Matsutake and beef cooked in an Aluminum Foil Pouch 松茸と牛肉のフォイル焼き

We got matustake from Weee for the third time this year. Compared to other sources from which we used to get matsutake, Weee provides the best in quality and the amount 0.5lb is just right for us. Our favorite way to eat the mushrooms is “Touban-yaki” 陶盤焼き, but, this time we happened to have thinly sliced beef thawed (also from Weee). In addition I saw a recipe using beef and mastsutake 松茸と牛肉のフォイル焼き (in Japanese) and so I decided to try it. It came out very nicely. The combination of lightly marinated beef and matsutake worked. I modified the marinade just to soy sauce and sake. When the foil pouch was opened the matsutake smell waft out. (One of the great treasures of working with this mushroom).

Ingredients: (made two small servings/pouches)
1 large matsutake (or 2 small ones), cleaned and sliced thin
6-8  pieces of thinly sliced beef (in our case, it was rib eye)
1tsp soy sauce
1tsp sake

Directions:
I spread the beef slices in one layer on a plate and sprinkled the soy sauce and sake on them. 
Let it marinade for 10 minutes.
I placed a rectangular piece of parchment paper on a large enough rectangle piece of aluminum foil. (I placed the rectangular piece of parchment paper just as a precaution to make sure the beef did not stick)
I placed the beef slices and then the sliced matsutake on the prepared aluminum foil. 
I folded and crimped the edges to make a pouch encasing the meat and mushroom with some spaces around (I made two pouches).
I placed the pouches in the preheated toaster oven at 400F, and cooked them for 10-12 minutes.

When we opened the pouches, a nice matsutake smell wafted out and we wrapped the matsutake in the slices of beef and really enjoyed them. The combination worked well.

Matsutake (from Weee) Touban-yaki 松茸の陶盤焼き

In past years we have gotten fresh California chestnuts 栗 and matsutake 松茸 mushrooms to celebrate the tastes of autumn.  But trying to get these items from various sources was a bit of a hassle and several times the quality of the items left a lot to be desired. So this year we sort gave up on enjoying these delicacies. Then we discovered that Weee had fresh matsutake. I was not sure of the “grade” of this matsutake or place it originated (I assumed somewhere in North America). The amount of just right (8oz or 226grams). We used to get 1lb which was a bit too much for us to finish before it went bad. Knowing that Weee’s grocery quality is quite good, we decided to get it. It turned out this was better than what we had been getting before. We had this fresh matustake grilled on “tou-ban” 陶盤 or shallow earthen ware disk with half dome lid. I also added ginko nuts to complete the autumnal theme (picture #1). We really like this and the quality was excellent.

This is how it came (picture #2). It is from “Pacific Northwest” (assume to be Oregon and Washington states).

Upon opening, this is so-called “grade 1-2”.  Caps are not open or very slightly open and compared to ones we used to get the surface is not all dried out and much cleaner.

These matsutake could be cleaned just using a wet paper towel (picture #4). In the past, I had to use a knife to removed the surface to clean it since dirt was embedded and surface was very dry. So this is much better. The cut surface was clean with no “worm holes”.

We wanted to have this in the simplest way and decided to “tou-ban” grill. We had this served with a “spritz” of Meyer lemon juice. The matsutake had its usual subtle but distinctive smell and the texture was better than others we had before. This was quite a treat. Weee came through again!

Table of contents 2024

January 2024
January 1,    Happy New Year 2024 明けましておめでとう2024 
January 5,    Tomato and Egg Stir-fry with Wood Ear and Natto 納豆、トマト、木耳の卵炒め
January 22,   Goat Cheese Scallion Muffin ゴートチーズと青葱マフィン
January 25,   White "Pineberry" and Red "Koyo" Stawberries 白いイチゴと昂揚イチゴ
January 28,   Beef with Kon-nyaku and Vegetable "Kimpira" Stir Fry 牛肉と蒟蒻の金平

