Trip to Chicago…Dinner at Takashi

(Day 6 - Tue, March 5)
The last day of the trade show was a snowy day.

 
Big snow storm was coming to hit the city, and hundreds of flights for the day were already cancelled in the morning. In the snow, we still managed to the venue and completed the final day of the exhibition. We did a very successful show. All the donabe on exhibition were packed and they will go back to Iga tomorrow.


Our final snowy evening in Chicago was dinner at Takashi. The restaurant is a cute 2-story house with the nice homey ambience. Chef Takashi is a renowned Japanese chef, who creates modern Japanese cuisine with French essence. We did his “omakase” tasting menu.


Amuse bouche was sesame tofu with burdock root salad. Really rich and nice. It was followed by Crudo of buri yellowtail, monkfish “foie gras”, tororo kombu, miso-mustard sauce.


Washugyu beef tataki, seared Oregon waghy beef, Trumpet royale mushrooms, garlic, chips, chitrus-pepper sauce. Sauteed maine scallops and soba gnocchi, trupet royale, celery root-parmesan foam. 


Soy-ginger caramel pork belly, pickled daikon salad, steamed buns. Roasted Indiana duck breast, duck rillette roll, baby turnips, yellow and green bean salad. 


The egg and pistachio macaron, milk chocolate crème brulee in brown egg, caramel custard foam. They have a rather short but thoughtful wine list. We enjoyed both white and red. 2010 Reserve du Sanglier, Chablis. 2010 Coca I Fito, Jaspinegre (DO Montsant) (45% Garnacha, 25% Carinena, 15% CS, 15% Sy).

At the end of the dinner, Chef Takashi came to our table and we had a very nice chat. He and Nagatani-san even exchanged each other’s books! The dinner was very nice, and we had a memorable final evening in Chicago. Now, we only hope that the snow will go easy by tomorrow morning and our flights will depart on schedule tomorrow.

Trip to Chicago…Donabe and yakitori dinner at Yusho

(Day 5 - Mon, March 4)

Hew, Day 3 of the trade show was an even busier day. Show runs from 8.30 am til 5.30 pm, but it felt so short today. Directly from the venue, we took a cab to Yusho, which is a special yakitori and street food-inspired restaurant by Chef Matthias Merges, who is one of the most talented and respected chefs in the US. He was the executive chef at Michelin-star Charlie Trotter in Chicago for 14 years, before opening his own restaurant, Yusho in 2011. With the back ground of the most sophisticated American/ French cuisine, he does his version of casual “street food” yakitori and izakaya dishes at Yusho. We were so looking forward to this dinner, especially because Chef Matthias is a big fan of donabe cooking, and he makes special donabe dishes with some of our donabe at the restaurant!


The restaurant had a real cool vibe. As soon as we waked in, we found our cute double-lid donabe rice cooker, “Kamado-san”, and donabe smoker, “Ibushi Gin”, in front of the open kitchen. Chef Matthias personally welcomed us and he did a special tasting course for us. At Yusho, those beautiful serving plates, bowls, and even chopstick rests are handmade by Chef Matthias’s mother. They were really beautiful as well as functional!


Grilled hama hama oyster, crysanthemum sauce. Gobo, sesame, and Asian pear salad.


Shimeji mushrooms and foie gras, wrapped in grilled duck breast. Grilled lobster chawanmushi. Maitake mushrooms and egg, vinaigrette etc. Maitake was so light and crunchy…excellent.


Donabe-smoked tofu, beef, and vegetables. They were cooked and served in donabe smoker, “Ibushi Gin”. The dish was accompanied by donabe smoked ramen noodles! What a creative and delicious dish it was! It was followed by Grilled beef and shishito peppers.


Blood sausage bun. The final course was dessert trio, including sweet takoyaki.


Yusho also has a very fun list of cocktail, beer, sake and wine. Founder’s Breakfast Stoug (Grand Rapids, MI). 2009 Domaine Santa Duc, Gigondas. 2009 DEI, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. 2008 Andrew Will, Two Blondes Vineyards (30% CS, 19% CF, 42% Merlot, 9% Malbec)

Fantastic evening with great food and hospitality. Chef Matthias’s dishes were so creative and sophisticated, with the elegantly bold flavors. Just for this night, we all felt it was worth coming all the way to Chicago.

Trip to Chicago…Home Japanese Dinner with Friends

(Day 4 - Sun, March 3)
We had another extreme busy day at the trade show. Lots of very cool people visited us to see our donabe collection, including Chef Rick Bayless. He loved our donabe and kept saying they were so beautiful. What an honor.

During the trade show, we are always so busy and have a very little time to snack on whatever in such a short time for lunch. So, dinner is always something we look forward to. Tonight, I was invited to dinner at my friends, Jeffrey and Jaimie, who are young talented couple living in Chicago.

Jeffrey Ozawa is a food writer with the serious cooking skills. His Gorumando blog is full of interesting stories, recipes, and photographs. Jaimie is a photographer, who is also a talented cook. 


Jeffrey and Jaimie in the kitchen. They made makkoli from my recipe. It was so good!


Kombu and vinegar cured mackerel (“Shime-saba”) and Spinach salad (“Ohitashi”).


Fried fish, and grilled eggplants.


Pork shabu shabu time. And, yes of course, premium rice with double-lid donabe rice cooker, “Kamado-san”!


Sake, doburoku (makkoli), and wine with all the wonderful homemade dishes. And the best company. They gave me such a special welcome and hospitality. I had such a great time. Thank you so much, J&J!

Trip to Chicago…Dizzy bussy day

(Day 3 - Sat, March 2)

International Home and Housewares Show started today.


It’s a 4-day big international trade show, in fact, it’s the biggest one in the category and tens of thousands of people from all over the world attend both as exhibitors and buyers.


We set up a nice booth. I did cooking demonstrations with donabe steamer, “Mushi Nabe”!


After the successful 1st day of the show, we had dinner with other Japanese exhibitors at a Thai restaurant in downtown. It was fun.