What a JOY of a series this was. I can't remember a drama where I had empathy and affection for just about *EVERY* character in the narrative. Truly wonderful dialogue and themes. One of the best I've ever watched.
New Aozora Restaurant: 3/16/2024. Isumi, Chiba-ken. The vapid Takizawa Karen makes her long-awaited return to the program. Unfortunately for her, there's some really windy and rainy weather. On the plus side, she gets to eat mass quantities of TAKO today! This octopus looks just about the same as the famed Akashi variety.
Good thing they don't have to go out on a boat in this weather to pick up the octopus traps. Instead they get but a simple demonstration. With all seafood, the dishes are superb: sushi, shabu-shabu, a fried dish with potatoes, and an interesting agedashi dish. The kampai entree: Okonomiyaki!
Latest episode: 3/9/2024. Another chilly affair in Karuizawa, Nagano-ken. I'll bet you can't guess who the guests are... Another comedy duo, Beni Shouga. There will never be a shortage of guests for variety programs. I'd love to attend a school where they just teach you how to laugh and eat up on programs such as this one.
Today's ingredient is strawberry and the specific variety is Shinku no Misuzu. Sounds like a movie title. It's off to the Karuizawa Garden Farm greenhouse to eat a bunch of strawberries. I never been to one of these tourist venues but it must be super fun, if not super filling.
Three different hotel chefs are on hand. Of course strawberry shortcake leads off -- the one and only! Followed by... Tempura?!! I mean, everyone else liked it. The final dishes are Gazpacho (a cold soup) and concluding with a sweet and sour pork entree to kanpai with.
Latest episode: 3/2/2024. Winter episode in a iconic winter area that's the subject of classic enka tunes: Fukaura, Nishi Tsugaru, Aomori-ken. Daisuke welcomes another first-time guest: Comedy Duo Number 5000 or whatever. They all have their M-1 bona fides -- I'll take their word for it.
Veggies flourish in snow country: daikon, hakusai, and spinach. This episode introduces a new one: Fukaura snow carrots. I have no idea how these guys can just walk to a random snowbank with a shovel and just dig into the exact area without hacking up the crops, but they did just that. Another trope of Japan foodies shows is eating the product almost immediately after harvesting. Just a quick scrub down and everybody is munching like Bugs Bunny.
We lead off with fresh carrot juice. I've never partaken but... feels like they're ratcheting their reactions a tad high. Other dishes: a pan saute, steamed carrot wraps with cabbage, and a Mont Blanc dessert. A quick detour to regional hotate scallops is then followed by the kampai dish: cream pasta with carrots and the hotate.
2/24/2024: Nakatsu, Oita. Another episode in wonderful, frigid temperatures. The guest is Murashige Anna, one of them AKB-ish idols (who can keep track of them all??!). The ingredient is Hidaka Bijin oysters. They're not freakishly huge like from other regions but must taste absolutely wonderful. Pretty basic dishes here: steamed, shiso-wrapped tempura, stir fry with chives (a real winner!), and shumai (!!!). Everyone toasts to a grand oyster rice feast with miso soup.
Latest episode: 2/17/2024, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka. Comedian dude Fujimori Shingo returned to the program to sample Shungiku ("Chrysanthemum Greens," according to the search results). Of course both Shingo and Daisuke began munching on a few leaves immediately after plucking them from the dirt. I could *never* do this unless it was washed several times and then inspected by a certified agent of the Department of Agriculture...
Anywell, mostly modest fare here: boiled, spring rolls, simmered wraps with boar (!) meat, and a crazy pizza with a charcoal crust?!! The Kanpai Dish was a more conventional green curry dish.
2/10/2024: Chino, Nagano. It's another first-time guest: the inimitable Okamura Takashi of Ninety Nine. Today's ingredient is "frozen tofu." I guess in Nagano practically anything will freeze if you leave it outside in winter weather long enough. Like fish, they just let it air dry outside and it becomes like Lego blocks or something.
Dishes started out simple: egg soup, meat rolls, fried dish with sauce. A kind of quirky "French Tofu-st" dish followed, with the hard tofu substituted for bread. A kimchee nabe capped off the program, a fine thing to kanpai to for the season.
2/3/2024: Odawara, Kanagawa. Guests are Daisuke's fellow Sapporo beer commercial partner, Hotta Mayu, and the comedy duo, Nishigoi. Do recognize the bald guy in the group, at least...
It's off to the lemon lime orchard. I figured with fruit, there's all sorts of stuff you can make. Unfortunately, I found this lineup of dishes mediocre: a salad, seasoning for gyutan and saba, and baked slices dipped in chocolate. The Kanpai dish was a collaboration of lemon lime and a shiokara dish they introduced out of nowhere: A potato gratin dish. Eh, I'll take the gyutan but everything else...
