SEARCH

Grilled-and-Fried Ayu with Tade Vinegar and Grated Daikon

Even a veteran master chef can encounter dishes whose cooking method is impossible to grasp just by hearing about it or seeing it once. This Pro's…

Spanish Mackerel Yuan-Yaki, A New Twist

Even a veteran master chef can encounter dishes whose cooking method is impossible to grasp just by hearing about it or seeing it once. This Pro's…

Wagyu and round eggplant, cold shabu-shabu style

This is a chilled course. Here too we use eggplant. The eggplant is peeled, deep-fried, then steeped in a soy sauce with Chinese-style vinegar and…

Horsehair-crab meat, lantern-shaped salmon sushi, eel sandwich, abalone and sudachi-citrus sandwich, tender-simmered octopus, corn-shaped seared sweet potato, dark seaweed with grated daikon and miso, lightly steamed chicken gizzard, herring-roe wakame fritter

For the picked horsehair-crab meat, we boil the crab in roughly 2% salted water for about 20 minutes, turn off the heat, let it stand for ten…

Mountain vegetables and cockle, vinegared and chilled, hosta shoot, angelica-tree shoots, bracken fern, needle-cut radish, egg-yolk vinegar, wasabi vinegar

This time, on 'vinegared dishes,' I learned from chef Iizuka (Asakusa View Hotel). This time I take up 'sansai vinegared dishes.'

Sous-vide North Pacific giant octopus, live-prepared

This one takes time to prepare, so we start with the vinegared dish. It's sous-vide live North Pacific giant octopus. Octopus can carry…

• Serves 1 · ¥280

• Cook time 1 hr

Pacific cod baked in a paper balloon with onion soy sauce

The grilled course is a paper-balloon parcel, baked. We fold a paper balloon, fill it with fish and vegetables, pour sauce over it, and bake. For the…

• Serves 1 · ¥480

• Cook time 30 min

Kujo scallion rice

Last is the rice course. For the Kujo scallion rice, we keep the bacon's presence hidden, chopping it as finely as possible so it stays out of sight…

• Serves 1 · ¥120

• Cook time 1 hr

Spanish Mackerel Yuan-Yaki

This time, we learned about "grilled dishes" from Master Instructor Iizuka (Takasaki View Hotel). We feature "yuan-yaki."

Rice Pudding and Strawberry Cream

Blanched pike conger

This is a vinegared course. For the blanched hamo, what is laid underneath is grated yamato yam mixed with pickled-plum flesh, so it can be enjoyed…

Wild mountain vegetables, miso-flavored, yogurt-topped: mountain udo, bracken fern, mountain garlic, bamboo shoot, fava bean, radish, crumbled fried egg, plain yogurt, strained white miso

This time we've knife-cut the radish into a janome (bull's-eye) pattern, but depending on the dish, we vary the knife-work — sometimes simply slicing…

Hiryozu and herring simmered in a rich sweet sauce

This is the simmered course. When deep-frying tofu fritters, putting three or four pieces into the pot at once causes them to stick together and…

• Serves 1 · ¥280

• Cook time 12 hr

Sansai in white-vinegar dressing (mountain udo, warabi, chives, bamboo shoot, fava bean, radish)

This time, on 'vinegared dishes,' I learned from chef Iizuka (Asakusa View Hotel). This time I take up 'shiro-zu-ae.'

Hairy crab hydrangea manju

Last is the vinegared dish. For the kegani ajisai manju, the hairy crab is boiled and taken apart; the body meat is mixed with the crab's tomalley…

Sansai and cockle vinegared dish, warm and smoke-finished (urui, nobiru, warabi, kogomi, diluted ponzu, red grated daikon)

To add a touch of red to the dish, we've added red grated daikon. To make it, you bore a hole firmly into the daikon and push a dried red chili all…

Yuzu Cup with Molded Cod Milt

This is the soup-bowl presentation course: yuzu cup with molded cod milt. Using the same method as for making a yuzu carved in a woven-hat pattern, I…

• Serves 1 · ¥420

• Cook time 1 hr

Strawberry Fashioned into Plum Blossoms

Tilefish wakasa-yaki

This time, we learned about "grilled dishes" from Master Instructor Iizuka (Asakusa View Hotel). We feature "wakasa-yaki."

Sesame Tofu with Fine-Grained Japanese Sugar

Deep-fried corn

Young sea bass, oil-grilled

The grilled course is oil-grilled young sea bass. Both sweetfish and young sea bass are sometimes eaten with smartweed vinegar, but rather than…

Red-and-white namasu, kombu-cured red cornetfish

Back to the appetizer course. For the kōhaku namasu: I rub daikon and carrot well with salt, rinse them, and repeat this process several times before…

• Serves 1 · ¥300

• Cook time 2 hr

Kuzu-dusted pike conger, grilled minazuki-style rice cake

The hamo (pike conger) is bone-scored as usual, dusted with kuzu starch, and boiled in kombu-infused water. The minazuki yaki-mochi is cut into the…