February 2024
February 3,     Chestnut Brown Butter, Sage Muffin 栗の粉とセイジマフィン
February 8,     Grated Lotus Root and Tofu Ball レンコン豆腐饅頭
February 11,    Sweet Onion Bread Pudding 玉ねぎのブレッドプデｨング
February 15,    Shad Roe from South Carolina 南カロライナからのシャドロウ
February 18,    Cranberry Camembert Cheese Bites クランベリーソース、カマンベールチーズ　バイツ
February 21,    Simmered Shad Roe with Vegetables シャドロウの煮付け
February 24,    Shad Roe Pasta  シャドロウパスタ
February 27,    Pickled Cucumber キュウリの漬物

March 2024
March 1,    “Maitake” Hen of the Woods Mushroom in Brown Butter and Sage 焦がしバターとセイジ風味舞茸
March 4,    Instant Pot BBQ Baby Back Ribs バーベキューベイビーバックリブ
March 7,    Salted Oatmeal Cookie 塩味オートミールクッキー
March 10,  Lobster Salad ロブスターサラダ
March13,    “Roman” Gnocchi ローマンニョキ
March 22,   Duck Tender Cutlet and Arancini 鴨ささ身のカツレツ
March 25,   Mary Walsh’s Currant Cake マリーウオルシュのカラントケーキ
March 28,   St. Patrick’s Day Dinner, Lamb Chops and Cabbage with bacon セントパトリックのディナー

April 2024
April 6,    Pumpkin “Kabocha” salad カボチャのサラダ
April 10,    Mini Fruit Galettes ミニフルーツガッレト 
April 21,    Spinach Soufflé (easy version) ほうれん草のスフレ 
April 30,    Frangipane Rolls フランジパンロール 

May 2024
May 13,    Pickled Micro Cucumber and Daikon 小さなキュウリと大根のピクルス 
May 15,    Steamed Carrot Buns with Ginger Custard 人参蒸しパン生姜カス... 
May 18,    Braised Eggplant with Oyster Sauce 茄子と椎茸のオイスターソース炒め
May 21,    Creamed Spinach with Cauliflower Puree カリフラワーピュレのク
May 24,    Anchovy Salad アンチョビサラダ
May 27,    Daikon Steak and Two Appetizers 大根ステーキ
May 30,    Focaccia Bread Baked in Breville Pizzaiolo Indoor Pizza Oven 

June 2024
June 2,    Steak and 2004 Joseph PhelpさんInsignia ステーキデｨナーと2004 インシグニア
June 5,    Gyoza made with New Round Gyoza Skin 日本風の餃子の皮で作った餃子 
June 8,    Filled Wool Bread 毛糸のパン 
June 11,    Shrimp Shumai 海老焼売 
June 14,    Pumpernickel Boule ドイツ黒パン 
June 17,    Ice Breaker “Summer” Sake 玉川アイスブレイカー酒 
June 20,    Carrot Panna Cotta 搾りたて人参ジュースのパナコタ
June 23,    Miso-marinated Firefly Squid ホタルイカの味噌焼き 
June 26,    Wood Ear Mushroom and Wakame Salad 木耳とわかめの和物 
June 29,    Nine “Otoshi” Appetizers お通し九種類

July 2024
July 2,    Egg roll 春巻き
July 5,    Red and Green Udon “Pasta” with Prosciutto 生ハムのせ赤と緑のうどんパスタ
July 8,    Pizza Made in Indoor Electric “Pizzaiolo” Pizza Oven 
July 11,    Garlic Chive Dumpling ニラ頭饅 or 韮菜万頭
July 14,    Mitsuba ミツバ 
July 17,    Dassai 45 and Dassai blue comparison 獺祭45とDassai Blue 50 飲み比べ 
July 28,    Cucumber in soy sauce 胡瓜の醤油漬け
July 31,    Tofu, Egg and Garlic Chives Stir Fry 豆腐ニラ玉、木耳入り

August 2024
August 9,    Home Coffee Roasting 緑コーヒー豆の自家焙煎 
August 12,    Icelandic Pumpernickel (Rye) Bread アイスランドのライ麦パン

