Japanese Soba Noodle Kitchen in the Countryside
Japanese Soba Noodle Kitchen in the Countryside
Overview
In this episode, John Daub travels to the snowy countryside of Okayama Prefecture, specifically the Hiruzen area within the Daisen-Oki National Park. Joined by friend and fellow content creator Dean Newcomb, John visits a local soba restaurant to explore the region's famous buckwheat noodles. The video offers a rare behind-the-scenes look into the kitchen, where owner Kameyama-san demonstrates the fresh preparation of soba noodles and tempura.
The duo enjoys both hot and cold soba dishes, sampling a variety of tempura ingredients including shrimp, vegetables, and surprisingly, banana. Beyond the food, John and Dean discuss the beauty of rural Japan in winter, the logistics of traveling to off-the-beaten-track locations, and Dean's own adventurous background with his "Runaway Japan" series. The episode highlights the freshness of countryside ingredients, the unique culture of soba consumption, and the charm of the Hiruzen highlands.
Highlights
- 00:00:00 John introduces the location in Hiruzen National Park and announces a fresh soba kitchen tour.
- 00:30:00 Surprise reveal of banana tempura on the menu alongside traditional vegetables.
- 01:43:00 Explanation of the soba boiling process: 1 minute 20 seconds in boiling water, then immediately cooled.
- 05:42:00 Presentation of the finished dishes: hot soba in broth and cold zaru soba on a tray.
- 06:25:00 Interview with owner Kameyama-san about the shop's history and the region's soba culture.
- 08:30:00 Discussion about the intimidating soba cutting knife (soba-kiri).
- 11:09:00 Tasting the noodles and discussing the texture difference between hot and cold soba.
- 13:06:00 Dean reveals his first tempura experience was banana tempura.
- 16:20:00 John shares footage of the Momotaro mascot at Okayama Airport baggage claim.
- 32:45:00 Demonstration of the soba cutting tool and technique by Kameyama-san.
Timeline / Chapters
- 00:00:00 Introduction at Hiruzen National Park
- 00:30:00 Tempura ingredients revealed (including banana)
- 01:43:00 Soba boiling process explained
- 04:10:00 Serving the noodles (hot and cold)
- 06:25:00 Interview with Kameyama-san
- 09:51:00 Eating the soba and tempura
- 15:22:00 Location context and map explanation
- 19:55:00 Introducing Dean Newcomb and his background
- 26:28:00 Trying the banana tempura
- 32:02:00 Soba cutting knife demonstration
- 34:36:00 Closing and upcoming episodes teaser
Japan Travel Tips
- Getting There: Fly into Okayama Momotaro Airport or Yonago Airport in Tottori. Renting a car is recommended for accessing the Hiruzen highlands.
- Best Time to Visit: Winter offers snow scenery and warm soba, but the area is beautiful year-round for hiking and skiing.
- What to Order: Try both zaru soba (cold) and kake soba (hot) to compare textures. Don't miss the local tempura, including unique items like banana.
- Soba Etiquette: Slurping is acceptable and shows enjoyment. Dip cold noodles into the tsuyu sauce; pour hot broth over hot noodles.
- Cost: Countryside restaurants often offer reasonable prices for high-quality, fresh ingredients.
- Connectivity: Signal can be spotty in deep countryside areas; download maps offline.
Japanese Language & Culture Notes
- Soba (そば): Buckwheat noodles. In the countryside, they are often made fresh daily using local buckwheat, resulting in superior flavor and texture.
- Itadakimasu (いただきます): Phrase said before eating to express gratitude for the food and life.
- Gochisousama deshita (ごちそうさまでした): Phrase said after eating to thank the host/cook.
- Tsuyu (つゆ): Dipping sauce for cold soba, typically made from dashi, soy sauce, and mirin.
- Shichimi (七味): Seven-flavor chili pepper blend, often available as a condiment for noodles.
- Regional Specialties: Hiruzen is known for soba, dairy (cheese), and wine (yamabudo/mountain grape).
