Takayama Morning Market
Two morning markets are held in Takayama daily, the Jinya-mae and the Miyagawa market held along the Miyagawa River in the old part of town. They started in the Edo period and sell everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to pickles, fish, flowers and crafts.
You can sample most of the food too, which made the walk around very enjoyable indeed. The table above was covered with Japanese pickles, which is something I sorely miss. Why can’t we get good, fresh, msg-free and artificial colouring-free pickles in this town? Well we can…I just have to learn to make them!
These beautiful silver saltwater fish come from the smelt family. They are usually grilled and filled with fish roe, commonly known as shishamo. You eat them whole from tip to tail (and yes, that means the head also!). Mmmm…good.
I think this is dried cuttlefish, athough it could very well be another form of cephalopod. I’m not too sure what they do with it, but we did see them shredded and seasoned to eat as a type of beer snack.
Some unusually shaped gourds…
…and some regularly shaped gourds.
And these? I have no idea. If anyone does, please feel free to tell me in the comments.
Dried magnolia leaves (hoba) are popular in the region, both for making the local hoba miso (below) and for cooking miso on a hibachi brazier (see breakfast at Sosuke).
The magnolia leaf acts to permeate the dark red miso with a leafy fragrance, especially when cooked on the brazier.
Small purply black nasu (eggplants). Did you know that eggplants contain nicotine? And eating 20 pounds of them equates to smoking one cigarette? Well…now you do.
Super fresh daikon for 100 yen (equivalent $1AU) each. Look how perky their tops are. They must have been pulled out of the garden fresh that morning.
Three types of dried corn. I’m not too sure if these were for decoration or eating.
Fresh red chillis strung up with leaves (or is it stalk or fronds?) of rice.
Perfect little cherry tomatoes still on the stalk.
Cute cape gooseberries doing their best interpretation of a cherry tomato.
Fresh edamame (soy beans) at $2AU a bag. I could seriously eat a truckload of these things.
Fuji apples of varying quality and weights (and prices). What an excellent selection! And they are so much darker and sweeter than the insipid Fuji varieties we get here.
Now I must admit I wouldn’t have recognised this if I hadn’t been a fan of Iron Chef. These are the famed matsutake mushrooms, which are kind of like the truffle of Japan. The wild specimens had been picked locally from the pine groves and were $50AU a tray. The seller was very excited and impressed when I pointed at them and timidly enquired “Matsutake?”. Arigato Iron Chef.
I’m going to have to go cold turkey and stop reading your blog Mellie- these Japan posts are killing me. I’m in danger of drowning in a pool of my own drool (gross, I know).
7:25 am - June 11th, 2008Glad you are enjoying the posts anon
I hear gumboots are good for excessive drool.
I have *sooo* many more posts to go too. I don’t know if I’ll ever get through them all.
3:05 am - June 12th, 2008Wow, look at those gooseberries! I remember having to wash and cut up a ton of the li’l blighters years ago when mum decided to make some gooseberry jam… they didn’t look much like these ones, though.
4:14 am - June 23rd, 2008Hey there anna - the ones from Takayama are called “cape gooseberries”, which are different to the regular gooseberries we get down here. To be honest I haven’t seen that many cape gooseberries in Australia.
12:39 pm - June 23rd, 2008The fruits in the sixth photograph are those of Akebia quinata, commonly known as a chocolate vine. The gelatinous pulp is said to be sweet and edible. I am not sure how the Japanese utilize them in cooking.
I enjoyed your blog! Any recommendations for good Japanese restaurants (not owned by Chinese or Koreans) in Melbourne? I know that I am biased in this regard, but there are significant difference sin the preparation of the food!
5:02 pm - July 26th, 2008Wow…thanks for the heads up on that bizarre fruit! I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t try it at the time!
Hmm…good Japanese restaurants, run by Japanese. My votes would go to Tempura Hajime, Shira Nui, Ocha, Horoki, Shoya and Hako. But these days I’ve been cooking a lot of Japanese myself - so have been eating in lots
10:00 am - July 27th, 2008Mellie, the dried cuttlefish can be bought here in Chinese grocery stores as well. I like to eat them by grilling them quickly over the stove top gas burner so they become cooked. Then shred them up into thin strips and dip them in hoisin and chilli sauce mixture. A delicious snack.
Another use for them is to put them into soups. Again, shred them into strips and chuck in water based soups with Chinese vegetables like bok choy and Chinese melons. It really enhances the flavour of the soup.
2:16 pm - July 28th, 2008Hiya Thanh - thanks for the heads up on the cuttlefish. EG’s Mum bought us back some cuttlefish shreds from Hokkaido recently. They’re setting in the cupboard waiting for beer-o-clock
Are they fairly pungent when put in soup? I’ve had the dried scallops, which whack an almighty punch in the flavour stakes. Are they similar?
9:50 pm - July 28th, 2008You can also buy cuttlefish shred here, again in Asian groceries. They come in flat sheets where the whole cuttlefish has been squashed, or in shredded strips. There’s plain variety and really spicy ones, which I love more.
The dried cuttlefish are fairly pungent so it depends if you like it. It’s a strong fishy flavour and are similar to the dried scallops. Although I think the dried scallops gives an even richer (maybe richer isn’t the right word, what’s that Japanese word for the sixth taste sense I remember you writing about, umago or something) taste. These are just a cheaper substitute that still works well to lift a simple vegetable soup.
10:02 am - July 29th, 2008By the way, is there a way to subscribe to comments like in blogger and have new comments emailed to me. I don’t really want to clutter up my Google Reader by subscribing to this thread’s comment RSS.
10:04 am - July 29th, 2008Hey Thanh - thanks once again for sharing your cuttlefish knowledge. There is a whole world of ingredients out there that I just don’t know about, and I’m slowly becoming enlightened
I grew up in an Italian/English household, so many of the Asian staples just weren’t in my realm of culinary knowledge. EG’s Mum is a fantastic resource though, and she is gently guiding me through things such as fermented bean paste, the various dried fungi, ikan bilis broth, sauces etc. etc. It’s fun!
And I’ve added the “subscribe to comments” email functionality to the blog as well. Let me know if it works!
3:33 pm - July 29th, 2008As you can tell, I really like dried cuttlfish, the type in your photo and the types that’s already been cooked, flavoured, shredded and ready to eat.
I’m going to tick to the subscribe to comments box and if you reply, I’ll see if I get the comments sent to my email.
5:16 pm - August 3rd, 2008Okay…here’s my reply. Did you get it?
8:15 pm - August 3rd, 2008Yep works great. Now I can get the email notification and not have to keep clicking back each day. Much more convenient.
11:20 am - August 4th, 2008