Saturday 17 november 2018
Tokyo

This post is about food, the majority of which I can’t name, beyond “fish,” “vegetables,” and “yummy creamy stuff.” At every single meal in the past two weeks (served to 40 of us at a time), the presentation was stunning. We have eaten a lot, sometimes more than we can take. In Kyoto, we had two “kaiseke” multiple-course dinners in a row, and decided that a simple teppan-yaki grill would be just fine for the following evening on our own.

Here’s a table at the “traditional inn” (ryokan) in Matsuyama:

And here’s a lunch presentation, consisting of twelve dishes, all delicious:

We had raw fish and tofu at every meal (including breakfast). I was happy that everyone in the group was adept with chopsticks, although in other ways we were all barbarians.

Here’s my favorite example of beautiful food staging. Look carefully to see the tail of the shrimp spread out to be a butterfly (or perhaps just a moth, but hey):

I can actually name a few items that Dan and I had never eaten before. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the snapper head, with teeth and eyes; however, the meat was grabbable with chopsticks and very tasty. The steamed shark

was also very good. You can see that this is a conch shell on the right:

but the meat inside was one of the few disappointments — kinda rubbery.

Here’s a bouillabaisse à la japonaise (I made that up), and if we’re lucky you can see the steam from the broth:

And finally, all of our excellent lodgings, including the ryokan, offered a “western breakfast.” Full points to the Japanese for accommodating visitors, and please don’t take this as ridicule. It’s just amusing to see ~Smucker’s next to raw fish:

These people really know how to do food.