What's on my Kaiseki menu this month?

Being a regular customer for more than a year netted me a few benefits, starting with my Kaiseki menu getting more varied than previous outings, and service is pretty good (except for the occasional waiter-in-training)


Distraction: Giant Mirugai Shell Liver with Truffle Sauce
While waiting for the starters, I was served 3 slices of shellfish pate(?) drizzled with truffle sauce. I think this is probably gone by the Sunday since they would reserve it for their VIPs. So lucky of me to get a nibble or three.

The first impression was the overpowering fragrance of the truffle sauce, while started peeling back to reveal the smoky grilled flavour of the liver. The soft mushy liver, being less fatty than goose liver, had a texture that was crumblier on the inside while the grilled crust binds all flavours together in harmony. Definitely something you want to have every other time.
















Starters: Sesame Beancurd with Umi, Sweet Prawn with Caviar, Tofu with Miso, Chicken with pickles, Grilled chicken, Vinegar shot & tempuras
Let's see, where do I start?

The sesame beancurd was satisfactory, marinated long enough in the shoyu for an accented flavour with the sea urchin (umi) garnishing balancing it out. The chicken with pickles was much better this time since the chicken was lukewarm and fresh, as opposed to soggy. Love the vinegar shot with crunchy (and sometimes powdery) tempuras. Thumbs up for the ne addition although I would love to have some Iranian sturgeon caviar with the sweet prawn since these were not salty enough. Tofu with miso was coyly sweet but well textured. Love the grilled chicken too.




























Soup: Soup with Scallop Dumpling
Plain looking yet my tongue taste warm, the scallop dumpling is flaky yet firm (Melt in your mouth, not in your bowl), Veggies were bitey & fragrant. The new dumpling soup for the soul.























Sashimi: Toro, Hairtail, Suzuki, Flambe Octopus & Mirugai Shellmeat (Gyuduck) with a side of Flambe Tuna Abi
Goodies of foodies. The Toro and Flambe Octopus were up to par. While the Flambe Mirugai shellmeat sprang forth into life with a dash of lime. Even the hairtail, glistering with it skin intact, tasted anew with radish garnishing, but the suzuki fish stole the limelight. Light, Breezing through your tongue, you can almost it floating in your mouth, tantalizing the tastebud every now and then before disappearing down your gullet.

The other interesting accompanying side dish was the tuna abi. Fillets of tuna rolled into a maki with japanese shallots and pickles. I have yet to taste the raw version yet since this one was flambe and dipped in a special sauce of mayo and chilli. Sad to say, the sauce overpowered the tuna but kept the pickles flavour intact. Poor execution.





























Steamed dishes: Eggplant with Anago Eel.
This time around, the dish tasted slurpier (just imagine yourself eating japanese noodles the proper way), the meat was tender enough and was drowning in the sauce literally (although the eggplant bowl was a wee bit undercooked and pretty firm). The slices of anago eel were a welcome addition to this dish although I would like to see more variety the next I get this.





















Steamed dishes: Tuna Eye
Now for something exotic.

I just wish I could see it before it got cooked. Wouldn't mind having a pair just to stick on my glasses and walk around while videoing everyone's reaction to it.

The white ball inside the exoskeleton was the pupil. Despite being a fan of eating fish eyes (smaller fishes, mind you), I found this pupil very dry and not saucy enough and had to keep on dunking it in the sauce just to add flavour to a really really bland pupil.

The best part though was the meat. Smooth, fatty (the chef mentioned that it was actually the muscle/sinew), shiny, glistering and tender to yield upon the poke of a pair of chopsticks. I could only describe it as eating very smooth siew york (all fat, no crispy skin and very little lean meat). Every bite was actually sliding around my mouth, missing my gullet by mere inches, rolling over my tastebuds. Sweet!!! Definitely my face dish of the night.




























Fried dish: Ayu & Tempura
Matured ayu have a pretty light taste that is perfectly fit for this oily dish. The only downside was that one of the fish was spoilt. At least the matcha salt could be drizzled over the dish.























Main course: Sushi 5 ways.
Starting with the flambe toro sushi, I enjoyed the brief explosion of toro in my mouth unfortunately it was soon to be overpowered by the oily garlic flake and pickled ginger press into the sushi.

Moving on to the flambe miso sea bream sushi, this one came across as slightly too sweet possibly because the miso was slathered over the sushi instead of just a dollop (then again, maybe my tongue was craving sweetness after the first piece)

the flambe wagyu sushi with was just nice and perfectly accentuated by the radish gratings as garnishing.

Moving on to the haji (horsebreaker fish) sushi, the full on flavour was matched by the garnishing of grated ginger and spring onion, culminating in an orgasmic explosion in the mouth. Definitely not one for the delicate tastebuds,

For the suzuki sushi, the initial tenderness gave way to a rush of salty spicy combo (a product of the salted grape skins & chili garnishing) that lingers on in the aftertaste.





















Dessert: Mochi pastry & Assorted Fruits
Another leaf bound dessert, and I have no idea how they do it when the transfer the fragrance of the leaf unto the skin of the pastry. Since finding out my love of mochi, Chef Ricky has given me another one made with mochi dough. The fragrance was overwhelming in the mouth, and not even a hint of it being coyly as you savour the springy mochi pastry.






















Chef Ricky is probably tearing his hair out right now trying to personalize next month's kaiseki menu for me. Feel free to comment.

Upcoming report

In the works:

May Kaiseki menu (9th May)
Life. Art. Kiwi at KL Hilton (12th May)
Chynna (12th May)

All in the works

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.