1/20/2024: Yachiyo-machi, Yuuki-gun, Ibraraki-ken -- man these location monikers are so dense. It's Fujiwara Norika, a first-time guest! I might have assumed she appeared before but I guess they have to make room for the thousands of manzai peeps.
Anyway, she gets to have fun harvesting Hakusai Napa cabbage. The work that goes into growing and harvesting this stuff is remarkable. Also, winter episodes are great because I just *know* the dishes are going to be fulfilling. Even simple stuff like charco-grilled Hakusai in foil. Other items included a simmered dish with chicken wings, stir fry with pork and ginger, cabbage wrap katsu with pork, and ending with a hot pot with salmon and miso butter.
1/27/2024: Uwajima, Ehime. Another comedy duo joins Daisuke in the cold of winter. One of them apparently lost 10 (?) kilos in 100 days and now has a six pack (this wasn't revealed on the actual show but a clip on Instagram).
Today's ingredient is Akoya pearl oysters so naturally the program started in a jewelry shop. Doesn't look like these things have a lotta meat -- I'm assuming the pearl is the priority but I could be wrong. Everyone gets to eat the stuff from the shell right out of the ocean, which I'm not sure I could do unless I was a guest on a TV show like this.
They make do with the tiny bits of meat: char-grilled skewers (including an early kanpai!), karaage style, a soy milk soup (just the kind of winter item I love). They also brought back someone from an earlier episode in Ehime to make a citrus gelatin thingie that she used as a topping for tai sashimi and one of the fillers for an ehomaki roll that everyone kanpai'd with.
p.s. Oyster farmer's wife is pretty, was distracted there for a bit.
1/13/2024: Frequent guest (his 22nd appearance!) Kaneko Takatoshi joined Daisuke in Kamakura, Kanagawa. It's back to the ocean to catch Kawahagi... At 6:00 AM?!! There's no biz like SHOW BIZ!
I've had Kawahagi before but didn't realize how small it is. But those kind of flatfish have flavor! Don't recall having the liver, which everyone just gushed over here. Prepared the usual ways: Sashimi, nitsuke (not clear how prevalent the bone situation is here), karaage with ankake sauce, and oven baked in foil. The grand kanpai finale: NABE! Some big fillets in there.
Probably my favorite aspect of this annual program is that they get to eat at some truly extravagant place instead of some lunch shokudo joint. This year's hoidy-toidy restaurant is Dogo Kaishu: https://dogokaishuu.com/en/ Excuse me while I clean my drool…
1/6/2024: Happy New Year from Kazama, Ibaraki. Guest is... a comedy duo, imagine that! Suehirogarizu is a couple of guys about whom it feels like zero English information is available. I'm sure they are very hard working and witty but man, that funky defunct character in their name throws me off.
Today's ingredient is shiitake, a really huge thing grown in a carefully monitored greenhouse. Some vegetable episodes feel dull but there's no doubt mushroom dishes are plentiful. They start with char-grilling with shoyu and butter, stuffed with hamburger, a "cream soup pie" that resembled a pot pie, and finish with the kanpai segment, miso nabe. Pretty good winter episode.
The annual new years episode is coming up: Shojiki Sanpo in Matsuyama, Ehime. I see a lot of this town from many episodes of MOGITATE TV on NGN but I guess it will be fun to see the spin from our familiar faces. Guest list is TBA -- hope Imori made the cut!
Good thing they don't have to go out on a boat in this weather to pick up the octopus traps. Instead they get but a simple demonstration. With all seafood, the dishes are superb: sushi, shabu-shabu, a fried dish with potatoes, and an interesting agedashi dish. The kampai entree: Okonomiyaki!
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913w0ia42mgvuipu5xp.html
Today's ingredient is strawberry and the specific variety is Shinku no Misuzu. Sounds like a movie title. It's off to the Karuizawa Garden Farm greenhouse to eat a bunch of strawberries. I never been to one of these tourist venues but it must be super fun, if not super filling.
Three different hotel chefs are on hand. Of course strawberry shortcake leads off -- the one and only! Followed by... Tempura?!! I mean, everyone else liked it. The final dishes are Gazpacho (a cold soup) and concluding with a sweet and sour pork entree to kanpai with.
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913ygvahuq5sbibg8l8.html
And what a fanciful conclusion: the ikemen yoshoku restaurant!
Veggies flourish in snow country: daikon, hakusai, and spinach. This episode introduces a new one: Fukaura snow carrots. I have no idea how these guys can just walk to a random snowbank with a shovel and just dig into the exact area without hacking up the crops, but they did just that. Another trope of Japan foodies shows is eating the product almost immediately after harvesting. Just a quick scrub down and everybody is munching like Bugs Bunny.
