Our first stop was Kochi. Kochi was our favorite spot on the trip and I would recommend it to anyone that loves food and a city with a great vibe. Kochi is also known for drinking (it’s said its people are the biggest drinkers in Japan). Local food specialties include katsuo no tataki, a slightly seared bonito (seared over burning straw) which comes garnished with yuzu ponzu sauce (or salt), raw garlic & onions, utsubo karaage (deep fried moray eel), fruit tomatoes (literally the best tomatoes I’ve ever had) and deep fried laver (like seaweed but from a river). We tried all of these and more at local restaurants. All are great.
Our first food stop was Hirome market. It’s essentially a food hall with various restaurant stalls as well as butchers, fish shops & a sake shop. There are large tables of communal seating spread throughout. The first day we stopped for lunch but we were there every day we were in Kochi for at least a snack. It is truly great and a must visit. You’ll likely end up sharing a table with other people- don’t be surprised if they start up a conversation (which happened to us). People are very friendly in Japan especially in places where they don’t get a lot of western tourists. If you are there be sure to try the gyoza from Yasubee. The most well known shop at the market is probably Myojinmaru which sells the katsuo no tataki (they also have a couple of other locations). You can watch it being made as you wait in line (huge flames). We had this as well but it was the worst katsuo of the trip.
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One thing you’ll definitely want to visit in Kochi is the castle. It’s one of the 12 original castles left in Japan and it’s just a short walk from Hirome market. Once on the grounds keep your eye open for the ice crin vendor. Ice crin is another local specialty of Kochi. It’s like a cross between ice milk and kakigori. It’s more icy and has less milk fat than ice cream. It’s very refreshing. The stall there had various flavors like vanilla, matcha, and chocolate.
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The other big must visit in Kochi is the Sunday market. The market is great. It runs almost a mile down the middle of one of the main streets every Sunday. Tons of beautiful produce (including those fruit tomatoes- we bought some & ate them as snacks) as well as fish, pickles, some antiques and even a few hipster type stalls selling crafts. There are yakitori stands as well as our favorite the imo-ten stall selling freshly made tempura sweet potatoes. These were great. Yuzu is locally grown & will show up everywhere in Kochi and you can get freshly squeezed Yuzu juice at the market. There is a good souvenir shop called Tosa Select Shop Tencosu that has a lot of locally food souvenirs like yuzu juice, furikake with yuzu and other local specialties.
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We had three dinners in Kochi. All at izakayas and all three great though we liked the last two the most). At all the service was friendly and all were very local (we were the only non-Japanese there).
The first night we ate a Fujinoya (藤のや). The menu here is in English, Japanese & has pictures so no worries in trying to order. Like the other restaurants we went to in Kochi they specialize in the local specialties. We had katsuo no tataki (we were at the counter so this was made right in front of us), utsubo karaage (deep fried moray eel), fruit tomatoes, deep fried laver as well as other dishes like grilled squid legs and salmon chazuke (tea poured over rice with salmon). Every spot we went to had local sake as well so assume we’re drinking our fill of that!
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The next night we ate at Kamontei (かもん亭). When my credit card reserved this for us the restaurant said they would put together a menu for us since they didn’t have an English menu & spoke limited English (essentially omakase). This works great for us as we’ll eat anything we are given and we’ve done this in the past. Kamontei was great. We sat at the counter which here meant you sat on the ground with your feet in a well while the area behind the counter was sunken. The menu still had the specialties (the katsuo no tataki was probably our favorite) but the dishes seemed a little more creative. We had a crab soup, fantastic grilled beef (Tosa beef is a specialty of Kochi as well) , pressed sushi with shiso leaves, a tempura platter that included laver, sweet potato & moray eel and beef, tofu & konjac stew. Two of the dishes we added at the end when they asked if we were full. A fantastic dinner.
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The last night was at Donko (どんこ). I made sure to have good pics for this one as it’s down a small alley and looks like it’s in an old house so a bit hard to fine. I also had the credit card reserve their mackerel pressed sushi as it’s their specialty and always sells out. I don’t actually care for mackerel so this was all my husbands. Donko has the feel of someone’s old house though it’s obviously a restaurant. Lots of wood and some random stuff sitting around (including an old rotary dial phone that was still being used). There was no English menu but the owner (I assume her was at least) spoke a bit of English and we established we would eat anything he provided so he chose the menu. We had the usual specialties of katsuo no tatki, utsubo karaage, laver tempura that also included little whole fish, bamboo shoots, grilled belly of the katsuo (bonito) and the fruit tomatoes wrapped in bacon and grilled. Another great meal.
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Other than Hirome market we only had lunch once in Kochi and that was ramen at Kuraki. I can’t remember if there was an English menu but there were definitely pictures so ordering was easy. Very good shoyu ramen.
Next it's on to Uwajima!