Rediscover "umami": A soy sauce and olive oil sommelier guides you around Shodoshima

A gorgeous bento box that will delight your eyes and tongue. A creative restaurant that will delight all five senses

Creative Cuisine Nonohana

If you want to enjoy delicious dishes made with Shodoshima soy sauce and olive oil, head to Creative Cuisine Nonohana. Here, you can enjoy ingenious dishes such as firm tofu topped with moromi (soy sauce mash) and drizzled with homemade olive oil, or the Zenzai (a type of red bean soup) on the lunch dessert menu, which uses soy sauce as a secret ingredient.

The shop is surrounded by seasonal flowers, making it the perfect location for the shop's name, "Wild Flowers." Just looking at them will soothe your soul.

The lunch menu that is especially popular among women is the "Nonohana Bento." When you open the bento box, you'll see small dishes arranged in small bowls. It looks like a jewelry box. Every time you take a bite of the carefully prepared food, you can enjoy a variety of flavors, and your heart and stomach will be filled.

For those who want to enjoy more food than the Nonohana bento, we recommend the Nonohana Teishoku, which features sashimi made with seasonal fish as the main dish, or the Omakase Lunch Course, which comes as a set course. If you want to eat a lot without being too formal, the Hishio Donburi Nonohana Asobi is also a good choice.

At Nonohana, different soy sauces are used for different dishes, so if you're curious about what kind they use, feel free to ask the staff. They may be able to give you tips on how to use soy sauce in your home cooking, along with the types of soy sauce they use.

Gelato made with seasonal vegetables and fruits, with a touch of soy sauce and olive oil.

MINORI GELATO

"MINORI GELATO" is a shop worth visiting in the coming season of increasing heat. You can enjoy gelato made with seasonal ingredients from Shodoshima. What's more, this shop offers a rare service where you can pour soy sauce and olive oil over your gelato. The soy sauce is "hanabishio", brewed with yeast collected from olive flowers. It has a refined sweetness in both aroma and taste. The olive oil used is from Spain.

According to the owner, Nobuhito Shibuya, "Soy sauce goes well with rich-tasting gelatos such as white sesame panna cotta, soy sauce, chocolate, and milk. The saltiness of the soy sauce brings out the flavor of each." As for olive oil, "similarly, white sesame panna cotta, sesame, and chocolate with a bitter or fragrant taste are recommended. Also recommended are sour ones such as lemon and mint, and refreshing milk. Olives can be enjoyed with a richer flavor by pouring oil over them" (contents change depending on the season and availability).

This time, I used soy sauce on the sake lees and soy sauce gelato. I also used olive oil on the apricot and green plum gelato. When I poured soy sauce on the soy sauce gelato, it became richer, and the sake lees gelato had a mellow flavor. The apricot and green plum gelato that I poured olive oil on seemed to have a more refreshing taste.

This shop quickly catches seasonal ingredients from Shodoshima and incorporates them into the menu, so you can encounter new flavors every time you visit. When you bite into it, the flavor of the fruits and vegetables themselves spreads in your mouth, and you're sure to be impressed. Be sure to come back many times to enjoy the different flavors of gelato that change with the seasons.

Savor the taste of olive oil with your whole body. Enjoy a quality time at a modern Japanese inn.

Island Inn Mari

Finally, we will introduce a high-quality inn where you can enjoy dishes that use soy sauce and olives, as well as olive oil beauty treatments. Its name is Shimayado Mari. It was renovated from a private lodging run by the owner's mother, and by making use of tools that had been used for a long time and old wood that was left over from the demolition of a nearby soy sauce brewery, it has created a modern and relaxed atmosphere. It is located in Hishio no Sato, an area where 16 soy sauce breweries are lined up, so there is a faint smell of soy sauce in the air.

Meals are made with fresh ingredients from the sea and fields around the inn. The "Soy Sauce Kaiseki" course includes dishes made with homemade seasonings made from soy sauce made in Shonosato and the "moromi" mash that is left over before the soy sauce is pressed. You can also enjoy a variety of dishes made with fresh olive oil and olive fruit from Shodoshima (dishes using olives are only available for a limited time from mid-October to around March).

The soy sauce served with the sashimi is freshly pressed, neither heated nor filtered, a type of soy sauce that is not normally available. The olive oil is also unfiltered, and is sourced directly from olive farmers, as it is said that the oil only retains its flavor for about a month after it is extracted. The rice is specially grown by farmers on the island. The owner is the first to arrive at the fish market every morning in order to purchase the best fish of the day.

Using carefully selected ingredients, the dishes bring out the natural flavor of the ingredients, and you can feel the owner's attention to detail in every detail. When you take a bite, you may feel your heart filling with happiness.

We also recommend trying out the "Island Inn Beauty Salon" service that is unique to this inn. Using plenty of fresh olive oil 100% produced on Shodoshima, the beautician will thoroughly massage your tired body. Olive oil has a similar composition to human sebum, so it blends well with the skin, leaving it moisturized and hydrated after the treatment.

Shimayado Mari is planning to open a villa called Umiotomari in March 2019. Two of the villas will be available for reservation starting in August 2018. It is a popular inn that is booked out for several months in advance, so make your reservation early!

From July to September, Shodoshima has an average temperature of around 26 degrees, and there are many sunny days, making it a pleasant place to spend time. After learning about the history of soy sauce and olive oil, you can enjoy dishes that use them together with seafood and mountain produce, take a leisurely stroll while feeling the refreshing breeze blowing in from the Seto Inland Sea, or simply spend a relaxing time at a lodging. There are many ways to enjoy yourself. Why not visit Shodoshima and experience its new charms for yourself?