Fateful encounters are also available at ……! Hidehiko Ishizuka of “Honjamaka” introduces “mai-ai” memories from all over Japan

Here are some dishes I encountered on my travels

Hello, everyone. It suddenly got cold, so I changed my clothes from mesh short sleeves to thick short sleeves.

So far, I have had the pleasure of eating “delicious food” all over Japan. To be honest, all of them were “delicious. This time, I would like to introduce some of them to you. However, my memory is not very good, so this is a rough introduction. Please understand.

First of all, Hokkaido. About 30 years ago, I met this dish when I went to a town called Teshio to film a TV drama. I think it was winter because the staff around me were wearing jumpers.

There were a few small stores on the vast horizon where there were no tall buildings. In front of each of them, there was a banner that read “Shijimi Jiru” (shijimi soup). Since there was a long wait for the photo shoot, I was curious and went in.

In the bowl that came out was a cloudy white soup. Between the steam, shijimi clams can be seen. However, there were no other ingredients other than shijimi clams. I took a sip of the soup and apologized to the shijimi clam soup, feeling a little sorry that I had entered the restaurant.

The rich shijimi clam extract was flavored with a hint of saltiness. It was the most “delicious” liquid I had ever encountered.

Memories come with the dish.

Next up was Akita Prefecture’s Kiritanpo Hot Pot. As part of the program’s plan, I had the opportunity to experience everything from making skewers to attach kiritanpo to, to catching Hinai Jidori chicken at a flat-fed chicken farm, to mashing rice with a stick and wrapping it around a skewer.

After that, I left it to my mother, a kiritanpo pot master, and took a break until the dish was finished. When she said, “It’s ready,” I went to the dining table and took a sip of the soup. I shouldn’t have taken a break. I should have seen what I was going to put in it.

All I know is that it is soy sauce based. Probably, the Hinai Jidori chicken must have given off a considerable amount of chicken broth. It is the best soup, sweet and rich. No need to have zosui (rice porridge) to finish the dish. This is because Kiritanpo is made of rice. Kiritanpo, whose surface is baked, absorbs the best soup, which I further absorb. Circle of Life.

The “Cold Meat Soba” at Hama-no-ie in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, was another gem. I met the owner of Hama-no-ie through a TV program when his restaurant was located by the port before the Great East Japan Earthquake. Kesennuma is famous for its shark’s fin. I had a shark’s fin dish at that time as well.

The earthenware pot in which we could enjoy the tender shark’s fin was a luxurious dish that warmed our bodies and souls. However, …… the restaurant was washed away by the tsunami. Luckily, the owner and his family survived. When I went to check on the second floor, which had escaped damage, I found only a piece of autograph paper that I had written to his daughter. I felt a connection with him, and I am still in touch with the general manager.

As the months passed, thanks to everyone’s hard work, the “new Hama-no-ie” was born a short distance away from the former location. Since the shark fin factory was also washed away, the restaurant’s top star dish is not shark fin dishes but “cold meat soba” (buckwheat noodles). The owner learned this dish when he was training in Yamagata.

It is a cold yet heartwarming dish with lots of chicken meat in bonito broth. Now that the port has been restored, the restaurant is full of seafood, such as the “Tuna Pickled Rice Bowl”.

The food not only tastes good, but also brings memories. Traveling is fun. There are more memories to come, so please look forward to the second installment.

From the March 6, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY