A personalized Spring Kaiseki menu

After last month tardiness, here I am with this month's Kaiseki report (taken on 16th April, would have posted sooner if not for streamyx and computer virus).
So, Itadakimasu~~! Enjoy!


Starters: Marinated Firefly Squid, Firefly Squid with Miso Paste, Marinated Toro, Top Shell, assorted vegetables & Sesame Beancurd
Drawing on his inspiration from his Jakarta trip, Chef Ricky served up a smorgasbord of starters to overwhelm my stomach (Unfortunately for him, I have a bottomless pit of a stomach).

The sesame beancurd is still as bouncy as ever; and the firefly squid whether served traditionally marinated in shoyu-sake combo (sweet and savory/soury) or with miso-mustard is still a hit (springier in texture, and a good hit of spiciness in the aftertaste, somehow it reminds me of indian fish head curry). The top shell-meat still has the bitey-ness but the toro in the kyonko noodles was dry and flaky. For the other two, the salted beans were pretty tender and mushy while the spinach was slightly undercooked to give it some bite.
















Sashimi: Flambe Octopus & Scallop, Flambe Mirugai Shell, Flambe Clam & Flambe Toro
Okay, if sashimi is raw fish literally; then what do you call it if everything on the plate has been flambe just before presentation?

For once, everything old on this plate was new again. The toro is bleeding juice onto my tongue while the the scallop just opens my taste to a whole new dimension. The octopus sucker was five times the size of previous serving (PIG OUT!!!). The remaining shellfish meat taste like mini gyozas, crispy on the outside, bitey and tasty on the inside.
















Steamed dishes: Matcha Soba wrapped in Toro with Yam grating and Umi
Shrouded in steam, what does this dish look like?










TADA!!!!
A whole bundle of matcha soba with a Toro fillet wrapped around it, covered in generous dollops of Japanese yam grating and topped with Sea urchin and wasabi!!!
Every single bite of this was so good, saki sweet and mellow enough to temper any heat from the wasabi (which accentuated the sweetness even more). The cherry leaf wrapped on the side of the toro fillet binded all the flavours together perfectly in a six-part harmony that you can sing about at any dinner. My favourite dish of the night.



















Grilled Dish: Grilled Ebodai
It's a bird.
It's a plane.
It's the super flying Ebodai fish!!! (that landed on my plate at my mercy)

Thanks to a tip, you can dribble shoyu sauce onto the grated daikon and sample with the salt-encrusted-grilled ebodai fish for a great tasting experience. With the salt removing excess moisture from the meat, you get to sample the locked-in natural flavour ot the ebodai fish magnified five times by the flavour of the salt, it is like eating five steamed ebodai fish to get the same taste in your mouth (not to mention, a lot of fish).
The fish trying to veer off my plate.













Having given up the struggle, it is now lunging for my mouth. CHOMP!!!












Fried dish: Scallop and Vegetable Omelette
A hotchpotch of scallop and spring vegetables lightly bind together with eggs. Somehow I get a cheesy feeling of eating a high-class omelette minus a lot of eggs. Tastewise, it came across as a strong combination of scallop and mountain vegetables since both were trying to overpower the other and ended up in a draw. The plum salt and fried chilis were excellent garnishes to accompany this dish.




















Main course: Spring Chirashi Sushi.
Now this is a beautiful chirashi sushi presentation, take a look at it and I almost see a resemblance to cherry blossoms.

Loaded with bamboo shoots, prawns, rape blossoms, slices of anago eel and garnished with cherry coloured cod flakes and onions; this is a feast for the eyes (and afterwards, the stomach too). Nothing tasted out of place here, every bite was a slice of Japan in cherry-blossomed springiness.



















Dessert: Shiratama Mochi and Assorted Fruits
Compared to last month, the mochi this time around were covered in nutty gratings and served lukewarm which only made they much sweeter and softer than last month's version (still somewhere between the bitey gyuchi mochi from last month and the runny chinese ones we get from hawker stall). Definitely worth a few more pieces. Check out the fruit platter I got, must have been the biggest one since I frequented this place.












Chef Ricky mentions that the staple ingredients like Wagyu, Yam and Toro will probably be making a comeback next month before the summer months reign. Feel free to comment.

Euro Deli Grill

Past reviewers are here, there, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere and don't-know-where.

Finally for all my readers, a food post that is not Japanese.

Was actually entertaining some Johor college kids who were up in KL for a Scrabble tournament and they were craving for some pork knuckles they sampled last year after cramming for Some Peperiksaan in Malaysia. So here is the star of the evening in all its crispy, juicy, meat, succulent, divine, glorious.....erm, glory (and the servers mentioned that the pork knuckles have somehow become smaller since the hogs managed to escape the pens before being chased into the abattoir).



Since being the 'chaperone' and the only 'responsible' adult of the night, I had to enjoy the occasional pint of imported beer while being the driver. *SWEET* (at least it doesn't taste like piss)










And what is pork knuckle without the famous side, the sauerkraut? At least this one was sour enough (i still perfer Deustch Hans in Changkat Bukit Bintang) but the sauce wasn't that memorable, being slightly oily. Aw, heck! We are here to eat pork knuckles and nothing but pork knuckles.








The kids digging in. That is Chow Xin Wei on the left and Chin Hon Yew on the right.















Skin first, meat later. The skin was really excellent, crispy, crunchy and the thickness was just nice that you can bite on it and it will snap upon you exerting maximum pressure from your jaws. the problem was only the top part of the skin was the crispiest with the lower part a bit below par.

The meat underneath was really succulent and more or less made up for the limited amount of crispy skins. Coupled with the sauerkraut and you can eat pork knuckle after pork knuckle (and wash it down with imported beer!!!). My only regret is that I could not take the pork knuckle and rip out the meat with my bare teeth since one has to be a role model for teenagers with proper etiquette.



Here a photo of the shop, located right behind the new OLD TOWN KOPITIAM outlet. Just drive in on either side round the back.