I was lucky enough to be invited to dine here again this weekend. Another splendid meal was about to unfold; but first some trivia...
Ever wondered what Aronia meant? So had I; Aronia or chokeberries are cultivated as ornamental plants and also as food because they are very high in antioxidant pigment compounds. Like a kind of obscure superfruit that's really good for your health and well-being - not a lot of people know that. The implication being that eating Chef Takazawa's food is good for you in ways you only hitherto imagined.
Again this evening it's the nine course menu at 20,000 yen per person we will be working through; as I've mentioned before, if you want to mix it up a bit, there are shorter and longer combinations available; have a chat with Akiko when you're making your booking.
Also, as mentioned in a previous post, an email to Akiko requesting a copy of the wine list in advance helped to avert a very nasty case of "last bottle syndrome" for this visit. Feel free to email your host if you require a sneak preview of the wines on offer.
Amuse Bouche
Tonight's opener comes in a ceramic sardine tin, which when opened reveals delicious piece of Tokizake salmon dressed with olive oil and herbs. Alongside it is another small pot of foie gras creme brulee with some tiny slices of a wholemeal nutty melba toast to accompany. The salmon is good, but the foie gras and the melba toast is very good. (7.5/10)
Next to arrive is warm bread laced with edomame beans served with a small corked glass beaker of the creamiest rillette de porc you could ever hope to taste. Thankfully a staple here. (8/10)
Next to arrive is warm bread laced with edomame beans served with a small corked glass beaker of the creamiest rillette de porc you could ever hope to taste. Thankfully a staple here. (8/10)
N.B. As always the dishes here are followed by quasi-vintages to denote the calendar year in which they were first served at the restaurant.
Ratatouille (2005)
This dish is served on a spoon and looks like slice of a vegetable terrine wrapped in a red cabbage leaf with a jewel of crystallized salt and a piece of red bean sitting at the side. Each of the 15 constituent vegetables is cooked, steamed, vinegared, sliced, pared and seasoned to perfection. Guests are encouraged to eat it in one mouthful. Hours to prepare and about a minute to eat, but what an enjoyable minute it is! (8.5/10)
Ayu Cappuccino (2009)
Ayu is a sweet tasting Japanese fish, related to smelt. This ayu is smoked and served in a very light sour cream dressing, topped with a foam of cucumber and a generous dollop of oscietra caviar. On the side plate are a few sweet cherries, which appear to be dusted in icing sugar; the icing sugar is, in fact, salt and contrasts beautifully with the sweet cherries. Additionally we are served what appears to be a very thin square tuille which is described as ayu paper made - goodness knows how - from the bones and other left-overs from the fish; it is perfectly seasoned, translucent, impossibly thin and bursting with fishy goodness. A very complicated yet harmonious dish. (8/10)
Summer Vegetables (Seasonal)
A beautiful and delicious arrangement of various vegetables including a pate of gorgonzola and miso atop which sits a perfectly poached egg with the reddish coloured yolk described elsewhere in this blog, a sweet baby carrot, fruits tomato, baby aubergine tempura, radish, zucchini flower tempura, baby turnip and a large slice of dessicated salty black cabbage leaf. A vegetarian smorgasbord both perfectly cooked and crunchy in all the right places with the wonderfully salty hit of the dessicated cabbage leaf. A joy to look at, and a joy to eat. Never had this before. Very good. (8/10)
Puccin Pudding (2009)
This playful dish is named after a cheap convenience store creme caramel pudding. It resembles it in name only. The yellow creamy element of the pudding is a delicious blend of sweet hairy crab meat and sweetcorn. The caramel topping is constructed from tiger prawn jelly. I've eaten this before but it it truly lovely and still brings a smile to my face. (8/10)
WASABI -196ºC (2010)
This dish is brought to table with a few choice morsels of perfectly cooked wagyu beef sitting on a base of white sliced mild onions and japanese ginger (shoga) with a hint of Japanese pepper (sansho). At the side of the dish is a small dollop of freshly ground green wasabi root. Now the chef comes to the table carrying an insulated bowl full of liquid nitrogen into which he drops fresh wasabi leaves. The leaves become immediately frozen solid and placed on top of our beef. We are instructed to smash then in small pieces with our chopsticks. The combination of wagyu beef and wasabi is a very harmonious one, and the sansho leaves a very low frequency tingle on your tongue. Well constructed, delicious and extremely theatrical. (8.5/10)
Caprese (2010)
A play on the Italian Tricolor. The red colour is provided by fruits tomatoes, the white by beautifully steamed seabass, and the green by a topping of tiny basil leaves and and chervil flowers. It's all topped with a foam created from the tiger prawns. All the elements are very tasty indeed, with the chervil flowers giving a hint of aniseed to the dish. (7.5/10)
Lamb Curry Rice (New)
First new dish of the day. A plate with a lamb chop and a spare rib are served. Arranged around the plate are small silver onions covered in breadcrumbs and black sesame and deep fried - to die for. And small servings each of onion compote, carrot with cumin and finally potato with apple vinegar and garlic - again all very delicious. The chef then comes to table with a rice cooker and offers us our "curry rice". It transpires that the curry rice is a very clever thin, translucent and crispy sheet which we are told to crumble over the dish. The taste is precisely that of curried rice. Another very theatrical dish which I enjoyed very much but for one flaw; namely the fat on my and other guests' lamb chops was not seared on the outside or sufficiently softened by the cooking process, instead it retained a rather nasty crunch. This is frustrating, because in every other way the dish was terribly clever and inventive. The tastes of all the other elements were delicious, and the "curry rice" simply boggled the mind. (7/10)
Cheese and Mango (New)
Pudding time! A cold summer cheese made from ewe's milk is served like a scoop of ice cream alongside the most deliciously sweet Miyazaki mango. The most expensive mangoes money can buy! Simple but delicious. (7.5/10)
Gazpacho (New)
It's so true that we eat partly with our eyes, and I begin to drool as soon as this dish is brought to table. Baby watermelons have been topped and hollowed out to make soup containers. They contain a delicious plum sorbet floating in a soup of salted watermelon juice and flesh, skinless Delaware grapes and peach pieces. It's a fruit explosion and utterly delicious with the salt giving a real lift to the watermelon juice. Perfectly conceived, perfectly prepared and perfectly delicious. A blissful dish. (9/10)
Petit Fours
Dining here is always special; part gastronomic event, part theatre, and enormous fun. Tonight was no exception. And with only one bump in the road, this has to go down as one of the best meals I have ever eaten here.
