When in doubt, go to Matsuen-don. That’s what I do, anyway.
Don’t forget that these A-Class Gourmet restaurants are located in Niigata, not Tokyo. Because of this crucial point, business hours are limited- sometimes only certain days of the week, or even just certain times of the day. Some require a table reservation, and some might even require a lodging reservation. Because of the seasonality and limited nature of the ingredients, we cannot guarantee what will actually be served when you visit certain restaurants. This is why we recommend trying Matsuendon.
It is generally open everyday except Sunday and serves both lunch and dinner. You can always try the “Rice and Daily Side Dish,” which includes 10 varieties of local cuisine and is sure to leave you satisfied. What’s more, you won't have to break the bank to enjoy it.
Chef Miwa adheres to “creating food that the farmer would be proud of.'' Mr. Miwa is in a special position, being both the farmer and the chef at Matsuendon. It is not uncommon for a chef to want to be close to the source of their ingredients, but how many chefs go the extra mile to produce the ingredients themselves? Chef Miwa is doing just that.
With the recent popularity of organic food, it is often said that people should eat their hometown’s local food. I thought I understood what that meant, until I heard Chef Miwa talk about how we are one and the same with our food.
“We drink the same water that the rice drinks.”
What a farmer-chef thing to say.
♬Shuu (the sound of brown rice cooking)
Well, I can hear the rice cooking now. I wonder what side dishes we can try today?
Address：972 Misashima, Minami Ounuma
Phone Number：025-775-7401
Price Range：¥880〜
URL：https://miwanouen.net/matsuendon.html
What kind of appetizers does a rice cultivator/chef come up with to go with rice?
──An Interview with Mr. Miwa of Matsuendon.↓
--Mr. Miwa, were you born and raised in the Snow Country?
I was born in Ishikawa but I moved out here once I got married. Up until then I was working as a chef in Kanazawa, but I wasn’t really interested in agriculture or farms at that point. Most of the ingredients I used are those I bought from a store or I bought wholesale. But it’s a completely different thing when you look at the production of goods from this point of view.
--You started to feel the need to know more about farming then?
I felt like in order to be a good chef, you needed to know how best to handle your ingredients and raise them. I ended up marrying into a rice cultivator family, at first I had decided to give all of my attention to the farm, but I couldn’t let go of my desire to cook as well. With that said, we never talked about actually owning our own restaurant. But my stepfather actually brought the idea up himself. “If you want to make food, why don’t you do something here?” At first, I would just make Bento boxes. But as we continued to make bento boxes, we realized what a great environment we found ourselves in, and I found myself wanting to do something even better.
--What did you imagine when you imagined “something better?”
The people in this area all use their own rice and their own vegetables right? But they don’t really consume this themselves. They make pickles and such themselves, but most of the older people actually prefer to eat junk food. Even if you go to a rice shop, even though they make Minami Ounuma rice right here, most places use cheap rice from other regions. If that’s the case, it would be better to use local ingredients and advertise our local area. I want people to eat delicious food, which is good for your body, and is an actual meal. I was thinking of a way to use the local ingredients in a way that was delicious and didn’t use any chemical seasonings or additives.
--So the food here at Matsuendon is also a message to the local people as well?
When the neighborhood old ladies come by the shop, I sometimes overheard them talking about how they make certain dishes on the menu which are local to the area. I am always really happy to hear that.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who work as chefs that would like to learn more about farming, but it’s rare for people to actually work on the farms, isn’t it?
When you actually try to do it, it’s to be expected, but it’s actually quite difficult. When you’re making rice, your back hurts a lot and you end of sneezing because of all the powder that is shaken up when you reaping the rice. But if you want to know about how crops are made, you can do so just by looking it up on the internet. But just like cuisine when you are cooking based off of a recipe, when you actually try to make it, it’s a different story altogether.
-There are some differences that come about when you are cooking then?
The way that you deal with the food is where the changes come about. You start to think about the different ways you can handle the food in order to bring out the best flavor from our ingredients. I used to buy my vegetables from other farms once they were processed, but nowadays I have no choice but to grow them myself. That is how I am able to provide the local cuisine which is representative of the area.
I feel like I haven’t really handled rice myself in a while.
There is a big difference between white rice and brown rice, isn’t there. When you are working on a farm, more often than not, you come across brown rice. It’s not as refined as white rice, and feels a bit more homely as well.
-It will be rice harvesting season soon won’t it?
We harvested the seeds from the rice last year. After germination, we seed and plant them, and finally reap them. It’s a continuous cycle. We are doing the same this year, and while it all does seem the same, every year is different. You can only harvest rice once a year, so we learn from our experiences and try to change our processes a little bit each year, and I feel like that will be a continuous process as we go on. It is already delicious, but there must be a way to make it better. We have a meeting every year with the family and discuss different ways to improve the harvest. The rice paddy gets bigger every year and we look forward to seeing the improvements.
