Oooh... Nobunaga Signature Tempura from Gifu...

--I wanted to make some smartass post about the THE LEGEND & BUTTERFLY historical bits but I got easily distracted by one of my greatest passions-- FOOD! Looks like Yaganase Tempura Club is offering a special "Nobunaga Legend Don" during the period of the movie screening in the close-by CINEX theatre.

NOBUNAGA BIRTHDAY PROJECT ③ Let's Pound the Tenka Mochi!

Inspired by the online event of Nagoya Omotenashi Bushotai dedicated to the birthday of Nobunaga past year, I decided to join the celebrations this year too, providing a new post dedicated to Nobu every week, until June 23 😄 Following the trail of thoughts from past week, today we're talking about this "irreverent" ukiyo-e by Utagawa Yoshitora!

Cute! Nobunaga Pancake∼!

So, the Twitter account of the Gifu Castle Moriagetai attracted my interest with the exclusive pancakes served at CLOVER COFEE, a shop inside the Nagarakawa Ukai Museum. The pancakes are decorated with the crests of the samurai clans of Gifu and Nobunaga's is served with ice-cream and a berries sauce.

A Cocktail for Nobunaga

Part of a collaboration with Prince Hotels & Resorts of Nagoya, a peculiar "Tenka Fubu" cocktail could be savoured at Sky Dining Tenku BAR.
The wisely mixed ingredients include Gin, white peach liquor and Campari Bitter.
The cocktail is served into a special, original Mino tea cup, and it's obviously accompanied by the cocktails of the other two Great Unifiers.

"Kiyosu-jo Nobunaga Onikoroshi" commercial...

It's dated 2011 but I stumbled on it in the past days during a research for a movie...
It's a commercial for the "packed sake" released by Kiyosuzakura Brewery, Kiyosu-jo Nobunaga Onikoroshi-- With such a name obviously it caught my interest!
Besides the obvious relation of Nobunaga to Kiyosu city, that explain the name, apparently ""onikoroshi" generally means such strong & delicious sake that beat an ogre".

Even if I found a not-so-enthusiastic review, I'm definitely willing to try this once I'll be in Japan again-- If just to take a picture of a landscape with Onikoroshi--!

Nagoya Bushimeshi Busho-tai Bento Launched!

Past Tuesday, during an event dedicated to the promotion of Aichi tourism, a new ekiben was introduced, available at Nagoya Station and dedicated to two main "contents" of Nagoya: samurai and food!
Picture from this article.

The Nagoya Bushimeshi Busho-tai Bento (なごや武士めし 武将隊弁当) includes some typical flavours of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (throughly researched thanks to the "Bushi-meshi" investigations of historians and gourmet) and the classic Nagoya-meshi awesomeness.
Main feature of the bento are the grilled miso onigiri, plus misokatsu, kishimen, eel and other delicacies.
The package includes a "Sengoku MAP" about the touristical spots of the ancient provinces of Owari and Mikawa featuring the Nagoya Busho-tai.

The bento costs 1200 yen, it can be found at GRAND KIOSK of Nagoya Station and it's sold starting December 27.
It's not clear if it's a limited edition item, but the distribution should be granted at least for the whole 2018 year!

Shoubu! Katsudon Curry∼

--Sorry for the lack of updates and if this blog looks like that of a glutton, but today I had the chance to cook myself a version of the Shoubu! Katsudon Curry starring at the current Ikusameshi Campaign across Central Nippon Expressway areas :)
This dish is dedicated to Nobunaga and his desire to conquer the land through daring tactics; the idea is that of mixing two strong, delicious flavours into one meal.
It's autumn, so the heart calls for filling meals ^_^
This was my first time making katsudon, too-- I followed a recipe on Youtube, exciting experience :D
I used some of the katsudon sauce (eggs and onions) to relish the curry sauce, it tasted nice.

On the Expressway for "War Food"!

