Day 13 - Part III – This Dinner Deserves it’s Own Entry

Sorry – We were so hungry, Tavin couldn’t hold the camera still in the low light.

Let me attempt to list what we were served for dinner:

One the 1/2 moon plate:

a square of grilled black cod (I suspect marinated in sake lees)

an omelet square with veggies, chilled tiny dried shrimp with citrus juice (yuzu)

candied kumquat

A footed bowl contained a watermelon radish over 3 kinds sashimi - including shrimp.

The Covered tea-cup/soup bowl contained HUGE bivalves of some sort with mixed rice.

We each got 4 pieces of fragile, shattering tempura - shrimp, pepper, kabocha squash or pumpkin & potato – paired with a particular sauce.

In the celadon-green teacup  - a creamy salad with potatoes, greens, mushrooms and topped with a dried goji berry.

A soup tureen we shared contained a light clam broth with seaweed.

The white bowl with the blue mark – held a steamed whelk , with a convenient toothpick for easy snail removal.  (I told Tavin he could skip that, as long as he took a bight of everything else.)

A gold rimmed deep plate  held a sort of Japanese ceviche – citrus marinated fish -  served in a bowl made out of the bottom quarter of an orange.

There were various small bowls of pickles - radish, cucumber, Japanese cabbage & eggplant

In a saké-cup sized bowl – what I can only call fish sprouts – crunchy, salted tiny little fish, most likely very immature based on the eye/body size ratio.

Soup was made before our eyes – as a little charcoal cube was lit inside out own little burners.  The bowl placed over it had bacon, 3 or 4 kinds of fish pieces, green veg, sliced negi, and enoki mushrooms.  These were all stewed together for broth to make a fresh, but rich broth.

And there was rice.

And there was tea. 

I indulged in a little hot saké.  I realize… not the good stuff, but it seemed so right with everything else.

And then, after all that, as we were sitting there stunned, a spoonful of mango sorbet & a nibble of grilled peach was delivered to us.

And at last we were presented with a digestive green tea. 

So… there was dinner.  We slept beautifully; full, elated, and relaxed by our adventure out of Tokyo.