Ricecracker, Nanbu Senbei Nanbu Senbei is a famous traditional snack sold everywhere around Iwate prefecture. It’s simply made from wheat flour, water and salt, with the most common Senbei have either sesame seeds or peanuts in them. Senbei is also the Japanese word for “biscuit” or “cracker” and this product looks like a little flat…

Fukuda-Pan In Japan, bread has become more and more popular over the years, with sandwiches enjoying similar popularity to rice balls. But perhaps nowhere in Tohoku enjoys bread-related fame more than Fukuda Pan, a sandwich shop in Morioka city, where locals queue for over an hour to get a sandwiches filled with a variety of…

Skewered Meat, Kushiyaki Kushiyaki is one of my favourite Japanese dishes and every time I have it I wonder why it hasn’t yet become popular in the UK. Pork, chicken and beef are skewered, covered in a fine mixture of salts and spices unique to each restaurant and then grilled under the constant supervision of…

Smoked Cheese I spent four years looking for cheese in Japan. Then, in the space of just one week I came across a cheese factory in the mountains of Zao in Miyagi prefecture and a vendor in Yoichi street market selling a selection of smoked cheeses. I realise the purpose of my trip on Tohoku…

Grilled Miso Tofu, Tofu-Dengaku Today I visited the Yoichi street market, Morioka’s famous night market (even though it’s more like a late afternoon market). I was shown around by Quinlan, a jovial local American, who’s been living in Morioka for 4 years. At the end of the market we discovered a stand where Tofu and…

Oden In Morioka city the owner of the restaurant “Konsaiya”, Tanaka Koichi, introduced me to several meals – but as fall is coming pretty soon I’m going to talk one in particular I ate this evening. Oden is usually a food of the masses, purchased and enjoyed from convenience stores throughout Japan. It may be…

Anmitsu This dessert was a very good discovery indeed. The classic Japanese dessert is often enjoyed during the summer season and will delight your taste buds with its combination of different textures: sweat red bean paste called Tsubuan, ice cream, jelly and fruits. Surprisingly, the jelly is a vegan jelly known as “kanten”, and the…

Morioka Reimen PyonPyon-Sya is one of the best places to try Iwate specialities in Japan. These noodles are one of the the 3 best noodles of Morioka, (Wanko Soba , Jajamen and Morioka Reimen) . Created back in the 50’s by a Korean owning a Yakiniku restaurant in Japan this dish gradually started to be…

Morioka Jaja-men / Chitantan Soup Jajamen is one of three infamous noodles of the city of Morioke in Iwate prefecture, along with Wankosoba and Reimen. The dish consists of a bowl of thick, udon-like noodles, with cucumber and green onion and a dollop of special meat-miso sauce, which you stir together before eating. The appearance,…

Sanriku Scallops, Hotate The Sanriku coastline stretches several hundreds kilometres along Japan’s Pacific coastline, starting in Aomori, passing through Iwate and finishing in north Miyagi. The area is well regarded for it’s seafood and perhaps most prominently for it’s giant scallops. I had the chance to try them out in Morioka at a fish restaurant…