September 2024
September 2,    Smelt Fry シシャモフライ
September 5,    Pesto Blini ペストビリニ 
September 8,    Yakitori de le Canard 鴨ささみで焼き鳥 
September 11,    Vegetables in Cold Broth 冷製のトマトの煮浸し 
September 14,    Pesto Blini Prosciutto Cheese Sandwich ペストビリニの生ハムチーズサンド
September 17,    Chicken Tender Fry with Salted Plum Sauce and Perilla ささみの梅大葉揚げ 
September 21,    Simmered Dried Daikon Threads 切り干し大根の煮物 
September 24,    Fresh Corn Blini コーンビリニ 
September 27,    Stir-fried Eggplant and Shiitake in Oyster Sauce 茄子と椎茸のオイスターソース炒め... 
September 30,    Mashed Potato Blini マシュポテトのビリニ

October 2024
October 3,    Five appetizers お通し５品
October  10,    Hen-of-the-Woods Grilled Cheese 舞茸のチーズ焼き
October 13,    Strawberry Blini いちごビリニ 
October 16,    Enoki mushroom frittata エノキ　オムレツ/フリッタータ 
October 19,    Kabocha salad カボチャサラダ 
October 22,    Matsutake (from Weee) Touban-yaki 松茸の陶盤焼き 
October 25,    Black Cod Marinated in Saikyo miso 銀鱈の西京(味噌)焼き
October 28,    Egg-wrapped Kabocha カボチャの黄金焼き 
October 31,    Almond Olive Oil Cake アーモンドオリーブオイルケーキ

November 2024
November 3,    Hiyaoroshi Sake Dewanoyuki “Sho-nai Bijin” 出羽ノ雪　冷やおろし庄内美人
November 6,    Hiyaoroshi Sake “Shichi Hon Yari” 七本槍　純米ひやおろし 
November 9,    Prosciutto-wrapped Haddock 生ハム巻きハドック (コダラ) 
November 12,    Marinated Chicken Tender Cutlet 鳥のささみのカツレツ
November 15,    Crispy Enoki Mushroom エノキのパリパリ焼き
November 18,    Bagel ベーグル 
November 21,    Chestnut Apple Soup クリとリンゴのスープ 
November 24,    Norwegian Mackerel Teriyaki 冷凍ノルウエイ鯖の照り焼き 
November 27,    “Imo-ni” Stew famous in Yamagata 芋煮庄内風 
November 30,    Matsutake and beef cooked in an Aluminum Foil Pouch 松茸と牛肉のフォイル焼き

December 2024
December 8,    Chestnut olive oil bread 栗とオリーブオイルケーキ
December 11,    Marinated Tofu and Egg Sir fry 味付け豆腐の卵炒め 
December 16,    Braised daikon with carrot, wood ear, and fried tofu 大根と人参の炒め物
December 19,    “Taco Carnitas”-ish タコ カルニタもどき
December 21,    Tofu in Warm Broth ミニ湯豆腐

Matsutake 松茸

This year, we were fortunate enough not to miss having some fresh matsutake 松茸 offered by Oregon mushrooms to celebrate the start of the fall season. In the past we have tried several other sources but the #1 grade matsutake from the Oregon mushrooms is our favorite choice. In any case we received 1lb. I have tried many matsutake dishes but I think the simpler the better.  Three dishes I make are Toubanyaki 陶版焼き, chawan-mushi 茶碗蒸し and matsutake rice. 松茸ご飯. Another dish I usually make is clear soup with matustake; either matsutake “osuimono” 松茸のお吸い物 clear soup or dobin-mushi 土瓶蒸し. This time, I made Touban-yaki for the evening we received Matsutake. The next evening I made another touban-yaki, chawan-mushi and Matsutake-rice.  The day following that I made Matsutake clear soup and served it with left-over matsutake rice.

Classically, the soup contains a small filet of conger eel or “hamo” 鱧 or other white fish filet but, since we did not have any, I used “Hanpen“ ハンペン fish cake. Other items included tofu, carrot, “Hana-fu” 花麩 gluten cake shaped like a flower. Since I wanted a bit of green, I added small florets of blanched broccoli. I also topped this with frozen “yuzu” 柚子 Japanese citrus rind. I only cooked the soup a few minutes after I added the matsutake. The broth was made from my usual dashi packets, seasoned with mirin, salt and soy sauce.

Since I had old asazuke 浅漬け (3-4 week old) and one I just made the previous day, I served both side-by-side for comparison (the one on the left is 1 day old the one on the right is 1 month old).  The old asazuke developed slightly sour but more complex flavors and the young asazuke is fresh tasting but a bit simpler taste. I adjusted the original recipe by adding a bit more salt (instead of standard 3% I add 5% salt) as well as a small amount of Vodka. This makes the asazuke last much longer so 1 month old asazuke is even possible.

