Eating in Kansai

[Lucil]

just wondering, what do you say in japanese when u enter a restaurant and when u leave the restaurant

[Hiroyuki]

just wondering, what do you say in japanese when u enter a restaurant and when u leave the restaurant

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That really depends on a number of factors, including who you are and what your relationships are with the restraurant.

Generally, when you enter a restaurant, restraurant staff greet you by saying, "Irasshaimase!". You don't have to respond to this message. If you are a regular, however, you may want to say something in return, like Kon'nichiwa.

When you leave a restaurant, we often say, Gochisousama, which literally means, "It was a feast." (or Gochisousama deshita, which is more polite).

[mkayahara]

With an upcoming trip to Japan, I'm hoping I can get some advice on where to eat. (I thought I'd post to this thread, rather than starting a whole new one.) We'll be doing the usual tourist route, visiting Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima, as well as Osaka (for which I see lots of other recommendations in the forum).

Mostly, I don't mind taking my chances and seeing what I can find, but there's one thing in particular that has me stumped: we'll be in Kyoto on our anniversary, and I'd like to have a kaiseki meal that night. Can anyone offer recommendations on good kaiseki restaurants? We're thinking a maximum budget of about 10,000 yen per person; does that seem reasonable? I'm also nervous about the fact that we're foreigners in a fine-dining environment, so if there are any points of etiquette I need to know, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks in advance for any and all input!

[mkayahara]

Just to reply to my own post, in case others find themselves in the same situation, we ended up going to Roan Kikunoi for dinner, and had a fantastic time. Not only were the flavours on every single course perfectly spot-on, but I have never received a more gracious welcome from a restaurant. They did everything in their power to make us feel comfortable; when we expressed an interest in ingredients, they even went back to the prep kitchen to get the raw item to show us! (I now know what udo looks like.) And I think I will be dreaming about their dashi for the rest of my life...

[nakji]

So....pictures?

That restaurant looks wonderful. I always wanted to try Kaiseki while I was in Japan, but was too intimidated by the experience. Please, expand on your dashi remark - how was it used - what kind of dishes did they make with it?

[Hiroyuki]

I also want to know more about the dashi.

As for udo, which type, white or green?

[mkayahara]

The dish where the dashi most struck me was the soup, the recipe for which is in Kikunoi's cookbook (p. 166). Upon reading the recipe, it appears the broth also has mirin and soy sauce in it. In any case, it was intensely flavourful and complex, far more so than any other Japanese soup I've ever had. When I think of this meal, the soup is always the first thing that comes to mind.

I'm assuming the udo in question was white; the whole vegetable looked like it had been blanched (like endive or white asparagus), and the prepared serving was white in colour. Is green udo used differently?

Here are some pictures. (Not my best photos, but I was more interested in living the experience than taking arty photos of it.) I was too shy to ask about photography for the first course, but it's worth mentioning. It was a cube of nagaimo jelly topped with slices of octopus, shiso flowers and a gel of light soy sauce and wasabi.

This was followed by a tray of what the menu refers to as "appetizers," consisting of aburame marinated in rice vinegar, sea eel wrapped in kampyo, edamame, Japanese taro stem with sea urchin and hana sansho, tai roe cake, chimaki sushi and sweet and sour ginger.

Next were two sashimi courses, first tai and shimaaji (this was the course with the carved udo, which you can see next to the carved carrot in the photo), and then bonito with ponzu gel.

Then came the soup I mentioned above, with cha-soba wrapped in tilefish and egg.

For the next two dishes, the items we were served diverged from the printed menu, so I'm not entirely sure of the specifics. First was a fish grilled over charcoal and eaten whole. Looking at the cookbook, I'm wondering if this is the ayu listed in the "summer" section (p. 74).

Then, eggplant dengaku. This was another course that impressed me thoroughly. The flavour was balanced and intense, with a wonderful, long finish. A lot of work for a one-bite course to accomplish! (You can't really tell the scale from the photo, but the eggplant is only about an inch long.)

Next was the rice course: rice with green peas and jako, served with cabbage soup and pickles.

Last, dessert. We were given the choice between strawberries and mangoes. Naturally, it being spring, I wanted strawberries! The flavour was perfect.

Edited May 20, 2010 by mkayahara (log)

[Hiroyuki]

Thanks for your detailed description.

I know how fragrant and flavorful dashi can be if prepared properly.

As for udo, there are three types of udo available in Japan: nanpaku (or Tokyo) udo like these, yama udo (lit. mountain udo) (scroll all the way down to the fourth photo from the bottom), and wild udo like these (first photo).

Naturally, they have different uses, but I, for one, like wild ones the best.

[mkayahara]

Thanks, Hiroyuki. It's hard to tell, but based on those pictures, I think it was nanpaku udo that we ate. The following week, we saw some udo at a morning market in Takayama, and it looked the same as what we'd seen at the restaurant. I had no idea there were so many kinds of udo!