Talk about curious Japanese initiatives... Apparently to promote new stretches of highroad and the service areas around, the Central Nippon Expressway involved the local busho-tai, including our favourite guys from Nagoya!It goes by itself, in Japan "Autumn" rhymes with "Food", so associated to the event is the release of special meals that could be found the parking areas and service areas of the Central Nippon Expressway, and a series of live events, scheduled for September 17 and November 6, sporting the presence of Nobunaga-dono among others.

Among the Nobunaga's signature specialties, those that caught my attention are the "Shoubu!" katsudon curry (gotta copy this) and the scenic "Nobunaga no Tenkatori" akamiso pork soba, but the menu is filled with desserts and take-away snacks too, the pick is up to you!
In case you're interested, the event lasts from September 1 to November 30, and the area of Nobunaga's pertinence is the Higashi-Meihan Expressway in Tokai region!
You can keep yourself updated on the releases of the meals and the scheduled busho-tai events checking out the Facebook account dedicated to the event.

--Thank you Teap for the instant translation check XD

And on a closing note, since we're talking about tourism, I'd like to pimp this website where you can get informations and reports on the various festivals dedicated to our favourite samurai, battles and historical sites, SAMURAI FESTIVAL.
I used its informations to update my page dedicated to the matsuri and events dedicated to Nobunaga, so you can check that out too.
The website mentions also recent festivals dedicated to Ranmaru or the Azai family (with a special spot for Ichi and her daughters, of course), I didn't include them on the page as there's no Nobunaga enactor there, but if you like the personalities involved it may be fun to check them out!

Nobunaga Chicken Nanban turning even more "Nanban"...

The Autumn season is at its peak, and as we know "Autumn" in Japan rhymes with "Eating".
For today's post I resume an old limited edition bento sponsored by the Nagoya Omotenashi Bushotai relished with some experimental sauce, as I decided to copy this recipe and share my results with you.

Nobunaga's Ekiben at OSOZAI-YA Minomishou

What's better that starting the new year with a post about food XD ?

For this first post of the year I decided to dust-off something from the year that just ended, and give you a review of an ekiben dedicated to Nobunaga that I had the chance to find during my last trip to Japan:I bought this at Nagoya Station in a shop called OSOZAI-YA Minomishou-- It's by the "Taiko-dori" exit, a few steps away from another lovely ekiben shop, the Nagoya Daruma (which is definitely my favourite).
As the name implies, this shop is specialized on Nagoya food with a charm for the Mino region, so you can keep it as a focus to taste the various delicacies in need of a quick snack.

The whole thing presented itself as a sumptuous banquet.
Unfortunately it was cold T_T But that's part of the charm of an ekiben, isn't it..?

Let's check the contents and try them out!

Let's start with the main dish, the misokatsu!
Delicious and crispy, it's my favourite part of this bento.
As it's quite strong-flavoured, the rule implies that you have to eat the rice with it.
The rice section of this bento is quite luxurious, two rich servings in different colours and dressings.
Unfortunately the extra ingredients and the colours are just for show: it's the usual vapid rice that you'd eat everywhere.
It went down well with the flavoury misokatsu though, so I won't complain too much.
The "pink rice" is relished with azuki beans and sesame, the "orange rice" is decorated with carrots and mushrooms-- But seriously, everything had practically no flavour. Which is probably a merit, given the strong-flavoured side-dish.

I broke through each bit of misokatsu and rice with some veggies to clean up my mouth.
It's boiled beans in a sauce and the renkon, recognizable by its peculiar shape, the lotus root.

Last task, the tenmusu, another Nagoya delicacy:
The version of Osozai-ya is a bit different from the "orthodox" tenmusu, in fact, instead of just one proper shrimp, they like to squeeze a handful of fried baby shrimps inside.
They call this original recipe "Yume Tenmusu". --The rice balls sure are huge and in my opinion waaay too filling-- I had an hard time eating them after I ingurgitated all that rice XD

My general opinion of this ekiben is not extremely positive, then.
The misokatsu sure was delicious, but I didn't like the idea of having it on a pitiful leaf of salad instead of the canonical slices of cabbage, which is used to temper the saltiness of the miso, and also the tenmusu were a bit hard to digest with all the rice and the huge size-- It was definitely a flavoury filling meal, though, and the fact that it was dedicated to Nobunaga-- Well, it's just positive extra points!

