Kaiseki references, please

I have been reading a little about the Japanese Kaiseki meals and wonder if anyone is aware of some other references that I should explore. References with recipes would be fine, but a more in depth discussion of the Kaiseki approach to meals and presentations would be even better. Thanks in advance for your help.

I have read through "The World in a Bowl of Tea" by Vittel and Kaiseki by Yoshihiro Murata.

[Jenise]

I have read through "The World in a Bowl of Tea" by Vittel and Kaiseki by Yoshihiro Murata.

Then there goes my ability to help, the first (Vittel) is the only book I have that addresses Japanese food ceremonially. I wonder if John F, an American who is currently living in Tokyo, would have some insight.

Greg, this may no be much help, but I've had a few Kaiseki dinners, and took some fairly superficial notes. For what they are worth:

9/25/99 Sat Kaiseki Ryori Dinner at Kitcho, Imperial Hotel, Tokyo. [Kai means a fold of a kimono in which monks placed heated stones, or seki; the meal had its start in the banquet feasts of the aristocracy.] Sake, hot and unrated, and plum wine with ice; very sweet and intense plum flavors. Sake Japan. 3*. Flowers, calligraphy, motif consistent in the pattern of the dishware. Many courses, each beautifully presented, served in a complex order, on various beautiful dishes. Excellent dishes of beef, tuna and other fish.

9/28/99 Tue Kyoto. Dinner at Yagembori located in the geisha district. A teahouse close to the Shirakawa, a small tributary of the Kamo-gawa, in Gion. Excellent o-makase full course meal as a sample of Kyoto kaiseki cuisine on fine handmade ceramics: shabu-shabu (thinly sliced beef), suppon (turtle meat), hoba miso (bean paste with kinoko mushrooms and green onions), excellent vegetables and fish, and green tea.

4/15/01 Sun Dinner at Raku in Edgewater with David and Janet for David’s birthday. $304.48. Pretty good, but much too much food. I fear for their future – there was no one else in the restaurant – except the owner. Three different levels of Kaiseki, all beautifully prepared by co-owner and chef Rikimaru:

Sakizuke
Zensai – Herring roe, octopus and vegetables.
Mukouzuke – assorted sashimi.
Mushimono – steamed dish.
Yakimon – grilled seafood or beef, Yakimono or Ishiyaki, respectively. Grilled on river stone.
Hanmono – rice dish.
Tomewan – Kyoto style Miso soup.
Mizugashi – dessert.

1989 Huet Vouvray Cuvée Constance Loire Valley France. 11.5% alcohol. Imported by Wine Cellars, Limited, Larchmont, NY. Intense aroma and taste, slightly sweet, great match for the food. 4*.

Sugiyama, 251 West 55th Street, 212-956-0670.

3/8/02 Fri 8 Course Modern Kaiseki dinner -- $60.

Sakizuke – appetizer.
Zensai – fish and vegetable.
Tukuri – sashimi.
Suoimono – clear soup.
Ishiyaki – seafood on hot stone.
Oshinogi – Oshisushi.
Nimono – vegetables in light sauce.
Shokuji – rice with vegetables, miso and pickles.
Dessert – grape fruit wine jelly with cream.

Reichel wrote a fuller review of her meal at that restaurant:

March 17, 1999, Wednesday
RESTAURANTS; Japan Is an Island in Midtown
By RUTH REICHL
AS we are leaving, the hostess hands us the chef's business card. Then, very ceremoniously, she bows. We bow back. She bows again. And so we exit slowly, bowing ourselves out the door.

Not until the blare of a taxi's horn returns us to the harsh reality of West 55th Street do we leave Japan. A visit to Sugiyama can be that disorienting, a dream voyage across space that takes you, if only for a few hours, to the far side of the earth.

AS we are leaving, the hostess hands us the chef's business card. Then, very ceremoniously, she bows. We bow back. She bows again. And so we exit slowly, bowing ourselves out the door.

Not until the blare of a taxi's horn returns us to the harsh reality of West 55th Street do we leave Japan. A visit to Sugiyama can be that disorienting, a dream voyage across space that takes you, if only for a few hours, to the far side of the earth.

The restaurant is tiny, with attractive modern lines that do not distinguish it from dozens of other small Japanese restaurants in New York. No costumes or kimonos aid in fostering the illusion of being in Japan. This makes it all the more remarkable that the chef and owner, Nao Sugiyama, is able to take you traveling simply by serving his extraordinary food.

