10 things I love about Ashikaga, Japan
Chefs share the unique ingredients, traditions and dishes of their home cities. This month, we discover the historic city north of Tokyo with Masaki Sugisaki of Dinings SW3
Masaki Sugisaki of Dinings SW3 shares the unique ingredients and dishes of his home city
I was born in Saitama city, not far from Tokyo, but I spent my childhood in Ashikaga, a city two hours from the capital.
It is also known as ‘East-Kyoto’ and ‘North-Kamakura’, as several hundred years ago it was one of Japan’s most important cities. It remains the location of beautiful, historical buildings, temples and shrines. It’s surrounded by some incredible areas of natural beauty. It is in Ashikaga where I can recall my best childhood memories – I spent a lot of time in the mountains, where we would catch river crabs and !sh before cooking them over an open !re.
Festival food
Festivals are very important to the people of Ashikaga, which typically take place in temples and shrines. My favourites are Hanabi Taikai, a fireworks festival which happens on the first Saturday in August close to the river Watarase, made even more special by the reflections cast on the water. Here you’ll find traditional food stalls serving dishes such as grilled squid, sweetcorn and takoyaki, which are balls of diced octopus.
I also love the Batou-Matsuri festival on New Year’s Eve. Batou means ‘curse’, and the premise is that one is encouraged to put all bad things behind them at the end of the calendar year by cursing loudly from the top of a mountain. As you can imagine, this sounds ridiculous, but it is such fun to see hundreds of people together cursing like mad. It is a Japanese tradition to have soba noodles at the end of the year, symbolic of a long and peaceful life and relationships. My favourite is hot soba noodle with tempura on top.
Soba noodles
The area is known for its high-quality buckwheat, which is what soba noodles are made from. The climate and natural spring water from the mountains provide the perfect growing conditions. Naturally, there are a lots of very good soba noodle restaurants in the area. Making soba is acknowledged as a very special technique, just like sushi. I love to prepare them more than any other noodle. My favourite way is in zaru-soba (see recipe, p72), which is cold noodles served with a fish stock-based dipping sauce. There is a very specific way that these should be eaten. First, you must pick up the noodles with chop sticks and dip them into the sauce – but only half the length of the noodle.
A lot of people go crazy and dip in the whole noodle so it tastes stronger, but soba is all about experiencing the delicate aroma of buckwheat on its own. Second, you slurp! There is logic behind this. When you slurp, you breathe the air in with a gentle aroma of the noodle itself. When you breathe out from your nose, you taste it in the best possible way. Slurping can be tricky to master, both mentally and physically, but I strongly recommend giving it a go – it makes a huge difference to the experience.
Sake
There are many good sake breweries in the Ashikaga area with long histories. Tasting different varieties of the fermented rice wine in every region you visit should be high on your to-do list when in Japan. Visit the breweries for a chance to see and taste the product, as well as understand the passion that goes into making it. Sake has so many faces, just like wine. I personally like a chilled dry sake with sashimi, and a fruity sake in warm temperatures, especially the Japanese winter. I also recommend trying cold sake with a pinch of salt, just like tequila. It transforms and lifts the sugary taste, and will refresh your palate.
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Ramen noodles
Japan has so many regional ramen varieties. Ashikaga’s is my favourite. The noodles have a unique texture, due to the strong gluten, which is thoroughly kneaded with thick bamboo logs. The clear soups are made with chicken and dried fish flakes, giving them a clean, sophisticated depth. Unlike heavy pork-based varieties, chicken ramen is light enough to start the day with. Once again, you must try to slurp it. Eat them as quickly as you can, or the noodles will become soft and lose half their goodness.
Freshwater !sh
There are many little mountains with beautiful spring water and a plentiful supply of fish. One species is the rare ayu fish (translated as sweet fish). It’s the perfect ingredient to cook with in the summertime, and is very popular all over Japan. The other is yamame (brook trout), which is extremely difficult to catch and can only be found in very fertile countryside. Traditionally, it is sprinkled with salt and cooked on a thick bamboo skewer over a charcoal grill or an open fire. To get the most out of it, you must bite into it from the back of the fish. It has such a distinctive flavour, there’s nothing quite like it outside of Japan.
