長野県の佐久市は面白い存在だと思う。高速のＩＣや新幹線の駅ができるまでは、「佐久バルーンフェスティバル」という熱気球祭りや、コスモス街道で少し知られました。食事文化で「佐久鯉」の名前はある程度知れれていました。しかし、観光の面では隣の小諸や軽井沢の方が注目を浴びていました。

高速のＩＣや新幹線の駅ができてからは、大手な映画館やショッピングモールも出来たし、「日本三大ケーキの町」と呼ばれて、かなり賑やかになりました。最近は佐久の新しい誇りも出ました:ご当地の味噌ラーメン「安養寺ラーメン」です。

正直って、映画館やモールはアメリカで十分行きました。ケーキも、恐らく女性の方が喜ぶのではないか。でも、この安養寺ラーメンは気になっていまして、先日は初めて食べてみました。佐久市の安養寺は「信州みその発祥の地」と決められたようです。本当かどうか知りませんが、ラーメンにうるさい私にはこのラーメンをまた食べたくなる味でした。

安養寺ラーメンを出している１６件のお店でスタンプラリーを行っています。２０１１年１月１０日まで実施している。１６店舗ともで食べたら、格好良いラーメンボールセットをもらえるので、頑張ってみてください。

Nagano Prefecture's Saku City has seen a rather interesting change take place. Until the freeway interchange and Shinkansen station were built, the city failed to attract much attention. Saku's annual hot air balloon festival and the 'Cosmos Kaido' highway lined with cosmos flowers garnered some seasonal interest, and 'Saku-goi' carp bread for eating was somewhat well-known. But as a whole, it seemed like Saku was just a place you pass through on the way to Komoro or Karuizawa, towns more interesting for sightseeing.

However, after the freeway exit and bullet train station were built, it's like the city really came alive. There's a new movie theater and huge shopping mall, and Saku was declared one of the Top 3 Towns for Sweets (?). Recently, Saku added another to its line of things to be proud of: Anyoji Ramen.

I personally have gone to all the movie theaters and malls that I've needed to back in the States, and I think sweets appeal to ladies more than guys. But Anyoji Ramen really caught my attention. Anyoji is the name of one of Saku's temples, and the area around it is said to be the birthplace of Shinshu (Nagano) Miso. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but the other day I tried Anyoji Ramen for the first time, and I can tell you that this finicky ramen eater gave the miso flavored noodle dish two thumbs up.

Right now, 16 different restaurants that serve Anyoji Ramen are doing a 'stamp rally'. If you eat ramen at all 16 places, you can get a cool ramen bowl set. The rally runs through January 31st, 2011, so get your chopsticks going!

安養寺ラーメンの詳しくはこちらClick here for more on AnyojiRamen.

亀清の若女将が「連れて行きたいレストランがある」と嬉しく言っていました。今日はせっかく休館だったから二人で軽井沢へドライブ。手前の御代田町に、浅間サンライン道路からちょっと入っていて、キャベツ畑の前に可愛いおうちの一軒があります:カフェ・ドゥ・モロッコ 。オーナーの梅川さんが若い女性。モロッコのお料理やスタイルがすごく好きみたい。信州への旅でこのアフリカ風の宝物に寄ったら如何ですか？

Kamesei's young proprietress had been telling me about a restaurant she'd been wanting to take me to. Today was an off-day for our inn, so we hopped in the car and went for a drive to Karuizawa. Just before that resort town in the quiet town of Miyota, a bit off the main Asama Sun Line highway, and literally right next to a cabbage patch, is a cute white house, the setting for Cafe de Marok. The owner/chef is a young lady named Umekawa-san. She studied cooking in Europe, and apparently developed a liking for Morroccan cuisine and style. The interior decorations express North African while the background is classic Japanese architecture with some impressive exposed wood beams. I've never been to Africa, but my sister-in-law has some Tunisian roots and has introduced us to some of the cuisine. As far as I could tell, Umekawa-san has done a fine job of authentically preparing the dishes.