Mr. Sugiyama was the chef at the short-lived Katana in SoHo, where he served his interpretation of the poetic cuisine that grew out of the tea ceremony. In his own restaurant he has taken the concept one step further. His modern kaiseki meals are prix fixe; you tell the chef how many courses you want (5 to 14) and how much you are willing to spend (the top of the line is $150 a person), and simply put yourself in his hands.

A warning: This artful food makes no concessions to American prejudices. Splendid sushi is a part of each meal, but there is often sliced sea cucumber in vinegar, tiny crabs no larger than a fingernail (you pop the whole creature into your mouth), lily roots, ginger buds and blocks of soft tofu laced with tiny fish. I love these foods, but many New Yorkers will not.

Mr. Sugiyama often begins the meal with ankimo, the smooth Japanese version of foie gras (actually monkfish liver), served with a tiny wooden spoon. But tonight, the first flavor is a clear substance that looks exactly like lime Jell-O. When I take a bite my mouth fills with a clean, briny taste so unlike what I am expecting that I burst out laughing. The chef, working in the open kitchen, grins.

Most meals continue with zensai, beautiful little appetizers arranged with great delicacy. These seasonal specialties might include a bit of sushi, a single shrimp, a tangle of wild mushrooms; they almost always include Mr. Sugiyama's signature wild apricot in aspic, another surprise for the mouth.

Next there is an assortment of sashimi. You might find fluke, tuna, red snapper or sweet, velvety raw shrimp on your plate. If you have chosen the most expensive meal, you will also find the world's largest sea urchins and the richest toro, or fatty tuna. Although Mr. Sugiyama's vegetarian kaiseki is less impressive than the regular dinners, his vegetarian sushi is notable: pale slices of fresh bamboo shoots with their wild and gentle flavor are set against mioga, an aromatic member of the ginger family.

Most meals go on to suimono, a clear soup course. Often this is dobinmushi, broth of enormous subtlety served in a small iron teapot. The protocol is to lift the lid, squeeze the tiny Japanese citrus into the broth and then pour the soup into the cup, releasing a cloud of fragrance. Later, you fish the wild mushrooms, herbs and gingko nuts from the pot.

Mr. Sugiyama, who works with the help of a single assistant, stands at the counter all evening, cooking and bantering with his guests in the manner of a sushi chef. He has such beautiful hands that when he flips a glowing red rock from the fire I am tempted to cry, ''Be careful!'' The rock is carried across the room and set before me, a stove upon which to cook silken slices of steak and seafood.

Nothing escapes the chef. I am savoring the pressed rice sushi of Osaka, which is topped with superb marinated mackerel, when I look up to find him watching thoughtfully. A minute later, the waitress arrives to inquire if we are prepared to eat sea cucumber. Mr. Sugiyama looks delighted when we say yes, and even more delighted by our pleasure in its sharp vinegary flavor and chewy texture.

He does not ask if we want black cod marinated in sake lees. Who would reject a fish this rich, soft, flavorful and decadent? Nor does he ask about snow crab, the king of crustaceans.

The courses go on, slowly, majestically, but the meal invariably closes with a trio of miso soup, pickles and rice. This is the classic ending to a kaiseki meal. Traditionally it would be followed by an improbably expensive piece of fruit. In its place Mr. Sugiyama offers a refreshing grapefruit jelly splashed with cream.

As we are sipping tea he comes to ask how we liked the meal. That is not unusual. Then he asks for our business cards, and I am taken aback. But why am I surprised? This, after all, is Japan.

Well, I wasn't going to respond with a menu because I think Greg is looking for some theory of the meal, not just occasions. But, as Bob has broken the ice....

When I was in Japan in 2001, I had amiyaki (once) and kaiseki (twice). All were a succession of small portions of food. For the amiyaki, per its name, we sat at a grill table; all dishes were brought to us there or cooked in front of us. We sat at tables for the kaiseki.

Amiyaki menu:
- fragrant green tea with roasted sesame
- white noodles served cold with a lemony leaf
- a yakiniku-style plate of beef (half tenderloin, half sirloin) with shiitake, eggplant, radish, onion, kon yak*, shiso and a bowl of dipping sauce
- salad of lettuce, mild pickled onions, seaweed, tiny cucumber slices, capers
- rice with three kinds of pickles
- brown (barley?) tea
- lastly, the very famous and highly-prized Japanese melon

[ * At the time I did not know what on Earth this food was; a friend later said it might have been "kon yak". ]

I cannot lay my hands on the menu from the very expensive kaiseki. I remember being overwhelmed, both by the number of dishes, the perfection of the food, and the soft burbly language of the server (Kyoto dialect).

At the third place, they spoke excellent English, so I have very good notes on this kaiseki dinner:
- fish cakes, sliced, with radish
- three plates:
....= octopus, potato with miso, <another seafood>
....= whitefish slivers with uni
....= beef tongue, vegetable maki in tofu, green tea tofu
- steamed eggplant, vegetable maki wrapped in eel, whipped powdered tofu in a star shape
- sashimi (yellowtail, magura, ebi) with cucumber, radish sprouts, edible flowers
- whipped bamboo shoot and potato, piped over sea bream, with seaweed broth
- sea bream filet with vegetables, tiny fish, and a cabbage "butterfly"
- sunomono
- rice with tiny fish and broth, brown tea
- oolong ice cream, strawberries boiled in cassis

We drank muscadet (Le Master de Donatien, 1998) and sake ("Kyoto Mountain Water").

[ Yes, I know the name of the sake is utterly meaningless, but that's all I have in my notes. ]

Hope this is help, somehow.

Thanks, Bob and Jeff, for sharing your experiences. The reading I have done on this approach to food has been rewarding. In particular, the Murata reference, where recipes are almost an afterthought, is helpful in understanding the philosophy of this approach to cuisine. Your notes help provide some perspective on what it is like to have one of these meals, something I hope to do at some point.

Actual recipes for most of the Kaiseki dishes are not all that helpful, because many of the ingredients are not available to me. At present, my plan is to explore this approach by "Americanizing" it, that is work with ingredients that are seasonal and local and use them in Kaiseki dinners. Toward that end, I wonder if you could comment on the presentation in a little more detail both in terms of the food itself and how the tableware/serving dishes were paired with the food?

And thanks, Jenise, for bumping this post.

Toward that end, I wonder if you could comment on the presentation in a little more detail both in terms of the food itself and how the tableware/serving dishes were paired with the food?.

Greg, I can't contribute more to the food itself, except that the portions were relatively small but beautifully prepared. Quantities seemed to be controlled by the number of dishes, not by portion size.

The food was served on a number of different types of tableware -- ceramic, bamboo, lacquer and other materials. The goal is to make the food and the dishes delight the eyes as well as the palate. Consequently every course was served on different tableware -- small containers of plants and flowers accompanied each course, the materials reinforcing the food source itself -- a small plum twig like a bonsai for a plum dessert, for example.

I honestly didn't take very comprehensive notes, sorry. Bob

Bob, thanks again. Your remembrances of things past are consistent with what I have been reading. This helps me focus my efforts.

Time to start planning.

Best of luck, Gregg. For what it is worth, Janet disliked the Tokyo meal -- very small portions, much too expensive, too fussy -- worth noting she dislikes tasting menus.

I was more favorably impressed, certainly visually. But they served a tremendous amount of sake, so I asked for wine instead. Barbarian!

Bob

I have read through "The World in a Bowl of Tea" by Vittel and Kaiseki by Yoshihiro Murata.

Then there goes my ability to help, the first (Vittel) is the only book I have that addresses Japanese food ceremonially. I wonder if John F, an American who is currently living in Tokyo, would have some insight.

Jenise

Sorry to disappoint - but I am no authority on Kaiseki other than I eat it frequently. To me the essence of Kaiseki is the balance and variety of the menu - but especially the EXTREME care they put into the visual presentation of it.....each course is gift wrapped food.

This link from Amazon looks like it might help further the appreciation for the asthetics of it all

http://www.amazon.com/Kaiseki-Exquisite ... 809&sr=1-1

Like Bob, I also did not take notes on the presentations.

In the case of the amiyaki, as we were sitting grill-side, there was no elaborate changes in the table 'furniture' each time.

The dishes of the kaiseki varied a great deal in color, shape, bowl-ness, size. Fish that were sturdy were served on long thin dark ceramic plates. The three-part course was served in three triangular dishes. Some of the other courses were served with condiments in a matching (but smaller) dish to the main.

The server's skill and grace is very important. S/He is going to be at your table a dozen times, putting plates, taking plates, etc. so his/her bearing matters.

I believe we used lacquered chopsticks the whole time.