Have you ever left the destination of your trip to "luck"?

Last weekend, I tried to roll the dice by associating the destinations with the numbers from 1 to 6 just like the local program "How Do You Like Wednesday" in Hokkaido. As a result, I decided to travel by car from Tokyo to Akita.


As you can imagine, it takes 9 hours one way to get to Akita by car, even if you use the highway. It's 18 hours round trip. Even though there are only Saturdays and Sundays, I don't have time to eat and report in Akita.

So, this time, I stopped by SA (service area) on the outbound and inbound routes to Akita to find out about the exquisite local gourmet food that can be eaten at a reasonable price. Please refer to it during the autumn holiday season.

◆ Lake Suwa SA (Nagano Prefecture) "Lomen"

At Suwako SA, where you can see Lake Suwa from the spacious parking lot, I met the local gourmet "Lomen" (560 yen) that everyone in the know knows. It seems that it has been featured on TV programs several times.


According to the clerk's uncle, "low" means meat. Lomen is a local dish of Ina Valley, Shinshu, Nagano Prefecture, which is made by entwining mutton and cabbage fried in steamed noodles. It is said that it is cooked only with the fat of the meat without using oil.


It looks just like yakisoba, but when you try it, it's clearly different from yakisoba! The noodles, which are steamed and boiled once, have elasticity and are crispy. This chewy texture is completely different from ordinary yakisoba.

The noodles and cabbage are soaked in umami, as they are only fried in the fat of the meat. It's the first taste I've experienced, but from the first time I've come across a fairly high level local gourmet.


In addition, at Suwako SA, the sweet and spicy miso sauce brings out the vanilla ice cream like caramel, "Miso Soft" (360 yen), and the Chubu region's specialty "Gohei Mochi" (240 yen), which is a collection of coarsely ground rice. You can also enjoy it. If you're hungry, why not feel like a snack?


◆ Yoneyama SA (Niigata Prefecture) "Saba Sandwich"

Yoneyama SA in Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture is famous for its (?) "Saba Sandwich" (280 yen), which is famous as a local gourmet born in Turkey and raised in Kashiwazaki. Battered and fried mackerel is sandwiched with onions and lettuce in bread.


You can sprinkle lemon or pepper if you like, but according to a local clerk, you can enjoy a different taste even if you sprinkle spice-based seasonings such as shichimi pepper, mustard, and curry powder.


The crispy fried mackerel sandwich is not oily and has a refreshing taste. There is no fishy smell peculiar to mackerel. The skin with the batter is crispy and the inside is plump and juicy. I didn't know that bread and mackerel go so well together!

In addition, the sourness of the lemon and the crispy onions add freshness to the aftertaste, and the mustard tightens the taste.


So far, I have introduced the SA gourmet foods I found on the "outbound route" from Tokyo to Akita along the Sea of Japan via Nagano. In the next " return trip " edition, we will deliver SA gourmet food that we met along the way from Akita to Iwate, Fukushima, Tochigi and the Pacific Ocean side.