Delicious Fish and Friendly Smiles—Restaurant Shioda
This is ariTV’s own Hoya-Boya Takeru Suzuki.
This time I dropped in on a restaurant up in Miyagi’s northernmost Kesennuma, in the Kesennuma Shishiori Recovery Market.
Running without any government help at all, entirely by private efforts, this market is a place to meet strong, individualistic, and positive people.
We’ll bring you the stories of several of the shops here—first up is Restaurant Shioda.
This nice couple serves up a fantastic dish called “harmonica”!
Their restaurant is one of the first places you’ll run into as you enter the market.
Mr. and Mrs. Shioda ran a tōfu shop here in Kesennuma before the tsunami.
They’re a cheerful pair—the husband with his clear, booming voice and Mrs. Shioda with her nice smile—
and all over the walls are messages from and pictures of the many people who have come from all over the nation to give their help.
On the Japanese-style raised tatami floor section, they even have visiting volunteers perform belly dance, rakugo comedy storytelling, and live music shows on a regular basis, they tell me.
Their top menu item is the “harmonica pot”.
You’ve been wondering what that is, haven’t you!
Of course they don’t feed their guests musical instruments—
“harmonica” is a popular local way to refer to a dish of swordfish fin.
When the dorsal fin is cut away, the streaked bones and flesh apparently resemble a harmonica—something with which people of a town with as deep a fishing tradition as this one would be familiar!
It’s a firm cut of the fish, with good consistency and just the right leanness.
Cooked in soy sauce and sweet rice wine, this “harmonica” has a delectable mix of flavors working perfectly together.
Any self-respecting Japanese fishing town has tuna on hand as well, and their maguro sashimi is no slouch!
Fresh and pink, it has a savory sweetness in superb harmony!
“The disaster was a terrible thing, but it doesn’t do any good to just mope about it forever. We’ve got to smile and laugh and live on,”
explains Mr. Shioda.
On the coast, recovery still awaits and there’s little to be seen.
But at places around town like this Recovery Market, there is life and positivity and kindness.
Come for the delicious food, or to meet these inspiring people.
Kesennuma will be waiting for you.
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Restaurant Shioda
Location
TEL 090-9038-8138
15
Sat
June,2013
Location :