We are glad we had matsutake to commemorate the start of the fall.

Tako rice and Matsutake soup for lunch タコ飯と松茸のお吸い物昼食

 This was a lunch we had one day. We had leftover frozen octopus rice or “Tako meshi” たこめし made from a kit we got from the  Rice factory. Although the original was not bad, the amount of octopus was rather small. Since I made tender simmered octopus タコの柔らか煮 a few days ago, I added slices of octopus legs to the previously made rice. Also we had matsutake mushroom 松茸 from Maine and made clear matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物. I added a dish of salted vegetable or “asazule” 浅漬け and simmered root vegetables and chicken similar to “Chikuzen-ni” 筑前煮.

I  just microwaved the rice to thaw it then added slices of tender simmered octopus with a small amount of the simmering liquid and further heated it. I also garnished it with fresh “myouga” 茗荷 from our garden. The addition of the simmered octopus made the Tako rice much better than the original.

I made this clear soup from broth made from a dashi pack (kelp and shiitake), with mirin みりん and light colored soy sauce 薄口醤油. I also added shrimp (sunk in the bottom), scallion and flower-shaped “fu” 花麩 gluten cake. I also added frozen zest of yuzu 柚子 citrus. This is a lidded soup bowl and when the lid was opened the subtle but distinctive aroma of matustake and yuzu wafted out. (The aroma of matustake is one of the joys of the matusake season).  I think Maine matsutake appears to have a better aroma than the ones we used to get from Oregon.

The below are basic simmered root vegetables including daikon 大根, carrot 人参, bamboo shoot 筍, shiitake mushroom (I used dried) 椎茸, lotus root 蓮根, kon-nyaku 蒟蒻 and sugar snap スナップ豌豆 (for garnish). This time I also included chicken thigh.

This is my usual “asazuke” 浅漬け. I just made myouga in sweet vinegar 茗荷の甘酢漬け. I thinly sliced and served next to the vegetables.

For a lunch, this was quite good. 

Octopus rice 瀬戸内海蛸めし

 We have been getting Japanese rice from the New York Rice factory. It may be hard to believe (we our selves are somewhat incredulous) that there could be such a difference in something as subtly flavored as rice but the rice from the rice factory is really good. It is hard to identify what sets it apart from the rice we used to get but in general we really like the texture, the taste and especially how well it can be reheated and still tastes like it just came out of the rice cooker.

 Whenever I order rice from the rice factory I usually supplement the order with other items. In the past, we got a kit to make “red snapper rice” or “taimeshi” 鯛めし, a type of seasoned rice famous in the Japanese inland sea area or "seto-naikai" 瀬戸内海.  Another time I ordered a similar seasoned rice kit made with octopus called “seto-naikai tako-meshi” 瀬戸内海蛸めし. After I bought it, however, the kit sat in our pantry for some time. When I checked the expiration date, it had expired the previous month, so I decide it was time to make it as a shime 〆 or ending dish one weekend. The kit came in several pouches; one with seasoning sauce, one with small bits of octopus, one with freeze dried items. It also included a rectangle of kelp. I made the octopus rice according to the instructions. I served it with a side of simmered Japanese root vegetables I had made and salted cucumber, daikon and nappa cabbage or "oshinko" お新香.

 

The octopus was in really small pieces as you can see on the top of the rice in the next picture. I used a one to one mixture of glutinous “mochi” rice 餅米 (called "Hakucho" はくちょう or swan from Hokkaido and regular "uruchi" rice うるち米 called "Yumepirika" ゆめピリカ also from Hokkaido. (These two rice varieties came from the Rice Factory.) 

The simmered vegetables included shiitake 椎茸 (from dried and hydrated), "renkon" レンコン lotus root, "gobou" ごぼう burdock root, carrot, small bamboo shoot "or sasatakenoko" 笹筍 and konnyaku or konjack 蒟蒻.

The next picture shows the modified "oshiko" salted cucumbers and other vegetables I made. I modified the original recipe by increasing the salt from 2% to 3% weight of the ingredients and adding a small amount of Vodka. As a result this dish lasts much longer than when I made the 2% salt version.