So if you have a hankering for some North African cuisine and ambience, make a trip to Miyota Town and Cafe de Marok.

最新情報：
２０１１年１２月にて閉店。オーナーはお嫁に行ってしまったそうです。

UPDATE:
Closed as of December, 2011. The owner got married and left.

長野県旅館青年部は信州の新名物「まぁーず」を開発しています。宣伝の為にプロのカメラマンを読んで、この戸倉上山田温泉にある観光会館で写真撮影が行われました。亀清旅館のChef武井の作品、信州ポークの唐揚げと旬の野菜で、下はまぁーずが引いてある「まぁーずうまい唐揚げ」も出しました。まぁーずというのは、信州味噌と酒粕と漬物の組み合わせです。結構自由にアレーンジができます。うちの板長は千曲市の高村商店のお味噌を使って、ここの地酒の姨捨正宗の酒粕、そして旬によって野沢菜を入れています。この夏は麦みそを入れています。
お客さんに人気の一品です。やはり、そのまぁーずの味がおいしいみたいので唐揚げを食べてから残っているまぁーずのソースを御飯の上にかけて食べる方もいらっしゃいます。写真ではその味が通じるのでしょうか？まあ、プロの写真家を期待しています。
Nagano's junior ryokan members are trying to create a new Nagano specialty, a special seasoning we've called Mahz. Basically, Mahz is the combination of 3 essential Nagano cuisine elements: miso (Nagano is Japan's #2 producer of soybeans, and has a large number of well-regarded miso makers), sake "kasu" (the lees, or solids remaining after the sake is pressed out), and one of the many local pickles, such as northern Nagano's specialty, nozawana.
A photo session was held today at the Tourism Hall here in Togura Kamiyamada. Kamesei Ryokan's Chef Takei's Mahz creation was included in the photo shoot. Our version is basically local pork with seasonal vegetables fried kara'age style, served on top of the Mahz sauce. For our Mahz sauce, Chef Takei uses miso from Takamura Shoten, the main miso maker here in Chikuma City, and sake kasu from our local sake brewery, Obasute Masamune. In the winter he'll use nozawana, but for the summer he's been using a wheat miso. The dish has proved to be popular with our guests, with many of them scooping up any remaining sauce on to their rice to enjoy it to the end. I just hope the photographer is able to capture that delicious taste!

まぁーずの詳しくはこちらMore on Mahz here.

戸倉上山田温泉の真ん中に千曲川が慣れて、川沿いに３つのつけばもあります。亀清旅館の若女将はつけばの体験がなかったので、昨夜は家族で行きました。自分と子供たちは以前に体験したことがあったが、ママは気に入ってくれるかな？
今回行った場所は季節料理「川萬寿」（せんます）でした。つけばの建物の全部は基本的に仮設です。河川敷に固定した建物はだめだから。ですから、「つけば」はどうしても女性が喜び沿うようなきれいなお洒落な施設が少ないです。その中で、川萬寿さんはアットホームな落ち着いた雰囲気で、良かったです。大げさな川ソファに座って、隣の千曲川の流れを眺めて、川辺で遊んでいたキツネを見たり、とっても良い雰囲気でした。
そして、つけばの主の目的：川魚のお料理。鮎はもちろん塩焼きそして天ぷら、唐揚げ、魚田、などなど。最後に出た鮎入りの味噌汁が最高でした。川魚が苦手な方には恐らく地獄だろうけど、好きな人にはそうやって川沿いで川魚の色々なお料理を食べるのは最高！
つけ場を体験したい方には亀清旅館の朝食付きの半泊まりプランがおすすめです。つけばまで歩いて１０分なので、夕食はつけばで、また宿に戻ってゆっくり温泉に入ったりしていただけます。
Togura Kamiyamada Onsen has the Chikuma River running down the middle of it. Along the banks here in town are 3 "Tsukeba" river fish restaurants. They're more like fish shacks, as by law they have to be built using temporary construction. No permanent buildings are allowed to be erected along the banks. So, by definition, the fish shacks don't tend to be the elegant type of place that ladies would appreciate.
So when my lady, Mari, mentioned she had never done "Tsukeba", it was with a bit of apprehension that I took her and the kids last night to Senmasu. With its patched up leather couch and eclectic decor, the ambience was a bit tacky. But being able to look out at the Chikuma River flowing by and seeing a fox play in the rocky beach made for an enchanting scene. Plus, the cuisine was delectable. Ayu sweetfish prepared in so many ways: rubbed with salt and grilled, tempura, sashimi (!), etc. The fish head miso soup at the end was outstanding!
For people who don't appreciate river fish, this cuisine is probably hellish, but for those that do, eating river fish on the banks of the river is like heaven!
If you would like to combine tsukeba with a stay at Kamesei Ryokan, we have accommodation only plans so you can walk the 10 minutes to one of the fish shacks to enjoy a tsukeba dinner and return to relax at our inn and soak in the onsen baths.