Food & Drink Guide
- Soba (Buckwheat Noodles): Freshly made daily. Boiled for 1 minute 20 seconds, then cooled to maintain texture. 01:43:00
- Tempura: Batter-fried items. Includes shrimp (ebi), green pepper (piman), pumpkin (kabocha), sweet potato (satsuma imo), eggplant (nasu), and banana. 00:30:00
- Zaru Soba: Cold noodles served on a tray with dipping sauce. 05:42:00
- Kake Soba: Hot noodles served in hot broth. 05:42:00
- Banana Tempura: A unique dessert-style tempura item. Can be eaten with salt or as is. 26:28:00
- Yamabudo Wine: Local wine made from mountain grapes, mentioned as a future exploration topic. 30:30:00
People
- John Daub: Host of Only in Japan Go. Enthusiastic about food and travel, guiding viewers through the experience.
- Dean Newcomb: Guest, YouTuber, and adventurer. Known for "Runaway Japan." Models and works in ethical fashion.
- Kameyama-san: Owner of the soba restaurant. Demonstrates the cooking process and shares the history of the shop.
Key Takeaways
- Countryside soba tastes superior due to locally grown buckwheat and fresh preparation.
- The soba boiling process is precise (1 minute 20 seconds) followed by immediate cooling.
- Hiruzen National Park is a hub for agriculture, producing soba, cheese, wine, and Wagyu beef.
- Winter travel in this region offers snow scenery and skiing opportunities near the Sea of Japan.
- Unique menu items like banana tempura showcase chef creativity during off-seasons.
Notable Quotes
- 00:30:00 "Banana mo tsukaimasu ka? Tsukaimasu. Oh, sugoi! It's going to be awesome!"
- 01:43:00 "One of the reasons why soba just tastes better in the countryside, because they grow the buckwheat right in this area."
- 08:30:00 "The soba knife of all the knives in the Japanese kitchen is the scariest looking knife of them all."
- 13:06:00 "The first tempura I ate happens to be banana."
- 32:45:00 "This is the most intimidating looking knife in the world."
Related Topics
- Rural Japan Travel
- Soba Making Process
- Okayama Prefecture Tourism
- Japanese Tempura Varieties
- Winter Sports in Japan
Search Tags
#only-in-japan-go #tokyo #travel #okayama #hiruzen #soba #tempura #countryside #national-park #winter #snow #john-daub #dean-newcomb #kitchen-tour #japanese-food #buckwheat #rural-japan #yamabudo #cheese #wine
Full Transcript
00:00:00 John Daub: Hi everybody, we are in Okayama prefecture. This is Hiruzen National Park, part of the Daisen-Oki National Park. And we're going to be having soba! The local soba. Yeah, we're going into the kitchen here. And they're going to be making it for us fresh. Check this out. We've already ordered. We've ordered hot soba and cold soba. Konnichiwa. And they're going to make it for us. Oh, they already got the tempura! Sugoi!
00:30:00 John Daub: So very quickly, they're making... There's ebi, there's some shrimp, and piman, green peppers, some kabocha, pumpkin, and... Eh? Chantan mate. Banana mo tsukaimasu ka? Tsukaimasu. Oh, sugoi! It's going to be awesome! And these bananas! Waaah! Tempura soba just go together. And if you've ever been in the countryside in Japan, soba is one of the dishes that you have to try!
01:07:00 John Daub: Oh, this looks good! This looks so good! Look at that! Tempura is the greatest! Ah, man. I can't even... The smell is so divine right now. And over here we have the soba, which is buckwheat noodles in Japanese, going straight into the boiler.
01:43:00 John Daub: How long does it take? 20 seconds. Ah, 20 seconds! 20 seconds it takes! Welcome to the soba. Ah, 1 minute and 20 seconds. Okay, I got it. Thank you. It takes 1 minute and 20 seconds for the soba, which is buckwheat noodles. And it's made fresh every day. One of the reasons why soba just tastes better in the countryside, because they grow the buckwheat right in this area, which is awesome.
02:04:00 John Daub: Same with the vegetables and the bananas, too. They come in the summer. They're grown here in this area of Okayama, which is amazing. I put a map, a link in the description if you want to check out exactly where we are. While we're waiting for that to come, which is going to be really quickly, let's check out the tempura here.
