It had been a while since I travelled, and maybe because of that, on the first night of the trip I drank much later than intended.
Thanks to that (or because of that?), the second day of the trip became a full rest day.
I soaked in the hot spring, and lay on the bed.
I skipped lunch, surviving on vitamin drinks and electrolyte drinks.
My condition was really bad.
Still, I thought I should eat dinner. So I went down to the lobby concierge and asked if I could go to a hotel restaurant right away.
Shiroyama Hotel has many restaurants.
Among them, I asked about Suiren and thought I might go for the Kuroge Wagyu Sukiyaki or the Kurobuta Shabu-Shabu. https://www.shiroyama-g.co.jp/restaurant/suiren
On Tabelog the highest rated restaurant was the French restaurant Le Ciel or the teppanyaki Kusunoki, but the price was too high.
Compared to those, Suiren was good because it handled local cuisine and the price wasn’t too crazy.
Fortunately they said I could eat right away, so I went down to the 1st floor.
I sat down and looked at the menu. I deliberated: sukiyaki or shabu-shabu.
As far as I know, Kagoshima does Kansai-style sukiyaki, which means sweet beef.
But I couldn’t give up shabu-shabu: imagining slicing the Kurobuta of Kagoshima and cooking it in the hot stock so the savoury fat flavour would maximise.
In the end, shabu-shabu won.
Wagyu from Kagoshima is famous, but when it comes to Kagoshima it’s Kurobuta after all!
I thought if I cook that in warm stock I’d feel better.
There were several types of Kurobuta shabu-shabu course. Among them, the most expensive used Kurobuta from Kirishima.
Since I wanted the best, I ordered that.
For drinks I had a glass of champagne first. It was quite good.
But I couldn’t finish even that one glass.
My condition was really bad.
The course began with three appetizers.
Fish nanban — fried fish like sea-bream or amberjack, then dipped in a sweet-sour sauce.
Then soy-milk tofu with a strong soy-milk flavour, nutty and rich.
And mozuku — my favourite seaweed.
All of them were delicious.
Enough to awaken my appetite.
Next came three sashimi. Honmaguro (blue-fin tuna), madai (sea bream), mizui-ka (bigfin reef squid).
Fresh sashimi all around. As expected, Kagoshima is rich in seafood.
They served satsuma-age too — one with carrot, the other with lotus-root.
By the way, satsuma-age (さつま揚げ) is a kind of fish-cake.
Among fish-cakes the fried kind is called satsuma-age, and Kagoshima is the original place.
Satsuma was the old name of Kagoshima.
It was finally time to start the shabu-shabu.
The induction cooker with the stock was heated up,
and I added vegetables first.
When the vegetables wilted and the stock began boiling,
I picked up the Kirishima-born Kurobuta and dipped it in the stock,
then into my mouth.
The savoury fat of Kagoshima Kurobuta — in other words the Berkshire breed speciality — spread “saaak~” inside.
The shabu-shabu pork came in three cuts: loin, neck and belly.
The chew of the loin was good, the balance of the neck great, but for me the real savoury fat was best felt in the belly.
Ah, or maybe not? The neck, with its perfect meat-and-fat balance, was amazing too.
Yes, you know what: I can’t say which is better. They’re all delicious.
This is why whenever I come to Kagoshima I eat Kurobuta shabu-shabu.
Maybe eating it when it’s still pink would be better, but I tend to cook it a little more.
Because I think the fat needs to melt enough to deliver that savoury flavour.
Also I believe good meat tastes its best when it’s well-cooked.
Before I knew it the meal was over, and it was dessert time.
The dessert was something made of adzuki beans — I’m not sure if it was ice-cream or pudding.
It didn’t have the texture of ice-cream, more like pudding, but it tasted like ice-cream.
Anyway, it was a delicious dessert.
So, having eaten well, I hoped my condition would recover dramatically.
But still I felt bad, so I went back to bed.
I warmed the room to a comfortable temperature and lay there sweating and soon drifted off.
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