Best Place to Taste the Dishes Made by Japanese Mothers

Do you have the taste to let your heart warm or feel kindness?? Today I’ll show you my favorite restaurant in Yokote, the southern part of Akita. This is “Kurawo”. There is in Masuda town called “the town of Japanese warehouses (蔵)”.

You can get here from Jumonji station in 10 minutes by taxi or bus. Many people have visited Masuda town since it was chosen as the National Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in 2013.

According to HP, Kurawo is operated by “Haba-no-Kojiten(羽場のこうじ店)”, the malt maker published in 1918. Malt is one of the essential ingredients for Japanese food, especially miso for miso soup and pickles! And according to my mom, my grandmother often bought miso paste at this store a long time ago. This is why the taste is my favorite!

 Looking at the board, you can see some Kanji, “醸造元　勇駒”. This is the name of the Sake brewery that was running until 2013, and Kurawo has used this building as a store and restaurant.

Entering inside, you can find the well. The well water, which was once used for brewing sake, is still used for all dishes. Especially, it snows more in Yokote than in other areas in winter, so the water around there must be fresh and tasty.

As you go deeper, there is the warehouse, which was built in the late Edo era and chosen as a nationally registered tangible cultural property. Nowadays, live concerts are held here sometimes. The atmosphere is good, and the sound seems to have a good response!

In the store beside the restaurant, some foods and goods are sold. I often visit here and buy miso paste. The taste is a little sweet and is suitable for not only miso soup but also boiled rice or raw vegetables.

At the restaurant, you can find waiters wearing old-style aprons and feeling as if Japanese mothers are bringing you your meal at home. And there are some menu items, like a plate lunch, a rice bowl, and curry. My recommendation is the plate lunch! You can choose meat or fish as the main dish, so it’s kind for vegetarians. (Please understand you cannot adjust to the other dishes.)

It may be different from the usual menu on this day because of Golden Week. But it was a lucky day for me to eat dishes made with wild vegetables! Especially, minced Chengiopanax sciadophylloides (Koshiabura in Japanese) was really tasty. I felt a slightly bitter taste, but it was balanced by a little salt and sesame oil. (After I got back home, I tried to recreate that taste, but it was difficult.)

Kurawo has a selection of dishes that bring out the charm of nostalgic Japanese food to the fullest, and the taste makes me feel kindness like a mother. I’m sometimes a little sensitive to salt and additives; my body quickly swells up when I eat a strongly flavored meal, which affects my condition. But when I ate this meal, I kept my good condition thanks to the kind taste and felt happy physically and mentally! When you travel, you don’t have many chances to try the taste of home cooking, do you? So, I’d like you to have lunch at this restaurant, Kurawo.

After the meal, I recommend you drink “Amazake-Shake ”. This is slightly expensive, but it deserves to be tried. You can enjoy the natural sweetness of Sweet Sake mixed vanilla ice cream. My grandfather who is 88-year-old also likes it and drunk it soon!

What else, there are many places you can drop by in Masuda town. I hope you can find your favorite place around there.