There is nothing quite like eating awabi with butter. My mother used to say, butter makes everything taste better, and she was right. Sitting in the middle of nowhere, the last stop in the Ise Penisula, I found myself in Shima, a town with nothing to do except relax. However, I was not there for relaxing, I was there in pursuit of trying the famous Ise’s cuisine.

After some deliberation, hesitation about eating in a remote place, I succumbed to the hotel’s restaurant but not before exploring my options. I thought about trying the Japanese restaurant but after a visit to the dining room, I opted for French. I didn’t really want to eat French food in Ise, how wrong it seemed but when we sat at the bar, we chose ‘La Mer Classic”, the hotel’s premier French restaurant.

The restaurant wasn’t, the service excellent and the server helpful though he spoke very little English. The view eye-opening, and the dishes made to perfection. I couldn’t leave Ise without trying the Ise Ebi (lobster) and Awabi (abalone), a speciality in Ise peninsula. I would recommend to anyone to make a trip there; the seafood, view and Ise Shrine, a place the embodies Eastern culture.

http://www.miyakohotels.ne.jp/baysuites/english/index.html