Donabe beef rice |
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It was a cold rainy day. I had a haircut in the afternoon and went to Nihonbashi for shopping. One of the shops I like to stop by in Nihonbashi is a unique Japanese tea shop, Ocharaka. It's run by a French teamster, Stephane-san. He makes beautiful flavor green teas and the shop has about 50 different kinds of flavor green teas all the time.
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Today, there was also a tea grower, Miura-san, visiting from Shizuoka. He is a green tea grower and also makes black tea from beni-fuki tea leaves. His tea was fantastic.
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Then, Stephane-san, made cold brew gyokuro green tea. It was a great tasting, and I learned so much about different ways to enjoy tea from him. He drizzled soy sauce over the leftover leaves, and it turned into a tasty snack, which made me even crave for sake!
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At night, I had dinner with a friend at Jimbocho Den. This is a famous Japanese restaurant by a charismatic chef, Zaiyu Hasegawa. It was my first time to dine there, but we have many mutual friends. As soon as I entered the restaurant, I saw my DONABE Cookbook in the bookshelf in the reception!
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The dinner is full omakase with seasonal ingredients. The amuse was Saikyo miso marinated foie-gras, hoshigaki, and iburi-gakko (pickled smoked daikon) monaka (thin wafer made from mochi flour).
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Soup was turtle dashi broth with bamboo shoot and spring onions.
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DEN's famous stuffed "fried chicken"!
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Every sake and food pairing was really fantastic, too. 5-day aged amadai sashimi, and aged and grilled fish (I forgot the name) with roasted bottarga, etc.
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The special salad included a couple dozen different vegetables with kombu dust and an ant!
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Donabe rice time. Zaiyu-san made two different kinds of donabe rice. Gindara rice and beef rice.
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Gindara (black cod) rice was so elegant.
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Beef was slow cooked in dashi-based broth for a few hours, and it was rested in the same broth for a week. Then, it was cooked with the rice in a donabe. The beef was perfectly tender and melted in my mouth. I had to request another bowl of it!
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Dessert was so creative, too. What a amazing night it was. Zaiyu-san is not only an exceptionally talented Japanese chef, but he is also not afraid of trying new (often non-Japanese) ideas into his cooking. It was such a memorable dinner. And, of course, his donabe rice dishes were extraordinary.
Happy donabe life.