This octopus rice was ok but we thought the tai rice 鯛めし was better (the octopus pieces were really  very minuscule). My wife said that the seasoned rice I make including chestnut rice 栗ご飯 and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 are better and there is no reason to buy seasoned rice kits. In any case, this was a nice "shime" dish.

Matsutake from Maine メイン州からの松茸

We have been getting fresh Matsutake from the Oregon mushroom for many years and I have made all the dishes I can think of. This year when I looked on their web site matsutake was listed “out of stock”. So I decided to look into alternatives sources. I found fresh matsutake available from Maine at a site called  “Foraged”. It appears this is the web hub for individual foragers. I ordered some matsutake from the site and ours came from a forager in Bangor, ME. One of the forager’s ad even states “Picked to order”. I did not know Maine has matsutake (I know Oregon and Colorado produced North American Matsutake). Oregon mushroom has different grades for matustake and I have been getting “grade #1” which has unopened caps. “The Foraged” did not have different grades.  As shown in the picture below what arrived were large with opened caps (These are after I cleaned). 

Because of the open caps and gills, it is a bit more difficult to clean and also had more “worm holes” than the ones from the Oregon mushroom.

I had posted all matsutake dishes I can think of as I mentioned earlier. I prepared the classic dishes from the Maine matsutake such as “Matsutake rice” and “Grilled matustake on a toban yaki grill”.

This Maine matutake had good flavor and we had a "Matsutake feast" one evening which included  "Matsutake toban-grill” 松茸の陶板焼き, "chawan-mushi" 松茸の茶碗蒸し, "Dobinmushi-like soup" 松茸の土瓶蒸しもどき and ended with "Matsutake rice" 松茸ご飯 . 

The below are the first group of matsutake dishes. Since I could not get a Japanese citrus called “Sudachi” スダチ, which is typically used with matsutake dishes, I used wedges of lime which is closest among the readily available citrus.

I cooked touban-yaki on the stove with the lid on so the matsutake grilled and steamed at the same time keeping the aroma in. I happended to get shell-on ginko nuts or “ginnan” 銀杏 from Tako Grill, which I prepared a few days before, I coated the nuts with salt and grilled them with the matsutake. 

This chawan-mushi is mostly matsutake and a few ginko nuts and shelled edamame, and small chunks of shrimp. I also added chopped chives since I had it.

I also served edamame.

Then, I served the matsutake soup somewhat like a traditional “dobin-mishi” but since I do not have proper "dobin" 土瓶 I made dobin-mushi -like soup in a mini-donabe.

For the broth, I made #1 broth or "ichiban dashi" using kelp and bonito flakes. I also added steamed renkon ball, shrimp, daikon, carrot, shelled edamame and ginko nuts.

The matsutake-rice was prepared the night before. So I just microwave but it came back really nicely. So we think this feast did justice to the celebration of autumnal dishes ushering in the new season. 

Shelled ginko nuts 殻付き銀杏

Because of Covid, it is not possible to go to a restaurant for a “sit down” meal so, instead, we are doing “take-out” sashimi and sushi from Tako Grill regularly. Since Mr. Segawa’s restaurant is essentially closed for  sit down customers, he expanded his business into groceries by adding frozen and refrigerated cabinets stocked with many Japanese grocery items. Every time I go there, I get some of  these in addition to the take-out. One such time, Mr. Segawa was kind enough to include some matsutake soup that he made. It was really good. Besides all the lovely ingredients such as matsutake  松茸,  chicken,  "edamame"  it also included "ginnan" ginko nuts. We love ginko nuts! Having them in the soup reminded us that we used to get canned  boiled "gin-nan" 銀杏 ginko nuts. For some reason they have totally disappeared and we have not had ginko nuts for quite some time. I asked Mr. Segawa, if we could buy ginko nuts as groceries from him. He was good enough to provide some with the shells on (see below). We were delighted but, to be honest, I have never dealt with ginko nuts in the shell.

