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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…

Shimanto River Region

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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.'

Clam shinjo

This is the clear-soup course. Stock from clams steamed with sake is combined with bonito dashi to make the soup base.

• ¥312

• Cook time 25 min

Winter Peony

This is a fried dish. For the winter peony, we use the lily bulb scales just outside the center, beveling the edge of each one individually. The…

• Serves 1 · ¥550

• Cook time 20 min

Corn pureed soup

This serves in place of the soup course (o-wan). The chicken tenderloin is soaked briefly in shio-kōji, and once the seasoning has taken, it is…

• Serves 5 · ¥500

• Cook time 30 min

Smoked Char, Cured Prosciutto-Style

Continuing the proposal for using char across its hashiri, shun, and nagori stages, this represents the nagori, or end-of-season, use. This is served…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,000

• Cook time 2 hr

Soba-Gaki 'Tofu' in Thick Broth

These days, I think the restaurant industry is having a hard time due to a labor shortage. On top of that, we're operating in a very tough…

• Serves 5 · ¥600

• Cook time 20 min

Spiny lobster simmered in the shell

This is a simmered dish built around the presentation. Spiny lobster simmered in its own shell was given a bold, high-impact plating under the…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,200

• Cook time 1 hr

Lettuce, celery, and tomato Hakata-roll, bracken fern and prosciutto wrapped in bamboo paper, shark fin in savory jelly

This is a vinegared dish course. For the lettuce, celery, and tomato hakata-roll, I pass the lettuce through oil, then through hot water, and drop it…

• ¥280

• Cook time 1 hr

Hokki Clam, New Potato, and Japanese Parsley Tofu Dressing, Cockle, Seared Pen Shell, Tender-Simmered Abalone

This is the sakizuke course, a trio of shellfish for the fragrance of spring. For the surf clam, new potato, and Japanese parsley tofu dressing: the…

• ¥620

• Cook time 1 hr

Clam

In honor of the Peach Festival, the egg tofu is cut into a diamond shape.

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…

Bamboo shoot, katsura-cut (rolling in spring)

This is one of our creative dishes using bamboo shoots. Here, we use the outer part of the bamboo shoot. Since we wrap other ingredients in bamboo…

• Serves 1 · ¥500

• Cook time 3 hr

Akashi octopus cherry-simmered, icefish cherry-blossom sushi, warm-smoked salmon and papaya, broad bean grilled with bottarga powder, bamboo shoot, simmered abalone

This time, this is a dish meant to be enjoyed around the time the first cherry blossoms are announced to be opening. This is the tray course. We…

• Serves 1 · ¥700

• Cook time 1 hr

Bamboo Shoot Simmered Tosa-Style, Tilefish Chakin-Simmered, Tied Bracken Fern

This is the mixed simmered assortment course. The bamboo shoot simmered Tosa-style has its bitterness removed and is simmered with bonito flakes. New…

• ¥380

• Cook time 1 days

Bamboo shoot, pen shell, bigfin reef squid, bracken fern, and sansho leaf in sansho-leaf miso dressing

This time, on 'sakizuke,' I learned from chef Matsubara (Roppongi's 'Kasumitei Matsubara'). I take up 'kinome-miso-ae.'

Shingoro, Okoge-Style, with Kozuyu Sauce

This is a modern arrangement of the Fukushima local dishes shingoro (a rice cake glazed with egoma, or perilla) and kozuyu (a dish simmered in dried…

• Serves 1 · ¥140

• Cook time 2 hr

Wild mountain vegetables and egg rice porridge with bamboo shoot, udo, bracken fern, koshiabura, fiddlehead fern, myoga, and grated ginger

This time, on 'shokuji,' I learned from chef Tamura (Shiodome, Conrad Tokyo's 'Nihon Ryōri Kazahana'). This time I take up 'kayaku gohan.'

Icefish wrapped in a twisted cloth shape, plum and green tea pureed soup with grated turnip

As for the icefish chakin, the soup-bowl centerpiece, if the icefish isn't prepped carefully it can ruin the whole dish, so I was conscious of…

Tilefish head simmered, cherry-blossom daikon stuffed with chicken dumpling

A simmered dish. For the tilefish kabuto-ni, rather than the conventional method, no water at all was used — it was simmered instead in sweetened soy…

• ¥200

• Cook time 1 hr

Kenojiru Shinoda-maki

We wanted to newly express the local dish kenojiru, handed down here, as a modern arrangement based on the cooking methods of Japanese cuisine. This…

• Serves 4 · ¥1,200

• Cook time 1 hr

Fuku deep-fried in egg-yolk batter, clam deep-fried in a freshly milled rice-flour coating, black soybean deep-fried in a fawn-spotted coating

This is the deep-fried course. For the fuku deep-fried in egg-yolk batter, since it's the New Year I call the fugu "fuku" — a play on the word for…

• ¥560

• Cook time 20 min

Mist-style Jinhua ham clear soup

"Jinhua Ham Kasumi-Wan" is striking for its spring-like colors. "Cured products like Jinhua ham have a unique, concentrated umami. Of course, since…