Ayu Cappuccino (2009)
Ayu is a sweet tasting Japanese fish, related to smelt. This ayu is smoked and served in a very light sour cream dressing, topped with a foam of cucumber and a generous dollop of oscietra caviar. On the side plate are a few sweet cherries, which appear to be dusted in icing sugar; the icing sugar is, in fact, salt and contrasts beautifully with the sweet cherries. Additionally we are served what appears to be a very thin square tuille which is described as ayu paper made - goodness knows how - from the bones and other left-overs from the fish; it is perfectly seasoned, translucent, impossibly thin and bursting with fishy goodness. A very complicated yet harmonious dish. (8/10)
Summer Vegetables (Seasonal)
A beautiful and delicious arrangement of various vegetables including a pate of gorgonzola and miso atop which sits a perfectly poached egg with the reddish coloured yolk described elsewhere in this blog, a sweet baby carrot, fruits tomato, baby aubergine tempura, radish, zucchini flower tempura, baby turnip and a large slice of dessicated salty black cabbage leaf. A vegetarian smorgasbord both perfectly cooked and crunchy in all the right places with the wonderfully salty hit of the dessicated cabbage leaf. A joy to look at, and a joy to eat. Never had this before. Very good. (8/10)
Puccin Pudding (2009)
This playful dish is named after a cheap convenience store creme caramel pudding. It resembles it in name only. The yellow creamy element of the pudding is a delicious blend of sweet hairy crab meat and sweetcorn. The caramel topping is constructed from tiger prawn jelly. I've eaten this before but it it truly lovely and still brings a smile to my face. (8/10)
WASABI -196ºC (2010)
This dish is brought to table with a few choice morsels of perfectly cooked wagyu beef sitting on a base of white sliced mild onions and japanese ginger (shoga) with a hint of Japanese pepper (sansho). At the side of the dish is a small dollop of freshly ground green wasabi root. Now the chef comes to the table carrying an insulated bowl full of liquid nitrogen into which he drops fresh wasabi leaves. The leaves become immediately frozen solid and placed on top of our beef. We are instructed to smash then in small pieces with our chopsticks. The combination of wagyu beef and wasabi is a very harmonious one, and the sansho leaves a very low frequency tingle on your tongue. Well constructed, delicious and extremely theatrical. (8.5/10)
Caprese (2010)
A play on the Italian Tricolor. The red colour is provided by fruits tomatoes, the white by beautifully steamed seabass, and the green by a topping of tiny basil leaves and and chervil flowers. It's all topped with a foam created from the tiger prawns. All the elements are very tasty indeed, with the chervil flowers giving a hint of aniseed to the dish. (7.5/10)
Lamb Curry Rice (New)
First new dish of the day. A plate with a lamb chop and a spare rib are served. Arranged around the plate are small silver onions covered in breadcrumbs and black sesame and deep fried - to die for. And small servings each of onion compote, carrot with cumin and finally potato with apple vinegar and garlic - again all very delicious. The chef then comes to table with a rice cooker and offers us our "curry rice". It transpires that the curry rice is a very clever thin, translucent and crispy sheet which we are told to crumble over the dish. The taste is precisely that of curried rice. Another very theatrical dish which I enjoyed very much but for one flaw; namely the fat on my and other guests' lamb chops was not seared on the outside or sufficiently softened by the cooking process, instead it retained a rather nasty crunch. This is frustrating, because in every other way the dish was terribly clever and inventive. The tastes of all the other elements were delicious, and the "curry rice" simply boggled the mind. (7/10)
Cheese and Mango (New)
Pudding time! A cold summer cheese made from ewe's milk is served like a scoop of ice cream alongside the most deliciously sweet Miyazaki mango. The most expensive mangoes money can buy! Simple but delicious. (7.5/10)
Gazpacho (New)
It's so true that we eat partly with our eyes, and I begin to drool as soon as this dish is brought to table. Baby watermelons have been topped and hollowed out to make soup containers. They contain a delicious plum sorbet floating in a soup of salted watermelon juice and flesh, skinless Delaware grapes and peach pieces. It's a fruit explosion and utterly delicious with the salt giving a real lift to the watermelon juice. Perfectly conceived, perfectly prepared and perfectly delicious. A blissful dish. (9/10)
Petit Fours
- Green tea Madeleine
- Mini chocolate bar (made from 56% cocoa with a hint of black pepper)
- Coconut Meringue Finger
- Aoyouzu Marshmallow
Getting rather full now, but manage to force them down. The chocolate and the marshmallow being particularly delicious. (7/10)
Dining here is always special; part gastronomic event, part theatre, and enormous fun. Tonight was no exception. And with only one bump in the road, this has to go down as one of the best meals I have ever eaten here.
Email well in advance, and Akiko, who speaks excellent English, will help you to arrange your evening.
2F Sanyo Akasaka Bldg
3-5-2 Akasaka
Minato-ku
Tokyo
〒 107-0052
Tel :03-3505-5052