02:24:00 Dean Newcomb: Oh my gosh, this is an order of two. One for me, one for Dean. Every second counts.
02:52:00 John Daub: And there's a lot of humidity in this room. There's just always boiling water. I'm checking. You have to check to see when the noodles are no longer hard. They're nice and soft. That's when it's done. They're pulled out of the boiler right into a... Not yet? Not yet. Not yet. Oh, here we go.
03:18:00 John Daub: So the soba noodles are cooled really quickly. Preserving a lot of the flavor. It's just such an incredible meal. This is good. So even if you put it in a hot bowl of broth, you also have to cool it first, and then you put it into the hot bowl. So it always goes through the same process. Boiled for a minute twenty, and then cooled, washed, rinsed.
04:10:00 John Daub: There are the noodles before we get the soup. And here's the cold noodles. We get the exact same amount of noodles. Almost the same, right? Yes, almost. That wouldn't be fair if I got more. Or you got more. Meanwhile, the tempura is loaded up.
04:31:00 John Daub: Oh, the tempura is all loaded up. Wow, that's so beautiful. Look at the presentation. Ah, perfect. My head is spinning because all this stuff is happening all around me.
05:00:00 John Daub: Is this dashi? This is dashi. Ah, dashi. Yeah, dashi. It's a fish-based soy soup, which is awesome. And there we go. Arigato. This is so cool to be in the kitchen. I love it.
05:19:00 Kameyama-san: How does it go out? Arigato gozaimasu.
05:42:00 John Daub: That is a work of art. I hope you're drooling. Jason is drooling over there in Canada. Just to the right here, we have the cold noodles. We've got a variation of it. This one is interesting. It's actually served on a tray here. And the other one, being hot, is served in a bowl of hot soup. In the winter, the hot one is better. But you know what? They both taste really, really good.
06:07:00 John Daub: Is this soba soup? It's soba soup. Ah, soba soup. Soba soup. Ah, so they take the water from the soba and you can put it into a soup. We're going to figure all of this out because we have the owner, Kameyama-san. Arigato gozaimasu.
06:25:00 John Daub: How long has this shop been here?
06:27:00 Kameyama-san: It opened last August.
06:32:00 John Daub: Oh, last August. Last year in August. Before it burned, before it became a number, it was in the 10th year of Heisei. Ah, 10th year of Heisei. Ah, 1998. That's right. I came here that year. I remember that well.
06:46:00 John Daub: This restaurant opened in 1998, but there was a fire. So this new one is open last year, and it's a beautiful restaurant. Look at this. It's so pretty inside here.
07:01:00 John Daub: Why are you making soba?
07:05:00 Kameyama-san: I like soba. I grew up here. Soba is a very popular product in this area. Ah. This area is known for soba.
07:19:00 John Daub: There's a lot of soba fields in this area, so it just makes sense to have soba. It tastes a lot better than Tokyo. As you can see, there is snow up here in the national park. It is really, actually a warm day. Really beautiful. And it's the perfect weather for soba. Thank you. I put a link in the description if you guys want to come here.
07:41:00 Dean Newcomb: Why don't you have a seat here, Dean? Yeah. We'll try this here.
07:45:00 John Daub: Oh my gosh. I'm so hungry. Thanks guys for tuning in. I don't think I've ever been able to go into the kitchen while they're making soba.
07:56:00 John Daub: Yeah, you know, one of the great things about soba restaurants out in the countryside, quite often when they're making it, you have to come here at the right time. We're a little bit late for that, but they will start the process of making the noodles from scratch. Right. And since they grow the buckwheat here, you want to make it here with your hands.
08:09:00 Dean Newcomb: They have a special tool, including the knife. They have this rolling knife that they start with. Yeah.
08:19:00 John Daub: I wonder if they've got the soba knife. I wonder. That is the most violent, scary looking knife. Let me go and ask.
08:26:00 Dean Newcomb: Will you? Yeah. Don't bring it out here. It's scary.
