Wasabi Dango On our journey through Iwate, I was delighted to find the picturesque city of Tono, hidden away in the mountains is famed for it’s Wasabi production. We stopped at a road side station and bought as many Wasabi-related products as we could carry including Wasabi mayonnaise, wasabi rice crackers, wasabi salad dressing –…

Trout, Yamame In the mountains of Iwate is the town of Tono, a picturesque countryside town surrounded by mountains and ricefields, that took my breathe away as I cycled through it with local, Tomoko Omori. Tomoko used to be a Nurse but now spends her time running a guesthouse, where guests can cook alongside Tomoko…

Cake Manjuu Today we visited one of the most famous sweet shops in Hanamaki, where we had the chance to meet an expert sweet maker. Manjuu is a chewy rice sweet, where the rice and flour are beaten under immense pressure to give them a chewy texture (in the same way flour is beaten to…

“Genghis Khan”, Jingiskan When I heard we were eating “Genghis Khan” for lunch, my reaction was one of confusion and surprise. I’ve never been the sort of person who likes to eat Mongolian dictator’s for lunch. Imagine my relief then when it turned out “Genghis Khan” is in fact a grilled lamb dish, particularly popular…

Pork Buckwheat Noodles (Soba) At the end of Sendai’s never-ending, super long shopping arcade lies a bustling stand up bar selling udon and soba noodle dishes called “Soba no Kanda Nakakecho”. We dropped in during the evening and fought for a spot in the small but crowded bar, full of customers, many of whom looked…

Zundamanju Zunda is sweet soybean paste made from edamame and one of Sendai’s most iconic foods. There are several stories behind the name of “Zunda” but it’s most likely because its sound is the same as “beating beans” in Japanese. Zunda Mochi uses very few ingredients. Really, it is just mochi with a paste of…

Breaded Deep Fried Pork, Tonkatsu It pained me to write “breaded deep fried pork” as the title, because I’m used to just calling it “Tonkatsu” (it’s Japanese name). Some of the magic of this dish seems to be lost in the translation, perhaps because “breaded deep fried pork” doesn’t sound particularly exciting. And yet, Tonkatsu…

Fresh Sashimi There are well over a thousand restaurants and bars in the Kokubuncho entertainment district in Sendai, and for dinner I headed into one of the best fish restaurants in town, Hikozo. Despite it being a Monday, which is typically a quiet day for people dining out in Japan, the restaurant was bustling with…

Beef Stew Omelette Rice, Omuraisu Omelette rice sounds like the simplest thing in the world; an omelette draped over some rice, and usually with a topping of tomato ketchup or demi-glaze sauce. As someone who regularly cooks omelettes (as it’s about one of three things I can cook), I thought I’d mastered the art of…

Cheddar Cheese, in Zao In south Miyagi, about 45 minutes from Sendai is the area of Zao, a mountainous region that feels like it’s own self-contained theme park, home to hot springs, ski resorts, the infamous Fox Village and it’s own dairy farm. Japan is well known for being generally lactose intolerant, and henceforth, unfortunately,…