Miketsukuni – The Three Regions That Keep Japan’s Traditional Culinary Cultures Alive

Chefs Continuing the Tradition of Cooking Miketsukuni Ingredients

Cooking is all about the ingredients, and chefs are the people who make full use of them. Today, Miketsukuni cuisine is carried into the present day by two local chefs who want to share their pride and love for the ingredients grown in their homelands. They are Hisafumi Nakae of the Japanese restaurant Tanryu, which draws in people even from outside the prefecture into Himeji, and Noriyuki Itsubo, who spent 27 years popularizing classic Italian cooking on Awaji Island with his L'isoletta restaurant. Coincidentally, both have gone abroad to study the culinary arts but were drawn back home by the food they grew up with. We’ve asked the two chefs to please tell us what first drew them to Miketsukuni ingredients and what makes them so special.

Hisafumi Nakae (Tanryu)

・Why Using Miketsukuni Ingredients Is Important

The reason why I favor local ingredients so much is because you can get them to the customers much quicker. They are the epitome of freshness. I also like being able to see the face of the producer. Who grew the food, and with what kind of thought? You can get ingredients from all over the country in Tokyo, but the most information you get about them is “that eel came from that prefecture,” or “that meat is this or that brand.” These days, I like to buy “ayu” sweetfish direct from Ibo River producers. I can go up to the river with them and discover exactly what kind of environment the fish came from and what the weather was like then. It helps me think of new ways to cook them that might better appeal to my customers’ tastes. I can only do that with local Harima and Awaji ingredients.

I am truly lucky to be able to make dishes with ingredients from such fertile lands, but we also must think about preserving them for future generations. Overfishing has already drastically reduced the amount of sand lances and sweetfish in our waters. Lately, inspired by the ideas of SDGs, more and more people have started considering farming these fish to help replenish their numbers. The truth is, the sweetfish that I get are only “half” wild caught as they were raised from the fry stage and then released into rivers. Let me be clear: there is nothing wrong with that. Wild caught and farmed fish both have their good sides, and we must raise awareness of that to make any difference in the world. That’s why I think that chefs must not only “use” Miketsukuni ingredients but also “connect” with them.

・Add a Little Freshness to Light, Deep-Fried Conger Eel With Roasted Manganji Green Peppers

Look at this conger eel. It looks like it was alive just a moment ago. And that’s basically true as it was caught only this morning. Ever since my days at Ginpaso, I’ve always relied on the same store in Aioi City for my fish. Awaji Island unfortunately doesn’t have a market, so I’m still using them because they are great at delivering the freshest marine products possible.

Conger eels caught in Awaji and Akashi that are over 300 g are called “Densuke Anago” to differentiate them from other smaller varieties. Like a pike conger, Densuke Anago have large bodies and bones which must be cut away. Fortunately, the bones are pretty soft, so you can do it with a sashimi knife. The flesh of Densuke Anago congers is light and sweet and so fresh that you can easily serve it as sashimi. However, today, I decided to coat it in kudzu powder, deep fry it, and serve it with ground manganji green pepper paste.

I got these peppers from a farmer in Himeji. They’re somewhat large with a thick skin and are full of vitality. I slightly roast them, soak them together with rich soy sauce and sweet cooking sake, and then grind everything into a paste using a blender. Then, to get rid of any remaining fibers, I strain the whole thing. Some chefs will be surprised to hear this, but this dish is actually my specialty. This cooking method really ups the aroma of the roasted peppers, but the end product has a very smooth, mild taste which contrasts nicely with the crunchy coating of the deep-fried conger eel.

I like to serve this dish at the end of a course. It has a powerful aroma that can overpower more delicate dishes like sashimi, so it’s best to serve it last. The fresh smell of roasted manganji green peppers and the savory taste of the conger eel work together perfectly to create one exquisite dish.

・Less Is More: The Secret to Shiraae Tofu Salad

One of my most favorite ingredients to cook with is figs. They’re so versatile. They’re great fresh, deep fried, or in desserts. Awaji Island is famous for its figs, but the ones I’m using are grown by a Mr. Shimo from Aioi City. They have a beautiful shape and are so delicious. I also get daikon radishes, spinach, and other vegetables from Mr. Shimo. Another one of my suppliers is Okamoto Farm in Himeji, and since they asked me which summer vegetables I wanted next year, they’ve been growing some of my requests. I help them decide what to plant and I visit the fields so that I can watch it all grow, which makes me feel like I’m growing myself as a person.

I’m making shiraae tofu salad with prawn that I got from my usual Aioi City supplier. It’s very meaty, with the prawn’s flesh ready to burst out of its shell. I’m going to dress them with silk tofu from Tatsumi Tofu, also located in Aioi. I think it’s fair to say that the tofu is going to be the star of the show here. It has a very rich taste that makes you feel as if you were eating actual soybeans. I want to put that taste front and center, so I’m only seasoning the salad with salt, light soy sauce, and a little bit of sugar.

Shiraae tofu salad is a very simple yet profound dish, in my opinion. Instead of adding things to it, you need to use as few ingredients as possible and let their flavors do the talking. It’s a real test of a traditional Japanese chef’s skills.