08:30:00 John Daub: The soba knife of all the knives in the Japanese kitchen is the scariest looking knife of them all. Seriously. Dexter, if he ever saw this knife, I'm sure he would have this like wrapped up in some sort of black furoshiki. Speaking of, he's actually checking. Hold on. They obviously, he's actually checking.
08:58:00 Dean Newcomb: Dean, does he have one? Maybe. What? He said maybe.
09:05:00 John Daub: There's no way. Oh my gosh. Hey, Craig Kawaguchi's here. Beautiful views. Thank you, Craig. That's going towards lunch. Thank you. They do not have the soba knife. If they do, that is the most intimidating looking knife I've ever seen in my entire life. And I've seen some sword looking knives, like the ones that they use for cutting fish at the fish markets. They're massive.
09:34:00 Kameyama-san: No? No, no. Because the technology has moved on.
09:40:00 John Daub: Oh, OK. Right. Yeah. I was going to, I was thinking when you do it on volume. It goes along the conveyor belt and automatically cuts. Are you serious?
09:47:00 Kameyama-san: Yes.
09:47:00 John Daub: That's crazy.
09:51:00 John Daub: Dean it is time to dig in oh my gosh this is so good it is still piping hot itadakimasu. You don't want to touch with your fingers the end of the chopsticks you want to always pick it up from the end that's locked in there it's just a sanitary thing and that's tempura it's just amazing there you're putting Dean is putting the um tsuyu into there and i guess you can also put mixed in negi the spring onion oh you mixed in the negi here and i've chosen not to mix in the wasabi oh you're not using wasabi really so you would mix it all into this which you get ready to then dip your soba and then maybe yeah this is on top of it so you would take this off and then underneath there you'll discover the the broth exactly and then you just make it to taste right so for me wasabi no wasabi.
11:09:00 John Daub: Good yeah very good it's nice how soba has it's quite a firm noodle right right so it always i think part of that cooling process they heat it and they cool it straight away which maintains helps it maintain its texture yeah actually raymond centeno's got it right this is zaru soba right this area is also famous for another kind of soba and we might take you to one of these restaurants as well um it's a Hiruzen yakisoba again soba being very famous in fact anywhere that you go in japan if you're going to the countryside the mountains in particular you have to try the buckwheat noodles because it is that good.
11:53:00 John Daub: I'm gonna dig into mine now here um while it's still hot oh wow that's just beautiful look at that noodle pull now they're much firmer they're easier they break apart a lot easier in the mouth i'm gonna turn the camera around really quickly oh my god that's fresh that's fresh oh yeah you can eat soba in tokyo it's good it's good it's not as good as this it wasn't quite comparable to eating inside a national park right no usually there's some shichimi buckwheat is gluten-free yeah usually there's some shichimi here which is a japanese spice which i think there's seven spices which is why it's called shichimi the shichi meaning seven and then there's some salt here uh actually a little bit of shichimi might be pretty nice here you think what.
13:06:00 Dean Newcomb: The first tempura i ate happens to be banana oh yeah i ate the banana did you know that they were making that i didn't tell you my first time to see tempura banana oh really yeah i thought it would be like banana fritters or something i thought it was fish so i'm gonna it's actually really really good but i recommend it for the last dessert yeah yeah it's like the facility yeah i can see that.
13:32:00 John Daub: I like the cold ones because it's just a little bit fun to dip it into something it's like tsukemen which is a ramen dipping yeah i like the dipping part of the cold soba zaru soba it's a beautiful restaurant i'll take you for a little spin around here but we just got right off of the highway this is the first place that we could come in we asked and got some permission to take you behind the scenes into the kitchen i'm really grateful for kameyama-san his kitchen to us because whenever you can show how they make a certain food, it's a lot better than if you just sit there and eat it and watch it. But going to the kitchen is fun.
