Perfect with BBQ! Nihonshu “Akagisan” at “Rakurakuen” in Annaka

 

Good day!
Thank you very much for reading this blog!
Today’s story is continued from the previous article. It’s about a BBQ restaurant “Rakurakuen” in Annaka City.

* I wrote about shrines in the previous blog and this restaurant together in one article at first, but I divided into 2 pieces because the 2 parts had different themes.

 

〇　BBQ at Rakurakuen after a long time

I introduced you Nakanotake Shrine in the last blog, and after the shrine, I went back my parents’ home and had shower before going to the restaurant.
Again, the name of the restaurant is “Rakurakuen”.
It is managed by the Agricultural Cooperative Association (“JA“, Japan’s big organization of agriculture), and they serve Gunma’s local beef, “Joshugyu“.

This restaurant has been doing business for more than 20 years, and since it’s open, my family have come to this restaurant when we want to have BBQ in restaurant because my maternal relative participated in its business.

The inside is like this.

That’s like JA which is one of the biggest authorities of Japan.
The room was very big and tidy.

I checked the menu first.

The sake they had was “Hakkaisan”, “Shimantogawa”, “Kikusui” which I often see at other restaurants as well.
In addition, because they are a local restaurant, they had “Akagisan“, which is brewed in Gunma, too.

It was after a nice exercise of climbing up a rock, so I ordered a beer first to moisten my throat.

Ooooohhhh… Beer after a shower to remove the sweat is soooooooo good!

 

〇　Perfect for BBQ, “Akagisan Namachozoshu”

After I refreshed with beer, I had “Akagisan Honjozo Namachozoshu” which I ordered together with beer.

This is a light and dry sake, and it has a sharp Nihonshu’s unique flavor.
However, the flavor becomes less when it’s cool.
The food to go with this sake is,

Beef tongue!
It’s my favorite food.
Many people have it with lemon juice, but I prefer having it with a big pinch of salt and plain steamed rice.

Their beef tongue is not the local Joshugyu, but American. It doesn’t matter at all, anyway.
Let’s cook it and try it.

(´▽｀)
So good! Beef tongue is always good!
I believe that beef tongue and salt is a perfect combination because they make the flavors of each other better.
Well, “making salt’s flavor better” sounds strange, though….

How was the combination of salty beef tongue and drinks?
When I had beer with beer, the taste of meat disappeared and 2 tastes were not mixed together.
On the other hand, in the case of Akagisan, the sake made the flavor of meat richer and took all away over my throat.

The next one was this.

 

The normal Joshugyu ribs.
The fat in the meat was just right, and the texture was soft and delicious.

I used to think that the meat which contains more fat such as “Jo Karubi (upper classed rib)” was better, but recently I prefer normal ribs which has less fat.
In the point of volume, I used to eat 3 or 4 servings by myself, but now sharing 1 serving with 3 people is enough.

 

〇　Samgyeopsal and “Akagisan Junmai Ginjo”

The next one was samgyeopsal (Korean grilled pork dish).

This is also my favorite!
I cooked it and tried it.

( ￣▽￣)

Great!
The fat, meat, salt, lemon, spring onion…… Each ingredient helped each other’s flavor to become better. It was so nice.

 

The drink to have with samgyeopsal was this.

“Akagisan Junmai Ginjoshu BBQ Agri Label“.
Akagisan was my father’s favorite, so I had had it many times.
But the one I’m used to is “Honjozo” which I had with beef tongue, and the second one is “Junmai Ginjoshu”, which is the higher class of Nihonshu’s classification (“Honjozo” is made from quality rice with limited volume of brewers alcohol, and “Junmai Ginjoshu” is made with highly polished rice and no brewers alcohol added.)

It was my first time to try “Junmai Ginjo” Akagisan.
The taste was….

( *^▽^*)

I liked it.
The first impression was that it was so light like water, but deep flavor came up later.
It was delicious and good with samgyeopsal.

My family usually don’t talk much during meals, but we had a good time chatting a lot on that day, maybe thanks to a nice BBQ.
BBQ is great, isn’t it!?

The number of sake varieties was not so many at this restaurant, but they had good dry sake which go great with meat dishes.
I don’t know if it’s because it’s run by JA, but the pieces of meat were all thick and big, and the room was very clean and nice.
It was also good that we didn’t wait much until dishes and drinks arrive (or the time we visited might have been a quiet time).

I recommend you to visit this restaurant if you have chance to come to Annaka because you can enjoy Joshugyu and Joshu’s local Sake.

 

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Tipping

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