Profile: Hisafumi Nakae

Born in 1983 in Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture. He left Japan at 22 to study English and the culinary arts, arriving first at the Japanese restaurant Nobu in Melbourne and later studying in Germany. After returning to Japan, he worked at a traditional Japanese restaurant in Akasaka, Tokyo, eventually moving his way up to the position of head chef at Ginza Kojyu. In 2019, in a quest to better understand local ingredients, he returned to his hometown and in April of the same year, he opened the Japanese restaurant Tanryu in Himeji, which serves traditional Japanese courses using local ingredients from Harima and Awaji. He additionally boasts a deep knowledge of calligraphy and the Japanese tea ceremony, being a certified Omotesenke lecturer. He is also a licensed sommelier.

Tanryu website: http://tanryu.com/

Noriyuki Itsubo (L'isoletta, Head Chef)

・Show Love for Your Hometown by Accepting the Good and Bad

I wanted to open a restaurant in my hometown that would be the reason for people coming to Awaji, kind of like what you’d find overseas. That was my initial reason for starting a restaurant, not because of the local ingredients. But as time went on, I started hearing all this talk about Miketsukuni, and I finally realized that this land was blessed with bountiful ingredients.

The food available on Awaji Island is unlike anything else in the country in both amount and quality. But that doesn’t mean we can always get whatever we want here. Still, I’ve decided to use nothing but local ingredients to motivate me to try and maximize the flavors of whatever I can get my hands on. It’s a constant challenge. When something needs to be a little more sour, I pickle it in vinegar. When it’s too moist, I cure it with salt. You can only get this knowledge once you know what the best that Awaji has to offer should taste like.

In the above sense, Awaji is a great place for a chef to learn a lot of different things. The culinary culture that Awaji has developed through years of encountering good food and mastering cooking techniques that make the best out of what it has is what has made it earn its place among the Miketsukuni. 

Besides good ingredients, though, it will take top chefs to truly turn Awaji into a “gourmet island.” But I believe that it can become that, and I want to spread word about it to attract more talent here. Those who are just visiting Awaji after hearing the word “Miketsukuni,” I hope they find something delicious and helpful in the kitchen here to take back home with them.

・Cure Yura’s Local Sea Bream in Salt and Eat It Shabu-Shabu Style

The seas around Awaji are full of food, allowing the sea breams to congregate there permanently without having to migrate. Their flesh is thick with plenty of savory fat, but it’s also quite soft, so it’s best to cure it in salt to remove the extra moisture and give the fish a firmer texture. I use salt from Goshiki Town that was made in a kettle. It has a very direct flavor that brings out the sea bream’s natural sweetness. After curing it with salt, I soak the fish in a mixture of olive oil and Japanese pepper, then vacuum seal it. This preserves the fish’s freshness and infuses it with the oil and spices. To get rid of the oil, I then boil the sea bream at a low temperature in oolong tea before finally seasoning it with smoked rice oil.

The fish is accompanied by sweet-and-sour bell peppers marinated with lemon. The sea bream smells of fish and oil, which is delicious enough on its own, but the bell pepper and garlic sauce add a little kick to it. You can think of the sauce as an Awaji-style Bagna càuda with milk-boiled garlic and bell peppers instead of anchovies.

I get my fish from Hanamitsu in Sumoto. Not only do they have the most variety on Awaji, but I also like that place’s honesty. They like to say they would never sell a fish they couldn’t personally recommend. In September, I can get Japanese Spanish mackerels, barracudas, and frog flounders from them. Also, around that time, they start stocking high-quality, exquisite, fatty “momijidai” sea breams fit for the Imperial palace.

・Just Add Homemade Salt to Tender Awaji Beef

Not all beef raised on Awaji can be marked as “Awaji Beef.” Only those that meet the strictest of criteria like weight and marbling will earn that label. The winners are characterized by delicate fibers, a good amount of fat, and an exquisite aroma. My restaurant was the first place on Awaji to be recognized as an authentic Awaji beef restaurant. We serve sirloin and tenderloin, but I personally think that the shank is delicious too, especially the inner round, which is more tender and less sinewy. It’s also packed with flavor. A lot of my older customers have been asking for some good leaner meat, so I’ve been serving more and more shank lately.

To get the most flavor out of Awaji beef, you need to keep things simple. Rather than grilling it, I just lock in the aroma using far infrared heat from Binchotan charcoal. For sides, I like to go with fried onions and edible Nasturtium flowers and leaves. Nasturtium has a wasabi-like spiciness to it, so I use it like horseradish.

I then season it all with onion powder. I first slice a raw Minamiawaji onion, then dry it, grind it, and mix it with seaweed salt, then dry it again to remove any extra moisture. It really concentrates its sweet flavor and gives it a strong onion aroma. We’ve recently started selling dressings and other homemade condiments at the restaurant, and I’m thinking of also adding the onion powder to our selection.

Profile: Noriyuki Itsubo

Born in 1967 in Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture. Since his junior high days, he liked to eat around at various restaurants. After graduating high school, he started working for Pasta Kabe no Ana, and after that he continued to train in the culinary arts at Colosseo. In 1992, he moved to Italy and studied at a two-star Michelin restaurant. In 1994, he returned home to Awaji and got a job at Galleria Prova in Sumoto, a combination art museum and restaurant. In March 2000, he opened the restaurant L’isoletta, located in Ohama Park as of 2009. In April 2021, he opened the Bar Via Costa in Sumoto, with eyes towards opening a brewery restaurant in spring of 2022. He has many more bold plans for the future.

Website: https://hitosara.com/0006091496/

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