14:19:00 John Daub: I'm going to try this tempura. Now tempura, it's interesting. You can eat it as is. A little bit of salt is a really nice way to eat it. Or you can just put it on top of the soba, right? Yeah, soak up a little bit of the broth and then you can eat it. This is a satsuma imo, which is a sweet potato that they grow in Japan everywhere, but in particular in the countryside. You're going to want to eat it in a place like this where the fields are just down the street, he said. This is nasu, eggplant. The potatoes here, I was like, wait a minute, that's a little bit too purple. So good. Sometimes a little bit of salt on the tempura is good. Sometimes you'll see matcha salt, which is this green salt. I love it. I love matcha salt because there's a slight bitterness to it from the matcha powder.
15:22:00 John Daub: I'm going to try that banana last. That's our dessert. But I want to show you where are we right now? Here's a map, a picture that I took a little bit earlier. You can see that's Okayama. Right in the north part of Okayama. You can see Kobe is on the map. And then the Sea of Japan is on the other side here. Tottori. We're that blue spot in the middle there and sort of in the top. We're closer to the Sea of Japan than we are the Seto Inland Sea. So it's definitely off of the beaten track. Oh, it is. Yeah. You can access this from Yonago Airport in Tottori and come down. Right. Or you can get here also from the Okayama Airport and travel up through the countryside. Yeah. So that's just a little bit of where we are. Maps always help.
16:20:00 John Daub: Boom. You know. I wasn't sure if we were going to have snow here, Dean. Remember, we were driving here. I actually flew in to Okayama Momotaro Airport. It's the Peach Boy Airport. Check this out. This is hilarious. This video is on arrival at the airport. It's hilarious. Of course, you know, suitcases are coming on the carousel here, but check this out. There he is. That's Momotaro, the boy who lived in a peach. And I'll show you a little bit more of it later, but that was hilarious to see a peach boy come out on the conveyor belt.
17:15:00 Dean Newcomb: Is this Okayama's mascot, John?
17:17:00 John Daub: I think it is. There's the legend of Momotaro where he battled the demons on the islands in the sea. That's very part of the identity of Okayama Prefecture. And the peaches here are very good as a result of the battling. Maybe. This is so satisfying.
17:37:00 John Daub: So as I was saying, there was no snow around the airport or in the city of Okayama. And then we went through a tunnel. It's a little bit of snow. We went through one more tunnel and there was a lot of snow. Right. As soon as you get onto the west side of Japan, right, it happens so suddenly. Yeah. Boom. Right. And I think this is only an average amount of snow for this area, right? I think they can get a lot more and they probably will get a lot more. Hmm. You can see that was Mount Daisen in the distance there. So the driving in here was just really beautiful. And yeah, the snow, I guess it makes the experience so much better because we're city boys. Yeah. Winter in Japan. Winter in Japan, man. You want to have snow. And you can ski around here.
18:28:00 Dean Newcomb: Hello, John. Hello. Yeah.
18:30:00 John Daub: So Hiruzen has ski resorts. So does Mount Daisen close to here. Yeah. Daisen's got a really good one. Hmm. It's unique because as you're skiing down the slopes, you can see the Sea of Japan. It's that close. Mount Daisen is right up against the Sea of Japan. In fact, this national park, the Daisen-Oki National Park, one of the reasons why we're here, take a look around. Hiruzen is part of the Daisen-Oki National Park. That's right. Yep. And we were actually going to go to Oki Islands, but it's one of those places where flights can be canceled in the winter because of the strong weather. It's kind of like, you know, the strong winds and the conditions out there. So we decided to switch the plan up to Hiruzen, which is safer because we might be stranded on the island for weeks, months. Which, you know, could be fun. Could be fun, actually.
19:23:00 John Daub: Hey, you know what? The soba erases anything... any doubt that I had. Mm. So good. Do you guys have any questions? We're looking at a live stream here. We're not eating the snow as dessert. No. And no, there's no yellow snow here. I saw that. We're not... We're not 12-year-olds. And we're not going to make our own.
19:53:00 Dean Newcomb: Who is Dean?
19:55:00 John Daub: Okay, Dean is a very complicated, complex individual. How do I introduce you? Dean is a YouTuber. He is an adventure seeker. He went across Japan challenging himself with bicycle, running, kayaking. Called Runaway Japan, which is on YouTube, right?
