(Trip was made back then on 28 Nov 2019, 2 years before the Covid-19 Pandemic hit)

Once we’re in Nagahama, we had to try Yaki Saba (slow-cooked mackerel on a bed of women noodles), the city’s most famous and iconic dish.

It is said that nobody does it better than Yokarou, an establishment operating from an old traditional wooden house, with beautiful traditional Japanese interiors.

Initially we thought that it’s just some simple plain noodles with mackerel stewed in soy sauce, but we thought wrong.

The mackerel was stewed in their homemade sauce for an extended period, soaking in the flavour and turning the bones brittle, so brittle that you can even eat the bones entirely. The mackerel also imparts its flavour into the sauce, which is used to cook the somen noodle. The somen acts as a vessel, holding all the goodness within.

If there ever was a perfect dish, this would probably be it in my books. When taking a bite of the noodle, I wasn’t eating the noodles, I was tasting the essence of the mackerel. It has such complex depth of flavour and was so flavourful (mild fragrance of the mackerel, mild sweetness from the soy sauce, hint of char from the grilled mackerel) that I craved for more. The mackerel was also delicious, taking on the same complex flavours from being stewed in the sauce, and the bones literally disintegrated in my mouth.

The staff recommended to sprinkle a little of their homemade spice and eat it with the noodle. Oh my god, the spice was like icing on the cake, it complimented the dish so well, providing further depth of flavour and a new tasting experience.

I’m amazed that they’re able to elevate such a common simple ingredient and turn it into something so elegant and refined.

This was hands down, the best and most memorable meal we had on the entire trip. If it wasn’t for the Covid-19 pandemic and travelling was possible, I would immediately fly back to Japan just to savour it again.