Consumption of deadly poisonous Fugu, the infamous Japanese delicacy often dramatized in Western pop culture, has its strongest following in Yamaguchi Prefecture. So when we booked our Ryokan at Hagi during Fugu season, our number one criteria was not the room itself, but dinner specifics such as the range of dishes.
Intrigued? Here's a quick walkthrough for readers looking for a cheap (and safe!) meal of Fugu at a traditional Ryokan.
We booked two nights at the beachfront Ryokan of Senshunraku, a few minutes' walk from the old Samurai quarter of Hagi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its monuments surviving from Japan's late feudal era. From the nearest Shinkansen station of Shin-Yamaguchi, a 90-minute bus ride connects to Hagi Bus Centre where the tourism office would transfer your heavy luggage to the Ryokan for free, leaving your shoulders light for sightseeing until you're ready to hop on the community shuttle to the Ryokan.
Fugu is never cheap ... or so I thought before visiting Yamaguchi Prefecture!
Based on personal experience, the going rate for cheaper Ryokans is about 10000 yen per person per night as of 2017, including dinner and breakfast. Upgrading to a classy Fugu dinner would bring that to 16000 yen in major cities ... except that we're at Japan's Fugu capital. Senshunraku charges a cheap 10800 yen (i.e. 10000 yen + tax) in popular autumn season, and a cutthroat 8640 yen during the low season of January and February. Anything cheaper and you're prepping your own Fugu and likely killing yourself.
My first encounter with Fugu was in Tokyo more than a decade ago, when the cheapest full dinner, including the crowd favorite Fugu hotpot, cost more than 4000 yen (CAD$47) per person. Our dinner here at Senshunraku was a full 8 courses including 5 Fugu dishes -- Usuzukuri, Yubiki, Karaage, Hotpot and Rice Porridge -- that would certainly cost more than 4000 yen in restaurants nowadays. And that's what makes Senshunraku's offer so attractive.
Central to any Fugu dinner is the aesthetically arranged, paper-thin slices of Sashimi known as Usuzukuri, or simply Tsukuri (West Japan?) or even Tessa (Kansai Region). Regardless of regional differences in names, this chewy fillet is always served with a Ponzu dipping with herbal flavors such as Momiji-Oroshi and green scallions.
Most people probably prefer to start with the Yubiki, an appetizing salad of highly gelatinous Fugu skin, blanched, ice-bathed, julienned then served with a Ponzu dressing. Not me though -- I just can't resist the urge to indulge on the fresh Usuzukuri first.
In Karaage form these juicy chunks of deep-fried Fugu exhibited a firmness remarkably similar to my favorite fish-and-chips ingredient, giant Pacific halibut off Canada's west coast. Instead of a rich tartar sauce for its Western counterpart, these firm white fillets were paired here with a Matcha salt.
Fugu-Nabe, Fugu-Chiri or Tecchiri -- whichever way they call it, the hearty hotpot always tends to be the climax in a proper Fugu dinner. While this Dashi broth turned out slightly weak and anticlimactic, a couple spoons of Ponzu did help bring out the Umami flavor from the Fugu.
For me the best part of the hotpot wasn't the hotpot itself, but the aftermath when the server stirred in the rice to soak up the savory essence from the Fugu bones, which always creates an exceptional Zosui porridge.
The dinner wrapped up with a mediocre Chawanmushi custard, standard Tsukemono pickles and all-you-can-eat rice as usual. To be honest the food wasn't anything spectacular, though the quality was probably consistent with specialty chain restaurants such as Genhin Fugu or Torafugu Tei, but in a Ryokan setting and at a discount.
To wash down the Fugu our Ryokan offered a neat deal for Sake-tasting, presenting three samples of locally brewed Jizake in sweet, semidry and dry for 500 yen. I personally liked the pairing of the Usuzukuri with the semidry Hagikikou.
Breakfast was the typical Japanese regimen centered around grilled fish and a small hotpot of Tofu and veggies, filling enough for a busy morning's sightseeing at Hagi's charming Samurai quarters. Considering that our second night at this hotspring Ryokan cost 7650 yen without any meals (we had our eyes on a particular Yakiniku restaurant for dinner, and had no time for breakfast on the final morning), then our Fugu dinner plus full breakfast cost an exceptionally cheap 3150 yen (CAD$37).
7650 yen for Sudomari (a Ryokan stay without any meals) for the second night wasn't cheap, so I did my best to take advantage of the mineral hotspring and sauna, several baths a day. The men's Onsen bath was usually filled with middle aged men on group tours from Kansai, but it was entirely empty on the final morning and I decided to sneak a camera in with me!
Compared with the grimy public bathhouse at Yunotsu two days ago, this luxurious bath ornamented with Hagi-yaki pottery was so spacious that one could almost go for a swim. The quality of the spring was nowhere near Yunotsu's Moto-yu though, both in terms of mineral content and bathing temperature.
My favorite time of the day was the morning soak in the outdoor bath, listening to the crashing of waves on the other side of the bamboo fence. The Kikugahama beach beyond the fence is a popular sunbathing locale often featured in Japanese dramas.
While the beachfront was actually public space, privacy was no issue especially in November when the seawater became too cold for swimmers. That said, one side of the men's bathing pool was actually visible from some of the Ryokan balconies ...
What's better than a soothing massage to wrap up a full hour of bathing? Most public bathhouses charge a few hundred yen for 15 minutes on these Panasonic massage chairs, provided for free here at the Ryokan.
Any respectable Ryokan must come with a souvenir corner to serve its clients with a characteristic assortment of local specialties, best represented here in Yamaguchi Prefecture by various forms of Poisonous Fugu, in flash-frozen, semi-dried, grilled and canned form. We tried the grilled and canned format, and found the grilled Fugu quite recommendable especially with a quick toast in the toaster oven.
A defining character of Ryokan Senshunraku was its exhibits of refined Hagi-yaki pottery virtually on every floor, turning the Ryokan into a ceramic art museum. My favorite piece was this classic tea bowl by Miwa Kyusetsu XI, the 11th generation master from a 400-year-old dynasty of ceramists that once served as official supplier to the feudal lord. This Oni-Hagi tea bowl from the hands of the Living National Treasure would be worth about the price of a new small car.
While I couldn't quite afford a genuine Kyusetsu tea bowl, I did buy a signature Hagi-yaki style cup for 2500 yen as my new go-to beer mug. To this date I'm still patiently awaiting the expected colour-changes, a distinct characteristic of Hagi-yaki earthenware, to gradually take place. I have the feeling that this might take years.
PRACTICAL INFO
Senshunraku is bookable from various travel sites (e.g. Expedia, Hotels.com) in English, though the English sites likely won't offer the plethora of specific dinner choices available on Japanese booking sites. For readers who can read Japanese, I recommend Jalan.net where it was possible for us to pick the "Standard Fugu Plan" for the Fugu dinner.
Getting to Hagi is simplest by highway bus (90 minutes, 2060 yen) from the Shinkansen stop of Shin-Yamaguchi. Upon arrival at Hagi Bus Centre, the tourist info office would gladly take your heavy luggage and forward it to Senshunraku (or any major Ryokan in town) for free. Alternatively, a taxi to Senshunraku should cost a cheap 1000 yen or so.
No comments:
Post a Comment