Last week, while visiting Mt. Haruna in Gunma Prefecture, the freezing temperatures (well below freezing, with the windchill factor) forced me to truncate my climbing plans and head back from the mountains earlier than planned.
As I walked to the bus stop, feeling a little low (I hate canceling climbs) I paused in front of a restaurant that advertised the local special: “Cock-a-Doodle Menu.”
I’d first heard of this specialty a couple of hours before, while reading a brochure about the Lake Haruna area. I knew it involved chicken, but that’s about all I knew. Even so, I like chicken, and I was hungry, so I went inside.
The restaurant owner seated me at a table with a kerosene heater underneath–a good thing, because even inside the restaurant, the air was cold enough that my breath emerged in little puffs of cloud. I ordered the “cockadoodle tempura special” – and the tray that emerged from the kitchen a few minutes later made me forget all about the cancelled mountains.
Clockwise, from upper left: “cock-a-doodle” tempura chicken and vegetables, dipping sauce, mountain vegetables, konjac with spicy mustard, miso soup (in the orange bowl – made without bonito flakes, so I was able to eat it despite my allergies), tsukemono (Japanese pickles), and rice. The little dish in the middle holds salt for dipping.
The tempura was hot, juicy, and tender, made from half-inch thick slices of chicken breast. The mountain vegetables tasted crisp and fresh, and the miso had just the right balance of pungent onion, salty nori (seaweed) and umami from the miso paste. The rice, served scalding hot, made a perfect counterbalance to the sour, sweet, and salty flavors of the other dishes.
I savored every single bite, and look forward to eating it again the next time I get to the Lake Haruna area.
Do you like tempura? What’s your favorite way to eat chicken(if you do)?