Eric and I have a friend, Holly, who is getting ready to leave Japan. Before she left we wanted to visit her because she is fantastic and always comes down to Amakusa to see us. She lives in a beautiful little area called Kuma Village. Kuma in this case doesn’t mean bear like in Kumamoto. It refers to a rock that has been polished smooth by the river. It bears this name because of the river that flows through the village. Holly told us that the main industry of the area is rafting and it’s easy to see why. The river is really cool looking, even though when we saw it it was swollen and muddy from the rainy season downpours.
Highlights of her village include a rather memorable shrine, a bat cave, and a museum about Thomas Edison for whatever reason. In between seeing the sights we required food. Holly took us a little stand outside of the supermarket that sold Horse Burgers!
We ordered up our burgers. I asked if I could have mine without lettuce. I only did this because it was a very small stall and I thought that this might actually succeed. In many places in Japan you simply can’t do substitutions or alterations to the food order in any way. You get it as it comes on the menu. And if you do ask for something different you might get strange looks because no one does this in Japan. As part of the politeness to the chef of the restaurant you want to eat the food as he has chosen to prepare it because he, as it is his job, should know how it will taste best. And being a picky eater isn’t exactly tolerated during school lunch as the kids must finish everything they are served (unless they can get someone else to eat it for them, and then only if the teachers will let them, sometimes they don’t and the kids still sneak food around when they aren’t looking or are out of the room), so most people are used to eating things they don’t really like. But when I can get away with special orders I try. Sometimes they will do it and other times they will tell you it is impossible. This time it worked out well though and I ordered a cheese horse burger and a mix horse burger with no lettuce.
With burgers for four people he told us it would be about 20 minutes. We watched for a few moments as he began to prepare the burgers. He made the patties himself and put them on the grill; everything was freshly prepared on site. Then we went inside to get some drinks and things in the grocery store. When we returned, our two bags of horse burgers were ready for pick up. We took them home to consume. Jokes were made about how we were “hungry enough to eat a horse.”
Here’s the logo for the burgers. It was on a sticker on every burger as well as displayed on the stand. You will note that it includes an adorable little pony who proclaims, “It is delicious.” Well, thank you little guy! I feel less guilty about eating your cousin now! After all, how can I resist when even you agree that you are delicious?
And that horse doesn’t lie. These burgers are amazing! They were a little smaller than an average American hamburger, but very thick and juicy. The cheese was melted and gooey and wonderful. Also, the burgers had a special sauce that was incredibly delectable. They had the sauce for sale at the stall, and if I was in the habit of preparing horse myself at home I’m sure I would have picked some up. It’s hard to describe what the taste was like other than that it did have a distinctly different taste from and hamburger and was absolutely scrumptious.
In addition to the stall, the same people run a restaurant called Pony. They are open after 6 pm for dinner. If I was local to this area these would be regular eating places of mine. Even with Holly gone next year I may have to convince Eric to make another trip down there so that we can sample this fantastic cuisine again.
I had horse sashimi when I was in Tokyo for the study abroad and it was really good too! I'd totally try this, in fact I almost got to have lion burgers from this place in Arizona that was on the news, but that didn't pan out. I have to say, the bottom picture looks really gross, though.
ReplyDelete