After our jaunt to Kobe, we had just enough time to rest and clean up before traveling to Kyoto for a kaiseki dinner with our friends, the Watanabe family. Frank has known the dad, Hisashi-san, for many years, and each time we visit Japan, we try to visit with them. Their three kids are a little older than Alex, and are as fascinated with him as he is with them. He asked about them repeatedly on the trip, and looked forward to seeing them again from the time we set sail in Tianjin.
We boarded a train heading for Kyoto, and the plan was to meet them at the Kyoto Train Station, near the main entrance. We arrived early, so had some time to look around in the massive steel lobby, with the longest escalator I've ever seen in my life. After poking into some Kyoto food specialty shops, we caught up with Hisashi-san. He called his wife to find out where the rest of the family was, and found them in the sea of rush hour commuters emerging from the turnstiles.
Hisashi-san wanted to take us to a special dinner, so the whole gang followed him out of the station, down the street and around the block to a small, intimate restaurant. The restaurant was called Iimura, and featured Kyo-Ryori style dinner. We walked down a narrow pathway adorned with ferns and bamboo plants to the entrance. A woman in a traditional kimono led us to a private room with a low table, and tatami mats on the floor. We removed our shoes outside the dining room, and sat on the floor on pillows.
Shortly after arriving, the rice paper door to our room slid open, and the woman in the kimono passed out hot towels to our group. I like the tradition of washing up with hot towels before a meal. It's refreshing and easier than finding a restroom to wash your hands.
After that, it seemed like an endless stream of small, delicate plates. This was Kyoto-style kaiseki, a time-honored traditional meal that Kyoto is particularly famous for. Kyo-ryori is a series of small, beautiful plates that reflect the season. It has an artistic quality to it, and I can't think of anything in Western cuisine that is quite like it. We had kaiseki at a ryokan (Japanese inn) years ago, but had never had it in Kyoto.
The first dish was a bright pink dish of shoe-string cut potatoes. I have no idea where the pinkness came from, but it seemed to have some kind of fish roe mixed in with it. It was cold, and had the appearance of French fries cooked by Hello Kitty. It was cool and refreshing, without any particularly over-powering flavor.
The second course was a plate of sashimi, or raw fish, servied with ginger and wasabi. We had tuna, a white fish, and I believe, cuttlefish. I've adopted a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about eating Japanese food. I have a pretty simple palate and am easily squeamish, so the less I know about what I'm eating, the better. I feel the same way about sweetbreads and other "fine dining" experiences. As long as nobody tells me I'm eating sea urchin intestines or rattlesnake noses, I'm cool with it.
The third course consisted of a perfectly seasoned piece of grilled fish (probably mackeral), two pieces of tomago (sweet omelette), and five edamame (soybeans) arranged on a split toothpick. Out of all ten courses, Alex ate exactly one tomago and five edamame beans. He would have nothing to do with the fish, cooked or not. He gladly shared with the other kids, who thought of all these dishes as a great treat.
The most beautiful dish was Course #5, which consisted of a chilled, perfectly cooked whole shrimp, a chunk of cooked squash, peapods, rolled tofu, and a gelee cube with black roe inside. Visually, it was quite a display, but the cold tofu was a bit squishy for me and I found it difficult to eat. I thought the orange chunk was daikon radish, but it had a surprising sweet, creamy consistency that complimented the shrimp flavor nicely. I enjoyed the shrimp, and watching the kids suck the juice out of the heads of the shrimp.
The noodle course had thin, cold rice noodles in a somen sauce, topped with ground ginger, a fried egg, and pickled vegetables. The noodles were simple, but the ginger was a bit overpowering if you are not used to such a strong flavor. I've made the somen soup with noodles at home, so this was something at least vaguely familiar to me.
The hottest dish we had (temperature-wise) was the tempura in the seventh course. Inside the deep-fried tempura batter were sheets of tofu filled with pumpkin puree and bits of mushroom. It was crispy on the outside and incredibly hot in the center. The pumpkin oozed out when you took a bite. I didn't eat the pepper, which looked like a jalapeno. The crispy tempura crust was perfectly crunchy and not a bit oily.
Just when I thought we were done (I assumed the pumpkin puree tempura was some kind of dessert), the waitress brought in another bowl. At first, I thought it was rice with picked cucumber, but it turned out to be some kind of fish, possibly cuttlefish or maybe squid. The amazing think about this dish was the cucumber, which was sliced in paper-thin segments in a spiral pattern. The red dot on top was a tiny bit of plum sauce, to balance out the tangy pickled cucumber and the chewy fish component. This is something I would never order in a million years, but I loved it.
At this point, I lost count of how many dishes were brought out, but finally, they delivered some rice. I hoped Alex would eat it, but he looked at the seaweed and bits of stuff on top, and went back to playing his DS with the Watanabe kids. I have no idea what the bits on top were, but they were salty with a slight licorice flavor. Fish? Octopus? Dried mushroom? No idea. It looked like It Came From Beneath the Sea, but it could have been bacon for all I know.
The Watanabe kids brought along their coveted Nintendo DSi, which Alex proclaimed was the "coolest thing ever" putting his DS Lite to shame with it's camera, voice recorder, and ability to connect to the internet. He made it abundantly clear that he would be very disappointed if he didn't get one for his birthday. We were meeting up with the Watanabes the following day, so they generously offered to swap DS models with Alex, and he was in heaven. He may not have liked the food, but the company was divine in his opinion. I mean, who wouldn't love company as cute as these two?
When all was said and done, the final course was a cool slice of watermelon. Nothing fancy, just a refreshing way to end this exquisite meal. Most of the dishes were served cold, a welcome escape from humid, hot Japanese weather. I wish I'd had my Nikon D40 along with me for this, because the snapshot photos don't really do justice to how intricate and beautiful each dish was.
The waitress graciously snapped several photos of our happy group at the end of the meal. The kids look like they're throwing some kind of gang signs (Kyoto in Da House!), but actually, young Japanese people seem to like flashing peace signs in photos. I don't know how or why this custom arose, but Alex got into the act, right along with the Watanabe kids.
Kaiseki in Kyoto was a wonderful cultural experience, and if you ever have the opportunity to try it, don't miss it. Even if every dish doesn't suit your palate, consider it a culinary adventure.