Wagashi
Ashikaga has a long history with the traditional Japanese sweets, wagashi – you’ll find wagashi shops everywhere. Wagashi are made from boiled beans, which are passed through a sieve to make a fine purée, before sugar is added. The paste is made into beautiful shapes of various colours, depending on the season. In spring, they’re pink and moulded into the shape of the sakura flower, which is really striking. These sweets always accompany a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
Tochigi wagyu
Some of the most incredible wagyu beef comes from Tochigi in this area. What makes it so distinctive is the fine marbling, not dissimilar to tuna belly, which also has a sweet and fatty taste. You can find so many restaurants around Ashikaga serving this style of wagyu. Most commonly it is cooked in the tataki style, where the outside of the meat is seared and the inside is left blue. In Japan we eat this seasoned with sea salt
and served with a little fresh wasabi – it’s good enough just like this. It’s certainly not an everyday delicacy, but you might prepare it over a very hot grill to eat at a family celebration.
Tochiotome strawberries
There is a famous strawberry from the area called tochiotome, which has an amazing balance of sweetness and acidity, and is incredibly juicy. They grow from November to May. The price might put people off, though – it sounds crazy but some of the premium strawberries cost more than £10 per berry!
Izakaya
The izakaya experience in each Japanese region tends to represent the local food trends and culture of the area as a whole. Enjoying izakaya, which translates to ‘tavern’, is a ritual enjoyed after work. It’s a very casual experience. You must ask to try the local specialities. In Ashikaga, this is typically yakitori, skewered grilled chicken, fresh water fish or maybe yunagi, a freshwater eel, grilled over charcoal and served with sweet soy sauce. It’s amazing stuff. We serve something similar at Dinings SW3 using eel sourced from British shores. Ask to try a local sake, which is best enjoyed in a traditional wooden sake cup known as masu.
Breakfast
A typical offering found in restaurants across the Ashikaga area is comprised of a ball of steamed rice, alongside a portion of miso soup, pickles, grilled fish, omelette and fermented soy beans, also known as natto. Traditionally, the whole family sits down together to enjoy this. Every so often, at my home in London, I prepare a traditional Japanese breakfast to enjoy on a lazy Sunday morning. It’s a lovely ritual and really takes me back to when I used to live there.
Dinings SW3 is a restaurant serving a unique style of sushi and sashimi using seafood from Cornish day boats. The restaurant has space for outside dining. dinings.co.uk/sw3
Zaru-soba (cold soba noodles with chilled dipping sauce)
You can buy dried soba noodles in some supermarkets, Japanese grocery stores and online.
30 MINUTES + INFUSING + COOLING | SERVES 2 | EASY | LC
soba noodles 2 x 75g bundles sliced spring onions and wasabi to serve FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE
kombu seaweed 3g
soy sauce 60g
mirin 70g
bonito flakes 15g
Put the kombu in a pan with 200ml of water and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Add the soy sauce and mirin, and bring to the boil. Add the bonito flakes, take off the heat and leave to cool.
Once cooled to room temperature, pour through a fine sieve and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
Boil the noodles following pack instructions. Reserve the cooking water, rinse the noodles under cold water and drain.
To serve, add the spring onions and wasabi to the dipping sauce. Take small amounts of the noodles with chopsticks and dip half of the length of the noodle into the dipping sauce, remembering to slurp as you eat. Once you have finished the noodles, heat the reserved noodle cooking water and add to the dipping sauce. It is traditional to drink this as a soup, as the water contains nourishing minerals.
PER SERVING 393 kcals | fat 1G saturates 0G | carbs 78.2G | sugars 16.3G fibre 1.2G | protein 17.2G | salt 5.9G
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• Inspired to cook Japanese food? Find more recipes for ramen, gyozas and more at Omagazine.com/japanese-recipes