More things at home... | |
Another "limited edition" sake |
A c/u shot of one of the carrot slices that were in the osechi box. The stuffing in the middle was yam or some other kind of root veg, I think. |
We had some crabs again, and this is what we couldn't manage in one go and had to leave for the next day... |
A bath salt (yet to be tested) |
And then another meal out**:
This time we went to my favourite local,
Nomura, which is the chef's surname - and Kousa's too! We always sit at the
counter and order what we fancy from the menu (no prices written on it ;-) Below
is a small selection from about 15+ things we tried.
**In case you are wondering - yes, I did put on weight in Japan but have lost most of it as soon as I got back (I think...) |
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Grilled bamboo shoots |
Fried balls made of mashed arrowhead, with oysters in the middle. The fried star-shaped thing in front of them was... er, some kind of veg too. |
A cake made of yam & fish, with black beans, in a clear soup. Absolutely wonderful combination of textures and flavours! (Oh, and both the blue glass on the right and the clear glass in the background were for my sake. I tried a couple of different sorts, and they bring it to you in different containers each time.) |
And this is a c/u shot of the vegetable bits that were sitting on top - red carrot sliced in a flower shape, strips of carrot & daikon tied together (in the shape of the traditional ceremonial cord), even the greens are tied at the bottom, with real gold flakes sprinkled on top. |
The northern part of Gifu prefecture is a mountainous region, and there are many local specialities using mushrooms and other mountain vegetables. This is one of them, miso mixed with spring onions and spices, baked slowly on a leaf (magnolia obovata Thunb., God knows what it is in plain English!) on a little grill at your table - here with some oysters (not a local speciality, obviously) mixed in it. |
And I'd completely forgotten about this when I went there... the mini Donburi (bowl of rice) with uni (sea urchin) & ikura (salmon roe) on top, to finish it all off with! Hitomi, my father's secretary, remembered to order it at the end of the meal, but I didn't have any room left in my stomach :-(((( It reminded me of the sushi meal with Fast and Ikue in East Village, where we had all planned to have uni at the end but I simply couldn't eat any more and had to give it a miss... |
To Part Three / Back to Part One |