Posts Tagged ‘kaiseki’
Carry On Ryokan
Posted on: October 22, 2010
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Let’s be clear, this ryokan is designed for westerners. Well, you have to start somewhere. And anyway, the heavy-duty Japanese variety is like an exclusive club: you need a member to introduce you.
We were greeted by a guy who spoke perfect English and showed us to our room. There was a little frisson when they learned that that they were dealing with a father and son combo. A female kimono was rapidly exchanged for the male variety. And shortly afterwards, a young woman brought us tea, explain that she had learned her english in Eastbourne.
We’re booked for our kaiseki dinner at six (it takes 2 to 3 hours to complete) so that gave us time for our first fragrant yuzo bath in the public tub. Yuzo, japanese lemon, is the theme for this ryokan. Our room is named ‘Kiiro’ – yellow – and a feature of the bath was the fruit bobbing about in the continuously flowing stream of extremely hot water.
At dinner we had two retired German couples to our side. We were acknowledged but there was little meaningful conversation with them. He summed up his meal to his host by saying “So the difference between this and a German meal is that we kneel down, ha ha”. Actually we didn’t have to kneel. We had those user-friendly low tables, hollowed out underneath so that we could sit. And there was definitely no sausage. At least, not in the dishes. The occasional one did escape through our kimonos and getting up after dinner was a serious challenge to one’s dignity.
After dinner, another bath. What else. But this was not the sort of eating that leaves you bloated for which a bath would be a kind of torture. We were now in a very nice state of mind and body.
We elected for the Japanese breakfast: when in Rome etc. The fish, rice, potato, vegetable combination was satisfying. The only concession to our normal routine was to ask for a cup of coffee at the end.
So now it’s Thursday and while the UK is digesting the significance of the CSR announced yesterday, we’re off to find the market…
Kaiseki Meal in Shinjuku
Posted on: October 20, 2010
- In: Food | Japan | Travel
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The owner of the restaurant greeted us as long-lost friends when we pitched up tonight. Her English is very good and she spent the evening patiently explaining every dish as it appeared. She even went to the trouble to show us her encyclopaedia of food so that the precise fish could be indentified.
The meal starts with a tiny bowl with the most intensely flavoured fish (Samwa) together with chrysanthemum.
The second dish had a piece of octopus in a very sweet sticky coat, xxx beans, and a whelk in its shell
Next came snapping turtle soup an exquisitely flavoured consommé. In the centre of the dish was a white disc of silky tofu with meaty (turtle?) bits embedded. Our hostess pointed out that this was a reference to the full moon.
Now for our sushi plate – four very different experiences of fish. Mackerel which had been lightly cured in a little salt and sugar needed no further embellishment, we were told. The olive of flatfish should be dipped in soy. A sea urchin could stand alone. And the wasabi was reserved for the magnificent tuna.
Next there was a fish dish – a Japanese barracuda we were reliably informed by reference to its picture in the encyclopaedia. It had been smoked in cedar and was joined by a few mushrooms.
Now for tempura. Three different items fried in the lightest tempura batter. Minced prawn in a wrap, a rather mild green pepper and a mushroom.
Now for a palette cleanser that tasted much better than it looked. Kuckuck (a type of seaweed) in an intense broth with some very thin noodles. The whole thing had a rather slimy texture but had a taste high on the umami scale.
I thought this was a dessert. It was a fig steamed in miso flavoured with yuzu (a Japanese lime). Interesting – but not very figgy. We did not need to be shown the picture of a fig in the big book!
No idea why it the last one had its place in the sequence because now we had another palette cleanser in the form of a rather tasteless broth in which there were pieces of fish (flounder), sesame and kondu. I can only assume the the lack of flavour is deliberate at this stage in the meal. Nevertheless, we both failed to eat more than a couple of spoons full.
And lastly some Japanese tea and a grape sorbet.
I’d somehow expected this meal to be a bit formal and serious. In the event, the mood in the restaurant was very jolly – a reflection of the personality of our larger than life chef, Sadaharu Nakajima. He insisted on a picture in front of a sign (which had some spiritual meaning) and he drew in his wife who he described as “the owner”, then sent us on our way with goodbyes in as many languages as he could muster. Restaurant is at http://shinjuku-nakajima.com
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