"Nobunaga Omotenashi Gozen": the "last supper of Nobunaga" as a modern touristic attraction

It's becoming a habit by now, but for the compilation of this post I have to thank the always useful Teap-dono, who provided the required help with the translation of the food names and involved recipes.
かたじけない.

This said, if you happen in Azuchi, you'd probably consider to take a peek to the museum area a few chilometers away from the ruins of the castle.
In there a must-see place is the Nobunaga no Yakata, a little building where you can see the reproduction of the tenshu of Azuchi Castle.
Among the various little permanent exhibitions of the place a fancy one is that dedicated to the banquet held in Azuchi on the May of 1581 in honor of Tokugawa Ieyasu's visit.

^{Pictures coming from this blog.}
Akechi Mitsuhide took care of the huge task and came with a lavish banquet that struck awe in all the attendants because it sported dishes from the various provinces conquered by Nobunaga, stressing the power of his lord.
The menu exhibited also unusual food like whale or spiral shellfish, but it must be noted that most of these weren't for consuption but hosted a decorative meaning, in this case, connected with Nobunaga's power, the reason for such an abundance and oddity.

Apparently the detailed description of the meals that Nobunaga offered to his visitors (besides Ieyasu, Nobunaga held a sumptuous banquet for one of his favourite guy from Sakai, the merchant and tea master Tsuda Sougyu) can be found in the book "Nobunaga no Omotenashi" by Ego Michiko, where a whole chapter is dedicated to the subject.
This is not the only book that Ego-sensei dedicated to the subject, in 1999 she explored the image of retired daimyo as gourmet in the book "Inkyodaimyo no Edokurashi".
A good alternative for the English speaker could be "Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan" by Eric Rath (partially consultable over Google Books), that mentions the researches of Ego-sensei and many others in its investigation.

Anyway, long story short, the touristic apparatum of those places related to Nobunaga got set in motion, and they jumped on the chance to brush up on these Sengoku menu to entertain and delight visitors and tourists.

The first chance to come up with a modern interpretation of the "Nobunaga Omotenashi" was the celebration of the 400 years of Nagoya's enstablishment (2010).
In this occasion the Nagoya Omotenashi Bushotai was enstablished, and many exhibitions and events popped around the city.

One of this event involved the release of peculiar ekiben, touristic bento sold at train stations as a way to promote local cooking, dedicated to the three unifiers of Japan.
The "Last supper of Nobunaga" was taken as example by the Nagoya Daruma shop in Nagoya station, that presented the lunchbox Nobunaga Zen:

^{Pictures of the bento come from this blog.}
The "rice part" of this bento is the onigiri grilled in miso sauce. Not part of the original banquet, this dish was supposed to be popular during hunting session, one of the most beloved activities of Nobunaga.
Among the original features of the meal in Azuchi are mentioned the kabayaki of eel, slices of dried squid dressed in sauce, yakitori chicken (the original recipe involved the use of pheasant, though!), slices of roasted trout (a specialty of Omi province), plus a variety of mysterious roots and veggies that only a Japanese may find appetible.
This bento proved to be quite popular, and I could find evidences of it being sold even after the celebrations of Nagoya.

But the event that brought "Nobunaga's Hospitality" under attention was probably the initiative of seven between ryokan and hotels in Gifu city on the spring of 2012, that presented a full menu under the label Nobunaga Omotenashi Gozen, following the original recipes of the era with a touch of kaiseki:

^{Pictures of the event coming from this and this blog.}
The event involved an explanation of the various dishes from the chefs and a degustation.
This time efforts were made to present the original dishes eaten by Nobunaga and Ieyasu in the most accurate way possible, so many now common seasonings were banned: honey, miso and sake were used in place of sugar or soy sauce.

