Drive to Horaiji (4) - Local specialties in markets

After leaving Horaiji, we dropped in a farmer’s market Kontaku Nagashino (こんたく長篠). In the same building, there was a big beef barbecue restaurant. So, I didn’t feel like taking a picture of the premises. But the farmers’ market itself was interesting.

As in farmers’ markets in Shizuoka Prefecture, there were many fresh vegetables and fruits sold at reasonable prices. But I was more interested in processed food. In Horaiji, we had a lunch set that included sashimi konnyaku. Konnyaku is one of the specialties in this mountain area in the eastern Aichi Prefecture, and they provided various types such as ball-shaped konnyaku, three-colored konnyaku, konnyaku noodles, and sashimi kyonnyaku. There was also sauce sold separately, and my mother bought it. Maybe it can be also used for some other food.

Near the shelves of konnyaku, they had dried shiitake and tea.

I found some products that looked delicious, but I intended to buy something in the next destination. It was Michi-no-eki Mokkulu Shinshiro located near Shinshiro IC of Shin-Tomei Expressway.

Inside of Mokkulu looked like a fashionable supermarket. It was crowded with people, especially families with children. I thought it was a nice place to spend the weekend. There were many kinds of local products including sweets, but I remembered that I had eaten too many sweets recently. So, I just bought a rice ball with nozawana or turnip greens to eat for dinner.

Beside the building of Mokkulu, there was a little shop selling goheimoshi. It is a specialty of the mountainous areas in Central Japan including Aichi Prefecture. The goheimochi we ate there was a typical type: a flat cake of mashed rice skewered and grilled with sauce, but it was bigger than those I had seen before!

In fact, the sauce of this goheimochi contained bonito broth. After I ordered two skewers of goheimochi, I had to wait for a while. Then I found that the sauce was on sale and read the label of ingredients. In many cases, the sauce of goheimochi is vegan, but not always!

After we finished eating goheimochi, we took a free foot bath near the parking area. It was very refreshing to soak my feet in hot water. According to their website, this water is from Yuya Spa with a history of 1,300 years.

Finally, we returned to our car. Then, my mother took out something she bought in the building. They were karinto manjyu or little fried buns with adzuki bean paste inside. She game me one of them. It was a simple sweet but was very good with the thick fried surface, smooth azuki paste, and the flavor of black sugar. I have to remember the shop’s name Sakaeya (さかえや) that made this karinto manjyu so that I can find it again.