Country Manor Jiroemu

Boss Man got a call from a local restaurant owner the other day, and the owner said "Bring Liz to the restaurant sometime soon."  Boss Man asked me, "Do you so Mr. X?" but I didn't no anyone by that name, so I was a bit perplexed.  Nonetheless, we made plans to have lunch at the restaurant that Friday and see what was going on. Boss Man had been there a few times to entertain guests from Vietnam, so he knew the way.  We drove  into Miyoshi, and as we got further and further off the main streets I started to wonder where we were.  Then Boss Man says "We're here!" and turns off the car.  I get out, and to my surprise, I see this:

The gate house was built in 1884 and the main house in the back was built over 300 years ago!

 SICK!  I knew I was in for a new experience. Jiroemu is the name of the estate.  Yes, the house has a name.  It's been around for centuries, and the current master of the house started a restaurant with his wife.  They grow their own vegetables, and raise their own chickens. The vegetables are organic and the chickens are raised uncaged, so I can feel good about eating here!

It's tsubame season!  In the summer, tsubame, or swallows, build their nests under roofs all over town. They are protected so people just leave them be.  I'm glad because they are the cutest birds I've ever seen. This sign says be careful of the swallows above.

I love the kitschy, homey feel of the interior.

The house is so old! There is an old fashioned sewing machine, and in the corner is a Victrola (old record player) on top of an old-fashioned refrigerator.  It's the kind you have to put a block of ice in!

LUNCH!  They only serve things they have raised, grown in their garden, or gathered themselves. Everything is fresh and organic and healthy! The concept is to serve food like the food Japanese farmers used to eat.

Grandma's pickles.  With the exception of the pickled plum on the bottom left and the ginger on the bottom right, everything is radish! It's all picked differently, though, so you can enjoy several different textures and flavors.  I was in love with the sweet mustard pickles, bottom middle.  

This is a type of cheese.  They boil milk down and skim off the curds, which they then season.  For cheese, it's really light but very flavorful.

This one was a salad of fresh bamboo shoots! Bamboo shoots are low in calorie and high in fiber and vitamins!  I usually don't like bamboo shoots because they can be hard, but these were tender and delicious.

These are fuki! Fuki are an edible plant that is traditionally gathered in the mountains.  Lots of people eat it around here simmered in a soy-sauce based broth, but its easy for them to get really salty.  I don't know what these were simmered in, but they had a really light taste so I polished this off in no time.

They must've known I was coming.  They just knew I love tomatoes.  I am a sucker for delicious, fresh tomatoes.  I have no idea what this green leafy stuff is but it added an herb-y taste that matched very well.  I could eat this for days.

Candied orange peel!  Again, I usually avoid it because it just tastes like straight sugar to me, but this was delicious.  It was really lightly candied so it just tasted like a very sweet orange; the sweetness didn't overpower the citrus flavor, and it was really soft like a piece of candy.

Homemade miso soup (as in, the miso itself is homemade) with bitter melon.  Yum!

This is the fluffy omelet made with eggs from the chickens they raise cage-free!  This is actually Boss Man's omelet.  They actually like to make their omelets "melty", which is what Japanese people tend to prefer. I like my eggs boiled and scrambled HARD, no juicy stuff, so my omelet was a bit different but still really good!  The mayonaise is also made from the same eggs.  You can buy a bottle if you like it!

Does anyone else know Donna Summer?  "Dim all the lights sweet darlin',  'cause tonight it's all the way..."

"Turn up the old Victrola, gonna dance the night away!"  It's so exciting!  When I was a kid I always wondered what a Victrola is.  BAM!  There it is.

 It turned out that the master of the house asked me to do a translation for the restaurant, which I accepted gladly.  Then again, his wife speaks English really well!  I think they can handle English speaking guests without problem.

Still... this place was definitely an experience. I was so excited about it that when I got home, I told my friends all about it. I had two friends visiting me from the US and they were supposed to leave that afternoon, but they were so interested in the restaurant that they rearranged their schedule so I could take them for dinner.  I brought along Kimbap from down the street, too.  Yay!

The second time I went, I still wasn't hungry yet, but they were kind enough to bring out some items I hadn't tried earlier.  This is their homemade chicken sausage and a stir-fry. The stir fried chicken is marinated in shio-koji, which is this year's most talked about health food!  Its a sauce made out of a mold used for fermenting.  It may sound gross, but it really increases the flavor of foods, makes 

Mint soda!  I'll admit, the taste is not what I expected, but I suspect that this is because I rarely have anything made with real, fresh-picked mint.  Still, its a light-tasting, refreshing drink.

Between the house and the food, the girls were impressed.  We even saw the owner of the house walk around to the back of the house and pick some of the food we would be served.  Now that's fresh!  Not only is this a great, relaxing place to have a healthy lunch (especially on a day with nice weather), it's a great place to bring visiting family and friends to give them a taste of the Japanese countryside.  I only have a week left in Minamiboso City, but I hope that amidst the packing and the farewells I will have time to come back to Jiroemu.

Liz