Konichiwa!
We have just returned from our Japan tour and I just have to share some
of our culinary adventures with you. We ate everything from Japanese street food like
takoyaki, a delicious small eggy ball with a piece of octopus in it (you can
get it locally from Nijiya Market, freshly made or frozen) served with a sauce,
different kinds of noodles, all kinds of sweets (like “Manju,” a rice flour
with sweet bean paste and sweet or
savory “sen bei” a crispy rice cakes of all sizes and shapes), yakitori,
yakinori, etc. to a $180 pp Kaiseki dinner in Kyoto.
The photos are from our kaiseki dinner at the Kikunoi restaurant in the Roan district
of Kyoto. We met with
executive chef who was very accommodating and spoke English, to our
relief! And, they gave us an
English version of the menu, printed in rice paper, of course. Some kaiseki dinners require that you
know someone who has an “in” with the restaurant in order to get a
reservation. Our tour
company made the reservations for us.
The dress is surprisingly pretty casual, considering how formal the
Japanese are (they still all wear suits & ties to work). This dinner had 16 courses that were
split into sections. Kaiseki
dinners serve their courses by the way they are prepared so this dinner had
Hassuu (appetizers), Sashimi, Soup, Grilled, Fresh, Fried, Rice and
Dessert. Rice in Japan is not
always a side dish but course by
itself and generally served last, just before the dessert. Each table has it’s own chef who prepares each course.
Because the attention to detail is to the nth degree, I
tried to take photos of the presentation and dishes, bowls, etc. because it was
half of the pleasure of dining.
The amuse bouche was a small crystal bowl of “Sake
with the fragrance of Iris leaf.“ If you look closely at the photo you can see the symbol of
the restaurant etched into the crystal.
The napkins also had this symbol printed on them and were given to us as
a gift when we left the restaurant

We were first presented with my favorite dish of the
evening, an amuse bouche of “Chinese
yam jelly, sea urchin, Shiso flower, light soy sauce gel with Wasabi”. The square of jelly was infused with minced “nagaimo,”
a crispy, crunchy yam that is rinsed several times to eliminate the slime
before it is added to the jelly.
It was topped with Uni (sea urchin) and then bathed in
a light soy sauced infused with wasabi.
What an unimaginable combination of crispy, creamy, salty, spicy, light
and rich flavors topped with the unforgettable taste of a shiso flower. Very umami!


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Then comes our sushi course of Tai (Red sea bream), Shimaazi
(yellow Jack fish), yellow leek, Udo (very nutritious omega 3 fish
oil) and carrot, wasabi and Bonito (fish from tuna family), with
ponzu
(citrus based sauce) gel. They were
too generous with their servings because we were starting to get full and we had 14 entre’s to go.
Onto our soup course of Guji (tilefish), a thin egg omelet, Cha-soba
(green tea noodles) in a Tsuyu (a stock made of bonito
flakes, soy and mirin, a flavored sake) served with Matcha (tea made from freshly ground tea leaves
ground into a powder). Again,
served in beautiful bowls and artfully arranged.


After we ate our grilled fish, we were served a tiny, tiny, tiny eggplant. It was the size of the end of your thumb!! Very cute but besides that, very savory, vinegary with just taste of sweet.


The second part of our salad course was very strange and
none of us liked it that much. It
was a tofu dish with the milt of the tai fish (milt is the seminal fluid of fish…think sperm), broad
beans, wheat gluten and Myouga, (a Japanese ginger that is a cross between fresh ginger
shoots and a mild pickling onion, but without any strong onion-y flavor. They
look like slender shallots not like the ginger root that we are used to). . .
so-o-o, moving on to our next course which is “Fried.”
We
ate fried Abalone with rice cracker, bamboo shoot, sweet pepper with a sauce made
from the liver of the abalone. The abalone was rather tough, which really surprised
us since we’ve eaten very tender abalone from Manresa as well as other
restaurants. But since we
were getting pretty full by now, it was a good excuse to skip a course. Again, served very artfully and
tantalizing which added to our disappointment.
Our
last savory course was a steamed rice made with grilled Tai, napa
cabbage, and assorted Japanese pickles. It was made just for our table as you can see from the
photo of our private chef with it.
This rice was absolutely delicious! The Tai fish pieces along with the cabbage and pickles was
fabulous combination of tastes, textures and umami. The sad part was that we were so full by this time,
that we could only eat a few bites and wish that we could create space for it
in our tummies.
Sigh,
so many great dishes and so little space in our bodies. . .

If
you have a chance to travel to Japan, save your quarters and try to make a
reservation at a Kaiseki restaurant.
They usually have price range choices from $100-200 (including tax and
tip) and are found in major cities, like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima or Osaka. Each region of Japan serves similar
dishes in different ways but you are sure to have a wonderful meal!

Where
have you been traveling for food?
Sharon, send us a post from Paris with photos!
See
most of you in June for our Zuni Café, Judy Rodgers, dinner!
Sayonara!
Sandi