wanko soba

Something I never expected to find myself doing in Japan is an eating competition. 

The room before: wooden tables all set, tatami floor, floor cushions waiting with bibs.

Of course, the Japanese are known for doing well whatever they do... and for doing everything. Whatever you can think of, there's a Japanese person doing it or who has done it.
They're also known for small, cute things... so, without further ado, Wankosoba.

You can read the story here. 'Wanko' means something like 'cute little bowl'. And that's what happens... a lady stands over you and gives you a mouthful at a time, into your little bowl. 15 of these serves is equivalent to a single normal serve of soba.

Seasonings make the experience more enjoyable.

The challenge is 100 bowls, after which you get a little wooden plaque.
Now, I'm not an eating competition kind of person. I find it kind of disturbing. Not only is it a waste of resources, when there are so many hungry people in the world, but it's gross. But being in a group kind of changes things... this was a fun experience. 

Wanting to get to 100, some people left their sashimi. It was sad. 

I made 65 bowls. There were boys sitting around me on all sides, and most of them got to 100. Our champion was a tiny Japanese guy, of course, at 150.

After.

Japan: good, bad, etc

Because it amuses me, here is a list of stuff. My impression, obviously. 

Good/cheap:

Fish
Eggplant

Cucumber
Tomato

Spinach (though kind of sweet)
Alcohol (particularly spirits, excluding whisky.)
Cabbage
Salads
Seaweed

Bad/expensive:

Bread
Celery
Cheese
Fruit (when mouldy - not joking, a mouldy peach was discounted to about $2)
Okra (DISGUSTING)
Peanut butter

Good + expensive:

Fruit (fresh)
Rice (!!!!!!!!!! Japanese short grain)
Butter
Chocolate

Unavailable/insanely expensive:

Oats
Rice (non-Japanese)
Wholemeal anything (though I did find some brown rice in a little backwater town.)
Goat cheese, haloumi
Dips (not made of cream cheese)

Also, chicken breast is pretty well the cheapest part of the chook, because it has the least fat.

Stanthorpe

Stanthorpe is home to the Big Apple.

 And dogs and cats, resident at wineries, cidery, cheese place, Jamworks, a lavender farm, a Bramble Patch, and such.


Most of these photos speak for themselves, I think, and maybe tell the story as well, of my weekend there a few weeks ago.

Sutton's cidery was the first place we went on a bright Saturday morning. Plenty of juices, apple brandy, as well as a dry and a semi sweet cider. I bought a bottle of semi sweet.

 

Those are real apples.

!!

 

 My favourite thing I bought in the whole weekend might have been the wooden board I got at the cheese place. Actually I wasn't blown away by the cheeses generally, and thought them a bit on the steep side, but that's probably just me. I did quite like cheese no. 2, Pepato, and bought a chunk of that.

After cheesing, we went to this liqueurs place, Castle Glen, which had about a billion kinds of liqueurs. To be honest I was a bit put off by the outside of the place. Look at it.

 

Summit wines (they had a restaurant and a cat. I saw neither)

Summit also have a delicious merlot and an insane chocolate port 'Cocovino' that tastes incredibly like Cottee's chocolate topping (too much for my taste).

I really do want to recommend, though, that you go to Felsberg. For the food and the view, even if you're not into wine. The haloumi was beautiful. The burger looked great, and the pizza did too.. and I sTILL want that cake. (One of our party was still full from breakfast, and didn't want to spend too much money, so decided on cake for lunch. Worked out well for her!)

The wine is great though. We got 6 bottles between a few of us, and were given a free bonus bottle. We chose the Gewürtztraminer because it was wonderful :) and drank it with lunch.

 

LOOK at that Ganache. Yes, with a capital G.

We thought it was pretty cute that when Miss S picked up her fork and spoon there was a stencilled... space.

In the garden at Felsberg

At Tobin you learn a lot from a passionate winemaker. I think you appreciate the wine all the more for it. It's a bit of a boutique place, where the grapes are handpicked and the merlot is intense. The wines are named after grandchildren :) I bought a bottle of the Luella Plum Cabernet for cellaring (or cupboarding).

The Jamworks bear. (Jamworks: relishes, chutneys, jams, curds everywhere. They didn't have their Apple Butter out for tasting but I bought some anyway on recommendation from a veteran Stanthorpe foodie tourist.)

The Bramble Patch.

In the rain. It was very beautiful, especially after what I felt had been a hectic weekend really. Trying to get to everywhere before they closed. 

Below - Symphony Hill. I think they have wines there, too. Their sparkling chardonnay would certainly suggest so. They also had a great gewürztraminer.

Not sure I even got photos of the olive place (with the fudge place). By the way, this dog is not the dog from the top photo - the top photo's one was at the lavender farm, the bottom's is from Symphony Hill wines.

That box in the pic is half full compared to when I brought it home, by the way.

Stanthorpe is highly recommended.

P.S. Just saw a post from Deb on Smitten Kitchen about fruit butters - hers being peach butter - check it out, especially if you haven't met a fruit 'butter' before. I hadn't. (It has no butter, egg, or any opaque thing in it. More like a jam.) This peach butter looks rather good.
The thing about apple butter not having butter IN it is that you can have butter WITH it. Or, as I have yet to do, put it on a crepe with some icecream and fold the thing up. Mmm, would not mind some of that right now.