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Rachel Khoo

The Khoo Times

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Kaiseki in Kyoto and Home Cooking Japanese-style

Having spent the previous night in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, home to the world’s busiest pedestrian crossing and a display of neon advertising so bright it makes Piccadilly Circus look discreet, the tranquillity of Kyoto was all the more marked. There’s a curious dichotomy in Japan between the uber minimalism, soft subdued tones in their linens and discreet demeanours, which seems totally at odds with the crazy Hello Kitty fashionistas, bright neon lights and chaos. In this respect, if Kyoto abides by the former MO, Tokyo is the latter.

Being the cultural capital of Japan and home to the Imperial family, Kyoto steers towards the traditional with its Edo period (1600-1897) architecture, some 1,600 temples scattered over the city and its reputation as an academic hub; it was one of the few places in Japan to have been spared during World War 2.

My digs for the duration of my stay were at The Hyatt Regency, itself an exercise in understated and effortlessly stylish design. The rooms were organised like a high-class version a Muji store. Each drawer you pulled out would display a perfectly pleated and stylish kimono, or perhaps some geometric display of handmade ceramic tea cups and bowls. Everything had been considered, and then probably considered some more.

Kaiseki is the gastronomic incarnation of this same beautiful precision. It’s a seasonal menu of around nine or 10 courses, which flow through a ritual of techniques, styles and flavours, with the most impeccable presentation and appeal. I had the pleasure of experiencing two highly revered kaiseki restaurants in the city, one at Kappo Sakamoto, and the other at Gion Nishikawa.

Gion Nishikawa is a consultant chef for the national airline ANA, so anyone traveling business or first class between Japan and London in early 2015 will be able to sample the chef’s creations miles high. We sat down to a three hour-long experience at the counter top in full view of the kitchen and a handful of chefs. The dishes oscillated between cooling sashimi and two very distinct varieties of incredible uni (sea urchin), to grilled dishes and soup steaming in a clay pot, culminating in the tea ceremony. This is the traditional grand finale with a sweet offering to contrast the bitter tea; in this case a kabocha agar jelly.

In contrast to the busy, but obscenely organised kitchen of Gion Nishikawa, Kappo Sakamoto, run by three generations of Sakamotos, was an even calmer operation, with just the chef and his son behind the counter top before us, while his mother played hostess. One of the spectacular dishes here is the traditional yuba (a thin film which is made from heating soy milk). Arriving in a contraption at the table, the yuba bobs around in a basin, with charcoal heating it and a teapot of dashi, which your pour into your bowl and dip the yuba into. Every single dish on the Kappo menu was served in the most elegant manner imaginable, leaving you feeling overwhelmed by their precision and care for produce and the art of eating. They truly make an art form out of it.

From the formalities of the traditional kaiseki, the next day was spent considering a more domestic approach to eating, courtesy of WAK Japan. Nishiki Food Market is one of the city’s gastronomic meccas, as busy as Borough Market, and the place we chose to kick off our day of Japanese home cooking. Down this covered alley, boasting some 100 vendors and restaurants, you could while away hours exploring and gawping at the fresh fish counters, baumkuchen bakers, Japanese knives, barrel after barrel of pickles and people purchasing bright pink octopus spiked on a stick and eating them like lollipops….

But we had business to attend to, and that was the business of learning the secrets behind home cooking Nippon-style from a delightful Japanese lady. Like any good Japanese meal, miso soup had to feature somewhere. In this case it kicked off the proceedings in this traditional Japanese home in a quiet residential street. The kombu was simmered to make a base stock, while the miso paste was added by way of a sieve, pressing and stirring it through to warm, while retaining the undesired end bits. Tofu was cubed ready to be added once we had finished learning to roll vegetarian sushi, filled with the perfect thin omelettes we learnt to make in the classic rectangular pan.

Even in a domestic setting the details prevailed, a principle I can only hope to take the smallest inspiration from when I come to making my next Nippon dinner at home. Watch me trying my hand at home-cooking in my latest YouTube video:

http://youtu.be/be2rNk-XTS8

Special thank you to Inside Japan for organising our Japanese Cooking Class with WAK Japan; The Hyatt Regency for exceptional rooms and taking us to Kappo Sakamoto; and to ANA for a delightful dinner at Gion Nishikawa.

This post is sponsored by Inside Japan and ANA, but all views and opinions expressed are my own.

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