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Sesame tofu with flavorful dashi and wasabi

This time, we learned about the appetizer course from Master Instructor Oikawa (Nihonbashi, Isesada Main Store). We feature sesame tofu.

Gunma Prefecture Masuda Beef, Low-Temperature Roast

My workplace is an inn standing on the bank of the Tanigawa river, which flows down from Mount Tanigawa, in Minakami, Gunma Prefecture. The view…

• Serves 1 · ¥820

• Cook time 1 hr

Gyokuro Soup, White-Simmered Mountain Yam

I devised a dish that is unusual yet distinctive enough to make people want to try it, combining a serving style well received as a hot-weather soup…

• Serves 1 · ¥320

• Cook time 50 min

Monkfish liver rolled like folded paper, quick-blanched crab claw, crab roe with sea urchin, raw cod roe simmered to infuse flavor, snow-ring lotus root vinegar pickle, served in a hollowed yuzu shell

The monkfish liver hosho-maki is a longstanding technique, but I thought pairing it would let guests enjoy not only its rich umami but also the…

• ¥430

• Cook time 20 min

Swordfish baked with rice-bran koji

Since Japanese seasonings like soy sauce and miso are built on koji, I wondered if I could make something using koji. I use a rice-bran pickling bed…

• Serves 2 · ¥456

• Cook time 15 min

Warabi Mochi

Warabi mochi is a standard item at our restaurant. We knead it up using unrefined brown sugar, which has solid depth but a clean sweetness, and…

Fugu

This is a raw dish. With fugu, thickness is the key point, so I slice it a bit thick. It's a milt sauce with truffle flavor — slicing the milt raw…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,800

• Cook time 40 min

Spot prawn baked in egg batter

This uses spring ingredients at their shun, hashiri, and nagori. This is the grilled course. For the botan shrimp tamaji-yaki, I make it with…

• Serves 1 · ¥350

• Cook time 1 hr

Whitebait and cheese kakiage

As a way of serving seafood, since our restaurant is a casual, mass-appeal restaurant in Kanagawa Prefecture, I proposed this using Kanagawa…

• Serves 1 · ¥430

• Cook time 30 min

Seasonal fresh fish sashimi platter, decorative sashimi garnish, aromatic deep-fried tuna skewer, Akita gibasa seaweed tofu

For our aromatic skewers, we deep-fry cubes of tuna, soaking them in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger…

White miso preparation with mugwort wheat gluten and grilled yuba, turnip, shiitake, carrot, mitsuba, and mustard

This time, we learned about "Gowan" from Hiroshi Ikawa (Nihonbashi, Japanese cuisine Hanakaede). This time, we will focus on "White Miso Style".

Chilled Golden-Wave Soup; Crystal Ise Lobster

One egg to two go of stock is too soft; just under two go works better, served warm or chilled. For crystal Ise lobster, we pick apart the meat, bind…

Yellowtail shabu-shabu with grated daikon

This is a use of the winter ingredient yellowtail. Here, this stands in for the sashimi course rather than a hot pot. For the yellowtail…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,600

• Cook time 4 days

Oil-steamed smelt

With the wish for guests to experience, with all five senses, the seasonal feeling of spring as the breeze turns warm, we devised a way to use…

• Serves 10 · ¥170

• Cook time 2 hr

Herb-and-Breadcrumb Baked Oysters, Conger Eel Yawata-maki, Monkfish Liver in Butter-Soy Sauce

This is an introduction of dishes paired with Japanese white wine. This is a grilled dish. For the herb-and-breadcrumb baked oysters, the oysters are…

• Serves 1 · ¥550

• Cook time 1 hr

Marinated grilled longtooth grouper and fragrant grilled Ise lobster

I created this under the theme "Ryokan Cuisine Today." This is a grilled dish. Our ryokan has quite a distance between the kitchen and the guest…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,800

• Cook time 2 days

Jade-green simmered eggplant and Pacific saury simmered and steeped in broth

This is a paired simmered course. The Jade-Green Simmered Eggplant is a dish prepared using a cooking method involving oil, but it's cooked so that…

• Serves 1 · ¥300

• Cook time 3 hr

Fava bean pureed soup, fat greenling, steamed sea urchin, new-season water shield, cherry tomato, yuzu

Fava beans are also called satsuki-mame, or "May beans," an ingredient at its best around May. This time I used them for their fresh green color, but…

Salt-plank grilling

As part of "A Restaurant's Work, Ever-Changing," this is the grilled dish Salt-Plank Grilling. The "salt plank" is made by thoroughly kneading salt…

• Serves 1 · ¥600

• Cook time 1 hr

Chicken grunt, skin seared yakishimo-style

This was created with couples in their thirties and forties in mind. For the skin-seared isaki, the skin is often discarded, but it is actually…

• ¥400

• Cook time 30 min

Chilled Consommé, Daigo Tofu

This is the zatsuke course (served upon being seated). Since this is the hot summer season, I wanted the moisture to refresh the throat, so I made it…

• ¥1,250

• Cook time 4 hr

White Miso Broth, Softshell Turtle Wrapped in Mochi

This is a soup course. This is a technique that Chef Yamamoto, whom I trained under, often used: he would steam cut rice cakes in happō dashi until…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,200

• Cook time 2 hr

Yanagawa Eel and Foie Gras Grill, with Summer Vegetables

For the additional hearty course, ‘Yanagawa Eel and Foie Gras Grill, with Summer Vegetables,’ I pair foie gras with eel from Yanagawa City in Fukuoka…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,200

• Cook time 1 hr

Butterfish, saikyo-miso grilled; king crab, grilled with a fermented fish-innards glaze

This is the grilled course. The classics: butterfish Saikyo-yaki and king crab shuto-yaki. When thinning the white miso with sake and mirin, be…