川萬寿は夏の間営業が続いています。お昼は１１：００－１５：００、夜は１７；００－２０：００（予約がおすすめ）
Senmasu's hours are from 11am to 3pm and from 5pm to 8pm (reservations recommended).
Tel(026)275-0019

千曲市の代表の味噌倉は姨捨地区にある高村商店です。今日はお客さんの送迎のついでによりました。しょうゆ豆を買うように頼まれました。地元では、冬にご飯の上にこのしょうゆ豆を掛けて食べる習慣がある。しょうゆ豆というのは、醤油と味噌の間ぐらいな物で、うんと美味しいです。但し、寒い時期限定です。高村商店は保存剤を入れないので、大体5月の頭までしか売っていないそうです。今日に行ったら、「これが今年の最後のですよ！」と言われました。やはり！
是非、信州のしょうゆ豆を食べてみて下さい。もしかしたら、今度の冬まで待たんとあかんかもしらへんけど、その分の価値がある！

高村商店のＨＰはこちらClick here for Takamura Shoten's website.

ラーメン＝スープに麺。

そば＝面を汁につける

それは私の中で今までの常識でした。

今日は初めて「つけ麺」を食べました。ざるそばのように、面とスープが別々で、面をスープにつけて食べる。面白い発想やな。まあ、皆さんに「当たり前」かもしれませんが、私にとっては新鮮でした。

何でもそうですが、ラーメンも進化してきたね。よし！亀清旅館で次の改善・進化は何にするか。まず、この美味しいつけ麺を食べま~す。

Ramen = noodles in a soup.

Soba = noodles dipped in a sauce.

Up until now, that had been my experience with Japanese noodles. Today, for the first time, I had tsukemen, which is kind of a hybrid of the two: ramen noodles and soup separate, with the noodles dipped in the sauce and eaten. Hmm, what a concept! And it tasted great, too.

It made me think what kind of new concepts I can introduce at our inn, Kamesei Ryokan. But first, I am going to enjoy my first tsukemen!

亀清旅館のＣｈｅｆ武井の新しい一品：揚げ物に蕗味噌。地元で採れた蕗を油で焼来ながら香りを出して、地元の高村商店の味噌と混ぜて、揚げ物のソースになる。揚げ物はポークのから揚げと筍とタラノメと、色付けの為に、黄色ピーマン。蕗の苦さが結構効きます。本当に旬の味だ。
今度は、例の　まぁーず　に合わせて、チャレンジする予定だそうです。お楽しみに！