20:19:00 Dean Newcomb: Yes. Yeah, you can go back and watch that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A 50-day journey. That was pretty crazy. It took me all the way from Tokyo down to... Actually, to the Oki Islands, which we just talked about. That was the finishing point. Yeah. Oki Islands by kayak. Yeah. Only Dean would be smart enough or dumb enough...
20:38:00 John Daub: Smart enough to...
20:38:00 Dean Newcomb: How far is that? The Oki Islands is 45 kilometers off the mainland. You went 45 kilometers off the mainland? 45 kilometers in a kayak? It took me nine hours. There was two of us, me and Duncan, so we tandem kayaked 45 kilometers over nine hours. Yeah, it sounds so ridiculous when you think about it now, but back then it was just a normal part of this adventure because leading up to that, I'd cycled for 200 kilometers in a day and I'd run a marathon and I'd done all these things to get my body from Tokyo all the way to the Oki Islands by physical means. So... It was a cool trip and we made it originally for NHK World.
21:21:00 John Daub: Oh, right. Yeah. And then I uploaded everything to YouTube. So if anybody's interested, you can go back and have a look. Yeah. The series he made is so well produced. It was on NHK World and shows you through adventure sports using your body the attractions of Japan. It's such a cool concept. So definitely check out Runaway Japan and I'll put a link in the description to Dean's work. Thank you. Thank you.
21:46:00 Dean Newcomb: What else do you do here? I do a lot of things, right? So recently I opened, I started a fashion company. We do ethical fashion. So we bring ethical fashion from overseas and introduce that into the Japanese market. Cool. That's a new venture of mine. And then I'm involved in casting and producing. So working on jobs like this with YouTubers and then also with Japanese national influencers like Instagramers and things like that. So I've got a varied bag.
22:18:00 John Daub: Dean does it all. And you might even see him on some advertisements around the city as modeling for… I remember Kanae and I were going through Odaiba and we saw this wedding picture. I'm like, I know Dean is married, but I'm not sure to that person. And I was like, oh, okay. So he's a model, right? So that was modeling for weddings and stuff. Yeah. The background to doing all of these things that I'm doing now, I have 10 years modeling, right? So that's how I made all my connections. Yeah. and that's how I learned about Japan. So you have like a blue steel.
22:47:00 Dean Newcomb: Yes, it's a retired. It's retired? Okay, you can't pull that out. And then you got to wait for the big jobs for that. Yeah, this is a beautiful, beautiful area.
23:03:00 John Daub: And for the next four days, I hope you guys are subscribed to the channel and you check it out. We're going to be taking you around just the Hiruzen area of the Daisen-Oki National Park. I wanted to really, Dean as well, focus on just one area. I know all of you know about Tokyo, Kyoto, Himeji, Osaka, all of these places. There's heaps of other areas in Japan, especially if you've been here before, that you might want to check out. And this is one of them. This is also where they make a lot of cheese, Japanese cheese and wine. Again, I told you Yakisoba is famous in this area. They have skiing. There's a lot of naturalness. I guess this could be almost the bread basket of Japan. This is the Chugoku region, but maybe of the Chugoku and the Kansai region, a lot of farming here. Some of the best Wagyu beef is in this area. In neighboring Hyogo Prefecture, Tottori's got some of the best Wagyu beef as well. It's just such a natural area for hiking, for summer sports. Not the best time for it, but we have so much adventure coming in the next four days. I think we're going to do something like eight live streams if we can. Yeah. And there's no shortage of content, right?
24:21:00 Dean Newcomb: Ronald says, would you do blue steel for $2,500 to $7,500? Yeah. What does that mean? Maybe. I don't know. Maybe we can double one. We can double one. Look away. It's up to you guys. On three. No, I'm not going to show you my blue steel for free.
