"Nokkedon" - Seafood Bowl of Your Own Taste

I said Aomori is famous for apples and namaco (sea cucumber) in the previous posts, and this time, I recommend fresh seafood caught along the coast of Aomori.

"Nokke" means "dish up" and "don (donburi)" means bowl, and at "Aomori Gyosai Center (= Aomori fish and vegetable market)", you can get your original seafood bowl which can definitely be cheaper than the one at sushi restaurants.



This is Aomori Gyosai Center in Furukawa, Aomori-City, located only several-minute walk from Aomori Station, and you can get very fresh seafood, vegetables, dried seafood and delicatessen here.

First of all, you get a 1,000-yen ticket (100-yen x 10), and then you move to get rice in a bowl at the shop with an orange sign. 100 yen for regular serve, and 200 yen for larger serve.

500-yen ticket is also available.



At an orange sign shop, you can also get a green perilla, which is for both garnishing and flavoring, for 10 yen, and sushi vinegar for free.

With rice in a bowl in your hands, move to over 30 shops with blue flag to make your own bowl! At every blue flag shop, raw fish are cut into pieces, and cost between 100 yen – 200 yen (sea urchin is usually 300 yen).

 

In my case, scallop and salmon are must,
and in an aluminium cup, I have wasabi
flavored whelk.



Now “engawa”, soft bones supporting
the fins of a flatfish is added.



Spot shrimp in the middle.



Japanese taste omelet is added.



Boiled mantis shrimps and Japanese ice fish
(with cherry blossom flavoring) added.



Including pickles of mountain vegetable
beside the bowl, it cost just 1,000 yen.

 

This blue store curtain indicates the place you can
sit and enjoy your nokkedon. On the table,
chopsticks, soy sauce and wasabi are available.

 

 You can have hot green tea and
cold barley tea for free.

It'll be crowded if you visit the market around noon.


Nokkedon is very convenient, and it's so good that you can choose your favorites only. Talking about ikura (salmon roe), I like it OK but I don't need it for my nokkedon.

It's worth trying that it costs only 1/3 of other restaurants and sushi bars.


Aomori Gyosai Center: 1-11-16 Furukawa, Aomori City
                              Aomori, Japan
                              http://www.aomori-ichiba.com/

Aomori Sightseeing Guide "aptinet": http://en.aptinet.jp/

Very Proud of Cherry Blossoms.

I went to Hirosaki Park on May 6, to see cherry blossoms, but unfortunately, because of the bad weather on previous days, blossoms of Somei Yoshino (the most popular and common cherry blossoms) had already fallen.  Blossoms had gone away from the trees, but you could still enjoy their petals on the ground.  As the color of petals are rather white than pink, it looked like snow.

     

Oldest Somei Yoshino in Japan.

If you wish to see the tree in full bloom,

go to the older post of April.



  

There’re about 2600 cherry trees of 50 kinds, and here you can see some of them.

Yae Benishidare

Yae – double flowering/beni – red/shidare – weeping/

(When other words come prior to “sakura”,

the sound and letter of “s” changes to “z”.)

Yae Benishidare, close-up

Ukon-zakura

“Ukon” means turmeric.  The name comes from

the color of turmeric’s yellow.

Oshima-zakura

“Oshima” is the name of the largest island of Izu Islands.



Yokohama Hizakura

“Hi” of “hizakura” means scarlet.



Yokohama Hizakura, close-up

Azuma-nishiki

“Azuma” means east, “nishiki” means brocade.

Azuma Nishiki, close-up

Ume (plum) blossom

Thickest cherry tree in Japan
(5.37m in diameter, estimated 100~120 yo.)

If you want to know more about Aomori, go and see “aptinet Aomori Sightseeing Guide”. http://en.aptinet.jp/

Donburi Festival

Spring festival is being held at Aomori Prefecture Tourist Center “ASPAM” (where my office is), and one of the main attractions is “Donburi Festival”.  “Donburi”, often called “don” means bowl, and there you can taste various local donburi of Aomori.

“Ochazuke” is cooked rice with hot soup stock or green tea, and what I had for lunch today is “ochazuke-don”, garnished with boiled oratorias, chopped Japanese parsley, pickled radish, shredded fried egg, “nori” (seaweed) and wasabi.  As oratorias are caught only in spring, Aomori people enjoy them at hanami (cherry-viewing).

350 yen

There are 13 other bowls, but unfortunately, you cannot eat them all at one time.

Spring festival at ASPAM closes on May 6^th.

Cherry blossoms, just around the corner.

I'm Felicia from Aomori, Japan.
Aomori is a northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, and in Aomori,
cherry blossoms are to bloom very shortly.

For those who can't wait for the best time to view blossoms, here are
some photos taken in Hirosaki Park (Hirosaki City) last year. 
The weather wasn't that good then, but cherry blossoms were still beautiful.

Oldest Yoshino (Someiyoshino) in Japan

Shidarezakura (weeping cherry blossom)

Shidarezakura in closeup

Cherry blossoms and Hirosaki Castle
(photo courtesy of city of Hirosaki)

West moat

In this blog, I’ll introduce bits and pieces of something interesting, beautiful, yummy, funny, great and exciting in Aomori.  Hope someone gets interested in my loving hometown.