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Rice-flour-fried sweetfish, Japanese halfbeak paprika roll, eel sushi, Chinese bayberry, water shield and mountain yam, ground tofu skin and salmon roe

And the Japanese halfbeak (sayori) paprika roll is meant to add a touch of yellow color. The paprika is grilled whole, then peeled of its thin skin…

Deep-Fried Lotus Mochi Dumplings

These are deep-fried lotus mochi dumplings. We fry them quickly at high heat, but we want to finish them without letting the heat fully penetrate the…

Thread-wrapped lily bulb manju, conger eel many-layered roll, bud-shaped shrimp dumpling, egg-yolk-simmered scallop

Last is the simmered dish course. The thread-wrapped lily bulb manju is also a standard item here, filled inside with seasoned ground chicken and…

Mountain yam and black sesame terrine

Clam and Hoshiko Layers, and More

As an appetizer, the clam and hoshiko layers might be a bit extravagant, but it's a delicious dish. For the king crab, aromatic-grilled with egg-yolk…

Habutae-Mushi, Jade Eggplant Ohitashi, and Liver Simmered Arima-Style

For the first course, a silken steamed custard, sea bream backbones are heavily salted and simmered at a rolling boil for four to five hours to draw…

Young sweetfish with okara, conger eel sleeve-shaped sushi, stuffed grilled bamboo shoot, fava bean and sea urchin fritter, lily-bulb petals

Sakura-chaya was founded in Showa 8 — 1933 — and is the third-oldest established ryotei, a traditional Japanese restaurant, in Mukojima, a district…

Sea bream haruyama-yaki, Ise lobster oil-grilled, bamboo shoot tosa-yaki, daikon steak

This is the grilled course. Sea bream is especially delicious at this time of year, so for the haruyama-yaki I keep it simple with a plain salt…

Blackthroat seaperch grilled with sweet white miso, oysters grilled with yuzu, kuruma prawn coated in chestnut and deep-fried, beef rolled around burdock root, blanched chrysanthemum served in a hollowed bitter orange

The round vessel holds the grilled hassun course. For the nodoguro Saikyo-yaki, the nodoguro is marinated in miso. For the oysters grilled with yuzu…

Kuruma Shrimp Hōnen-maki

For the middle course, I wrapped it in a net-patterned spring-roll wrapper made with rice flour, and called it a bountiful-harvest roll. It's eaten…

Alfonsino baked with sake lees and cheese

As for the sake lees used in the kinmedai baked with sake lees and cheese: I obtain top-grade sake lees from breweries scattered around Kimitsu and…

Small abalone dressed with its own liver, fragrant grilled eel, miso-marinated tomatoes, Daikoku shimeji mushroom crisps, sugar-glazed apple

This is an appetizer course. For the small abalone dressed with its own liver, the abalone is simmered, its innards pressed through a fine sieve, and…

Sea Bream Seared with Its Own Shuto

This is the sashimi course. For the sea bream seared with its own shuto (salted fermented bonito innards), the sea bream is filleted into three…

Smoked cherry-simmered baby octopus, clams and wild mountain vegetables with egg-yolk vinegar sauce, three-color mousse

First, this is a set of three appetizers. For the smoked iidako sakura-ni, we clean the iidako, quick-blanch it, then season it with a ratio of five…

Winter melon manju, leaf-cut kabocha squash, taro simmered to absorb seasoning, and more

The chilled bowl is winter melon manju. I think the appeal of winter melon is its green skin, so I scrape the skin thin rather than peel it away…

Kindling-style grilled potato, sandwich-grilled deep-fried tofu, and yam bulbils grilled with miso glaze spilling over the dish, and more

This is the second tier. For the deep-fried tofu sandwich-grilled dish, since it's a shojin (Buddhist vegetarian) dish, the white part of the maitake…

Kamo eggplant, baby taro cut in a stone-wall pattern, Wagyu simmered in sweet soy, maki-grade kuruma prawn simmered with egg yolk

The simmered dish is Kamo eggplant. The Kamo eggplant is jade-green simmered and topped generously with a mustard-flavored thickened sauce. For the…

Ginkgo Nut Tofu

Deep-fried tofu fritter, knotted dried daikon

Soft-shell crab deep-fried in a roasted-grain-flour batter, plain deep-fried shiba shrimp, sweet potato crisps, jade ginkgo nuts, and green chili pepper stuffed with a poured filling

The soft-shell crab in the fried course is swimming crab that has just molted. A crab caught right after molting isn't something that's traditionally…

Calico-patterned tofu, avocado dumpling, duck and scallion, yuba, snap peas

The simmered course's sarasa-dofu is made by heating tofu that has been simmered to absorb flavor, breaking it apart while mixing in the other…

Miso-pickled tofu dusted with bottarga, pressed crab terrine, asparagus egg roll, quail with Japanese chives, shrimp-shaped taro with foie gras, grilled

The appetizer's quail with Japanese chives is made by butterflying the quail open into one flat piece, spreading ground chicken on the thinner part…

Lily Bulb Kan, Steamed Abalone, Petal-Cut Lily Bulb, Hakata-Style Shrimp Shinjo, Foie Gras Set in Red Wine Jelly, Deep-Fried Hoshiko, Deep-Fried Broad Beans, Overnight-Dried Icefish, Whiting Rolled in Shiraita Kombu, and Green Pea Jelly

What is placed inside the lantern-shaped stand for the appetizer is a lily bulb terrine and steamed abalone. The steamed abalone is served topped…

New tea steamed rice

This is a steamed dish. May is the season for new tea, the only time you can get fresh, unprocessed tea leaves, so I took the opportunity to use tea…