Besides the dishes mentioned in the bento, here one could face some true culinary challenges: the futoni, for example, a reconstituted sea cucumber cooked in a sauce of beans, or the makisurume, a squid boiled with its tentacles rolled inside, that once slices said to remember the Oda crest, but also steamed abalone or the more inviting shigitsubo, eggplants filled with duck meat-- Just a little part of the "100 dishes" that constituted the original menu thought by Mitsuhide.
During the period of the event, the dishes could be tried in every hotel of the cooperative, the final day being host by the Gifu Grand Hotel.

It looked like a once-in-life event, but later on the Ushounoie Sugiyama Inn, profitting of its privileged location on Nagara river and by Gifu castle, made of the Nobunaga Omotenashi Gozen a main event to be featured on October, during the ukai season so to let the visitors to "feel like a daimyo", according to the words of the Chef Yasuo Mori:

^{Pictures coming from this article on the Asahi Shimbun, main source for this post, after all!}
The privileged meal comes at its due price: the cheaper plan comes for 19000 yen, and the most expensive plan is 27000 yen. The difference in price is due to the room's view as it faces Nagara river and Mount Kinka-- Sure Ieyasu had it easier!

Mangoro's sweets review

I'm just done with my posts about my last Nobunaga Tour but there is still some room for a new post and a new category of the blog, one dedicated to "snacks and food" based or inspired on Nobunaga and his life.
I already mentioned the delicious Yumikake Sakura of Mochinobu shop in my short walk in Gifu, but I guessed that my visit to Mangoro, a shop of omiyage and snacks located in Azuchi, deserved a mention too, if not an article.

I was really curious about the culinary masterpieces of this shop, so on a dark afternoon after visiting Amanohashidate, I opted for a detour to Azuchi to get hold of the delicacies.

Here is the booty for the day that I'm going to review right now:
From left to right: the Makezo no Tsuba ("The Tsuba of Invincibility"), the Azuchi-Momoyama and the Nobunaga-gun Pie ("The Pie of Nobunaga's Army").

The "Tsuba of Invincibility" refers to a legend about the Battle of Okehazama and how Nobunaga got to use the Eiroku coins as a decoration for both his banners the tsuba of his favourite sword.
The "Nobunaga Army" of the third pastry refers to the sumo wrestlers that he used to employ as an entertainment in his tournaments of Azuchi Castle.

If you got to know me well enough, by now you shpuld know that I'm not a fan of Japanese sweets, so probably this review may result as a bit unprecise-- Sorry in advance.
The Makezo no Tsuba is an interesting experiment. The filling is composed by two different jams, one of the usual red beans, and the other by another kind of sweet beans, but white in colour. I think that honey was added to the white beans paste, but I'm not sure.
The "container" has the consistency and feel of a wafer, but it's generally even more insipid. The contrast between the crispy outside and the dense and soft inside is very interesting.

The Azuchi-Momoyama was the pastry with the best look, but the flavour left me quite perplexed.
Again, the filling is mere red azuki paste, but the dough feels Western in its preparation. Among the ingredients I spotted egg yolk and glutinous floor, and that's probably its result.
The feel in your mouth when munching is quite doughy and dry.... It doesn't go down easily and it's far from pleasant.

Surprisingly, I'd say that my favourite is the Nobunaga-gun Pie: probably it's just because it's a shortcrust, so my Western tastes recognized something like a proper pastry, but even the filling was definitely better, flavoury and pleasant in the mouth. The ingredients specify that the filling is made with azuki from Hokkaido, probably it made the difference?

These aren't the only "Nobunaga-inspired" sweets of Mangoro shops, there is also the Sengoku Tenka Mochi, inspired to the deeds of the three unifiers of Japan and their "mochicious" Realm...