So I quickly searched on-line and found three ways to prepare them: 1. Place the ginko nuts in a paper envelope and microwave it until the shell cracks. 2. Dry roast them in a frying pan until the shell cracks, 3. Crack the shell remove the nuts and gently boil for few minutes making sure the nuts are submerged all the time and then remove the brown inner skin while hot. I tried the 2nd method on some of the nuts, i.e. dry roasting them in a frying pan.  The shells did not crack (although one did "explode"—quite impressive). I cracked open the remaining un-cracked nuts but they were over cooked, dry, with burned spots and taste. So, I decided to try the third method.

I cracked the shells using the kitchen scissors which has a nut cracking device near the handles. It was not too difficult but I had to be careful not to damage the nuts inside. Some of the brown inner skin came off when the shell was remove but, for many, the brown skin remained (picture below).

I then placed the nuts in salted gently boiling water. They stayed submerged without much intervention.

After few minutes, I drained the nuts and using a sheet of paper towel, removed the inner brown skin.

This was a success. Here I used them to top cold chawanmushi 茶碗蒸し along with edamame 枝豆 and ikura.

 We really enjoyed this. Definitely the taste of autumn.

Grilled bluefish and matsutake lunch

We used to get a whole fresh Spanish mackerel at Whole foods, but it has not been available for a long time. Since we started buying groceries from the Korean grocery store HMart through Instacart, we have found they have more variety of whole fresh fish available. We got whole Spanish mackerel from them a few times. This time, however, mackerel was not available but bluefish was. We have used bluefish* in place of Spanish mackerel in the past and decided to go with it. I am not sure how I ordered it (by weight or by the numbers) but I ended up with two rather large bluefish not cleaned at all. So, I had to scale, gut, remove head and make filets. It was a bit of work but the fish was really fresh. As before, I made bluefish simmered in miso sauce ブルーフィシュの味噌煮 from the filets and  "tsumire" fish balls soup つみれ汁 from the fish meat scraped off the bones. I set the fish ball soup and miso simmered fish aside for another meal. The remaining filets, I salted and grilled. We happened to have matsutake 松茸 from Oregon mushroom and matsutake rice 松茸ご飯 rice leftover from dinner the previous night. So I made matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, warmed up the  rice and served with the bluefish for our lunch on Sunday.

* I am not sure of its Japanese name but it appears to be "Oki-suzuki" オキスズキ. I have not seen or eaten it while I lived in Japan.

I first salted the fillet and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. I cooked the bluefish filet with a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan on low flame with skin side  down until the skin got brown (6-7 minutes, I also applied decorative cuts on the skin to prevent the skin breaking during the cooking). I cooked 80% on the skin side, flipped it and completed the cooking. I served this with pickled myoga 冥加の甘酢漬け, salt picked cucumber and nappa cabbage きゅうりと白菜の浅漬け and thinly sliced cucumber dressed in sushi vinegar 胡瓜の酢の物. Since the fish was well-salted, we did not need additional sauce such as soy sauce for this.

For the matsutake soup 松茸のお吸い物, I made bonito "dashi" カツオの出汁 from a dash pack seasoned with mirin and light colored soy sauce and salt, added thinly sliced matsutake, silken tofu, "kyoubu" 京麩  decorative gluten cake (dried, hydrate before adding to the soup), freeze dried "mitsuba" 三つ葉 and yuzu zest ゆず (frozen).

The bluefish prepared this way was very good. The flesh was pleasingly oily, soft and had a nice flavor. The skin did not get crispy but stayed soft. It may have been a bit strong tasting fish to accompany the delicate matsutake but we really enjoyed this lunch.

Special Kaiseki box from Sushi Taro v2 寿司太郎特別会席弁当二回目

We had the second take-out special kaiseki  box from Sushi Taro. Again, this was amazing. We just wanted to record what we enjoyed.

Sardine with uni-mustard sauce イワシのぬた. The accompanying gelee (“nikogori” 煮凝り) was not to be missed

Sashimi,  wild snapper 天然鯛, tuna 鮪. Nice decorative touch. The carrot cut into “momiji” maple leaf にんじんの紅葉 and circular cut daikon stalk “karakuls a-girl” 大根の唐草切り shown on top of the maple leaf carrot, another example to attention to detail.

Pacific saury sashimi さんまの刺身. This was really good.

