I’d planned a trip to Japan over the holiday stretch from late March to early May, so this time I was able to book ahead at a place rumoured to be really hard to get into. A local foodie who lives there was a huge help. Thank you so much, every single time.
Hirosaku, where I was headed, is a restaurant famous for its kaiseki cuisine in Shinbashi, the salaryman’s district. They say dinner there runs a scary 20,000 to 30,000 yen, but at lunch you can taste a slice of the real kaiseki experience for a very reasonable price, so it’s apparently popular enough that you can’t get in unless you book a month ahead.
The front entrance
It wasn’t that far from Shinbashi Station, but you have to step a little way in from the main road to find it. At the bottom it says they’re fully booked today. I wonder if a place like this is ever not fully booked. Then again, as I was eating, walk-in customers without reservations came in whenever a seat opened up mid-service, even though it was full. They were elderly gentlemen dressed sharply in suits, probably longtime regulars.
Tofu
Some of you might think, what’s the big deal about tofu, but it isn’t easy to make it this nutty and this clean-tasting. I’ve been wowed by bean dishes quite a few times in Japan, but in Korea my skills still aren’t up to it and I don’t know where to find that level. Anyway, I was thrilled to get top-notch tofu again, following last night.
Sashimi
Was it amadai (tilefish)? I can’t quite remember the name.. I’ve eaten sashimi all the time, so I didn’t expect to be all that impressed, but wow.. unlike regular sashimi it came lightly blanched, and it tasted incredibly refined. The flesh was springy, with just a bit of bite left in it. I figured it tastes like this because the ingredient itself is so high-end to begin with.
Tempura of shrimp, fava beans and corn
An ordinary tempura of shrimp, fava beans and corn. But.. can you really call tempura like this ordinary? I’ve eaten a fair amount of tempura, and the tempura that comes with this lunch course is in no way inferior to a first-class tempura shop. Once again I really wondered what on earth they use to make the corn taste this good and to keep the clean flavour of the fava beans fully alive.
Sakura shrimp okowa
This is exactly the season for sakura shrimp. It’s just fried shrimp laid over rice, but the shrimp flavour was so intense that I emptied the bowl in no time. It suddenly struck me how beautiful Japanese food is.
Getting ready for soba
The hand-made soba served at the end of the meal is apparently famous.
Soba
But for hand-cut soba, the noodles are strikingly uniform in thickness. They say if you look really closely you can spot slight differences in thickness.. If I hadn’t been told it was hand-made, I’d never have noticed. One bite and the noodles swirled refreshingly around my mouth. It was so good I nearly teared up. Far better than the Michelin one-star place I ate at last night. If you serve soba like this, how are other soba shops supposed to make a living? Isn’t this a bit much.. Had I known, I’d have gone somewhere other than that soba shop yesterday.
Soba-yu
Finishing off with soba-yu, the soba cooking water..
And dessert..
Jelly. Not a bad way to finish. It felt like I’d experienced a tiny glimpse of the extreme a Japanese restaurant can aim for. I bet dinner here would be truly delicious. It’d cost a fair bit, though. A precious experience that reminded me once again that the world is wide and there are so many places to try. I’ve got to carry this excitement on into the evening..