Japanese Kaiseki Hitoshizuku at Chatan

My wife requested me to go to the Japanese Kaiseki (懐石料理) restaurant at Chanatan for birthday Lunch. Finally, we can make it. We keep this restaurant in our should-visit-list for a long time.
We reserved our seats around 11:30am for lunch time on Monday. I recommend to reserve seats. 

Restaurant chef worked at 割烹 kappou restaurant in Tokyo. Sound nice and Japanese kaiseki is only menu for lunch time. Price is 1500 JPN Yen.

What is kaiseki ? From wikipedia,
Kaiseki (懐石^?) or kaiseki ryōri (懐石料理^?) is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that allow the preparation of such meals, and are analogous to Western haute cuisine.^[1]



anyway, we enjoy lunch course. Here is beautiful photos. Every month each dish is different. Used seasonal ingrediants.
Dashi (fish soup) is using most dishes. Smooth and tasty for us. Vegetable is main for all dishes. If you are meat eater, you will not be satisfied as volume. and me neither.

If you have guests from out japan, and they will not stop by tokyo or kyoto, this restaurant is only choice to enjoy Japanese Kaiseki, I think.

 


Clean kitchen and friendly waitress. 4-5 counter seats. 4 table seats and 2 Japanese style seats (good for family )

Name
Shunsai Hitoshizuku
旬肴ひとしずく

TEL
098-936-5539

Address
沖縄県中頭郡北谷町北谷2-6-10 (Chatan cho chatan 2-6-10)

Hour
12:00-15:00
18:00-23:00


Holiday
Sunday and last Monday



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Cold Noodle and dipping Noodle for summer

In summer, we don't want to eat the hot noodle in humid and sweaty Okinawa weather. We have the summer option for Okinawa soba or ramen noodle.

1. Cold Okinawa soba
Not all okinawa soba restaurants but at some restaurants you can find special summer menu, cold okinawa soba. We went to Miyo-ya and find special summer menu and I ordered dipping okinawa soba with sesame source. (the other choice is soy based source and Chinese source.)

2. Dipping Ramen noodle
Dipping ramen noodle becomes famous in Japan and as same as in Okinawa. Normally dipping noodle is wider and thicker to enjoy deep and thick soup. One of the famous dipping ramen noodle restaurant near Onna village is Gin-bee Noodle shop. I went to this restaurant around 11:30 am because always this restaurant is crowded.
I ordered large size of dipping noodle. Size choice is normal, large and special large. Noodle is like udon noodle, pretty wide and enough texture. Soup is strong fishy smell. If you don't like Katuo bushi (dried bonito flakes ) smell, I don't recommend you to go there. For japanese, pretty tasty. bit oil for me after eat all.

Name: Tsukemen Jinbee(つけ麺 ジンベエ)

TEL:098-938-1558

Address:沖縄県沖縄市知花5-13-18(Okinawa city Chibana 5-13-18)

Hour:
11:30-16:00

Holiday:
Sunday


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Okinawa Red Chili Paste and Oil (Taberu Ra-yu)

Do you like spice and hot?

Okinawa red chili pepper is famous in Japan. You can see the clear liquid (actually Awamori ) with Okinawa red chili pepper at Okinawa Soba restaurant, called 'Ko-re-gu-su'. This is a traditional Okinawan spice to enjoy Soba or the other okinawan food.

Recently, 'eatable' red chilli pepper paste oil (食べるラー油 taberu ra-yu) becomes famous through TV and as usual Okinawa souvenir shops follow this movement. You can easily find  his red chilli pepper paste in Onna no Eki. We call 'eatable' paste because this is not very hot and there are some crunchy garlic and vegy in the paste.

With this red chilli pepper paste oil, we eat Dumplings or stir-fly vegetables etc. Yummy.
Some people put this paste top on the steam white rice, but I never tried.

Dos manos. Yes Mexican

My wife loves Mexican food, specially Beans but We can't discover good Mexican restaurant in Okinawa. Well, I know Taco rice is popular in Okinawa and some Tacos restaurants in Okinawa, but those taste are already modified for Japanese. I would like to taste salsa source without Ketchup but with coriander and lime.


She got blog information about Good Mexican restaurant near Koza. So we drove to Koza area. We ordered Enchilada Combo and Tamale (Yes they have Tamale). Plain quesadilla for my son.
 Combo was pretty good volume. If you are not hungry, you can share with two. or additional one tacos etc.
Taste is good and not oily at all. Beans, fresh guacamole and rice are perfect side for us. We love Tacos and enchilada, of course.
No MSG kind of artificial flavor (Sometime good mexican in US has those flavor and makes me thirsty).

I have to say, missing things are Lime and salsa bar. and maybe cheviche and stripe stew in Menu.  or and fish tacos. We definitely repeat this mexican restaurant and order the other menu.

You can park at coin parking in front of restaurant with 100 Yen discount ticket from shop. or you can park at bit far but get 1 hour discount coupon.

Name: Dos manos
Address: 904-0004 沖縄県沖縄市中央1-3-15 (Okinawa city Chuo 1-3-15)
Tell: 098-989-8815
Hour: Noon -
Holiday: Tue/Wed



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Toto La Bebe Hamburger

When I drove to the Aquarium, I saw cats signs of hamburger shop. I didn't try this new shop for long time, but I got some good taste information. I decided to go there, named 'Toto La bebe.'

When I saw the menu, I was very excited because they are using Okinawan ingredients and sound tasty. They baked hamburger buns, smoked bacon and handmaded pickles and source. Huh, I never saw this kind of picky burger shop. I know some Ramen noodle shops are very picky now.

I ordered Toto la pepe special burger (800? Yen) and french fries (150 Yen addition). See below photo. Looks good! French fries are also not frozen fries. Looks (and Taste) Five-guys fries in US. Source has some ginger /mustard/ spice flavor I think.  If you don't like this kind of flavor, you should confirm them.  I have to say this is not usual US burger. If you want to eat old and usual style, you should go to Godys or Jetta burger around Chatan.

   Anyway I 'm very happy to stop by this hamburger shop again when my friends visit Okinawa. And I 'll try sweets as well next time.

Name: Toto La Bebe Hamberger
TEL: 0980-47-5400
Address: 国頭群　本部町崎本部16 (Motobu cho Saki motobu 16)
Hours: 11:00-18:00
Holiday: Thu.

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