Walking around with an umbrella on a rainy day turned out to be pretty tiring. Or maybe the real cause was that I’d already been away from home for five days.
Either way, my body was sending an emergency signal that it needed to recharge, so I made a quick switch from the seafood I’d originally planned to eat tonight, and decided on yakiniku instead.
When you need energy, you eat meat.
That’s a truth as old as time, everywhere in the world.
I found this place using Google Maps and Tabelog: Toyama Sodachi (富山育ち), on the first floor of NPC Square in front of Toyama Station.
The word “sodachi” (育ち) means “raised in” or “from,” so I guess it means it’s from Toyama. It’s probably a place that uses ingredients grown in Toyama.
I hadn’t made a reservation. Maybe because it was a bit late on a weekday afternoon, there were plenty of open seats.
I sat down and looked at the menu, and sure enough, they serve Toyama Wagyu (とやま和牛). It said “sake kasu (酒粕),” so it seems the cattle are raised on sake lees.
And the prices are quite reasonable. The basic karubi is only 1,400 yen. The Toyama Sodachi Mori (富山育ち盛) is only 3,800 yen for two servings.
I ordered a plate of the three-kimchi assortment and a regular karubi. I also ordered a glass of imo shochu with soda.
The rule with beef is that the more expensive it is, the better it tastes. So I figured I’d start with the cheapest option, and if it wasn’t good, order something pricier.
But this — this was incredibly good.
After a couple of bites, I ordered a bowl of rice, and one more plate of the regular karubi.
This taste at this price — the value here is incredible.
It had been a while since I’d eaten beef this good. I mean that literally — I ate without even thinking.
Less than an hour passed between walking in and paying the bill. The food probably took about 15 minutes to arrive, so I finished the whole meal in 30 to 40 minutes. At that pace, you could almost call it fast food.
Meat, rice, kimchi, and shochu all together came to 4,600 yen. Very cheap.
Thanks to this place, my impression of Toyama improved. Being able to eat great food cheaply — that’s such an important thing when you’re traveling.
One thing I learned while traveling around Kanazawa is that the seafood there is delicious. I also learned that most of that seafood comes from Toyama Bay. So I’d heard that here in Toyama City, which has fewer tourists but sits right on that same bay, the seafood is even cheaper and fresher.
On top of that, today’s meal here at Toyama Sodachi was so satisfying.
So now Toyama has become, in my mind, a place where the food is cheap and delicious. Somewhere I’d love to visit again.
