Japan, 5-24 October 2017, some food highlights
Monday 9 October: Dinner with Atsuko & her family at their home. Fishcakes from Fukuoka, sweet prawns (gasuebi) from Fukui, grilled locally caught ayu, oven-baked "fruit onions" (sweeter than the usual sort) and other vegetables.
Tuesday 10 October: Lunch at Bunkaya by the River Nagara. 10 courses over nearly 3 hours in this renovated old house!	"Croquette" with prawns. Yam instead of potato inside, and potato strips instead of breadcrumbs outside.
Veloute of mushrooms and hot spring poached egg.	Poêlé of Japanese Spanish Mackerel? - with burdock risotto.
A labbit flower on the table	Despite feeling full after a big lunch, we gate crash a dinner party at our hotel restaurant in the evening and have sashimi and fish shabu shabu among other dishes (and drink lots of chilled sake :-)
Thursday 12 October: Brunch at the Osaka station branch of the Michelin 2-star tempura restaurant Tsuchiya. Prawn, squid and 7 different vegetables. Yummee!	Thursday 12 October: Back in Gifu, dinner at our favourite restaurant Nomura. Assorted sashimi and appetizers.
These peanuts are huge!	Deep-fried oysters. Sesame in the batter give them an extra flavour.
Monday 16 October: Dinner at Kisen. Local ayu, now in season, cooked in all kinds of ways. This one was grilled and served with dashi.	Saturday 21 October: Dinner at one of the many izakaya in the Tamamiya-cho area, just around the corner from our hotel, Marudai Ekimae Center. Great sashimi :-)
Sunday 22 October: We're invited to Atsuko's again. Horsehair crab from Hokkaido, grilled amaebi shrimps and squid from Fukui, grilled seasonal sammma (pacific saury), etc. etc.	Cactus shaped spice grinder, a souvenir from Mexico apparently.
Monday 23 October: Our last supper in Japan, at another izakaya nearby, Kuukai. Mizunasu, a kind of aubergine you can eat raw, is delicious. So are the kombu-cured sea bream, grilled baby squid & Japanese pimento. The cream cheese with fish roe goes surprisingly well with sake too.
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