Kamesei Ryokan's Chef Takei has prepared a new dish for the season: Seasonal Fry with Fuki-Miso sauce. The dictionary says "fuki" is Petasites japonicus, and is apparently also known as bog rhubarb or giant butterbur. I'm not sure what the heck those are, but I know what fuki means: winter is losing its grip and spring is on the way in. Fuki pops its head up as the snow starts to melt. You can find it many places all around the area. It's bitter taste is a refreshing break from the preserved vegetables that we have been making do with throughout the winter, and is a prelude to the spring vegetables that are just around the corner.
Our Chef Takei has prepared locally picked fuki by frying it in oil to bring out its flavors, then mixed it with miso by our local manufacturer, Takamura Shoten. He uses it as a sauce for an ensemble of fried pork filets, bamboo shoots, tara no me (another early spring plant) and, for color, yellow bell pepper. He will be trying a variation using the new Mahzu sauce -- stay tuned!

夕べは家族での夕食の為にどっかで楽しいレストランを探したら、友人のＧｏ！さんの紹介で上田のアニバーサリーと言うお店に行きました。ラウンジに真赤なランボギーニーがあるのは私にとってポイントが高い。それより格好いい事はないと思ったら、素晴らしい人物と出会いました：ＦｌａｉｒカクテルのチャンピオンのＳｈｉｎｏさん。
子供達の為にＦｌａｉｒカクテルを頼んだら、Ｓｈｉｎｏさんが準備したら皆がバーで集まって、お店の光が暗くなって、Ｓｈｉｎｏさんにスポットライト、そしてダンス音楽、それでＳｈｉｎｏさんのＦｌａｉｒカクテルショーが始まりました。音楽に合わせてＳｈｉｎｏさんは瓶1本、2本、今度３本も飛ばしたり、手のひらにキャッチしたり、色々踊りながらパフォーマンスしてくれました。そして、グランフィナーレで一気に３人子供の為に色別などリンクが出来上がれ！
皆が感動しました！
Ｆｌａｉｒカクテルショーは私が初めて見ましたが、Ｓｈｉｎｏさんがチャンピオンって事、納得です。その笑顔、そのカリスマ、そしてパフォーマンス、最高でした。有難うございました！

Last night, our family was looking for a place for dinner, and our friend Go! introduced us to a restaurant in Ueda called Anniversary. In their lounge was a bright red Lamborghini. That won points with me right away. I thought, "What could be cooler than that?" I soon found out -- Shino-san!
Shino-san is a Flair Cocktail champion. We ordered one for our kids, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. After Shino-san was ready, we gathered down by the bar. The restaurant lights were dimmed, a spotlight shown down on Shino-san as the dance music was turned up, and Shino-san proceeded to give us her Flair Cocktail Show. Dancing to the music, she twirled and spun around with the bottles, first one in the air, then a second, then 3 bottles flying around simultaneously, with Shino-san catching them on the palm of her hand and doing all kinds of funky tricks. Then the grand finale -- with one quick move she made 3 drinks of separate colors for our 3 kids, all instantaneously. It was incredible!
I can see how Shino-san was able to win the Flair Cocktail championship -- not just the moves, but her smile and charisma really won us over.

アニバーサリーは上田中心から上がって、浅間サンラインになる道の途中にある。第２店舗は上田の中心街の海野町にも出来たそうです。両方ともは亀清から車で約３０分です。
Anniversary is located in Ueda along the way to the Asama Sun Line road to Karuizawa. They opened up a 2nd store in Unnomachi, Ueda's main shopping street.

Dining&Cafe Anniversary website

今年の秋にＪＲが長野県を「デスティネーションキャンペーン」で全国的にＰＲしてくれる予定です。それに向かって、我々旅館組合青年部が何か紹介が出来る食材を提供する事になりました。私がその部会に参加していますので今日はその会議でした。平均年齢の長い長野のヘルシーの食文化というテーマでした。個人的に、私は信州の漬物を県外の方に紹介したら面白いと思っていたが、上司に「漬物の魅力はあまりない」と断れた。結局、青年部県部長の田沢温泉ますや旅館のＫｅｎさんが地元で発展した信州味噌と酒かすのペーストを皆に食べさして、皆が「良いな!」と。詳しくは後ほど発表が出来ると思いますのでお楽しみに!

