The Essence of Japanese Cuisine by Ashkenazi Michael. Jacob Jeanne

Author:Ashkenazi, Michael.,Jacob, Jeanne.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

It was rather late at night, and we had had no dinner. The blazing heat of the summer in Tokyo meant that we went out rather late at night, needing a walk. Eventually, after walking for about thirty minutes in a residential area, we found a small nomiya, the Hanaya. The place is small, seating four people at the counter and two parties of up to 4 people at short-legged tables set on a raised platform floored with Miami. Mr. Konno, the owner and chef, asked us to sit at the counter since there were only two of us. The small kitchen (1 × 4 m) runs the width of the shop. As is common in many small places, hand-written vertical signs, tacked to the walls and above the bar, indicate what is available. In addition to the food, Hanaya is unusual in that it offers about twenty kinds of local sake (that is, what might be called a micro-brewery in the beer world: almost unknown outside their area of manufacture), several cocktails including home-made ume-shu (a liqueur made by soaking large Japanese green plums in 60% alcohol, with a modicum of sugar [surprisingly powerful stuff, it improves with age]) and 59 food items. Those marked in red are the specials of the day.

We order beer. With the drink we each get a glass plate on which rests a blue glass cup the size of an egg-cup. On the plate rests a single shisō leaf (perilla, an aromatic plant). Several small clams cooked in lemon juice and a bit of soy sauce rests on the leaf. Beside the leaf is a slice of lemon on which are two pieces (2 × 4 cm) of devil’s tongue root jelly (konnyaku), sliced and arranged just like sashimi. The konnyaku, normally a translucent jelly with black flecks, had been flavoured and coloured by nori seaweed within it. It exuded a faint, refreshing smell of the sea. emphasised by its ice green colour. A dab of mustard yellow sea urchin roe (um), sits jauntily on the konnyaku. In the cup are small cubes of tuna maguro sashimi in tororo sauce, garnished with wasabi and sesame seeds. The tororo. whipped to a froth, is slippery and drips off the chopsticks like a light syrup. Its slight astringency is a counterpoint to the smoothness of the raw tuna, its white foam shows to perfection the pink freshness of the fish.

We then order a summer speciality – salt-grilled sweetfish (ayu). It comes curled into swimming shape on a Ian-shaped plate glazed a pale celadon. The fish head rests on a shisō leaf. Adorning the fish, on its belly, rests a long ginger shoot (not the root) a fleshy pink and white spear – probably grown without sunlight to blanch like white asparagus, cut lengthwise and a slice of lemon. The ginger shoot has been lightly pickled in rice vinergar. The fish, though small, is absolutely fresh, and completely delicious. The delicate sweet taste of its flesh shines through the slightly salty and smokey crispness of the charred skin.

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