a little bit. Think of the excitement felt whilst watching speed 2.
However, the Speed 1 action comes next! The gooey output from the machine is placed into a wooden bowl which has been prepared with hot water to ensure zero stickage. The Mochi makers then begin to hammer onto the goo at a great speed in a synchronised rhythm. The climax? The head honcho starts slapping the goo in time with the mallets getting his hands right in there. The whole spectacle is great fun to watch though I’m sure my coordination would mean this is one job that is out of my league.
The rest of our day was filled with wandering around the town of Nara, enjoying the great sights that it had to offer. There are temples aplenty as well oodles of deer who roam the parks and local roads in search of tourists who have crackers on them (note: there are people who sell crackers nearby, these aren’t diet selective deer).
Before heading off we popped into a cheeky little Sake tasting session. At 500 yen per person, you are taken through a section of 5 Sakes to sample. Each one is given a little description before it’s consumed by all at the table. After the 5 rapid fire sakes you do feel a bit skew whiff, but it’s a pleasant buzz to have before moving on.
A food stop at a local market and finally our day came to end and it was time for us to move onto our next location….Kyoto!