This coming fall, Japan Rail Group will feature Nagano Prefecture in a series of "Desitination Campaign" national advertising. For our part, the ryokan junior association has been asked to pick a type of food or cuisine to introduce during the campaign. As I am on the committee in charge, I participated in today's meeting to decide on the food to be introduced. Personally, I thought Nagano's various tsukemono pickles would be impressive to people visiting the prefecture, but that was voted down as not being sexy enough. The Ken-san from Masuya Ryokan in Tazawa Onsen, our junior association prefectural leader, had us taste a paste that had been developed in his region -- a mix of miso and sake "kasu". It was a hit! Look for more details on this new innovation soon!

長野県は海がない。そのせいか、たんぱく質に関しては長野県で変わった食材があります。一番知られているのは馬刺し。私のアメリカのロデオをやる友達に内緒ですが、何度も食べています。最初は｢？！｣と思ったけど、食べてみたら、かなり美味しいです。次にあるのは飛蝗の佃煮、｢イナゴ｣。見た目はグロテスクですが、甘露煮ですから甘くて食べやすい。もっと珍しいのは｢蜂の子｣。来れは今までうわさでしか聞いていなくて、しかし先日、乗鞍に行った時に、夜の宴会のある子皿を見たら、虫の幼虫の様な・・・　｢もしかしたら、蜂の子？」
周りの皆はあまりにも何もないように食べているけど、聞いたら、やはり、蜂の子だった。まあ、お酒をぎゅうっと飲んで、生まれてから始めて蜂の子を食べた。
今は段々と珍しくなってきていますが、その地元の人と話したら、｢子供のころは蜂の子がおやつだった。自然に甘いので、自分で蜂の巣を見つけて、手で開けて、そのまま幼虫を食べた。まだ生きているから喉を通りながら動くってよろしくなかったけど、他にはおやつがなかったから｣と。中に、｢蜂の子取りで蜂に刺されて、3回ぐらい入院した｣と言う人もいた。1回目でやめなかったと言う事はそれだけ甘くて美味しいと言う事かいな？
皆様は信州にお越しになる際、興味のある方は是非、蜂の子を食べてみてください。メニューに載せている居酒屋などは意外に多いです。良いたんぱく質の食材！

Here in Nagano, there is no ocean. Perhaps because of that, people here have historically had issues with getting sources of protein in their diets. One of the better known local foods is "basashi" which is horse meat. Served, err, raw. Don't tell my rodeo buddies back home, but I've tried it many times -- it's actually really good!
Another slightly less common traditional source of protein here is "inago", which is basically grasshoppers marinated in a sweet syrup. A little crunchy, and the legs tend to get stuck in your teeth, but thanks to the sweet marinate, inago actually tastes pretty good.
There's another peculiar source of protein, that is (fortunately?) becoming rarer and rarer, and that is "hachi-no-ko", bee larvae. I had only heard rumors about it but the other day at the banquet in Norikura, one of the small dishes had what looked like some sort of baby bugs. All the people around seemed to be eating it without thinking twice, but I had to ask: "Is this hachi-no-ko?" They said it was, and proceeded to regale me with stories from their youth about this delicacy (?!). One guy said that he used to go look for bees nests and pop them open with his hands, grab the larvae and eat them for his afternoon snack. Not only did he not have anything else to eat for a snack, but the larvae are naturally sweet, so for him they were a delicacy. The fact that they were still alive and wriggled down his throat wasn't pleasant, but they tasted so good he didn't mind. Another guy said he got stung so bad going after hachi-no-ko that he was hospitalized -- three separate times! Wouldn't most people stop after just one time?
Anyways, after a gulp of sake, I tried the larvae. Not bad! If I can do it, so can you! Next time you go to an izakaya pub in Nagano, look to see if hachi-no-ko is on the menu, and get your protein Nagano-style!

More on Nagano's insect cuisine here.