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Conger eel, firewood-bundle style; pike conger deep-fried with plum fragrance; edamame kakiage; deep-fried lotus root; wild garlic deep-fried in egg-yolk batter

Arrow-Fletching Whale, Pinwheel Carp, Whiting Wind-Streamers, and Chicken Liver Greens Roll

Our restaurant has many occasions to use whale, so for the arrow-fletching whale appetizer I used whale bacon. The bigfin reef squid layered together…

Wild sweetfish fragrant deep-fry, new burdock Rikyū-style deep-fry, broad bean and prawn sandwich deep-fry, and first-flush new tea

For the deep-fried course's Rikyū-style new burdock, the new burdock is cut, seasoned by cooking it kinpira-style before frying, air-dried, coated…

Simmered New Potatoes with Shuto, Grilled Gosanchiku Bamboo Shoots Tossed with Plum, and Prawns Simmered in Sake and Salt

For the simmered dish, new potatoes with shuto (salted, fermented fish innards, traditionally bonito), we have been serving this since last year, and…

Simmered Roe-Bearing Ayu, Conger Eel Tofu, and Simmered Tawara Daikon

For the simmered dish, the roe-bearing sweetfish is prepared by lining the pot with daikon peel, laying the grilled sweetfish on top, adding more…

Pike conger in crystal jelly

Pike conger is normally used in soup courses and the like, but this time I set it into a jelly and served it as an appetizer. The firmness is a…

Sea Bream Milt Tofu

This appetizer of sea bream milt tofu addresses the slight fishy edge milt can have: after draining the blood, we soak it in milk for about 2 hours…

Spiny lobster steamed with rice / squid, halfbeak, and shrimp rope-pattern sushi / angelica tree shoots and bracken fern / hosta shoots marinated in a salted bonito-innards base / paddy-grown Japanese parsley with chopped sesame

This Ise lobster steamed with rice, served as a sake accompaniment, also doubles as a shinogi — a small dish meant to take just the edge off hunger…

Chestnut rice, sardine dumplings, napa cabbage pickles, chopped pickled daikon, late chrysanthemum pickles

Sakura Shrimp and Scallop Takikomi Gohan

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

Soup Course: White Miso Broth with Seared Matsutake Mushroom

With the theme of the season turning from autumn into winter, we made three recommended dishes using ingredients of the moment. As the weather is…

Autumn Brocade Salad

Bamboo shoot fried futami-style with a snow-white coating / icefish deep-fried in a roasted-flour coating

For the accompanying dish's icefish fried in a roasted-grain coating, the icefish is soaked in a strong standing brine and drained, dusted with…

Grilled Bamboo Shoot Hasami-Yaki / Himekawa Dorayaki

For the grilled bamboo shoot hasami-yaki, I used the leftover himekawa to make dorayaki. I make a dorayaki batter with reduced sugar, flavor it with…

Scallop Wrapped in Prosciutto

●Scallop Wrapped in Prosciutto: the scallop adductor muscle is simmered in an all-purpose seasoned dashi with sake added at 70°C, then left to cool…

Tender Simmered Octopus

Higo Cochin Chicken Kombu-Cured and Rolled with Julienned Vegetables, Umasu Vinegar Jelly

As for the Higo Cochin chicken in the vinegared dish, this is an extremely rare ingredient — even within Kumamoto, it's only available in Yamaga.

Grilled barracuda marinated in sweet white miso, small abalone finished with Arima sansho pepper, king crab miso-grilled, grilled matsutake

As for the grilled dish's tokobushi (small abalone) Arima-yaki: I first clean the tokobushi thoroughly, then score it with a fine cross-hatch knife…

Fugu milt terrine

Pufferfish aspic, grilled shimeji and salmon roe, five-color crab namasu

For the maezara (appetizer plate), I made three dishes, each using a distinctively flavored vinegar. As for the fugu nikogori, I set fugu skin into a…

Scorpionfish Steamed in a Thin Egg Custard with Its Own Stock

The alternate clear-soup course is okoze steamed in a thin egg custard with its own stock. This one uses the okoze's head and nakaochi, the meat…

Small clam adductor steamed dumpling and winter melon

Seafood Washoku Gratin

The seafood washoku gratin uses rice porridge, since this is a Japanese dish. I've added matcha, but since that makes it a little bitter, I've also…

Softly simmered whale skin, crab and eggplant steamed Hakata-style, and new potatoes in sweet soy glaze

For the simmered dish, the softly simmered whale skin: the whale skin is parboiled in rice-bran water, rinsed in cold water, then gently simmered in…