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'Whale' — whale throat cartilage (Onagawa's traditional food culture: 'Whale')

This is the appetizer course. Taking as its theme the 'whale culture' rooted in Onagawa, a town on the eastern side of Miyagi Prefecture, I hoped…

• Serves 1 · ¥398

• Cook time 2 days

Triangular bamboo-leaf-wrapped rice dumpling

This is triangular chimaki, from "Rethinking the Cuisine Favored in Tokyo and Niigata Cuisine." It is a Niigata local dish, and we present this…

• Serves 1 · ¥200

• Cook time 50 min

Abalone tempura, Inaniwa udon, grated daikon, aromatics

This time, the basic rice course is 'Inaniwa udon.' We have guests eat it simply, with grated daikon and aromatics, but the temperature and time used…

• Serves 4 · ¥3,000

• Cook time 1 hr

Shijimi Clam Soup

Under the theme 'counter work that creates repeat guests,' I introduce simple dishes with a playful touch that please guests already well accustomed…

• Serves 1 · ¥80

• Cook time 1 min

Yuzu Vessel: Niigata Red Snow Crab, Lily Bulb, and Ginkgo Nut Grilled with Yuzu Miso

I serve Niigata's 'red snow crab' presented in a yuzu vessel (yuzu-gama — a hollowed-out yuzu peel used as a serving bowl), to bring out the…

• Serves 1 · ¥468

• Cook time 40 min

Eggplant, deep-fried and marinated in dashi

This is eggplant agebitashi. I use Kumamoto's 'aka-nasu' (a red-skinned Kumamoto eggplant variety) because it's easy to work with. I peel the skin…

• Serves 4 · ¥200

• Cook time 30 min

Lotus Root Manju

This is a dish making use of autumn ingredients. Sanko-yasoku refers to delicious foods gathered from mountains and open fields, a phrase meaning the…

• Serves 1 · ¥105

• Cook time 30 min

Year-End Tsugani Soba

This is the noodle course from Kochi's New Year cuisine. Year-End Tsugani Soba is a richly flavorful dish that uses the whole of the tsugani — a…

• Serves 1 · ¥600

• Cook time 30 min

Butter tea tofu — ice-cellar style

This is an appetizer course from a set of Japanese dishes built around black tea. (Black tea, 50 g: ¥1,200.) I made 'butter tea,' as drunk in Tibet…

• Serves 9 · ¥40

• Cook time 40 min

Salt-cured yellowtail and daikon, oil-simmered abalone, maple-leaf carrot, fallen-leaf mushroom, green garnish, finely shredded ginger, pine-needle-cut yuzu, a thickened sauce from its own broth

For the salt-buri daikon, salting the yellowtail heavily and letting it rest overnight draws out excess moisture from the flesh, removing off-odors…

• ¥950

• Cook time 5 hr

Yellowtail simmered to a glossy sheen, yellowtail liver, white-simmered turnip, chrysanthemum-cut lotus root, maple-leaf carrot, roasted chestnut, green chili, julienned ginger, sansho leaf

This time, we learned about side dishes from Master Teruaki Mochizuki (The New Okura). He came up with dishes that look delicious and catch your…

• ¥720

• Cook time 1 hr

Edo Heritage Vegetable Tempura

Senjyu leeks are deep-fried to retain their aroma and texture. This improves the texture and sweetn…

Tilefish fried in its own scales, grilled eggplant, mogusa ginger, fried fresh yuba, shiso flower spike, thickened seasoned dashi sauce

This time, within Japanese cuisine, a proposal from head chef Honda (Ginza U Noki) on the basic dishes of fried food. In cooking, scales are, in…

• Serves 1 · ¥750

• Cook time 30 min

Soy milk yuba tofu with tortoiseshell glaze, wasabi

Tags & categories related to this post : December, January, February, elegant, creamy, simple, comforting, kaiseki cuisine, traditional, sakizuke —…

• Serves 1 · ¥180

• Cook time 10 min

Ikimaki tempura with bamboo shoot and butterbur sprout

This time, we learned about "tempura" from Technical Director Tanaka (Hotel New Otani's Tempura Horikawa). This time we feature "tempura batter."

Tilefish, kombu-cured and pinecone-grilled, sudachi, clear seafood broth

This is a dish I devised so that guests could enjoy the full deliciousness of tilefish, which comes into season in the cold months. I prepare…

• Serves 1 · ¥750

• Cook time 40 min

Potato, Octopus, and Kabocha Squash, Tender-Simmered Live Octopus

"Drawing out the appeal of Hokkaido's overwintered vegetables." The overwintered vegetables used here are Niseko 540 potato and Dark Horse kabocha…

• Serves 1 · ¥620

• Cook time 2 hr

Red sea bream, turnip-steamed and topped with silver sauce

We cut the kuruma prawn into about 5 small pieces, keeping the balance with the other ingredients in mind. For the turnip combined with meringue, the…

Soup bowl: okoze suppon-style, mugwort tofu, bamboo shoot, myoga, scallion, sansho flower buds

This time, we asked Shimizu Yuji, head chef of the famous Michelin-starred restaurant Nishiazabu Ichino, to introduce us to "Yogurt tofu," a standard…

• Serves 1 · ¥850

• Cook time 4 hr

Sajima Octopus, Pear Vinegar

‘Pear vinegar’ is a technique with a long history, but pairing it with octopus reveals a fresh appeal. This is a mukozuke dish, a sashimi course…

• Serves 1 · ¥800

• Cook time 30 min

Fava Bean Shinjo

Made to evoke the image of budding sprouts, in the season when many wild mountain vegetables appear.

Oil-cured Pacific saury, duck cutlet sandwich, monkfish liver in a hollowed yuzu shell, and saikyo-miso-cured monkfish

This is the winter course. The Oil-Cured Pacific Saury is made the way oil-sardines are made, but using saury instead of sardine. Soaking it once in…

• Serves 1 · ¥800

• Cook time 1 hr

Steamed Turnip, Dried Shrimp Soup

For the steamed turnip, we normally combine grated turnip with egg white, but since our restaurant serves a large number of guests and needs a…

• Serves 1 · ¥475

• Cook time 12 min

Freshly Made Sesame Tofu, Sea Urchin, Kombu-Water Jelly Broth

We insist on sesame that's 'freshly toasted, freshly pressed' and tofu that's 'freshly kneaded': we knead it fresh every day, one hour before…

• Serves 1 · ¥3,000

• Cook time 1 hr