One of the big things I was looking forward to when visiting Ise was eating some of the local food.

While walking around the Kawasaki district I came across a small shop selling home made Udon. The woman serving me appeared to be mute (not that that prevented her from taking my order). Ise udon have been boiled for hours to make them nice and chewy. The sauce is a soy sauce based broth and, despite looking quite dark, isn’t particularly salty. Some green onions are put on top. Quite a simple but tasty meal.

Next was Acafuku. This is a mochi, or rice cake, surrounded by a softish sweet red bean covering. It was very nice and, given the rice cake was only small, not overly chewy.

Henba mochi is the other way around. The red bean paste is in the middle and the rice cake mixture is on the outside. It is browned on the outside and I ate this one freshly “cooked”. It was a bit more chewy than Acafuku as can be seen by the mess I’ve made taking a bit out of it.

Ise is by the sea and so is known for it’s seafood. I had this nice bowl of rice topped with tiny fish on Oharaimachi .

I’ve saved the best til last. This is Tekone Sushi. The tuna is marinaded in soy sauce and then mixed into and placed on top of vinegared rice. There are some slices of ginger on top to (the same stuff they serve with normal sushi). I’ve attempted to make this at home too. it didn’t turn out quite a nice as this but was good none the less.