In this the second part of our walking guide to the surroundings of Dogo Onsen, I’d like to introduce some of the gourmet of this hot spring area!

Firstly, if you want to enjoy Dogo Onsen you can’t miss this shopping district!

Along this shopping street that goes from the front of Dogo Onsen station to the Dogo Onsen main building there are various gourmet dishes that can only be tasted here.

First off is this one.

This is “Mikan no Ki”, a shop that specializes in mandarins, Ehime prefecture’s specialty.

Naturally, they offer 100% mandarin juice, as well as mandarin flavored soft serve ice cream, mandarin jelly, and various other mandarin based treats.

And even among such special treats, this one seemed especially delicious.

It’s a daifuku (stuffed rice cake) made using a whole mandarin.

The bittersweet flavor of the mandarin is combined with the sweet rice cake; it’s just irresistible…!

Next up is the main shop of “Terakoya”, which offers fried rice crackers made with fried rice cakes.

Inside the shop you can have freshly fried rice crackers.

If you buy some, green tea is included, free of charge.

On the left side you can see the nureokaki (topped with spicy shichimi mayonnaise). Actually, I don’t like the nureokaki that is sold in Japanese supermarkets, etc. Its soft texture just isn’t…

But after eating this, my image of nureokaki took a 180-degree turn.

To think that freshly fried nureokaki is this delicious…! I thoroughly recommend it. You should definitely try it!

And then, after exiting the shopping street, right next to the Dogo Onsen main building you can drink local beer at “Dogo Bakushu-kan”.

It’s an establishment that even our rickshaw guide praised as “delicious”.

We were charmed by its attractive slogan, “Cold beer waiting after your bath”.

To start off with, we ordered “Dogo beer” of which there are 4 different varieties. We chose “Madonna beer”, which is made with caramel malt and has a sweetness to it. Recommended for ladies, our other choice was the fruit beer “Golden Kiwi Fizz”.

To go with our beers, we first ordered the “Small fry tempura with beer yeast and octopus-seaweed kamaboko (steamed paste usually made with fish)”.

Adding the beer yeast gives the small fry tempura an even deeper flavor, and together with the octopus-seaweed kamaboko, they can be enjoyed with a mixture of wasabi and soy sauce.

Yes, this goes very well with beer.

Next is a local dish from the Imabari region, called “Senzanki”. Simply put, it’s deep-fried chicken, but instead of using soft young birds, they choose older birds with more texture.

And it’s the best.

I’ve never before eaten deep-fried chicken with such texture and such a good flavor!

To finish off, we go for the “Uwajima-style sea bream rice”. The fresh raw egg on top does a good job!