--What is the main difference between Matsuendon’s rice and other rice?
If we are being detailed, I would say the grains are smaller and sharper than others. When you're eating the rice, it doesn’t just all mix together, each grain is solid and unique. I guess that depends on how you cook the rice, but that’s my opinion. We plant the rice in a way to make sure there is enough space between each paddy. On other farms, people plan the rice close together so that they can yield a larger crop, but by doing so they make it easier for the rice plant to fall over. We don’t harvest as much as other places, but we make sure to give the plants enough room to grow.
--Mr. Miwa, it seems you have developed a very elegant style of growing rice.
That’s something we are consistently working on every year. We continue this process of trial and error to see if there is anything more we can do.
--What do you consider when you are making dishes to be paired with the rice?
I try to make a variety of side dishes which balance themselves out. From more light and refreshing dishes like pickles, stewed veges, and salads, we also have more flavorful options, or dishes to be served over the rice itself. With only light flavors, it can be hard to finish the rice, and if there are only really hearty options, you end up getting fed up. We do a buffet during lunch and have 10 options of appetizers to eat with rice.
--You are able to make the most of all the seasonal vegetables as a chef since you are also grow the vegetables yourself.
Being able to eat local, seasonal vegetables, in delicious meals… that should be natural shouldn’t it? I feel like that’s just how it should be . Of course, if you want to eat things that aren’t grown in this land like meat and fish, then of course you can buy those, I do as well. But, we if we have the ingredients here locally, we should eat those in my opinion.
--Why do restaurants in this area go out of their way to use Koshihikari rice from other areas?
It’s because it’s cheap. I can understand that they want to lower their costs. But I think it doesn’t make sense to use koshihikari from other areas when we have our own, so I don’t want to do that.
--By having people eat cuisine using the local food, you’re also sending a message to remind them of just how delicious it is right?
It’s not like we are making super complex cuisine here. We are just making normal dishes. I feel like that, in itself, is enough.
--Why have people continued to live in such a snow ridden area?
When I lived in Kanazawa, I was really healthy and it was fun. There are more things to do in Kanazawa, but really you come to enjoy the small things like the moss beginning to grow or by seeing the daikon being harvested in a nearby farm. It might just be something that comes with age, but these natural things make it easy to live here, and make me feel more comfortable here.
--We have been in Snow Country for every month and a half or so, but everytime we come the scenery is completely different,
Every year is the same here for us, but I have come to think that is also very important in itself. When you’re living here, the weather is at the center of every conversation. I would have never cared about something like that before.
--Is that because there are times when you have to think about harvesting and how the weather affects it?
You’re right that might be due to the fact that I’m a farmer now. And so is everyone else is as well. Even if it’s just a small family garden, everyone is growing something. The agricultural culture is a part of the people of this land , and the sensitivity to the weather probably stems from that as well.
--What do you want people coming from different areas to experience when they come here?
What I want them to experience the most is the difference in the flavor of the rice. Even the food and appetizers themselves are really enjoyable. In the spring, there are many different kinds of foods available in the Snow country. Even if it’s just Udo, or Kinpira, or Tempura, or curry, there are many different ways to eat each dish. We want our guests to enjoy each and every one of them
--Everytime I come to Matsuendon, I leave feeling super full.
If you eat the rice and food here and end up thinking “ I want to come to Snow Country again,” then that is enough for me. There are some people who buy the rice to take home, but that is when I get really excited. The thing we are most proud of is our rice, so when people acknowledge our hard work, that’s what makes me the happiest.
Since everyone has grown up so engrossed in agriculture, they have a lot of commonalities amongst each other.
The name of our shop is Matsuendo. When you go back to its origins, there was a man named Matsukichi in the Miwa family and his nickname was Matsuendo. To this day, many people call each other by their shop names, they will say things like this is Mr. Matsuendo’s rice field.
When we asked Mr. Miwa where he gets his inspiration for the food he makes, of course he said the rice paddies.
The first Rice Paddy I ever helped with, was a pretty poorly structured paddy. When we harvest the rice, we use a combine harvester to harvest the rice, but whatever we can’t harvest with a machine we harvest by hand. That can be extremely difficult. It was difficult but then I realized that is poorly structured paddy was actually the one with the most natural microbes.
You can see the river and mountains from the rice paddy, and it makes me think that eating the food from this area is a natural thing to do. The rice paddies are located right next to Matsuendo’s restaurant, so take some time to go check it out.
