Enjoyed “Saba no Heshiko” with sake “Kasumitsuru” at “Misoroku”, Fukuchiyama

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Continued from the last report, today’s story is about my visiting the downtown around Fukuchiyama Station, and restaurants called “Misoroku” and “Guurindai”.

Goryo Shrine and downtown of Fukuchiyama

I left Fukuchiyama Castle, and went to the hotel near Fukuchiyama Station which I booked for the night.
I was happy to find this good hotel with clean room and parking area, and the price of 5000yen without meals for the booking on 2 days before staying.
I dropped my baggage in the room and had a shower, and then went out to discover the town around Fukuchiyama Station.

 

The first place I visited was “Goryo Shrine”.
It was 10 to 15 minutes by walking from the Station to the northeast direction.

Mitsuhide Akechi, who opened the town of Fukuchiyama, is enshrined in this shrine.
Mitsuhide is famous for defeating a famous Daimyo, Nobunaga Oda, in an incident called “Honnoji no Hen”, so Mitsuhide often gets bad reputations as a rebel.
However, he was a talented person in warfare and politics, and he was appointed to the ruler of Tamba no Kuni including Fukuchiyama by Nobunaga.

Mitsuhide constructed Fukuchiyama Castle and developed the castle town.
He started his fair and kind politics there.
The people of the domain loved Mitsuhide, and they built this Goryo Shrine after his death to console his soul.

Treasures which are related to Mitsuhide are kept in this shrine, and among those treasures, documents called “Akechi Mitsuhide Kachu Gunpo” tells the military discipline and strategies of Mitsuhide’s army as a precious historical material.

 

When I saw the map, it seemed that the area between Fukuchiyama Station and Goryo Shrine was the downtown of Fukuchiyama.
But when I walked in the area, it didn’t look like a downtown as only some restaurants were spreading in residential areas.
However,

Many of those had cool appearances and interesting names (the one in the 4th photo was on the underground floor, and the name was “Chika Sakaba (Underground Bar)”).
As there were many attractive restaurants, I couldn’t decide which to try and wandered for 30 minutes.

My first choice was the one in the next photo which was closest to the hotel and looked like they had reasonable and interesting dishes,

But unfortunately, they were closed because it was a national holiday.
Instead, I chose this restaurant which didn’t look so expensive and didn’t seem a chain, and looked comfortable for me.

The name was “Misoroku (it was written “36” in Chinese letters)”.
When I saw the name, I thought that they named it after a person who created an idea of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Isoroku Yamamoto (“Isoroku” is written 56 in Chinese letters)
On the side wall,

A big board said, “All menus for 360 yen”.
Hm, this is why it’s “Misoroku”……. Well, I don’t know the correct reason as I didn’t ask the staffs what was true.

 

Dinner at Misoroku

I entered the restaurant and got a counter seat.
There were 2 empty seats at the counter when I came.
I couldn’t see it, but I heard many visitors from the right side of the entrance.
The time was about 8 in the evening.

For the first glass, I ordered a beer because I was thirsty after walking around for a long time.

I checked the drink menu next.

Indeed, most of the menus were 360yen.
I forgot to take photos of food menu….
They had various foods such as vegetables, grilled and deep-fried dishes, sashimi, and meals. The food menus were also 360yen while some menus of big plates were different.

It took me a long time to decide what to order as I’m indecisiveness.

The first one was a salad.
The pieces of prosciutto were not too salty like the ones sold at some convenience stores, and it had good meat flavor when I had chews.

The next was sashimi of squids.

And Yakitori (grilled chicken on sticks).

I remember that this Yakitori plate was 560yen (there was a note saying “this menu can’t be 360yen” on the menu book.).
It was delicious with rich chicken flavor.

After that, I ordered “deep fried whole garlic” to cheer my body up as I would start early and stay until late for drinking on the next day.

 

The local dish “Saba no Heshiko”, and local sake “Kasumitsuru Tajima no Jishin”

The next one was the most impressive menu of the foods I had at this restaurant.
It was my first time to see it. The name was “Saba no Heshiko”.

“Saba no Heshiko” is a local dish of Wakasa/Tango area (around Maizuru City, Miyazu City. The seaside of northern Kyoto).
I didn’t know it, so I just ordered it because I hadn’t heard that name before.
The taste was,

It was salty and bitter, but there was a good taste of mackerel’s fat.
It was very thick, so some people might feel that it’s too strong by itself.
If you have it with Nihonshu, it will be moderate and perfect.
It was really “Shuto (Sake Thief)”.

The sake which I had with “Heshiko” was this.

“Kasumitsuru Yamahai Jikomi Tajima no Jishin”.
Well, you can’t see the name in the photo above.
I put another photo of this sake which I took at another place. This is the same sake with different bottle.

The taste was clear and dry, not too strong, and it had nice flavor.
This sake made Heshiko’s bitterness and salty taste less, and each taste became better when I had them together.

 

Tsukemen Guurindai

I wanted to order Ochazuke (Japanese dish of steamed rice with hot tea or dashi soup and some ingredients) to finish the meal of “Misoroku”.
But I was planning to visit a ramen restaurant near the station to check if they had Nihonshu later.
I gave up Ochazuke to keep the space for ramen in my stomach.

The ramen restaurant was this.

“Tsukemen Guurindai”.
Tsukemen is a kind of ramen which you eat plane ramen noodles with dipping sauce served separately.
The photo I took at night was not very good, so I show you the one of early evening.
The origin of this interesting name is,

A name of the king of longevity who appears in a famous Rakugo (Japanese traditional comic storytelling) story “Jugemu”.
This restaurant has a concept that they want to support the customers’ healthy long lives, and their noodles & soups are made with ingredients which are good for health.

Such name which shows the restaurant’s policy gives a good impression about their management.
The name remains in the customers’ mind, and the food should taste even better for the image.

Now, this is their Tsukemen.

A lot of vegetables were in the dipping soup.
Indeed, it is designed to be a healthy as it’s automatically vegetable-first diet ^^;
I tried it.

It tasted like something I knew well.
It took me for a while to find what it was. It was curry, curry ramen!

The soup had the flavor of stock of seafood and pork bones, and all the flavors mixed and matched great.
It was such a big serve, but I didn’t get bored of the taste at all.
Even though it was after eating and drinking a lot at “Misoroku”, I could eat the ramen all.

It was a very nice restaurant! Both the food and management policy!
I wish they had Nihonshu in their menu and I could add them in the database…….

 

It should have been better if I could visit 1 or 2 more restaurants, but it was too much for one person.
I had to wake up at 4:30 and leave hotel at 5 in the next morning, and I was going to drive my car more than 100km to Osaka. I was planning to visit Osaka Castle, and then going for some drinks with my friend at night. Due to this hard schedule for the next day, I finished “Guurindai” by 10 and went back to my hotel.

I didn’t have enough time to visit all, but I found that there are more places to see in Fukuchiyama. There are more shops and restaurants which I couldn’t see and scattered widely.
Fukuchiyama was a nice town which made me want to come back again, and if I have the chance, I would spend more time to see the town more carefully.

 

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