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'Whale' — whale throat cartilage (Onagawa's traditional food culture: 'Whale')

This is the appetizer course. Taking as its theme the 'whale culture' rooted in Onagawa, a town on the eastern side of Miyagi Prefecture, I hoped…

• Serves 1 · ¥398

• Cook time 2 days

Dried persimmon, golden sea cucumber, and walnut salad, monkfish liver wine terrine, smoked silver-shimmer fish styled as a winter camellia, yellowtail sushi fingers rolled kimono-sleeve style, snow crab deep-fried and wrapped in yuba, dried roe deep-fried in a fan-shaped coating, vegetables in a sweet-and-sour achara pickle, freeze-dried konjac and a prized fatty whale cut simmered Yamato-style

For the dried persimmon, golden sea cucumber, and walnut salad, I use a local specialty dried persimmon. The golden sea cucumber is thoroughly…

• ¥950

• Cook time 3 hr

Mochi-kujira whale in vinegar-miso dressing, chicken breast in steamed white-loin style with yuzu chili paste oil, pressed vegetables, arrowhead bulb balls, wax-glazed grilled shrimp, monkfish liver kintsuba, Omi konjac, whelk deep-fried in seaweed batter, lily bulb monaka, plum-flesh swirl, layered egg

As for the mochi-kujira in vinegar-miso dressing, whale is rarely used these days because of the whaling ban, but since it's a nostalgic ingredient…

Whale red meat, grilled with golden egg yolk

This is the grilled course. The marinade for the whale red meat used in the golden-glazed grilling combines dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, mirin…

• ¥2,000

• Cook time 2 hr

Kamo eggplant and whale in a small hot pot

This is a hot pot dish. For the Kamo eggplant and whale small hot pot, the Kamo eggplant is deep-fried once and then the excess oil is removed…

• Serves 1 · ¥700

• Cook time 3 hr

Roasted Bryde's Whale with Aromatic Vegetables

This is a grilled dish, built on the concept of "protecting the ocean environment." For the roasted Bryde's whale with aromatic vegetables, the idea…

• Serves 1 · ¥450

• Cook time 50 min

Whale dressed in mustard vinegar-miso, whale tongue

This is a vinegared dish. For the mustard vinegar-miso dressing, I use momohiro and saezuri. Momohiro is the small intestine, and saezuri is the…

• ¥600

• Cook time 30 min

Whale belly cut and Japanese parsley, sesame-dressed

This is a small side dish. The unesu used in the unesu and nagaseri sesame dressing is the cut spanning from the jaw to the belly. I use it salted…

• ¥500

• Cook time 30 min

Red Meat and Asparagus Roll, Stuffed Shiitake

This is the deep-fried course. For the red meat and asparagus roll, I marinate cut red meat in the same whale marinade as before. For tatsuta-age…

• ¥700

• Cook time 2 hr

Whale and mizuna hot pot, head meat, prized tail-fin fat, whale belly skin

This is a small hot pot. For the harihari nabe, I use head meat with a little marbling in it; this meat is also delicious done as sukiyaki. The white…

• ¥1,500

• Cook time 30 min

New Year's mochi soup

This is the clear-soup course. With whale, the difficulty lies in how to rehydrate it and how to remove its odor. I take a block of whale hongawa…

• ¥700

• Cook time 3 hr

Whale belly cut in sweet-savory simmer

This is a simmered dish. Rather than red meat, I make it with unesu, the cut normally used for bacon. With bacon, it's common to remove the skin…

• ¥900

• Cook time 2 hr