Fried sea eel collar and chestnuts, matsutake いが栗揚げ, fried lotus root, matsutake 揚げレンコン、matsutake 松茸、fried “anago” sea eel collar 穴子のかま揚げ. This is a really autumnal dish.  Tatsuta-age style anago collar, with a small fin attached, was new to us and was very good. We had the chestnut  dish at Omakase counter before but only a pro can do this type of dish imitating a real chestnuts peeking though the outer thorny shell. The shell was made of ground white fish meat with dried “somen” and deep fried. The chestnut was cooked in “Shibukawa-ni” so that inner brow skin is can be eaten without puckering taste. The matsutake with slices of yuzu were the essence of autumn.

Beef tongue stew with quail eggs and octopus 牛タンのシチュウ、うずらの卵、たこ. This is a really great dish. My wife loves stewed beef tongue. The tongue was very tender and perfectly seasoned (later we learned that this was from "Wagyu" 和牛). The surprise was the octopus leg which was a nice texture contrast. A perfect combination. It also had quail eggs which are always a favorite. 

Kamo-nasu eggplant 賀茂茄子, "anago" sea eel 穴子, sato-imo 里芋, shishi-togarashi しし唐辛子, “Kyo-bu” decorative gluten cake 京麩 simmered in broth (shishito was deep dried first, I think). Interestingly the flavor of the shishito subtly infused the fish and broth adding a deliciously different element. 

Grilled "sawara" (king mackerel) miso-fuan and turnip さわらの味噌祐庵焼きとかぶ. YUM. 

The following line-up of dishes was just a succession of exquisite mouthfuls of different taste profiles, and textures. Each one a special treat. There are not enough superlatives to describe them all. From left top clock wise: Aji (horse mackerel tataki with perilla seeds 鯵のタタキ紫蘇の種, grilled "mana-gatsuo" (Japanese pompano) 焼きマナガツオ、"Hamo" gonger eel liver ハモの肝 (exquisite), blue crab, crab mustard uni カニの蟹味噌ウニ和え.

Shirako "soft roe" ponzu 白子のポン酢あえ、goma-tofu with uni ウニと胡麻豆腐, "Ikura" salmon roe いくら, goma-tofu with uni ウニと胡麻豆腐. I have not tasted “shira-ko” for sometime and this was a special treat.

"Ankimo" monkfish liver 鮟肝 with vegetable, "Mizuna" Japanese green and quail egg yolk 水菜のお浸しとウズラの黄身,  "Wagyu" beef with kelp 和牛昆布締 (a very nice addition we have not had before). Of course “ankimo” is our favorite.

Sushi; salmon 鮭, ??, chu-toro 鮪中トロ, kohada 小肌, tai 鯛

Omelete 卵焼き, ama-ebi shrimp 甘海老,  cutlass fish 太刀魚?, hamachi はまち yellow tail, and “uni” 雲丹 sea urchin.

This is a lot of extremely exquisite food. This brings a bright ray of sunshine during this covid period. We are so fortunate we can have this and enjoy everything at home.

We keep forgetting but dessert is included. Roasted tea "houji-cha" 焙じ茶 flavored pudding/panna cotta. A perfect finale. 

Special take-out Kaiseki box from Sushi Taro 寿司太郎のテイクアウト特製会席弁当

Prior to COVID the omakase counter at Sushi Taro was our special-occasion-go-to place. As a matter of fact, we had a reservation in March this year but because of COVID, that got canceled. I knew for some time that, although the restaurant was closed, Sushi Taro has been doing take-out. But getting there either from home or work for the pick-up was impractical. Since I started thinking about the NewYear “Osechi” 御節 from Sushi Taro, I contacted them. I was delighted to find out that they are going to do Osechi for the next New Year and I quickly placed an order. During that interaction, I learned that they do special omakase kaiseki boxes-to-go and that they can deliver. I quickly placed an order. Delivery was scheduled for Friday at 5pm. We were like little kids in anticipation. I even "just happened" to come home from work a bit early for the delivery. It arrived in two, two-tiered (bento or modified jubako?) boxes. (a total of four boxes with three compartments each). We initially thought we got two identical sets but when we opened the second box, surprise!  We were totally blown away. All compartments contained many wonderful different dishes. The first one had some cooked dishes, two different kinds of sushi. The cooked dishes in the top tier were still warm.

