SEARCH

Rice-bale-shaped deep-fried oyster; set cheese; sazanka-style lily bulb, and more

These are from the tray course. For the oyster tawara-age: sandwich bread is thinly sliced to about 2-3 mm, cut into strips roughly 3 cm long, and…

Rolled shrimp and foie gras aspic, pork in green terrine, scallop shinjo with egg-yolk glaze, Yoro tofu with sea urchin, baby turban-shell aspic

This is the appetizer course. As it is Tanabata, we wanted to tie the dishes to tanzaku (paper strips for wishes). We made five terrine-style dishes…

Fig tofu-dressed salad in a hollowed kabosu bowl with split sansho garnish, Pacific saury simmered Arima-style with sansho pepper, thick rolled omelet with yam bulbils, walnuts, and cashews

Amaou Strawberry with Egg-White Rinkake, Hyuganatsu Citrus Jelly

For the fruit course, this is Amaou strawberry finished with an egg-white rinkake — a poured sugar-and-egg-white coating. Sugar and water, in a…

Mugwort Tofu, Mt. Fuji Salmon Marinade

Starting with the appetizers: mugwort tofu. Setting mugwort alone in kombu dashi does not bring out enough flavor, so I add ground sesame at half the…

Winter melon in its shell, skin-on steamed Ishikawa baby taro, tender-simmered octopus, pumpkin, savory shiitake

This is an assortment of separately simmered ingredients. For the tender-simmered octopus, we remove the sliminess with rice bran, tenderize it by…

Beef fillet seared in oil, smoke-flavored, with mustard sauce, beltfish grilled with kenchin vegetable filling, sakura shrimp and cheese cracker

Mallard-duck white loin, small melon salt-pickle, celery sweet-vinegar pickle

For the mallard-duck white loin, we score the skin, sear it in a frying pan until browned, then drain off the fat once using a metal skewer. We then…

Kyoho Grape Terrine, Chocolate Gâteau

Aromatic deep-fried ayu

This is an accompanying course. For the aromatic deep-fried ayu, salt-grilling is good too, but here small ones are cut open in the suzume style (a…

Grilled eggplant pureed soup

This is the clear-soup course. For the grilled eggplant surinagashi, the garnish in the bowl consists of egg tofu cut into small cubes, the mouth and…

Grilled Clam Variation, Sawara Cherry-Blossom Grill

This is the grilled course. For the grilled clam variation, the clam is first cooked through in sake diluted with water, given a little color under…

Peanut Tofu, Grilled Eggplant, Spinach, Raw Uni

Hime-Sazae Tataki with Warabi Dressing, Scallop Iso-Yose Kimi-Yaki, Hotaru-Ika Wrapped with Bamboo Shoot, Butterbur Raft, New Burdock Stuffed with Uni-Kinton

This is the appetizer course. For the small turban shell tataki with bracken fern dressing: simmer the turban shell in dark-soy happō dashi…

Apple-Bowl Serving, Turnip-Bowl Serving, Purple Potato Shaped as an Akebi Pod in a Hollowed Bowl, Chrysanthemum-Cured Sea Bream, Chrysanthemum-Cut Ark Shell

Splendid alfonsino plaster-style simmer; tree-stump-cut daikon simmered with fried tofu; pinecone-cut taro rustic simmer, and more

This is the simmered course. As for kinmedai shikkui-ni: I named it this way because the characters look good together — it has something of the feel…

Splendid alfonsino shabu-shabu

Tilefish okitsu-yaki with layered shrimp-shaped taro; salt-grilled beef fillet with whole-grain mustard sauce; greeneye fish with miso-yuzu glaze, udo rolled around burdock, and more

Next, the grilled course is amadai Okitsu-yaki with layered ebi-imo. It seems that the tilefish caught off Okitsu in Shizuoka is what's meant by…

Steamed egg custard, last-of-season pike conger, quick-blanched, rolled shrimp, matsutake

Fresh Pea Purée, Bamboo Shoot Hiryozu

This is the soup course. For the fresh pea purée: when reconstituting the peas or winter melon, boiling them, or bringing out their color, toss them…

Blanched hamo with its own gelled broth

This is a sashimi-course dish. For the blanched hamo, we take stock from the bones and head and cut it with bonito dashi to make the base. We then…

Rockfish and bamboo shoot deep-fried simmer, sea bream roe simmered to soak, country-style simmered grilled tofu

This is an assorted simmered course. Here I used Japanese rockfish for the deep-fried, simmered bamboo shoot, but golden eye snapper would work just…

Natsu Mikan Sashimi Presentation

For the sashimi course, I used a hollowed Japanese summer citrus as the serving vessel. Rather than laying the sashimi straight onto the citrus, I…

Turnip Pureed Soup

Since it's this time of year, it's turnip surinagashi. A three-layer crab shinjo, a fish-paste dumpling, is made: the top and bottom layers are…