Photos from Shiga -2-

I received some delicious photos from Shiga, Japan again.  I know there are millions of restaurants across Japan, and some people may wonder why I bother posting those photos from such a small restaurant in Shiga.  I just had to show these photos here, as I love this type of small individual restaurants serving natural, delicious, home-cooking style of food.  The restaurant is located in the hill, in Northern Shiga around the mountains.  During winter people from other prefectures gather around to this area for skiing.

A small “pit-stop” looking restaurant (shokudo).

The curry is made from various fruits and vegetables, and it has a distinct sweetness with spiciness from the hidden spices.  The rice is a blend of black rice, red rice, green rice and some other ancient rice which are locally harvested each year in Shiga.  It has the different texture and taste from those in normal white rice.  A set of curry, rice and salad is 700 yen.

Nishin Soba – soba noodle in hearty warm soup with nishin (a kind of fish).  Is this a Shiga’s speciality food?  I see this dish everywhere in Shiga.

A set of soba noodle (cold) with dipping sauce and crispy tempura.

The five kinds of rice they use for their menu contain more vitamins and minerals than white rice or brown rice.  I would like to try it out someday 🙂

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Photo Shots from Shiga

Nagashi Somen

A summer festival in Shiga.  The end of summer is already just around the corner…  

The photo above shows Nagashi Somen : people gather around the long bamboo slide, and there is water running from the top to the bottom.  People at the top drop bunches of somen noodle, and people scoop it and eat with their own dipping sauce.  People at the bottom hardly get somen, as people standing around the middle eat most of them.  But, it’s the fun part.

They all look so fun…  I miss summer festival in Japan!  In Shiga there are around 40 festivals during summer.  Other prefectures also have their own.  I remember I went to this summer festival near a river once when I was little, and I caught a fish by hand!  Then, we grilled the fish with salt at the bank and ate it straight away.  It was so delicious!  😀