Sushi in Cheltenham

After enjoying a feast of fish dishes while travelling in Japan, I was recently excited by the painting of a new sign on what had been a long empty shop in the Bath Road shopping are of Cheltenham just a couple of minutes stroll from my house.

" Samphire Fishmongers "

It's only been open for ten days or so now and I finally got a chance to pop in and check it out today.

The owners seemed very friendly and were happy for me to take a few snaps.

I'm no fish expert but was excited to note they were selling sashimi grade tuna and their own homemade sushi featuring a couple of pieces topped with the raw tuna.

I bought a pack of the sushi and it tasted pretty good to me . 

I did have a little inside information that they had learned their sushi skills from Ayumi who runs the Japanese Kitchen food store in Woodchester and has a useful sideline in sushi making lessons .

I had some vegetables from the garden that needed using up so I improvised this fish supper to test out a couple of large mackerel I purchased along with the sushi

Eating my way around Japan part 6 Tokyo, catching up with old friends

For my final night in Tokyo and Japan I was able to meet with my long time friend Noriko who suggest we visited an Oden restaurant in the Shin-Marunouchi Building near Tokyo Station. This is a large tower with at least two floors dedicated to restaurants of all kinds. The place Noriko chose had a wonderful traditional appearance inside given the building was pretty new. Oden is a kind of stew with a variety of ingredients including vegetables and eggs simmered in a light broth. In this case the stew pot was a large copper vessel mounted centrally in the restaurant with the tables and seats arranged counter style around it. 

To start with we were served warm savoury ( seafood ) egg custard accompanied by pickles and pieces of jellyfish 

To order the meal, each individual ingredient from the stew is chosen separately from the menu to create a dish to your personal taste. 

The menu was entirely in Japanese script so Noriko made the selections.

Simmered egg, boodles, daikon radish and other vegetables had absorbed the delicate and delicious flavours of the broth. 

Next up some tasty greens , Japanese food often seems so healthy

Accompanied with Ginkgo nuts and small slices of raw vegetables with condiment dips

The amazing copper stew pot and serving area in the centre of the tables

The next course involved grinding your own sesame seeds for a dipping sauce 

and beer of course 

Delicious thick udon noodles to dip in that sauce 

After the meal we popped across the building to meet another friend in a coffee shop and enjoy good conversation and a proper catch up until late in the evening .

The next morning I had to get up early and travel to Narita Airport where I enjoyed this "full Japanese " breakfast containing grilled salmon, rice, nattou, miso soup, tofu, sweet omelette  and pickles. I wish I could get this in the U.K. I really love this food.  

Eating my way around Japan part 5 Zushi, farewell to my wonderful new friends

For my final two days on this visit to Japan I decided to stay in Tokyo, but as my plans evolved I used the first day for a trip to Kamakura which I'll write about later. It turned out that Mayumi and Yusuke (who looked after me during my visit Onagawa and made that trip so amazing) actually lived just one stop from Kamakura in Yusuke's home town of Zushi, plus they would be back home from their current trip to Onagawa. They suggested I met them for dinner in the evening once I had toured Kamakura. 

Japanese railways are surprisingly easy to navigate as you can see from the Kamakura Station sign (I like this sign as older versions of it appear as pillow shots in at least one Ozu movie) It helpfully tells me in English and graphics which station I'm at, what the next station in either direction is and which direction the train will be travelling from the platform I'm looking at .

This was the only photo I took of Zushi which is a seaside town but I was only there briefly to eat and enjoy the extra chance to catch up with my new friends.

We ate in a Chinese restaurant with the dishes being a fusion of Chinese and Japanese style food and ingredients. First up jellyfish, roast chicken and pork. This was my first try of jellyfish and it tasted fine but had the strangest texture of any food I've ever eaten and not the least bit like jelly at all.

Large prawns in mayonnaise ... the Japanese like mayonnaise 

My favourite dish of the evening, hot and spicy tripe , a splendid dish to have with beer and I was told Yusuke's favourite too.

I think this pancake style dish had vegetable and sardine in but can't really remember 

More dishes all excellent 

Desert, sesame coated and flavoured sweet dumplings with iced mellon in sweet milk

It was great to catch up with Mayumi and Yusuke once more. If they hadn't met me in Onagawa and showed me where all the temporary restaurants and shops were and organised visits and tours for me, I would have felt lost amongst the reconstruction and maybe been too phased to leave my hotel.

They also introduced me to " Katsu san " so called because on a visit to Nagoya he ate nothing but pork cutlets ( tonkatsu ) , he like Yusuke was a film cameraman who would be relocating to Italy soon for an assignment. We had a great evening in this Chinese restaurant where in the past Mayumi had worked for a while and it was fun watching her advise the staff how much salt a certain dish should have added. I can't thank them all enough for their help and hospitality and great company.

Eating my way around Japan part 4 Nagoya

Dining out in Nagoya 

some amazingly delicious lamb served at this restaurant 

All manner of food washed down with a Japanese white wine 

the drink was a sweet plum flavoured alcoholic beverage 

I believe the dish in the centre was dried squid that was rehydrated in a tasty sauce

Nagoya style Tonkatsu ( Pork cutlet ) with Miso sauce

A noodle restaurant I decided to try by myself 

starting with beer and bamboo shoots 

the waitress tried to give me a fork to eat my noodles, I declined, instead she kindly took my photo

I had a large bowl of miso ramen with roast pork and spiced onion toppings

Gyoza and rather large measure of Shochu 

For my last night in Nagoya I found an Eel restaurant and had the grilled eel on rice set menu

It came with a warm seafood flavoured egg custard, miso soup and pickled daikon 

I finished with pickled squid and sake 

Eating my way around Japan part 3 Asakichi Ryokan, Ise City, Mie Prefecture

I have always wanted to stay the night in a traditional Japanese Inn, so when my friend suggested we visit the city of Ise for some sightseeing I asked her to look for a ryokan we might stay in and enjoy a traditional meal at. We settled on the Asakichi Ryokan which really turned out to be a treat, a very old traditional Japanese building with tatami rooms and sliding doors etc.

The evening meal was amazing and the chef/waiter very friendly and enthusiastic about explaining the food and suggesting a variety of sake for us to try. Naturally I worked my way through as many beverages as he could suggest. The next day breakfast was equally delicious and like dinner it was served in the huge dining room ( we were the only two guests on this day ) . For both meals it was explained that the fish and other ingredients were local specialities. 

Dinner first course 

I had the tail half of the fish and my friend the head

An amazing soup with local clams 

Sardine and pickled plum

Squid and pickles 

Sashimi

The chef doubling as the waiter and sake advisor 

A selection of the drinks and sake cups we used ....

Tea and rice accompanied the meal to add to the washing up

Breakfast

Beans and vegetables

Pickles

omelette 

The dining room