Finally, the dinner I’d been waiting for. Good food is really the single most important thing that draws people to an onsen ryokan. If all you want is a hot spring, there are plenty near the city.
The dinnerware set
This is for two. With the food coming out as a course, you need at least this much ready.
The view from the window
The sun is slowly starting to set. It calms you down, body and mind.
They take care of setting the table for you.
With nothing for us to do, we just gazed out the window..
Today’s special: wagyu
We added the wagyu to the regular course. I think it came to a little over 2,000 yen extra per person, but one look at the quality of the meat and it made sense. Even next to the legendary wagyu I had yesterday, this meat held its own. And the size and portion were just right. If we hadn’t ordered it, I might have been kicking myself. The square thing on top is butter.
Aperitif: a wine of red shiso and kintoki-so, full of polyphenols
Since it was made from shiso I wondered what it would taste like, but it was just a bit sweet, with no shiso flavour at all. As an aperitif it was drinkable enough.
Rihaku Junmai Daiginjo, nama (unpasteurised)
I ordered the nama, but it was drier than I expected and didn’t go all that well with the food. Had I known, I’d have ordered my favourite, Toyonoaki. Drinks are charged separately, so on top of the room rate it came to about 2,000 yen more per person.
Something to add to the soup
Once it went into the soup it turned jelly-like. It was delicious.
A drink
Now that the food is here, I can hardly not have a drink.
Tofu and fig
This being a ryokan known for its cooking, even the little side dishes don’t fall short.
First, the wagyu goes on the grill.
It melts at room temperature, so it has to be eaten first.. The butter is melting underneath.
Starter: a trio of seasonal tastes
Lift the lid and..
Kuruma prawn; a thick omelette with sweet potato and okra; spear squid topped with plum jelly; and geoduck, mozuku seaweed and salmon roe marinated in soy sauce and a traditional local sake.
Rather long names, like at a French restaurant. What came out was elaborate Japanese cooking. The freshness of the fish, the quality of the ingredients, the skill of the cooking: not one of them falls short. Great with a drink, too. Honestly, if you want proper Japanese food, I think you’re better off at an onsen ryokan than at an izakaya. Because the meal time is fixed exactly, they can serve every dish at its very best, right when you’re ready to eat it. It’s a bit pricey, but well worth experiencing.
Nicely grilled wagyu
Heh heh~ It’s finally done. Getting it to medium took a little while. How will it taste? My heart is pounding..
Moved onto the grill rack for now
Any more cooking and it would have been ruined, so I moved it to a plate. Being on the rack, though, it was a bit awkward to cut. Anyway, one bite and this place’s wagyu is top-tier too. Thick meat that makes its presence felt, and fat that coats your mouth so refreshingly and melts right in. So this is what a real wagyu steak is! Two days in a row now.. as far as wagyu steak goes, I could die without regrets.
A small hot pot
With the wagyu as a warm-up, time to fill up on the rest.
Sea bream, prawn cake, oboro kombu, mitsuba and more.
In goes the ingredient from earlier too. It tasted a little like Korean siraegi-guk (dried radish-greens soup), a real treat.
A trio of sashimi
I remember it as tuna, sea bream and amberjack. Freshness couldn’t be better. As part of a course, this amount is just right: a little of many good things. I pushed my luck and ordered the wagyu course, but if you’re a light eater, a simpler course would probably do fine.
Seafood salad with baby leaves, scallop, coho salmon and prawn; sea urchin and colourful somen
Having eaten the wagyu main first threw the order of the course off a bit, but normally this would be the right order. A cold salad and sea urchin.. not the most sublime flavours, but as part of the course they go well with the other dishes.
Ayu with miso dengaku, hajikami ginger, kuikobo senbei, and cream cheese chawanmushi with kabocha sauce
Maybe because there’s an ayu-producing area nearby, out came ayu, a summer delicacy. Compared with the ayu I had the day before, the quality was far higher. It’s not quite at its early-summer peak, of course, but this would hold its own anywhere. The dishes were pretty and the little sides were tasty too.
Ayu
The topping is miso. A bit sweet, but it goes surprisingly well with the delicate ayu.
Kabocha chawanmushi
It’s a high-class chawanmushi, but with so many dishes in the course, it’s wise to pace yourself.
Beef tongue stewed in the head chef’s own Japanese-style sauce
Apart from being a little lukewarm, it was a perfectly braised stew. I never imagined a stew would show up at a traditional ryokan like this.
A spoonful of the beef tongue stew
But I was already stuffed.. Any other time this alone would carry a whole bowl of rice.. It really drove home what a luxurious course this was.
The sun slowly goes down..
Tonbara-zuke (Shimane fukujinzuke-style pickles), savoury vegetable miso, and sea bream chirimen
At last the course is over, and out comes the set of side dishes and ochazuke.
Ochazuke
A light finish. A perfect Japanese course, with not a single weak point. It made me wonder when in my life I’d ever get to eat a course like this again.
The dessert set
Compared with the course, the dessert was a bit weak. Then again, putting effort into dessert would mean cutting the number of courses, so I suppose it’s an unavoidable choice. Maybe for a proper dessert you just have to go to a French or Italian restaurant..