tokyo-morioka-miyako

From Tokyo, we took the Shinkansen to Morioka, about 3 hours.

Then from Morioka, it is 2 hour bus ride to Miyako.

Last year when we visited Miyako, we didn't get a chance to try their Bindon (bottle bowl)

Fresh seafood is packed into a milk bottle and you pour it onto rice and eat

Apparently back in the Jomon era, the fishermen thought of a way to bring back fresh uni (sea urchin) back to their villages.

They used their ceramic pots filled them with sea water and put the uni in to transport them. 

Inspired by this, Miyako thought of this fun way to eat seafood from their area

There are only 8 shops in Miyako that serve Bindon

We were lucky to try this at Janome.

The shop next door, Sumiyoshi did not get the seafood they needed for their bindon, so they were not serving bindon

Janome's bindon always has maguro (tuna), uni (sea urchin), scallop, ikura (salmon roe) and mekabu (type of kelp). 

The other items that are put into the milk bottle would depend on the catch of the day

On the day that we tried it, we also had salmon, ika (squid), tako (octopus)

There was also some whitebait and tamago (egg) to put onto your donburi

Satoshi had their medium size...his had a crab claw and tara (cod) in addition to the fish mentioned above

Satoshi's lunch also had grilled fish...my miso soup had bits of the grilled fish in it

we kinda figured that the rice makes the size difference and also the size of the milk bottle because we had pretty much the same foods on our trays

medium vs small

if you order the large, you'll get both the medium and small bottle filled with seafood

Since we had time after lunch before we could check in, we bought some tapioca drinks from Le Lait de Chevre, which we checked out last year

I didn't write about it but they use goat's milk in their sweets.

They also use goat's milk in their tapioca drinks

I had matcha and Satoshi had kokuto (black sugar) topped with soft serve

Dinner was at Ebisu

Amuse bouche...scallop mekabu and ikura

Kat went non-alcohol and had the drinkable yogurt

Iburigakko with cream cheese...love this combo!

Ikaoji, a local that thinks of different ways to promote the foods of Miyako came out with fried cod

Pair that with dashi shio fries and you have Ebisu's version of fish and chips

Eat with mayo and wasabi which is grown in the ground and not in water

The fish was fried perfectly

Ryusendo Pork before cooking on the Toban (ceramic pan)

Otokoyama

Since Satoshi had sake, he was given a taste of Hishiya

And given this pin with Miyako dialect

Apparently Kyoto dialect was heard all over Japan when Kyoto was the capital of Japan

"Ookini" which means thank you in Kyoto dialect also means thank you in Miyako dialect

The older generation still use "ookini" in Miyako

We wanted to have something sweet after dinner and found these shaved ice cups with condensed milk at a tiny shop, TomTom

It was a long day but we got to eat everything we intended to.

Janome

2-8 Sakaecho

Miyako, Iwate

Closed: Wednesdays

Hours: 10:00-20:00

Le Lait de Chevre

4-5-10 Oodori

Miyako, Iwate

Closed: Tuesdays

Hours: 10:30-18:00

Ebisu

8-14 Suehirocho

Miyako, Iwate

Closed: Sundays

Hours: 17:30-23:00

TomTom

2-4 Sakaecho

Miyako, Iwate

Open daily: 8:00-20:00