Continuing my journey in Tohoku area, I was bound to pass by SENDAI whenever I was traveling using Tohoku Shinkansen. And when I googled about Sendai, it's all about food, food, food, and onsen lol I couldn't try the onsen first simply because I would like to stay overnight in Sendai for that, but I can definitely have a gourmet tour even when my schedule is tight!
GYUTAN (BEEF TONGUE)
When we're talking about Sendai, everyone in Japan knows about it's GYUTAN, or grilled beef tongue. It's so popular to the point in JR Sendai Station, there are special areas dedicated for popular gluten restaurant chains to sell the their Gyutan. The most popular chains are KISUKE and RIKYU, but according to the recommendation of a security staff, he personally loves KISUKE the most. So I tried Kisuke Gyutan this time. The price for both restaurants is more or less the same. There are 2 choices of their gyutan, one is the thin slices one for cheaper price or the thicker slices for 1.5 times price. I got the thick slice since I've come all the way from Tokyo anyway
The cut is really thick, and I got the 3 gyutan cut into 6 pieces, it's 2300 yen for the Teishoku Set along with rice and the oxtail soup. I added tororo (grated yam) for additional 100 yen
It's definitely the best gyutan I have ever had! It's not chewy at all but really soft and easy to chew, and the flavour is just right. The oxtail in the soup is really tender and the broth is lightly seasoned because it's already absorbed the umami of the beef bone. It's a really fulfilling meal!
ZUNDA DESSERT
Before this, let me share with you what is Zunda first. Zunda is paste made from crushed edamame (green ground soybeans) and sweetened with sugar. It's a popular flavor in Tohoku area and often made as dessert. The most popular desserts of Zunda are Zundamochi (left) and Zunda Shakes (right)
image courtesy by Cupido
Zundamochi is a mochi with Zunda paste on top of it, and we can eat it all together. Personally, I LOVE IT a lot! As for Zunda shakes, it's a vanilla shake mixed with zunda and the one that I tried only has a little bit of zunda flavor, so I mixed the zunda paste from the mochi to the shakes to give it stronger taste!
The same like the Gyutan, there's a ZUNDA DORI in JR Sendai Station. So if you're passing by Sendai to Tohoku area from Tokyo, make sure to stop by to the JR Sendai Station to try out these delicacies!
HARAKOMESHI
Harakomeshi is a bowl of rice topped with a fatty belly salmon that's caught in fall, along with ikura (salmon roe) marinated in soy sauce. There are a lot of salmon and ikura topping on top of rice all over Japan but Harakomeshi is slightly different because the used salmon part for this dish is the fatty area located in their belly, and it's lightly cooked with dashi broth, and the rice is cooked with the leftover broth, which makes the rice is full of umami flavor comes from the dashi and salmon!
I didn't have time to get a proper Harakomeshi during my trip, because I didn't explore Sendai city properly when I was traveling in Miyagi. BUT, you can always get it as Ekiben! :D They have Gyutan Ekiben too, so it would be nice
