Day 55 A Surprise Foodie Trip to Kochi
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Loading ...“Here you go.”
At the parking lot of Ishite Temple the day before, an elderly lady gave us four leaf clovers when three of us came back to Hikaru-san’s car. One for each of us. She was looking for them during our visit to the temple, can you believe it? I had been a little frightened while walking in a dark tunnel with statues behind the temple, but my heart was instantly warmed up by these little lucky plants from her. I made bookmarks with them in the morning to keep the luck from the lady in Matsuyama.
Kind Hikaru-san drove me and Nate to Kochi City on this day. It was somewhere I’d wanted to go, but a bit out of the way for my cycling schedule. I got a lucky day trip with my friends to Kochi Castle.
Visiting castles has become a fun routine in many cities, but it is always better with their fresh local food. Kochi is known for katsuo, skipjack fish. We visited a busy market area to see if we could grab a bite of their specialty.
As we were walking the market, I found a little bar full of sake bottles. Which one would you like to try? There are many choices of fresh seafood too!
Here we are! This is was the main reason why we came to Kochi – “Katsuo no tataki,” seared skipjack tuna bowl with ponzu (citrus soy) sauce. Kochi consumes the most amount of katsuo in Japan. Katsuo is an important fish in Japanese cuisine. It is dried for its use in taking dashi (stock) to create the base in many dishes and soups. What we had on this day was the fresh state of it, topped with onions and sliced garlic. Deeeeelicious!
Right by the castle, they were selling “Ice Crin.” It’s an old school street vendor’s ice cream. Apparently, Kochi is the only place where they still call it this name today.
When talking about Kochi, there is one famous historical figure who comes to mind. Sakamoto Ryoma (1836-1867) is one of the most beloved samurai’s in Japan who helped modernize the country at the end of Edo Era. Japan had an approximately 200 years of closed foreign policy called, sakoku, and Ryoma was the visionary and a key figure in ending the shogunate and transitioning the country into Meiji government. He was from Tosa Domain, today’s Kochi. There were many people taking photographs of his statue by the sea when we visited here.
I got a little snack for the drive. This is Matsuyama’s popular little treat, Botchan dango. It is a mix of sweetened beans and mochi, in three different flavors on a stick.
Having tasted the sweet treat, I turned into one of those dango’s. I seem to turn into many things during this trip. (The writing at the bottom says, “Have you bought your souvenior?”)
The four leaf clover from the kind lady must have added even more luck to my already lovely visit in Shikoku. Hikaru-san’s mom had made a beautiful chirashi-zushi (translates to “scattered sushi”) meal when we came back from Kochi City. Unlike the typical “sushi” you might picture which is hardly made at home, chirashi-zushi is something eaten at home, often in festive occasions. Its vibrant look adds color to happy gatherings of friends and family.
Ryoma is said to have loved tradition and yet envisioned modern Japan that would be a part of the rest of the world. His legendary style of wearing his kimono with western shoes is so cool, even to think of it today. It was nice to touch a bit of his free spirit and courage to change in my surprise visit to Kochi. And to experience what else, the best katsuo bowl, ever.
About the Author: Sachi
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