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Soymilk-Based Clear Soup with Asari-Clam Shinjo

This is a soymilk-based soup course. The asari-clam shinjo that serves as the soup's centerpiece looked a little plain on its own, so I wrapped it in…

Turban Shell Rice

For the meal course, the turban shell rice wouldn't be very interesting cooked in an ordinary rice pot, so we cooked it in a large turban shell…

Soy Milk-Based Broth with Avocado

For the soup course, the avocado ripple-pattern tofu (sazanami-dōfu) is made by peeling and slicing avocado, soaking it in trehalose solution for…

Ark shell, cockle, and rapeseed blossom in vinegar-miso dressing

Ark shell, cockle, and rape blossom teppai is a dish dressed in vinegar-miso; it normally uses scallions, but here we used rape blossoms instead.

Spring Festival

For the Spring Festival dish, two kinds of pudding each have green peas and tapioca poured over the top to form two layers; they are shaped into…

Armor-cut octopus steeped in uni

What's laid beneath the yoroi-dako uni-steeped dish is steamed sea urchin (mushi-uni).

Daigo-style preparation, and more

The simmered-soup course is prepared daigo-style. Dashi is taken from cherry salmon bones and trimmings, and rounded out with milk and other dairy…

Sakura bamboo shoot, and more

For the clear-soup course, we used a dashi made by dry-grilling (su-yaki) local-fish bones and head trimmings, then rounded out the flavor with…

Conger eel, pine-bark-style tofu, and more

For the anago matsukawa tofu, the conger eel is grilled with tare sauce (tare-yaki), trimmed to match the length of the tofu, and quartered…

Clear-Soup Style

For the soup course, mugwort sesame tofu uses mugwort powder. Knead the sesame tofu as usual, add in the rehydrated mugwort powder, and once it's…

Icefish / egg-bearing baby octopus / tilefish, thinly sliced / sea bream / tuna

Sashimi wouldn't normally be plated in five small portions on one dish like this, but this is a proposal — that pairing each of these ingredients…

Sashimi: sea bream, shrimp, ark shell clam, squid, assorted garnishes

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 at its spring best and spring vegetables, steamed with sake

The steamed course's sakura-dai and spring vegetables steamed with sake is meant to be the main dish of this meal. If it were just sea bream, it…

Icefish simmered in egg yolk

Shirauo kimi-ni is quickly simmered in happō dashi (all-purpose seasoned dashi) just before serving.

Steamed clams

For the clear-soup course, the clam fukashi: this would ordinarily be made as clam shinjo, but since it's steamed until soft, I called it fukashi…

Hot water

▽ Pour hot water over a small amount of rice left in the rice bowl beforehand, to make hot-water-soaked rice. For the roasted rice, wash the rice…

Tilefish, sake-grilled

Kombu-cured spring sea bream

Now for the explanation of the meal course. First, the sashimi course. For the adjusted vinegar, I make a two-part vinegar with seven parts rice…

Sakura shrimp deep-fried in a straw-bundle wrap

A deep-fried dish. For the sakura shrimp tsuto-wrapped deep-fry, raw white fish paste is ground, then seasoned with softly set scrambled egg used as…

Spiny lobster simmered with a light kuzu thickening and fragrant plum, Kyoto white bamboo shoot (shirako-dake) sprout roll

This is the takiawase, the simmered assortment course. For the Ise lobster, I thought the tartness of plum would bring out the flavor of the bamboo…

Kuruma Prawn Ohara-gi Bundles, Layered Kombu-Cured Sea Bream

This is a vinegared dish. For the kuruma prawn Ohara-gi bundles, the prawns are steeped in a light sweet vinegar, combined with Japanese spikenard…

Halfbeak and rapeseed-blossom mountain-yam roll

The sayori and rapeseed-blossom nagaimo roll is made by putting sayori and rapeseed blossom inside, but in winter it can be interesting to substitute…

Bamboo shoot three-color grill, kuruma prawn, Japanese whiting, beef loin, and angelica tree shoot crisp-fried in light white batter

The grilled course is the bamboo shoot three-color grill. The bamboo shoot is prepared in the usual way, brushed with bonito-infused Tosa soy sauce…

Ezo giant sea snail, starry flounder scored and cured between salted paper, first bonito of the season

The sashimi course is Ezo horagai (giant sea snail) and first-of-season bonito. The liver of the horagai is delicious, but since some guests find it…