We lead off with fresh carrot juice. I've never partaken but... feels like they're ratcheting their reactions a tad high. Other dishes: a pan saute, steamed carrot wraps with cabbage, and a Mont Blanc dessert. A quick detour to regional hotate scallops is then followed by the kampai dish: cream pasta with carrots and the hotate.
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913a7ibpsruiuov6s92.html
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913uir3vfty62qottc3.html
Anywell, mostly modest fare here: boiled, spring rolls, simmered wraps with boar (!) meat, and a crazy pizza with a charcoal crust?!! The Kanpai Dish was a more conventional green curry dish.
www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/19133mrseazdmyn41kdh.html
Dishes started out simple: egg soup, meat rolls, fried dish with sauce. A kind of quirky "French Tofu-st" dish followed, with the hard tofu substituted for bread. A kimchee nabe capped off the program, a fine thing to kanpai to for the season.
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913bo1vckvelsqb3548.html
It's off to the lemon lime orchard. I figured with fruit, there's all sorts of stuff you can make. Unfortunately, I found this lineup of dishes mediocre: a salad, seasoning for gyutan and saba, and baked slices dipped in chocolate. The Kanpai dish was a collaboration of lemon lime and a shiokara dish they introduced out of nowhere: A potato gratin dish. Eh, I'll take the gyutan but everything else...
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913m494xo1qqz1vhj31.html
1/20/2024: Yachiyo-machi, Yuuki-gun, Ibraraki-ken -- man these location monikers are so dense. It's Fujiwara Norika, a first-time guest! I might have assumed she appeared before but I guess they have to make room for the thousands of manzai peeps.
Anyway, she gets to have fun harvesting Hakusai Napa cabbage. The work that goes into growing and harvesting this stuff is remarkable. Also, winter episodes are great because I just *know* the dishes are going to be fulfilling. Even simple stuff like charco-grilled Hakusai in foil. Other items included a simmered dish with chicken wings, stir fry with pork and ginger, cabbage wrap katsu with pork, and ending with a hot pot with salmon and miso butter.
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/19138juzxf5103cvq6tu.html
1/27/2024: Uwajima, Ehime. Another comedy duo joins Daisuke in the cold of winter. One of them apparently lost 10 (?) kilos in 100 days and now has a six pack (this wasn't revealed on the actual show but a clip on Instagram).
Today's ingredient is Akoya pearl oysters so naturally the program started in a jewelry shop. Doesn't look like these things have a lotta meat -- I'm assuming the pearl is the priority but I could be wrong. Everyone gets to eat the stuff from the shell right out of the ocean, which I'm not sure I could do unless I was a guest on a TV show like this.
They make do with the tiny bits of meat: char-grilled skewers (including an early kanpai!), karaage style, a soy milk soup (just the kind of winter item I love). They also brought back someone from an earlier episode in Ehime to make a citrus gelatin thingie that she used as a topping for tai sashimi and one of the fillers for an ehomaki roll that everyone kanpai'd with.
p.s. Oyster farmer's wife is pretty, was distracted there for a bit.
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913zw98ves46wex4tmd.html
https://www.ntv.co.jp/007/articles/4do9sy0fka2xpdoba.html
I've had Kawahagi before but didn't realize how small it is. But those kind of flatfish have flavor! Don't recall having the liver, which everyone just gushed over here. Prepared the usual ways: Sashimi, nitsuke (not clear how prevalent the bone situation is here), karaage with ankake sauce, and oven baked in foil. The grand kanpai finale: NABE! Some big fillets in there.
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913584j8t1ese20rvoa.html
https://www.fujitv.co.jp/burabura/_basic/backnumber/index-602.html
https://www.tokai-tv.com/whatsnew/detail/266720
https://tabilist.net/203418/
Probably my favorite aspect of this annual program is that they get to eat at some truly extravagant place instead of some lunch shokudo joint. This year's hoidy-toidy restaurant is Dogo Kaishu: https://dogokaishuu.com/en/ Excuse me while I clean my drool…
Today's ingredient is shiitake, a really huge thing grown in a carefully monitored greenhouse. Some vegetable episodes feel dull but there's no doubt mushroom dishes are plentiful. They start with char-grilling with shoyu and butter, stuffed with hamburger, a "cream soup pie" that resembled a pot pie, and finish with the kanpai segment, miso nabe. Pretty good winter episode.
https://www.ntv.co.jp/aozora/articles/1913qceo14kftp3hxjr1.html
https://machiraku.net/tv-ariyoshi-sanpo-matsuyama/
https://www.fujitv.co.jp/tokuhen/23winter/special.html