24:43:00 John Daub: Oh, thank you so much. Send me a subscribe. Oh, did they? Oh, cool. By the way, I have seven months, but there's a video uploading in two weeks. So it's been a really difficult year because I have a little baby boy. Well, he's two now, a bit older than yours. Yeah. It's very difficult, as you know, to make content when you have a young boy. So, but I'll be back now this year. This is the view we see right outside the window. Look at that windmill going around. It's such a piece. Yeah, because I flew to Okayama. It's not something that you normally would do because the Shinkansen is so convenient, but it was much faster to fly here. And because the airport is close to the countryside, it just made more sense to pick me up there instead of going into the city because Dean came here by car. And you can see just the contrast of the view from yesterday. And today, it's so amazing to travel. I think I love traveling, which is so cool that you could be in a completely different place out in the countryside and have snow, which we didn't have in Tokyo.
25:44:00 John Daub: Blue steel is from Zoolander, which is a comedy on modeling. And it's a look that Ben Stiller gave that would break all modeling records. It was the look that got everybody to... Was that it? That's pretty good. Yeah, that was that. Was that something like it? Yeah, that looked very good. I can't do it. You have to mentally picture it right now. I can't do it. I'm just hungry. So it's all in the eyebrows as well. Eyebrows and the lip. If you're really good, you can squeeze the eyebrows together and then lift them up in the middle. I can't do that. I can't. I can't. Just Google it, okay? We don't want to spend a precious time with blue steel.
26:28:00 John Daub: I think it's time for... Let's get this banana. I'm going to try the banana. Would you... How would you eat this banana?
26:36:00 Dean Newcomb: The banana, right? No salt, no dashi, no... Really? Just like this? As it is, yeah.
26:41:00 John Daub: Kameyama-san, how should I eat the banana tempura? With salt? Like this? Like this. Like this. Should I eat it at the end? If you can eat it at the beginning. Really? Yes.
26:57:00 Kameyama-san: There you go. This is the first menu I made. After I started not getting vegetables, I thought I'd make something different, something interesting, something with an impact. The person who gave me the idea was the woman who made the tempura earlier. Oh, really? I was thinking of making a banana. That's so smart. It was delicious. That's so smart.
27:21:00 John Daub: It's like a Okayama banana. It's a banana. It's a banana. It's a banana. They don't grow the bananas around here. But yeah, to be a little bit impactful on the menu is sort of a genius thing. And I think that the banana is good first. Yeah, and if they bring it in in winter because the amount of local produce that they can use in tempura is much less. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah, cool. Yeah, because it's winter and the farms aren't churning out a lot of vegetables, it makes a lot of sense to have something on the menu that would be different and unique. And bananas, I would... These do remind me of banana fritters. You've never had banana fritters where you batter them and deep fry it? No? Mm-hmm. Really? Oh, man, they're so good. I've never had to do that anymore. My mom used to do that. Did you ever eat funnel cakes and stuff? No. No? Really? No. What did you eat as a kid in England?
28:09:00 Dean Newcomb: What do we have that you don't? Do you have wagon wheels? No? Wagon wheels. I'm trying to think of... Do you have penguins? Did you pick up a penguin? Penguins? A penguin. No? Like penguin meat? Is this like a pig in a blanket type of stuff? All the famous chocolate thing you'd have had a difference to as you know.
28:33:00 John Daub: I don't know. I'm getting introduced to English sweets from Melanie who keeps sending me delicious boxes of confections. I think I've had every single potato chip flavor in the UK. Oh, yeah? They're quite good. The crisps, they're called in the UK, not potato chips. They're quite good. Crispy. Yeah.
28:49:00 John Daub: Here's the shrimp, tempura shrimp that's been put in the broth here. It's already nice, isn't it? They make the shrimp longer by doing strategic cuts in it. You ever see them do that? They cut the shrimp and they can make it longer by the way that they cut it up. It's quite ingenious.
29:18:00 John Daub: Now, Raymond goes in here for the banana tempura and the blue steel. Ooh. That's our coffee. Raymond, that's our coffee money. Thank you, buddy. We're definitely going to get one because I need a coffee after getting up. The flight was at 10:30 but I still got up early. Gochisousama deshita. That was really good.
