“Isoyaki” and sake at “Mansen-ya” on the way from Ise Shrine

Good evening!
Thank you very much for visiting this blog.

Today I’d like to introduce a restaurant in Ise City, “Mansen-ya”.

Contents

“Mansen-ya” in Ise City

After I visited Ise Shrine, I walked around in shopping malls in Ise City to check restaurants which serve Nihonshu, and I finished it around 4 in the afternoon.
I was planning to go to Nagoya after Ise, and then to go back to Gunma after researching the town of Nagoya.
I decided to have dinner before departing Ise, and I went to a restaurant called “Mansen-ya” which I had found when I was walking around.

The restaurant was just near the traffic circle of Ise City Station, and in front of “Sanko Inn” hotel.
There were other restaurants which looked good on the street between the outer shrine of Ise Shrine and Ise City Station.

The area was the main street of the town, and there were many people at most of the restaurants.
Somehow it became uncomfortable to enter such busy places as I got older, even though I wasn’t like that before.

On the other hand, “Mansen-ya” located a little far from the main street, and they had a comfortable number of customers inside.
It looked that they had good foods too, so I chose this one.

I opened the slide door and entered the building.
The inside was a typical “Iso-yaki (seafood BBQ)” restaurant’s style, and the atmosphere was bright and tidy.

Nihonshu menu

I had walked a lot on that day, so the beer would be the perfect one for the first drink.
… However, I had to drive my car to Nagoya after dinner, so I ordered a ginger ale instead…
I also ordered some foods, and then checked the drink menu.

Their recommend local sake of various types, and explanations for each sake were written in details on the menu.

There was a menu like this above introducing the local “Hiyaoroshi” sake which can be enjoyed only in autumn.

Uhhhhhh wanna drinnnnkkk…ｏ(＞＜　)ｏ＝　ｏ(　＞＜)ｏ
But I couldn’t. I had a car to drive.
I just regretted my bad luck or not planning in advance.

Iso-Yaki

While I was crying over my situation, the foods arrived.

A turban shell and “Appa Gai (Appa shell)”.
“Appa Gai” is a nickname of a type of scallops.
These are cultured for food in Ago Bay in Mie Prefecture which is also famous for cultivation of pearls. …… I didn’t know it until I looked it up to write this blog^^;
I started to grill them on a little BBQ stove on the table.

When the turban shell was done, I tried it.

The texture was nice, and the flavor made of the gut’s bitterness and the body’s sweetness was very good.

The next is “Appa Gai”.

This one was also nice with the unique flavor.
How would it be great if I could have such nice foods with the local sake such as “Zaku” and “Rumiko no Sake”……
It was really a hard situation for me that I had to drive a car later…

The next foods arrived.

While tasting this salad of Ise Chicken’s cold smoked ham,

I grilled this “Aji no Hiraki (opened and dried mackerel)”.

This mackerel was “Himono” which is a fish dried after opened and dipped in salt. The rich flavor came out every time I had chews.
I saw some places where such dried fish were made in front of people’s houses while I was walking around in Toba City.
It tasted even better when I thought of the scenes.

The special food of Ise, “Tekone Zushi”

As it was a precious opportunity to be in Ise, I was looking for special menus which can be enjoyed only in Ise.
I found a local food called “Tekone Zushi”, and I ordered it.

Wikipedia explains “Tekone Zushi” as a type of sushi which is vinegared rice with flavored raw tuna or bonito, and flakes of Japanese herbs, ginger, or dried seaweed.
This one I had was with flavored tuna and bream mixed in and seaweed on the top.
I tried it.

The flavor of tuna and bream well mixed with the rice and dashi (Japanese stock) and it was so delicious!
It must be great if I added hot dashi soup on it and had it after drinking sake ( ￣▽￣) …… I finished the bowl thinking such a thing.

Aji no hiraki, again

I still had a space in my stomach after Tekone Zushi.
I was so impressed by the mackerel’s brilliant flavor, and I wanted to have it again with rice, so I ordered a set of the mackerel, rice, and miso soup.

I cooked the fish again.

When the fish was done, I took a piece, and some rice in my mouth together.
( ￣▽￣)
It was really a happy moment.
Each flavor matched so good, and I got impressed even more!
I could have had much happier time if I had Nihonshu together.

Thanks for the meal!

Leave Ise to Nagoya, and home

Other than these foods, I had another ginger ale and a cola.

The total was 3,400 yen.
I couldn’t have Ise/Shima’s local sake, but I enjoyed a lot of beautiful foods. It was a good price for it!

It was pity that I didn’t plan to stay in Ise so I couldn’t try the taste of Ise with the local Nihonshu!!
Well, that was my best choice though, because I didn’t have any previous research….

The staffs at “Mansen-ya” were friendly and they had excellent hospitality.
It was a beautiful restaurant where not only the food and drinks, but also the people and the restaurant’s policy bring the visitors happiness.
I will visit this restaurant again when I come to Ise/Shima in the future, and I want to try the local sake next time.

After I enjoyed dinner at “Mansen-ya”, I drove to Nagoya on Ise Expressway.
I researched Nagoya’s restaurants serving Nihonshu from Sakae Machi where my company’s branch locates.
After the research, I decided to have Nagoya’s famous “Kishimen”. “Kishimen” is Nagoya’s local flat Udon noodles.

The place was here, “Mentsurubi”, and the target was it’s special “Curry Kishimen”.

I concluded the day with this bowl, and went back the way I came to Gunma.

Conclusion

It was a 4 day – 3 night trip, but I had 1 hour sleeps every time I stopped by at truck stops, so it became like 5 day- 4 night trip after all.
It ended up a great trip to research restaurants serving Nihonshu much better than I expected.
The areas I moved were far from each other for the schedule, so I couldn’t have enough time to see the places’ good things enough.
However, I made brilliant memories through this trip such as Amano Hashidate under a blue sky, Takeda Castle in the cloud sea, Kyoto Gosho, Mt. Asama, and Ise Shrine.

Thanks to this trip, I could add many new data from various areas in the sake database of this website.
This journey became a big success both for my personal experience and developing the database.
I’m spending my last day of 2017 wishing to have a good trip like this next year, too.
I’d like to work hard on what to do in the coming year to make it true.

Thank you very much for your supporting this website this year!

If this blog helped you choose sake, foods, or restaurants in any way, or if you had new nice meetings with restaurants and places which I introduced here, that’s the best thing for me.
I will introduce more restaurants and trips as much as possible next year as well.
I hope to have your continuous support and visiting this blog.

Wish you all a great New Year’s Day!