Tempura Kaiseki

Just as Yakitori Hirako which we visited was no ordinary Yakitori place, Tenmasa that we went the next day was no ordinary Tempura place either. 

Venturing Up North

Spending the weekend in Shenzhen turned out to be quite a revelation for me. While most people travelled to our neighbor north to the border in the hunt of bargains, we went in search of some finer things with many new restaurants and hotels opening even before and during covid that easily rival those of similar caliber in town. 

Kaoshiung Kisetsu Ryori

We quickly settled in our room at Silks Club Kaoshiung before having lunch at Ukai-tei restaurant downstairs. While Teppanyaki is their specialty, either at this restaurant or their main branch in Ginza (the Kaoshiung one is their first overseas outpost), we were served a seasonal omakase menu prepared by Chef Shimpei Hirose and his team. 

Tongue to Tail

Right after we finished our dinner at Kisho we made a booking to eat at Ushidoki right next door under the same restaurant group a few weeks later. While Kisho specializes in chicken cuisine, Ushidoki focuses on beef. Both restaurants have similar setting where everyone was seated at the counter around the open kitchen, but Ushidoki was slightly smaller in size with only a dozen or so seats and everyone got a better view of the kitchen (they also have 2 private rooms at the back). 

Taste of Springtime

I found myself eating more and more at Japanese restaurants lately – maybe that’s subconsciously my way of getting through the pain of feeling stuck in town for over 2 years already. One of the most recent ones I tried was Nagamoto, a Kappo-style restaurant in Central headed by Chef Teruhiko Nagamoto. 

"Mo Duck Shue"

Some friends and I decided to take turns in hosting dinners at places each of us were (more) familiar with (including here and here), and when it came to my turn, I suggest we convene at Nikushou partly because that’s a place I am confident about and partly because most of us have not been recently so it’s good for a re-visit. So I gave its owner (and a good friend of ours) A a buzz and asked him to help arrange and all I requested was the menu has to be “unbeatable” (or “Mo Duck Shue” 無得輸 as we often say in Canto) as we often said in the previous rounds of dinners. 

Ryota-san's Special Menu

It's a no-brainer when our friend C asked us whether we would like to get together at Ryota Kappou Modern, a restaurant that he frequented, let alone he offered to arrange everything, booking out the private room and sorting out the menu with chef-owner Ryota Kanesawa prior to our meal in early August. 

Matsutake Kaiseki

When a friend of ours passed us a batch of freshly picked Matsutake mushrooms from Yunnan, I decided to turn that into a feast of mushrooms for six people, Iron-chef style. 

Bemused Kaiseki

While we were in the hood for the weekend we thought we would take the opportunity to explore one of the new restaurants in K11 Musea. Tominokoji Yamagishi is the first overseas branch of the Kyoto-based restaurant of the same name, specializes in kyo-ryori, the formal Kaiseki cuisine rooted in imperial Kyoto.

Yuwaku Onsen

We wanted to stay close to Kanazawa on the last couple of days of our trip, so the town of Yuwaku (湯涌温泉) fits the bill perfectly as it's only 30 quick minutes away from downtown by car and so we didn’t have to spend much time commuting.

Luxury Bento

Thankfully I didn’t make much plan for my short trip to Kyoto, ‘cause otherwise any plan would have been severely disrupted by the heavy rainstorm covering almost my entire time there (sad to be the worst in the region for decades). But for a few things that I planned at the last minute, I decided to have lunch and pay a visit to a new hotel, and an old friend.

Marriott in an Onsen Town

CYY gave me the funny look when I told her we have booked the room at Marriott during our onsen trip to Shirahama in Wakayama Prefecture. “I thought we were going to stay in a ryokan, no?” – well as it turned out most decent properties in this resort town were medium-sized hotels I thought we may as well check out the Nanki-Shirahama Marriott, which is one of the newest in the area, opened just late last year after the rebranding and renovation under the Marriott brand.

Springtime Kaiseki

There may be plenty of Japanese restaurants in town, a lot of them more than decent, but there aren't many that specialize in the formal kaiseki-ryori, let alone ones that did it right. I have heard Kashiwaya belong to this rare group of good kaiseki restaurants and recently I finally had a chance to visit this Michelin-starred establishment for the first time and check out some of their new seasonal dishes.

Proper Kaiseki

I came to know this Japanese place through a rather unusual source - sponsored ad on Facebook how about that? (just to show it does occasionally work you marketing people!) I was intrigued by the fact that the restaurant, called Tenkuni, is specialized in Tempura and Unagi, or freshwater eel, as they advertised. You know, there's only a handful place in town that serves even half-decent Unagi dishes that can be somewhat close to any random ones in Japan, so that got me curious enough to give it a shot on one weeknight.

Tokyo in 40: Dinner at Kanda

While my Tokyo weekend was not entirely about food, I did have a few restaurants in mind that I was eager to try this time around. After an extraordinary lunch at Den just a few hours ago, in the evening I went for dinner at Chef Hiroyuki Kanda’s namesake restaurant at Moto-Azabu. Chef Kanda-san is a legend on his own, having earned the 3 stars for his restaurant Kanda in the first Michelin Guide Tokyo and retained the accolade til now. But this is not the only reason I wanted to visit the restaurant. A few years ago we had a memorable meal at Tokushima’s Aoyagi owned by Chef Hirohisa Koyama, whom Kanda-san has worked under for over a decade before going on his own in 2004. So with the chef coming through the school of one of the chefs I admired most I am curious to see how their cooking styles compare.

Tokyo in 40: Mo-DEN Kaiseki

After breakfast, I managed a quick nap in my hotel room (thanks Hilton for letting me check in at 8am - must be my record of earliest check in at a hotel), and after that I was all refreshed and ready for lunch at Den, a restaurant owned by the young Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa that many of my friends have gone and loved, and now it became so popular that I needed to call them a month in advance to confirm a spot.

Feb-ulous Kyoto: Gion Matayoshi

I made only one restaurant reservation this time in Kyoto - partly because the trip was rather short and partly because by the time we started planning only a couple of weeks before the trip, many places we wanted to go were fully-booked. But at the end we loved our experience dining at this small kappou restaurant at Gion on our first evening in town.

Kaiseki with a Modern Twist

Everyone walking into the long private room at La Bombance had the same reaction, totally drawn to the stunning unobstructed harbor and skyline view from the window and ignored other friends who already sat at the table. A couple weeks ago our friend CXB found out this new Japanese restaurant which opened in mid-May, so the nine of us decided to check it out a few Fridays ago.

Ryokan by the Park

Accommodation in Miyajima was the part we confirmed last, done just a week before our departure. I scratched the original plan of staying in a larger hotel and instead make a last-minute reservation at Iwaso, a cozier ryokan a few steps up at the foot of the mountain not far away from the Itsukushima Shrine and the famous floating torii-gate, both of which part of the UNESCO world heritage site.

Flying Dragon's Head

The other day a friend of ours passed us a giant wax gourd grown from her garden. Wax gourd, aka Togan in Japanese, is a common ingredient for dishes in the summer in both Chinese and Japanese cuisine (despite in Chinese it's literally known as Winter Melon, or 冬瓜). According to Chinese tradition, it's known for its cooling and detoxifying effect, and to counter the summer humidity.