29:46:00 John Daub: What are we doing next? We might be doing another live stream at a winery. I'd like to go to check out the winery. Yeah. I think the owner is going to be there ready to show you around. The president. Yeah. We're going to head to a winery in a couple of hours. Yeah. So maybe we'll take you with us. Yeah, probably soon. They make it with yamabudo which is mountain grapes. I think it's like wild grape wine, right? Or something like this. We're going to learn about it in the next live stream. So I'll announce this on Instagram and on Patreon and on our Discord server. If you do have some boosts to spare, we definitely could use it. We're down one boost on our Discord server but I'll put an announcement in there and you can check it out.
30:30:00 John Daub: The wineries in Japan are really good. They're usually kind of young but it has always a really distinctive and different taste to it. I'm quite curious about the wines of Hiruzen, the national park here. What does it taste like? These yamabudo probably has some sharpness to it maybe. My first impression. I'm not sure. We're going to find out. So we'll see you in a couple of hours live as we take you, if we've got a signal, to the winery nearby. And then cheese. The day after tomorrow we're taking you to a cheesery where they make the cheese. Is that how you call it? A cheese? Cheesery? That works for me. I know. It's a place where they make cheese in Japan from the cows because they get a lot of cows here. We're going to eat cheese. Basically we're just in the national park to keep eating, eating, eating. I'm down for that and maybe we'll do some hiking. I don't know. We'll see what we can find to get in trouble. But yeah, cheese, Japanese cheese. What's different? What's unique? Why did the owner of the restaurant decide to make cheese in Japan? Because when I came here 20 years ago, there was no one. There was no market for cheese. You couldn't find it in the supermarkets in Japan. Now it's exploded on the scene. Cheese is becoming much more popular in the Japanese diet than it was 20 years ago. So we're going to hear a little bit from a Japanese cheesemaker on the explosion of the industry in particular in the countryside or reason to come here. Wine and cheese. That's an episode. See everybody? Yeah. I'll show you the restaurant to close the live stream.
32:02:00 John Daub: Do we want to show the cutter? Can we do that? Yeah, let's do that. But I'll take you there. Maybe I'll take you back in the kitchen. If you just joined us, they're going to show us the cutter. Oh, what's good? Yes, this is the most intimidating looking knife in the world. Look at that. That these are soba cutting knives. Oh, you got the. Oh, so. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
32:45:00 Kameyama-san: This is how you cut? Oh, yeah. They're very dangerous. Really? Are you going to pick that up? Stay away. I'm social distance. It's very heavy. It's coming. It's weighty. It's very heavy. Yeah, it's coming. It's very heavy. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Oh. This is the cutting width. This is the tool that adjusts the thickness of the surface. You can select the thickness of the noodles. This gap is the width of the next noodles. I see. This is how it works.
33:36:00 John Daub: So you start off at an angle and cut it so you can pick the thickness of it and you can see. Depending on the angle that you make with the board, the thickness would change. Oh, so the angle determines the thickness. That's interesting. So you use this as leverage. And then what I noticed is that they cut forwards. Oh, they cut forwards. Yeah. They cut it forwards. That's interesting. That's so cool. You can do it faster, right?
34:04:00 Kameyama-san: Yes, I can. The video you just saw was my video. Oh, really? Wow, that is so awesome.
34:11:00 John Daub: I want to see that speed cutting. It's a nice pace. Like that. A nice even pace to cut the soba. That's so relaxing. You can slowly move it across, right? Yeah, slowly moving it. Thank you very much. That was interesting.
34:36:00 John Daub: That's what I'm talking about. Isn't that the most intimidating looking knife in the world? It's just so massive. It's hard to balance it. It's quite heavy. It's very simple, isn't it? The one I had didn't even have a handle to get. Yeah, you have to use it like this. Thanks everybody for watching. This is the inside of the restaurant. Link in the description. It's quite large. If you're just coming off the highway into the Hiruzen, you've got to stop here for lunch. It's so good. And then you can go into the park for your hiking. We're going to show you our hotel as well. We're staying in a nice place in the area. I'm looking forward to it. We'll be back in Tokyo on the 9th of January. So we're going to be here for four full days, which is awesome. I'll see you later.