Fujioto ryokan (a Japanese inn) was recommended in Lonely Planet and I was sold by this YouTube clip. It was centrally located on the main street and the staff speak English and are very friendly. The dinner and breakfast were great with several local ingredients-more on this later in the post. Not cheap at ¥11,500, as I said it includes two amazing meals.
The dinner from top left, shinshyu salmon (trout) sashimi, a tasting plate with: edamame (soy beans), more fish (I forgot toask about this again), soba sushi(sushi roll with soba noodles in it), yokan (a mountain sweet potatoe), hachinoko (grilled bee larve), and fuki miso (butter buds and miso) and rice, and grilled trout (char).
Hoba miso (from a Magnolia tree) shinshu beef steak with vegetables grilled table side.
Ikuchi kinoko (a type of mountain mushroom), ika (squid), cucumbes, and cabbage pickles.
Cold vegetables: yugo (a cucumber like vegetable with the texture of a daikon radish, shiitake mushroom, and shrimp in a plumb tomato sauce.
Tempura (shiso, mushroom, pumpkin, and ikuchi kiniko (mushroom) with komba and rice that gives it a candy-like appearance) with maccha (green tea) salt.
Chicken ousuimono soup
Gohei mochi, a Nagano speciality.
After all that I could barely touch the dessert: maccha chifon cafe, coffee jelly, and watermelon.
Last but not least a typical ryokan breakfast: rice, pickles, mushrooms, egg, salmon, beans, tofu, seaweed, and other mountain vegetables.
Bee larvae! That's a new one for me. how were they?
Posted by: Edward | September 02, 2013 at 05:52 PM
Not bad, they were fried with a special sauce so it wasn't like eating the silk worm larvae in Korea.
Posted by: MC | September 02, 2013 at 06:52 PM