The second set included fresh sashimi and sashimi fish dishes.

Disclaimer alert:  This entry is just for us to remember what we enjoyed so we can relive the experience. A menu was not included so in some cases I am guessing what the dishes were and may be totally wrong.

We started with sashimi 刺身. Akami 赤身, chu-toro 中トロ, hamachi ハマチ, salmon サーモンand ama-ebi shrimp 甘海老.

From upper left clockwise: grilled ginko nuts 焼銀杏 (We love ginko nuts.We used to be able to buy small cans of boiled ginko nuts but they totally disappeared and we have not seen them for sometime. ), California Uni カルフォルニア雲丹, cod roe たらこ (not a “mentaiko” 明太子 but with some spice), grilled egg plant 焼きナス (it must have also been smoked. It had a nice smokey flavor and the broth was subtly seasoned and delicious ).

Abalone liver simmered with sansho 鮑の肝煮物 (I think this is seasoned with whole sansho pepper 実山椒, a type of “arimani” 有馬煮, this is a perfect drinking snack and we love it, the red berry must be goji berry or “kuko” クコ), sake steamed abalone 鮑の酒蒸し with a nice seasoning , I think the next one is Hokkaido "bafun" uni 北海道のバフンウニ , and under the cover is ikura marinated in soy sauce いくらの醤油漬け. (On one of our visits to the restaurant we had an impromptu uni tasting to compare California vs Maine vs Hokkaido - they are all good but I am a little partial to the Hokkaido uni mostly because I am originally from there. 

From the left upper clockwise: Some kind o pate/paste. I am not sure but monk fish liver ("ankimo" 鮟肝) may be included, some kind of fish liver simmered, edible flower petal (probably chrysanthemum) and chestnut "sibukawa-ni" 渋皮煮.

The dish shown below was a small whole simmered fish with roe, "kanroni" 甘露煮.  I thought this could be "Ayu" sweet fish but it was not.  So, I don't know exactly what it was. It could be "Iwashi" イワシ sardine. It was cooked to tenderness and the bone was soft and could be eaten. It was topped with "shiraga-negi" white hair scallion 白髪葱 . This is an example of the attention to detail characteristic through out these dishes. The scallion was a small detail but it went very well with this fish and really set off the dish.

From the top, kaskino-ha-zushi 柿の葉寿司 (trout sushi wrapped in persimon leaves), flower renkon 花輪レンコン and shime saba oshizushi (battera) しめ鯖の押し寿司 or バッテラ.

Nigiri-sushi 握り寿司. From the top left clockwise: Hamachi ハマチ, Toro トロ, kohada コハダ, sweet omelet, anago with “tsume“ sauce 穴子, and saba サバ or sawara さわら.

Pictured below large prawn/small lobster; probably "botan-ebi" ボタン海老 (raw) in a gentle broth,  topped with myoga, roe (cooked), and julienne of red and green sweet pepper. The sweet pepper and sweet meat went well together complementing each other.

Crab meat, jelle sauce, ikura, slices of dried persimmon 干し柿 and other items. Again, sweetness of the persimmons and crab are good match.

The next three dishes are all cooked and contain some kind of fish/sea food. The selection of ingredients such as the matsutake, myoga, chestnuts and kabocha in these dishes as well the use of eggplant and persimmon in the dishes above exemplify the autumn season.  The use of seasonal ingredients is another example of the attention to detail shown through out the dishes in these boxes. 

Underneath of all the vegetables were two good sized shrimp balls shinjo エビしんじょ(minced shrimp and white fish paste). Fried lotus root, kabocha, simmered "fu" gluten cake, matsutake stems, green beans topped with zest of “kabosu” かぼす.

Simmered “kabu”turnip かぶ, chestnuts 栗 and fish (cod?). The green is most likely “Mizuna” 水菜 .

Small tasty fish (I do not know what it is), simmered, matsutake 松茸, fried shishito ししとう, picked myoga 茗荷の甘酢漬け.

Fortunately, we just got a shipment of sake from Tippsy sake. We had a cold “Kagatobi” 加賀鳶 純米吟醸 from Ishikawa-prefecture 石川県. We throughly enjoyed these wonderful dishes in the comfort of home. It was quite a memorable treat!