Food at the Ryokan
Eating at the ryokan is part of the experience; few ryokans will allow you to stay without also paying for the meals. Most of the time, they seek to prepare uber-traditional meals with a focus on foods and ingredients that are specialties in the region of the ryokan. Soeno, the ryokan we stayed at last weekend, was no exception.
Dinner was served in the dining hall and each room had their own, semi-private area. We were seated across from one another and, in the center of our table was a large open pit with a few coals on it. Before we even arrived, they had begun grilling some fish in our pit and they had set out a tray of starters.
We sat down, in our yukata and started to eat the food in front of us. It was a culinary exploration, one where we didn’t know most of what we were eating. I, being a bit less adventurous, usually made Aaron try something first. Then, once he said it was ok, I would go ahead and eat mine.
We spent most of our dinner stealing glances at the tables around us. Trying to figure out how (and when) we were supposed to eat various items. At one point we noticed that everyone around us had taken the grilled fish and begun eating it. Then, we decided to do the same. We both took our fish off of its stick and set it on our plates. But then, we mostly just sat there looking, poking and laughing at it.
Finally, our waiter came around and I got brave enough to ask him how we were supposed to eat it. The fish was an aiu (a sweetfish) that is famous in Gifu, and it was my first (and Aaron’s second) experience with it. Apparently, all you do is just start digging in. The whole thing is edible. Although, I took a few extra steps before eating mine. First I decapitated it. I really can’t stand it when my food looks at me. Then I carefully opened its belly and removed its organs. I’m also not a big fan of organ meat. The rest went down pretty smooth.
One of my favorite parts of the meal was when we were each brought a little tray of raw veggies and raw Hida beef. They placed a grate over our coals and we were able to cook them ourselves at our table. So delicious!
I said that the beef was one of my favorites, it was definitely tasty, but that night they seemed to know my weak spot. In honor of our anniversary, they brought each of us a special treat.
Brown sugar flavored ice cream sprinkled with gold flakes. It was so smooth and creamy and delicious and I wish I could eat more right now!
So, all in all, dinner was quite good. Breakfast was a different story, but I will tell you more about that another day (tomorrow, if you are lucky).
What an awesome experience and very romantic!
Love, Grandma
Thanks!
Yeah, it was a great way to spend our fifth wedding anniversary! Can you believe it has been five years?!