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Genryu Kanoko-don and Ganjiru
 
Guide  Alexa Karina Vargas Marley
We also eat deer in Honduras by hunting and barbequing it. It's delicious!
Visitor  Liao Jian Qiang
Today, I will eat deer meat for the first time. There are many kinds of donburi in Japan, something we don't have in China.
Reporter Self-introductions
 
        Restaurant Suisha Jaya Nanohana in Honjo is situated beside the pristine waters of the Banjo River and surrounded by the rich green foliage of the nearby mountains. In this volume, we introduce the genryu kanoko-don and ganjiru, two dishes entered in the ongoing BungoDON Kaido event (a "stamp rally" event focusing on the theme "donburi," a culinary resource common to the three cities of Usuki, Tsukumi and Saiki).
A Donburi Born from Clean Rivers and Mountains
Welcome to Honjo! My name is Isogawa. I am president of the Nanohana Group. Is this your first time coming to Honjo for both of you? There is a lot of green here, and the river is pretty, isn't it? Here in the Banjo River we have sweetfish, crabs and koi.
Yeah, you can see to the riverbed it's so clean. Where I come from, trees are cut down to make way for planting, so no mountains are as green as this. Are there wild deer in these mountains?
We have many wild deer in Honjo. It is here that we cook the deer that hunters get from the mountains. There are a number of ways to prepare deer:sashimi-style, Carpaccio-style, Tatsuta-age (marinated in soy sauce and mirin and then deep fried) and so on.
Wow! We also sometimes eat venison in Honduras by grilling and seasoning it with salt and pepper and lemon. I'm looking forward to a new dish.
In China we don't have many deer, so hunting isn't allowed. Because they're protected I've never eaten venison. I wonder what the taste is like….
Deer meat is usually eaten as sashimi, raw and cut into thin strips. Once, we prepared it instead by marinating it in ginger and soy sauce and it was good so then we thought why not make a donburi out of it, and that's how genryu kanoko-don was born.
So the kanoko-don was originally conceived by the Nanohana-kai, a group of young local women, huh? What kind of dish is ganjiru?
Ganjiru (the historic name given to "kanijiru" or crab soup) is what we call soup made by mincing and repeatedly straining meat from live river crab (Japanese mitten crab). It's actually time consuming and quite difficult to make.

The restaurant Suisha Jaya Nanohana, made famous by its giant waterwheel spanning 18.18 meters in diameter.

Tender deer meat, richly flavored in ginger-soy sauce marinade.
Itadakimasu!
Using Local Food to Bring together Food, Agriculture and Tourism
The deer meat is lean and tender. And the soy sauce flavor goes well with the white rice. Mixing it with the soft boiled egg gives it a softer flavor. And the ganjiru, the rich crab extract, dissolves in your mouth. It's a very refined taste.
Oh, this is so good! Are the cabbage and rice under the meat also grown around here?
That's right, both rice and vegetables were made first with the priority that they be local. Also, our dishware was assembled by members of the Nanohana Group who had been using them for many years in tea ceremony or multi-course meals. We take great care to use things we have around us.
That's wonderful thinking. It was well worth coming to eat in Honjo, considering you make the most of materials that are available in the area.
Thank you. At one time, tourism was on the decline and we were worried that the big waterwheel outside-the symbol of this restaurant-would eventually have to be taken down, but now we are doing the best we can, hoping that through this waterwheel we can provide local food for everyone.
I bet it's lively here in summer when children splash and play in this river. I'll be back to eat again someday.

River crab used in ganjiru has a closed season. The open season is from August to February.
Us with President Rieko Isogawa and some members of the Nanohana Group.
Information
Suisha Jaya Nanohana

107 Honjo Onagara, Saiki City
TEL: 0972-56-5566
Business Hours: 11AM – 4PM
Closed: New Years Holiday

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