Drive to Mori-machi (1) - Auberge Mikuranosansou

The 10-day holiday from April 27 to May 6 is almost over. During this period, I had a great time with my friends and family.

On May 3, my mother took me and my sister for a drive to Mori-machi, a town 30 km away from Hamamatsu. As the name Mori (forest) implies, it is in the mountainous area in Enshu or western Shizuoka Prefecture. Before the holiday, my mother made a reservation for lunch at Mikuranosansou, an auberge with an authentic French restaurant in Mikura in Mori-machi. When I heard this, I was worried and checked information about the restaurant on the Internet. Fortunately, I found that they can arrange the menu for vegetarians. I called the restaurant and requested a vegetarian lunch for myself.

Mikuranosansou was situated deep in the mountain, which surprised me and my sister. I wondered how you could reach the restaurant if you didn’t have a car. When we got out of the car and looked around, I somehow remembered “Heidi.” Though the mountains were much smaller than those in Switzerland, the scenery was beautiful with a tea plantation and trees.

When we entered the restaurant, there weren’t any other customers. To my relief, my request was confirmed, and I could have an ovo-vegetarian course. My mother and sister are not vegetarians, and they had the list of dishes to be served on the table. They also seemed to be a bit curious about what would be served to me. 

The first dish was salad. It contained fresh tomato, kiwi, and grapefruit beautifully arranged. In the center, there was mushroom, which may have been a local product. I was very glad to have such gorgeous salad from the beginning. 

The next dish was vegetable soup, which seemed to be common to all of us. It was full of flavor with vegetables and herbs. 

Then, we had the main dish. This is cooked potato with sauce containing dill. As I love the combination of potato and dill, which is typical in Northern Europe, it was a pleasant surprise. 

The other main dish was an omelette stuffed with rice. As soon as I saw the orangish yellow color of the omelette, I noticed that eggs used were not ordinary ones. I couldn’t help asking about it and learned that they were free range eggs.

Finally, we had the dessert. My dessert was beautiful pear compote. My mother said that it looked luxurious, and I agreed with her. It was delicious with flavor of wine. 

In addition to these, we had also bread and coffee. As a whole, the vegetarian lunch and service were very good. If you are interested in the restaurant, search with “mikuranosansou tabelog.” As an auberge, mikuranosansou may be also a pleasant place to stay at night.